Holtzman, Jerome

▪ 2009

      American sportswriter

born July 12, 1926, Chicago, Ill.

died July 19, 2008, Evanston, Ill.

possessed an encyclopaedic knowledge of baseball and was dubbed the “dean” of sportswriters; he chronicled the games of the Chicago Cubs and White Sox baseball teams as a respected journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times (1957–81) and the Chicago Tribune (1981–99) newspapers, and in 1998 commissioner Bud Selig named him baseball's official historian. Holtzman was also responsible for the implementation (1969) of a new baseball rule that designated a “save” to a relief pitcher who took the mound when his team was ahead in scoring and secured the win; it was the first significant addition to baseball statistics since 1920, when runs batted in began to be recorded. He also served as a columnist for The Sporting News, wrote the Encyclopædia Britannica entry on baseball, and authored the definitive text No Cheering in the Press Box (1974, reissued 1995). Holtzman was inducted into the writers' wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.

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