Harold Kaese

Harold William Kaese

• School Tufts College

• Born March 8, 1909
• Died May 10, 1975 in Lynn, MA USA

Biographical Information

Harold Kaese was a Boston-based sports writer with the Boston Transcript (1933-1941) and the Boston Globe (1943 - November 1973). A well-rounded wordsmith (historian, statistician and grammarian), Kaese authored many books, most notably The Boston Braves, 1871-1953, published originally in 1948.

A baseball, basketball, and track star from Lynn, MA, Harold Kaese began his newspaper career with the Boston Transcript in 1933. Kaese was sports editor for the paper when it folded in 1941, at which time he joined the staff of the Boston Globe. He traveled with the Boston Red Sox and Boston Braves for nearly 40 years, retiring in 1973.

Kaese, who graduated cum laude in English from Tufts College, was respected in every press box as scrupulously fair and 100 percent correct. He was consulted nationwide as an analyst of meaningful statistics. Red Sox outfielder Reggie Smith once observed: "Harold could prove a point with that little black book quicker than anybody."

Kaese was also well known for tracking Ted Williams' career. The 1991 book Ted Williams: A Portrait in Words and Pictures by Richard Johnson and Glenn Stout has more than 20 pages of Kaese's stats and notes on Williams, including the Red Sox slugger's game-winning home runs and how he fared on holidays, on his birthday and on Opening Day.

Former Globe sports editor Jerry Nason said of Kaese: "His ability to research facts, marshal them into attacking formations, then launch them in impeccable grammatical order to slay the rumors, fabrications and hearsay with which sports abound, is without parallel."

Further Reading

• Harold Kaese: The Boston Braves, 1871-1953, Northeastern University Press, Boston, MA, 2004 (Originally published in 1948). [1]
• Harold Kaese: "No Pattern for Managers", Baseball Digest, May 1948, pp. 73-74. [2]
• Harold Kaese: "Nichols Game's Fifth Winningest: 'Hall' finally recognizes arm that won 360 decisions", Baseball Digest, July 1949, pp. 49-50. [3]
• Harold Kaese: "Old-Timers Would Have Picnic Now; Modern conveniences outweigh damage of night ball", Baseball Digest, October 1957, pp. 77-78. [4]
• Harold Kaese: "Slumps Have Tantalized Even the Great Hitters", Baseball Digest, September 1969, pp. 25-29.

Related Sites

• Meet the Sports Writers - Page 7: Scroll down to #168.