Bill Jenkinson

• Born 1947 in Philadelphia, PA USA

Biographica Information

Bill Jenkinson is one of the country's most respected and trusted baseball historians. He has served as either official or de facto consultant for The Baseball Hall of Fame, Major League Baseball, The Society for American Baseball Research, The Babe Ruth Museum and ESPN. He has been quoted in nearly every major American newspaper as well as Time Magazine, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated. Jenkinson is a career investigator, who has been trained to separate fact from fiction. Since 1979, he has blended his vocation with his avocation, and has researched aspects of sports history in a singularly comprehensive manner. Jenkinson has personally interviewed almost every top slugger, including Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey Jr. along with many others. He has also studied the careers of every great power hitter in Major League history.

Jenkinson has written articles for various Major League teams including the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds. He has also written several pieces for USA Today's nationally distributed Sports Weekly. In 1997, when SABR published the Home Run Encyclopedia, they arranged for Jenkinson to write a special chapter on the history of long distance home runs. He has given countless radio and television interviews including an ESPN appearance when that network produced a show about "tape measure homers". A Japanese network also sent a crew to his home, when filming a documentary about Babe Ruth.

Whenever someone needs information about the legendary Bambino, they usually wind up at Bill Jenkinson's doorstep. With the publication of his book about The Babe in 2007 that process accelerated. Titled: The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs, this compelling chronicle received exceptionally positive reviews from all sources. Accordingly, the author participated in a series of interviews and public speaking engagements with audiences from coast to coast.

Jenkinson’s next book, Baseball's Ultimate Power, was published by Lyons Press in March 2010. It tells the fascinating story of epic power-hitting throughout the history of baseball, and discusses every great slugger on an individual basis. Among baseball historians, only Jenkinson is qualified to address this topic in definitive fashion. Bill also possesses the unique ability to clarify many of the conflicting assertions about steroid use. Based upon research of every homer hit by all the top power hitters, Jenkinson can identify when any of the strongest batsmen have significantly enhanced their power.

Born in Philadelphia in 1947, Bill lives with his wife Marie in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. They have four children and five grandchildren. Besides researching and writing baseball history, Jenkinson enjoys reading, the arts, travel, playing sports and all other fields of history.

Source: Bill Jenkinson: Baseball

Further Reading

• Bill Jenkinson: "Long Distance Home Runs", in The Home Run Encyclopedia, Macmillan, New York, NY, 1996. [1]
• Bill Jenkinson: The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs: Recrowning Baseball's Greatest Slugger, Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, NY, 2007. [2]
• Bill Jenkinson: Baseball's Ultimate Power: Ranking the All-Time Greatest Distance Home Run Hitters, Lyons Press, Guilford, CT, 2010. [3]

Related Sites

• Bill Jenkinson: Baseball