David Nemec

{{Short description|American baseball historian and novelist}} {{BLP sources|date=March 2011}} {{Infobox person | image =  | alt =  | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1938|12|10}} | birth_place = Cleveland, Ohio, USA | death_date =  | death_place = | nationality =  | other_names = | occupation = | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }}

'''David Nemec''' (born December 10, 1938) is an American baseball historian and novelist.<ref name=sabr/>

==Early life and education== Nemec was born in Cleveland, Ohio and spent most of his adolescence in Bay Village, Ohio.{{reference needed|date=February 2023}} During his senior year at Bay High School,<ref>{{cite news|title=2013 Bay Alumni Foundation distinguished alumni/distinguished educator recipients|year=2013|newspaper=The Shoreline|url=https://bayalumni.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Summer-2013-Shoreline1.pdf|access-date=2023-02-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/content/printer_friendly/mlb/y2009/m02/d10/c3814670.jsp|title=A day-by-day account of baseball|last=Miller|first=Doug|date=2009-02-10|work=MLB.com|access-date=2023-02-25}}</ref> he was named the first winner of the Ed Bang Scholarship, created to honor the "Dean of American Sports Writers."{{reference needed|date=February 2023}} Nemec played outfield and first base for Ohio State University while earning his BA in English. He graduated in 1960.<ref name="SF Gate June 97">{{Citation| last = Chapin| first = Dwight| title = Nemec has baseball in his blood: City novelist continues to produce books on national pastime| newspaper = San Francisco Chronicle (SF Gate)| date = 1 June 1997| url = https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Nemec-has-baseball-in-his-blood-3116775.php| access-date =12 December 2010}}</ref>

==Career== After serving in the army, Nemec taught and coached in Cleveland public schools while working on a novel about the Sam Sheppard murder case, which occurred in his hometown of Bay Village. Sheppard had been Nemec's family physician prior to Sheppard's 1954 conviction for his wife's murder. Nemec and his first wife, visual artist Vernita N'Cognita, moved to New York City in 1965. He won a ''Transatlantic Review'' award in 1967 for his first published story, ''On the Produce Dock''.{{reference needed|date=February 2023}}

During the 1970s, he worked as a parole officer in the Youthful Offender Bureau for the New York State Division of Parole while continuing to publish stories, including ''The Best American Short Stories''. This experience later provided the backdrop for his second novel, ''Mad Blood'', which was loosely based on the Career Girls Murders. In 1973, Nemec was awarded his first residency at Yaddo. Following his second stay in 1975, he drew on his vast baseball history to create ''The Absolutely Most Challenging Baseball Quiz Book, Ever'', which was published in 1977 by Macmillan Publishers. This began a series of baseball quiz books.{{reference needed|date=February 2023}}

Since 1987, Nemec has authored or co-authored over 20 books on baseball, many focusing on the game's early years as a professional sport, which became his specialty as a baseball historian. In the 1990s, he published ''The Rules of Baseball'' (1994), which looked at the evolution of rules; ''The Beer and Whisky League'' (1995), a history of the American Association; and ''The Great Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Major League Baseball'' (1997). His works have been anthologized in collections such as ''Spitball'' magazine, ''The Four Dynasties of the New York Yankees'', ''Nine'', and ''Survival Prose''.{{reference needed|date=February 2023}}

Nemec has received a number of awards, including the Sporting News Research Award, the Henry Chadwick Award,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Henry Chadwick Award: David Nemec – Society for American Baseball Research |url=https://sabr.org/journal/article/henry-chadwick-award-david-nemec/ |access-date=2026-01-23 |language=en-US}}</ref> and the McFarland Baseball Research Award; playwriting grants from Impossible Ragtime Theater and the Huntington Playhouse; and fellowships and residencies from Yaddo, MacDowell, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Edward F. Albee Foundation. He has taught writing at College of Marin, St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, and prisons in the San Francisco Bay area. Nemec is also a member of the Society for American Baseball Research.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.macdowell.org/artists/david-nemec|title=David Nemec|publisher=Macdowell|access-date=2023-02-25}}</ref>

==Personal life== Nemec lives in Laguna Woods, California,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/David-Nemec/154561016|title=David Nemec|publisher=Simon and Schuster|access-date=2023-02-25}}</ref> with his wife, teacher and author Marilyn Foster, and is the stepfather of the film and TV actress Kat Foster and associate film producer Alex Foster.{{reference needed|date=February 2023}} He has lived in the Bay Area since 1983.<ref name=sabr>{{cite web|url=https://sabr.org/journal/article/henry-chadwick-award-david-nemec/|title=Henry Chadwick Award: David Nemec|last=Kahrl|first=Christina|date=2015|publisher=Society for American Baseball Research|access-date=2023-02-25}}</ref><ref name="SF Gate June 97"/> Nemec previously played baseball with the Oaks, a senior league team in San Francisco. He also co-manages a nationwide baseball fantasy league that allows users to draft players from throughout history. <ref name="SF Gate June 97"/>

==Selected publications== * Novels ** 1980: ''Bright Lights, Dark Rooms'' ** 1982: ''Mad Blood'' ** 1985: ''The Systems of M.R. Shurnas'' ** 2010: ''Stonesifer'' ** 2012: ''Who's Dicing the Daughters of Pan?'' ** 2013: ''The Picture Maker'' ** 2015: ''Early Dreams'' * Baseball nonfiction ** 1992: ''The Great American Baseball Team Book'' ** 1993: ''Players of Coopertown'' with Matthew D. Greenberger, Dan Schlossberg, Dick Johnson, and Mike Tully ** 1994: ''The Rules of Baseball'' ** 1995: ''The Beer and Whisky League'' ** 1997: ''Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Major League Baseball'' ** 1999: ''The Great Book of Baseball Knowledge'' ** 2004: ''100 years of baseball'' with Saul Wisnia ** 2007: ''The Baseball Chronicle'' (anthology) ** 2011: ''Great Baseball Feats, Facts & Firsts'' with Scott Flatow and Dave Zeman ** 2011: ''Major League Baseball Profiles, Vol. 1 & 2'' ** 2012: ''The Rank and File of 19th Century Major League Baseball'' with John Thorn ** 2014: ''Forfeits and Successfully Protested Games in Major League Baseball'' with Eric Miklich ** 2017: ''No-Hitters'' (anthology) ** 2019: ''Incredible Baseball Trivia: More than 200 Hardball Questions for the Thinking Fan'' ** 2020: ''The Official Rules of Baseball'' (illustrated)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{LCAuth|n79064587|David Nemec|40|}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nemec, David}} Category:1938 births Category:Living people Category:Baseball writers Category:Writers from Cleveland Category:Ohio State Buckeyes baseball players Category:United States Army soldiers Category:20th-century American writers Category:20th-century American male writers Category:Baseball historians