David Pietrusza

Pietrusza's original research has redefined standard opinion on both the role of Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis regarding the game's integration and the role of gambler Arnold Rothstein in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal ("On examination, much of Eight Men Out's scenario doesn't make sense. But it is such a well-written book you gloss over the inconsistencies. On even closer examination, many dates, many sequences of events, make even less sense. In fact, they're impossible.")

David Pietrusza has produced a number of critically acclaimed works concerning 20th-century American history, including five volumes ("1920," "1960," "1948," "1932," and "1936: Roosevelt Sweeps Nation") on presidential electoral history.

He is also an expert on the 1920s and on the presidency of Calvin Coolidge and the career of Charles Evans Hughes.

He has also served as a ghostwriter or "book doctor" for several successful books, including various New York Times and Amazon bestsellers.

As a noted presidential scholar, Pietrusza has been selected to serve on C-SPAN's "Historians Survey on Presidential Leadership" and the Siena College Research Institute (SRI) Survey of United States Presidents and on the C-SPAN/Siena College Study of The First Ladies of The United States.

He serves on the National Advisory Board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and previously on the Foundation's Board of Trustees.

Pietrusza holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in history from the University at Albany.

He has assisted in teaching seminars at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics (David Axelrod, director) and at the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale and has served as a guest lecturer at Fordham University, The King's College (New York City), Winthrop University, and Southeast Missouri State University.

He has spoken at the John F. Kennedy, Harry S. Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Calvin Coolidge presidential libraries and museums, as well as at various universities, libraries, museums (including the Chicago History Museum, Dallas' Sixth Floor Museum, Palm Beach's Flagler Museum, and Reno's National Automobile Museum), and festivals.

He has keynoted the annual birthday ceremonies at the graves of presidents Calvin Coolidge and Chester Alan Arthur and spoken at Wilton, New York's Grant Cottage, scene of the death of President Ulysses S. Grant and via Zoom at Buffalo's Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site.

Pietrusza's book "Rothstein" has been optioned on several occasions for film, television, or stage adaptation.

David Pietrusza (born November 22, 1949, in Amsterdam, New York) is an American author and historian.

In the 1990s, Pietrusza participated in recreations of nineteenth-century early baseball contests, including umpiring a game at Ithaca College, commemorating that institution's centennial.

On June 6, 1992, along with future Official Major League Baseball Historian John Thorn, he participated in a contest in Troy, New York recreating a contest between the old Troy and Worcester National League teams.

Thorn and Pietrusza also participated, along with National Baseball Hall of Fame Librarian Tom Heitz and for former Dodgers and Mets first baseman Tim Harkness in a game in Lake Placid, New York recreating the mid-nineteen century phenomenon of "baseball on ice," in which players bat and field on ice.

That game was later featured on ESPN.

In 1993 he served as a research assistant for Mickey Mantle's memoir All My Octobers: My Memories of Twelve World Series When the Yankees Ruled Baseball, interviewing former Mantle World Series opponents Johnny Podres, Carl Erskine, Ralph Branca, Johnny Rutherford, Bobby Thomson, Monte Irvin, Alvin Dark, Lew Burdette, Dick Groat, Andy Pafko, Orlando Cepeda, and Tim McCarver.

He is an Elector of the National Polish-American Sports Hall of Fame.

Until its purchase by the New York Mets, Pietrusza was a major shareholder in the International League's Syracuse Chiefs.

He served as a commissioner of the Mountain Collegiate League, an independent collegiate league, that included teams in New York and Vermont.

From 1993 to 1997, Pietrusza served as president of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

During his tenure he instituted the society's donor and merchandising programs, reformed its convention site selection process, and substantially reduced budgeting for board meetings.

He held the society's first international board meeting, at Monterrey, Mexico in conjunction with the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame.

His tenure saw the organization publish "The Negro Leagues Book."

Aptly described as "a monumental work from the Negro Leagues Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research," it contained extensive research on Negro league rosters, standings, and biographies.

He worked to ensure publication (with Turner Publishing) of a ground-breaking history of SABR.

His tenure also included the institution of the "Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal" for the best baseball history book or biography of the year and presentation of the "SABR Hero of Baseball Award" to Ted Williams and Pee Wee Reese.

His research and his lobbying with Veterans Committee member Ted Williams has been credited for the 1998 induction of nineteenth century infielder and manager George Davis into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

In July 2018, Charles Matthau of the Matthau Organization optioned Pietrusza's "1920: The Year of the Six Presidents" for adaptation into a six-part television series.

The project remains in development.

He has served on the City Council in Amsterdam, New York, as Vice-President of the Fulton-Montgomery Community College Foundation, and as Public Information Officer for the New York State Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform and the New York State Office of the Medicaid Inspector General.

He chaired the Montgomery County (NY) Charter Revision Commission and served on the City of Amsterdam (NY) Charter Revision Commission and the Schenectady County (NY) Charter Review Committee.

Pietrusza chronicled his early life in the memoir, ''Too Long Ago: A Childhood Memory.

A Vanished World.''

Prior to publishing the wide range of historical and political studies he is best noted for, Pietrusza (a varsity letterman [non-playing] in baseball at Amsterdam. NY's Wilbur H. Lynch High School) distinguished himself in the field of sports (primarily baseball) publishing.

He collaborated with baseball legend Ted Williams on an autobiography called Ted Williams: My Life in Pictures. This book contained pictures of Williams throughout his life (many from his personal collection) and commentary on what each one depicted.

Williams died shortly after the book was published.

His Judge and Jury: The Life and Times of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis won the CASEY Award as best baseball book of the year.

Pietrusza served as editor-in-chief of the publishing company Total Sports.

He was co-editor of Total Baseball: The Official Encyclopedia of Major League Baseball and managing editor of Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League.