Hy Turkin was a sportswriter best known for co-editing the first baseball encyclopedia.

Turkin was born in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, one of seven children. He joined the staff of the New York Daily News

New York Daily News

The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....

after graduating from Cooper Union

Cooper Union

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...

 in 1936 with a degree in electrical engineering

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

. Turkin covered baseball, basketball, and track for the paper.

Baseball Encyclopedia

A chance meeting with baseball researcher S.C. Thompson in 1944 led the two to colloborate on what would become the first true baseball encyclopedia. Published by A.S. Barnes in 1951, the book contained a complete listing of every man who had played Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

, along with the years they had played, the teams they had played for, and some basic statistics. It was a remarkable contribution to the field of baseball history.

The book earned the endorsement of Commissioner A.B. "Happy" Chandler

Happy Chandler

Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler, Sr. was a politician from the US state of Kentucky. He represented the state in the U.S. Senate and served as its 44th and 49th governor. Aside from his political positions, he also served as the second Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1945 to 1951 and...

, and nine revised editions were published after Turkin's death (the last in 1979).

Other

Turkin was one of the founders of the National Foundation for Muscular Dystrophy. He was married to the former Florence Kerr, and the couple had a daughter named Margery.

Death

Turkin died at the age of 40, following a six-month battle with liver

Liver

The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...

 disease. New York Times writer Arthur Daley described him as "a bustling little dynamo with an inquisitive turn of mind."

There is a Little League baseball field called the Hy Turkin Memorial Field in Dongan Hills, Staten Island, New York.

Legacy

Following Turkin's death, the Metropolitan Basketball Writers Association named a new annual award after him. The Hy Turkin Memorial Award is given annually to professional basketball's rookie of the year.