Fred Lieb

Frederick George Lieb (March 5, 1888 – June 3, 1980) was an American sportswriter and baseball historian. Lieb published his memoirs in 1977, which documented his nearly 70 years as a baseball reporter. He received the J. G. Taylor Spink Award from the Baseball Writers' Association of America in 1972. Born in 1888 in Philadelphia, Lieb died at age 92 in Houston.

Career Lieb was born on March 5, 1888, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; his favorite team growing up as a child was the Philadelphia Athletics. His sportswriting career began in 1909, when while working as a clerk for the Norfolk & Western Railroad he began submitting biographies of players to Baseball magazine. That led to a job with the Philadelphia news bureau; in 1911 he moved to New York where he joined the new Base Ball Writers Association. For the next 20 years, Lieb wrote for the New York Sun, Philadelphia Evening Telegraph, New York Evening Telegram and New York Post, In 1935, Taylor Spink convinced Lieb to write a regular weekly column and select obituaries for The Sporting News; Lieb did this at his leisure from his home in St. Petersburg, Florida, for 35 years. Over his career, Fred Lieb covered every World Series game from 1911 to 1958, 30 All-Star games, and over 8,000 major-league baseball games.

Notable events Lieb initiated a rule change on February 9, 1920, when he suggested that a game-winning home run with men on base always be counted as a home run, even if its run was not needed to win the game. Ehmke had thrown a no-hitter in the previous game that he had pitched, on September 7.