Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine recently announced that The Last Manager: How Earl Weaver Tricked, Tormented, and Reinvented Baseball, written by John W. Miller is the winner of the 2025 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year.
Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America by Gerald Early finished close behind followed by Deadbeats: Dead Balls, and the 1914 Boston Braves by Martin H. Bush. Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America by Will Bardenwerper and One Splendid Season: Baseball and America in 1912 by Phil Rosenzweig tied for fourth place.
According to Mike Shannon, editor of Spitball, “It was clearly a tight horse race this year because the list of great baseball books was so diverse and so strong, but we think the Judges got it right. Mr. Miller had a fantastic subject and he did him justice, creating an unforgettable portrait of a very important figure and, at the same time, bringing much-needed light to bear on a very topical and important subject: namely, the changed role of dugout managers today and the degree to which such men influence the game.”
Tom Clavin, one of this year’s judges for the Award and a noted baseball author himself, said, “The Last Manager is that rare combination of thorough research and entertaining writing. It helps, too, that John Miller has such a relentlessly interesting subject in Earl Weaver. This book reminds us of how successful and innovative the volatile Weaver was. As the title implies, we may never see his kind again.”
Sean Holtz, another judge and the founder and administrator of the estimable Baseball Almanac website, also praised the book, saying, “Long before Moneyball crunched spreadsheets, Earl Weaver was crunching numbers in his dugout, using index cards and instincts. John W. Miller’s The Last Manager reminds us that Weaver’s blend of pitching, defense, and the three‑run homer wasn’t just strategy—it was prophecy. This biography captured baseball’s original disruptor, the man who argued with umpires as fiercely as he argued with tradition—and whose relentless fire and innovation ultimately carried him all the way to Cooperstown.”
The 43rd annual CASEY Awards will take place on Sunday, March 22, 2026, at Braxton Brewing in downtown Covington, Kentucky. For more information visit Spitball’s website.
(Bookshelf notes: It didn’t take long for the publisher to make note of the award on the book’s cover. Here are my reviews of Homestand and The Last Manager from Bookreporter.com and my Bookshelf Conversation with Phil Rosenzweig.)
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