CHICAGO (AP) Jerome Holtzman, a longtime baseball writer who made the Hall of Fame, created the saves rule and later became Major League Baseball's official historian, has died. He was 81.
Holtzman died Saturday in Evanston, according to a release from the Chicago White Sox.
Holtzman won the J.G. Spink Award, an award given annually to the one baseball writer who exhibited ''meritorious contributions'' to baseball writing, and a spot in the Hall of Fame in 1989.
Known as ''The Dean,'' Holtzman worked at the Chicago Sun-Times and the Daily Times, its predecessor, before joining the Chicago Tribune in 1981. He retired in 1999, when he was named MLB's official historian.
Holtzman began his career as a 17-year-old copy boy in 1942, and served two years in the Marine Corps during World War II before returning to journalism. He was assigned the baseball beat in 1957.
Feeling that earned run averages and won-lost records were not the most accurate reflection of relievers' effectiveness, Holtzman created the formula for ''saves'' in 1959. A decade later, in 1969, it was adopted by the game's Official Rules Committee.
Holtzman also wrote six books, including ''No Cheering in the Press Box,'' in which he interviewed other well-known writers.
