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Rick Huhn
Rick Huhn practiced law in Columbus, Ohio for some thirty years before fulfilling a lifelong dream by combining his keen interest in baseball history with a writing career. He is the author of three books about baseball’s rough-and-tumble Deadball Era (1901-1919). The Chalmers Race, a finalist for both the 2014 Seymour Medal and Casey awards, details the controversial 1910 batting race between Ty Cobb and Napoleon Lajoie. The Sizzler: George Sisler, Baseball’s Forgotten Great and Eddie Collins: A Baseball Biography detail the fascinating lives of two members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rick has also written numerous articles and given frequent talks and interviews about his books and related baseball topics.
Expertise
Baseball in the Deadball Era (1901-1919)
1919 Chicago Black Sox Scandal
Cleveland Indians Baseball History
Available for
Public Speaking
Pod Cast & Radio Interviews
Media Quotes & Inquiries
Books
The Chalmers Race:
Ty Cobb, Napoleon Lajoie, and the Controversial 1910 Batting Race Title That Became A National Obsession
In 1910 auto magnate Hugh Chalmers offered an automobile to the baseball player with the highest batting average that season. What followed was a batting race unlike any before or since, between the greatest but most despised hitter, Detroit’s Ty Cobb, and the American League’s first superstar, Cleveland’s popular Napoleon Lajoie. The Chalmers Race captures the excitement of this strange contest—one that has yet to be resolved.
The race came down to the last game of the season, igniting more interest among fans than the World Series and becoming a national obsession. Rick Huhn re-creates the drama that ensued when Cobb, thinking the prize safely his, skipped the last two games, and Lajoie suspiciously had eight hits in a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns. Although initial counts favored Lajoie, American League president Ban Johnson, the sport’s last word, announced Cobb the winner, and amid the controversy both players received cars. The Chalmers Race details a story of dubious scorekeeping and statistical systems, of performances and personalities in conflict, of accurate results coming in seventy years too late, and of a contest settled not by play on the field but by human foibles.
The Sizzler: George Sisler, Baseball's Forgotten Great
“Gorgeous George” Sisler, a left-handed first baseman, began his major-league baseball career in 1915 with the St. Louis Browns. During his sixteen years in the majors, he played with such baseball luminaries as Ty Cobb (who once called Sisler “the nearest thing to a perfect ballplayer”), Babe Ruth, and Rogers Hornsby. He was considered by these stars of the sport to be their equal, and Branch Rickey, one of baseball’s foremost innovators and talent scouts, once said that in 1922 Sisler was “the greatest player that ever lived.”
Eddie Collins: A Baseball Biography
Finalist, Larry Ritter Book Award--SABR
In what is sure to be the definitive book on Eddie Collins's life and long career, author Rick Huhn covers the Hall of Fame player's experiences from childhood through his days at Columbia University, his tenure with the great Athletics clubs of 1906-1914, the highs and lows of a championship and scandal with the White Sox, and his return to the A's during their final run at greatness. By the time his 25-year playing career had ended, he was a pivotal performer on five all-time great clubs, dominating his position like no one before (or since), and earning a reputation for intelligent, selfless play that followed him to Cooperstown.
