We have some upcoming book titles to announce, including a full-length biography of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers’ Jim Gilliam and the impending release of our 2025 spring-training guides.
We’re very excited to announce Jim Gilliam: The Forgotten Dodger for a late 2024/early 2025 release. The exhaustively researched full-length biography from Stephen W. Dittmore covers the many highlights in Gilliam’s career, punctuated with interviews with former teammates and contemporaries.
Raised by his mother in the Jim Crow South, Jim Gilliam’s passion was baseball. He never commanded the spotlight, yet he was instrumental in the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers reaching seven World Series, winning four, during his career. He never had a permanent position and was frequently the subject of trade rumors. Remembered as a role player, Gilliam sacrificed his statistics for the good of the team. A company man.
His career highlights make for a fascinating read, but there are larger stories to tell: his career closely paralleled the many groundbreaking changes in baseball in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. His career was a journey beginning on the sandlots of Nashville to a pro career launched in the Negro Leagues to the first wave of Black players breaking the segregated gates of Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers. After retirement, he was central in discussions of further baseball integration, mentioned often as a potential managerial candidate before his life tragically ended due to complications of a brain hemorrhage at age 49, on the eve of the 1978 World Series.
His career as a player and a coach with the Dodger franchise spanned three decades. He often entered spring training without a permanent position in the lineup or as trade bait, but still averaged 140 games played over 14 seasons, including two seasons as a player-coach.
About the Author
Stephen W. Dittmore has more than 20 years of experience working as a higher-education administrator and professor. Dittmore received a PhD from the University of Louisville in 2007 and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Drake University. He is an assistant editor at AthleticDirectorU, a vertical website from D1.Ticker designed to promote thought leadership ideas among intercollegiate athletic directors, and also writes for his Substack newsletter, “Glory Days.” A recognized researcher in the areas of sport media and intercollegiate athletics, he is a co-author of a Sport Public Relations textbook and is preparing revisions for a fourth edition. He is an author on nearly 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, 12 book chapters, and more than 70 peer-reviewed presentations.
Born in Southern California, he is a lifelong fan of Dodgers baseball and enjoys studying the history of baseball as an active member of the Society for American Baseball Research. In August 2023, he was part of the 75th Anniversary Celebration of the 1948 Cleveland Indians World Series championship, presenting a historical perspective of Dale Mitchell, an Indians outfielder inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame that evening.
We’ll be sending out Advanced Reading Copies in July and August, followed by a limited release in the fall and a full-blown release in the spring. We will be announcing information here, but the best way to receive information about this title and other August Publications titles is by signing up for the AP newsletter; click here.
Never too Early to Plan for Spring Training
Yes, we planning earlier releases of our spring training guides for early July. It seems like the planning cycles for spring training occur earlier and earlier. Watch for information about The Complete Guide to Spring Training 2025 / Arizona and The Complete Guide to Spring Training 2025 / Florida, or receive updates by signing up for the AP newsletter; click here.