Donald Honig

Donald Martin Honig

• Born August 17, 1931 in New York, NY USA

Biographical Information

Don Honig is an American short story writer who turned to writing about baseball in 1975, when he published Baseball When the Grass Was Real and Baseball Between the Lines (1976). While a member of the "Bobo Newsom Memorial Society", an informal group of writers, Honig attempted to get Lawrence Ritter to write a sequel to The Glory of their Times. Ritter balked and gave Honig his blessing. Over the next nineteen years, Honig churned out 39 books about baseball. He wrote The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time with Ritter in 1981, followed by Baseball's 10 Greatest Teams, in 1982. He also published several illustrated histories of long standing franchises. In 1996, he published The October Heroes: Great World Series Games Remembered by the Men Who Played Them. His latest book is The Fifth Season: Tales of My Life in Baseball (2009), an autobiography.

He continues to write from his home in Cromwell, Connecticut.

Honig and Ritter collaborated on The Image of Their Greatness and The 100 Greatest Players of Al Time.

Books

• Up from the Minor Leagues, 1970.
• Baseball When the Grass Was Real: Baseball from the '20s to the '40s Told by the Men Who Played It, 1975.
• Baseball Between the Lines: Baseball in the '40s and '50s as Told by the Men Who Played It, 1976.
• The Man in the Dugout: Fifteen Big League Managers Speak Their Minds, 1977.
• The Image of Their Greatness: An Illustrated History of Baseball from 1900 to the Present, 1979. with Lawrence Ritter
• The Last Great Season, 1979, novel.
• The October Heroes: Great World Series Games Remembered by the Men Who Played Them, 1979.
• The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time, 1981. with Lawrence Ritter
• The Brooklyn Dodgers: An Illustrated Tribute, 1981.
• The New York Yankees: An Illustrated History, 1981.
• Baseball's 10 Greatest Teams, 1982.
• The American League: An Illustrated History, 1983.
• The Los Angeles Dodgers: The First Quarter Century, 1983.
• The National League: An Illustrated History, 1983.
• The Boston Red Sox: An Illustrated Tribute, 1984.
• Baseball America: The Heroes of the Game and the Times of Their Glory, 1985.
• Dodgers: The Complete Record of Dodgers Baseball, 1986.
• The New York Mets: The First Quarter Century, 1986.
• The All-Star Game: A Pictorial History, 1933 to Present, 1987.
• Baseball in the '50s: A Decade of Transition, 1987.
• Mays, Mantle, and Snider: A Celebration, 1987.
• A Donald Honig Reader, 1988.
• The Greatest First Basemen of All Time, 1988.
• The Greatest Pitchers of All Time, 1988.
• World Series: An Illustrated History from 1903 to the Present, 1988.
• 1961: The Year That Was, 1989.
• American League Most Valuable Players, 1989.
• American League Rookies of the Year, 1989.
• Baseball in the 30's: A Decade of Survival, 1989.
• National League Most Valuable Players, 1989.
• National League Rookies of the Year, 1989.
• The Power Hitters, 1989.
• Baseball: The Illustrated History of America's Game, 1990.
• The Boston Red Sox: An Illustrated History, 1990.
• The Chicago Cubs: An Illustrated History, 1991.
• The Greatest Catchers of All Time, 1991.
• The St. Louis Cardinals: An Illustrated History, 1991.
• The Cincinnati Reds: An Illustrated History, 1992.
• The Greatest Shortstops of All Time, 1992.
• The Philadelphia Phillies: An Illustrated History, 1992.
• The Plot to Kill Jackie Robinson, 1992, novel.
• Last Man Out, 1993, novel.
• Shadows of Summer: Classic Baseball Photographs 1869-1947, 1994.
• Classic Baseball Photographs, 1869-1947, 1999.
• The Fifth Season: Tales of My Life in Baseball, 2009, autobiography

Further Reading

• Donald Honig: A Donald Honig Reader, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 1988. ISBN 0671663399
• Donald Honig: The Fifth Season: Tales of My Life in Baseball, Ivan R. Dee Publishers, Chicago, IL, 2009. ISBN 1566638100

Related Sites

• Official website