Oscar Charleston: The Life and Legend of Baseball’s Greatest Forgotten Player by Jeremy Beer is the winner of the 2020 Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal, which honors the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year.

Beer’s biography of Oscar Charleston tells the story of a Negro Leagues legend and one of baseball’s greatest and most unjustifiably overlooked players. In a starred Library Journal review, Gus Palas said, “In this thorough account, Beer has created a definitive work on Charleston’s life and accomplishments. The result is a fascinating story and an important piece of sports history.”

Jeremy Beer is a founding partner at American Philanthropic in Phoenix. He is the author of The Philanthropic Revolution: An Alternative History of American Charity and his writing on sports, society, and culture has appeared in the Washington Post, National Review, First Things, and the Baseball Research Journal, among many other venues.

Beer will receive his award at the banquet of the 27th annual NINE Spring Training Conference on Saturday, March 7, 2020, at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Tempe, Arizona. Read the full press release here.

In previous years, numerous other UNP books have earned this honor, including The Eighth Wonder of the World, Mover and Shaker, Smoky Joe Wood, Banzai Babe Ruth, and more.

Beer’s book also won the 2019 CASEY Award from Spitball Magazine. In garnering 1st, 1st, and 2nd place votes, Oscar Charleston received the most near-unanimous ballot in the 37-year history of the CASEY Award. The win was also the first for UNP after several high finishes previously. Read the full press release here.

Congrats again to Jeremy!

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