Norman L. Macht

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Norman Lee Macht

Biographical Information[edit]

Norman Macht is a freelance baseball historian who has authored numerous books and innumerable articles in publications such as Baseball Digest, The Sporting News, National Sports Daily, Sports Heritage, USA Today Baseball Weekly, The San Francisco Examiner and The National Pastime (plus other SABR publications).

He was born in Brooklyn, NY but grew up a New York Giants fan on Long Island. Since his hopes to make it into baseball as a pitcher were quickly dashed, he turned to the business side of the game, working as a scorekeeper and statistician with the minor league Atlanta Crackers in the 1940s, kept statistics for various minor leagues and worked for broadcaster Ernie Harwell, providing him with numbers to be used during broadcasts. He also worked as a general manager for several minor league teams at a time when the job description included everything from making sure the team bus was clean and selling ad space on outfield fences. He served four years in the United States Air Force during the Korean War, then when the minor leagues began shrinking and job opportunities became fewer, he turned to free lance writing about baseball. Among his first books was a biography of Dick Bartell entitled Rowdy Richard.

Macht joined SABR in 1985 and served in various executive positions, including treasurer and secretary.

He began publishing the definitive biography of Connie Mack in 2007, with the first volume of the project covering the "Tall Tactician"'s influence over the early years of baseball, until World War I. The second volume, covering 1915 to 1931, came out in 2012, and the third, which completed the massive effort, was published in 2015.

In 2016, he was honored with the Henry Chadwick Award.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Dick "Rowdy Richard" Bartell and Norman L. Macht: Rowdy Richard: A Firsthand Account of the National League Baseball Wars of the 1930s and the Men Who Fought Them, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA, 1993. ISBN 0-938190-97-0 (originally published in 1987)
  • Norman L. Macht: "Why Some Baseball Rules Need An Overhauling", Baseball Digest, December 1988, pp. 59-62. [1]
  • Norman L. Macht: "Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx Was a Phenom At A Young Age", Baseball Digest April 1990, pp. 86-89. [2]
  • Norman L. Macht: "Billy Bruton Recalls How the Game Was Played in 1950s", Baseball Digest, August 1990, pp. 44-48. [3]
  • Norman L. Macht: "Five Reasons Why Pitchers Suffer Arm Injuries", Baseball Digest, March 1991, pp. 57-58. [4]
  • Norman L. Macht: Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 2007. ISBN 0803240031
  • Norman L. Macht: Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915-1931, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 2012. ISBN 0803220391
  • Norman L. Macht: The Grand Old Man of Baseball: Connie Mack in His Final Years, 1932-1956, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 2015. ISBN 978-0-8032-3765-0

Related Sites[edit]

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