Steve Steinberg

Steve Steinberg is a baseball historian of the early 20th century. When he sold his family’s 80-year-old apparel business in 1998, his ten-year-old son was collecting baseball cards, and Steve rediscovered his 1950s Topps baseball cards. He reconnected with the game he loved as a child and turned to baseball research and writing, nurturing his passion for baseball history. His focus has been on bringing back long-forgotten personalities —recovering them—by telling their compelling stories and having them discovered once again.

Steve's latest book, his fourth collaboration with Lyle Spatz, is MIKE DONLIN: A ROUGH AND ROWDY LIFE FROM NEW YORK BASEBALL IDOL TO STAGE AND SCREEN. This is the story of a brash and controversial baseball star who walked away from the game at the height of his career to join his famous actress wife on stage. Their love story captivated the nation until her tragic death, and Mike went on to appear in about 100 movies.

Steve and Lyle published COMEBACK PITCHERS: THE REMARKABLE CAREERS OF HOWARD EHMKE AND JACK QUINN in 2021.They were early 20th century pitchers who overcame great odds to stun the baseball world. Ehmke was the surprise starter and winner of a famous World Series game (1929), and Quinn pitched with his spitball until he was fifty.

Steve is the editor of a unique book, THE WORLD SERIES IN THE DEADBALL ERA (2018). It has almost 200 rare photos, along with text from the newspapers of the time, of the World Series of 1903-1919.

Steve's biography, URBAN SHOCKER: SILENT HERO OF BASEBALL'S GOLDEN AGE (2017), is a story of courage and love of the game. Shocker had an 18-6 record for the great 1927 Yankees as he was dying of heart disease. The book won the 2018 SABR Baseball Research award.

Steve collaborated on a book with author Lyle Spatz, THE COLONEL AND HUG: THE PARTNERSHIP THAT TRANSFORMED THE NEW YORK YANKEES (2015). This is the story of the rise of the Yankees' dynasty under owner (1915-1939) Jacob Ruppert and manager (1918-1929) Miller Huggins. This book won the 2016 SABR Baseball Research Award.

Steve and Lyle's first collaboration was 1921: THE YANKEES, THE GIANTS, AND THE BATTLE OF BASEBALL SUPREMACY IN NEW YORK (2010) . This was the year of the Yankees' first pennant, a season after Babe Ruth joined the team, which challenged John McGraw's NY Giants in popularity. The book was awarded the 2011 Seymour Medal as the best baseball book (history and biography) of 2010.

In spring 2007 Steve received the 2007 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award, awarded for his article on Christy Mathewson, “Matty and the Browns: A Window onto the AL-NL War of 1901-1902.” It was published in NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture in 2006.

Steve’s book, BASEBALL IN ST. LOUIS 1900-1925, was published by Arcadia in 2004. He has contributed to a number of other books, including The ST. LOUIS BASEBALL READER, PLAY IT AGAIN: Baseball Experts on What Might Have Been, DEADBALL STARS OF THE AMERICAN LEAGUE and DEADBALL STARS OF THE NATIONAL LEAGUE. He has delivered papers at national conferences and the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and has lectured on Holland America Cruise Lines, as well as at the Missouri Historical Society and the Mercantile Library of St. Louis. Steve also co-organized a Casey Stengel panel at the Museum of the City of New York in 2011.

A member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), Steve has written articles for the publications of the New York Yankees, including the 2005 and 2006 Yankees Yearbooks. He has published articles in many journals, including NINE, The National Pastime, and Baseball Research Journal.

Steve lives in Seattle with his wife, Colleen. Their three children return to visit on a regular basis.