Gaylon H. White

Gaylon Hooper White is the author of four baseball books -- The Best Little Baseball Town in the World: The Crowley Millers and Minor League Baseball in the 1950s, to be released in March 2021, Left On Base in the Bush Leagues: Legends, Near Greats and Unknowns in the Minors, published in 2019, Singles and Smiles: How Artie Wilson Broke Baseball’s Color Barrier, released in 2018 and The Bilko Athletic Club,[1] published in 2014. He's also co-author with Ransom Jackson of a 2016 book, Handsome Ransom Jackson: Accidental Big Leaguer. Rowman and Littlefield is the publisher of all five books.

The Best Little Baseball Town in the World is the amazing story of Crowley, Louisiana, in the 1950s. The book has it all — tragedy and triumph; mystery and mayhem; good and bad guys; the renowned and the unknown; even a famous biscuit recipe.

Left On Base in the Bush Leagues profiles some of the most colorful characters from baseball's golden era. It includes the stories of players such as Ron Necciai, the only pitcher in history to strike out 27 batters in a nine-inning game; Joe Brovia, a hitter who cursed pitchers, and, then, hit the cover off the ball; Bob Dillinger, a perennial .300 hitter in the majors, who was exiled to the minors because he didn't give team management the respect they wanted.

Jim McConnell, former sports columnist and author, writes: "Meticulously researched and compellingly presented, Left On Base in the Bush Leagues is the best book on 1950's minor league baseball ever, a milestone worthy of sharing the same bookshelf with "The Glory of their Times."

White graduated in 1967 from the University of Oklahoma with a bachelor's degree in journalism-broadcasting. He was a sportswriter for the Denver Post, Arizona Republic and Oklahoma Journal before entering the corporate world and writing speeches for top executives at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, Control Data Corporation and Eastman Chemical Company.

At Eastman, a manufacturer of plastics, chemicals and fibers, he established an award-winning website, the Eastman Innovation Lab,[2] which uses storytelling to bridge the communications gap between the materials and design worlds. He was responsible for a highly acclaimed series of videos called Design Insights that featured thought-provoking interviews with some of the world's top product designers.

White received a personal recognition award from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) in 2010 for his support of design education and being a “great builder of bridges” between the manufacturing and design communities. In 2011, White was awarded an honorary lifetime membership in the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). “At heart, Gaylon White is a storyteller,” Bob Grace of Plastics News wrote on White's retirement from Eastman in 2012. “Others would do well to learn from his story.”

In 2015 the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) selected him as one of its 50 most notable members from the past 50 years.

Hailed as “one of the best sports books of 2014” by Bruce Miles of the Chicago Daily Herald, The Bilko Athletic Club is about beer-loving, home run-hitting Steve Bilko and the 1956 Los Angeles Angels of the old Pacific Coast League.

Accidental Big Leaguer covers the career of Jackson, a two-time National League All-Star in the 1950s and the last Brooklyn Dodger to hit a homerun. The book was a grand slam with Allen Berra of the Chicago Tribune, who wrote: “We can only hope that among today’s players there’s someone as sharp and funny as Handsome Ransom Jackson to remember them.”

Singles and Smiles traces Artie's life from Birmingham, Alabama, where he was born in 1920 to Portland, Oregon, where he lived 55 years until his death in 2010 at the age of 90.

Artie was 30 years old when he quickly passed through the majors with the New York Giants. He started just one game, batting a mere 24 times. He slapped four singles, walked twice, swiped two bases, scored two runs and batted in another to hit .182. He was the 13th black player to appear in the majors after Jackie Robinson broke in with the Dodgers in 1947.

Despite his brief stay in the majors, Artie knew from five all-star seasons with the Birmingham Black Barons (1944–48) in the Negro American League that he could play with the best.

One of Artie's teammates with the Black Barons in 1948 was Willie Mays, a legendary Hall of Famer. Ironically, Artie was the player the Giants sent to the minors in 1951 to make room on the roster for Mays.

“Artie Wilson was one of the guys who watched out for me when I played for the Black Barons,” Willie said. “In turn, I watched Artie. That year, he hit .402! That was a lesson in hitting that I always remembered.”

White is a member of the IDSA and Society for American Baseball Research. He and his wife, Mary, live in Kingsport, Tennessee. They have three children and seven grandchildren.

Awards
  • Technology from the heart, 2011 Industrial Design Excellence Awards, Curator's Choice[3]
  • Making the world safer through design, 2010 Industrial Design Excel Award[3]

Websites
  • GaylonWhiteBaseball.com
  • "The-Bilko-Athletic-Club-The-Story-of-the-1956-Los-Angeles-Angels". Rowman & Littlefield.
  • "Homepage - Eastman Innovation Lab". Eastman Innovation Lab.

Articles

References
  1. "The-Bilko-Athletic-Club-The-Story-of-the-1956-Los-Angeles-Angels".
  2. "Welcome to the Eastman Innovation Lab - Home". Eastman Innovation Lab. Retrieved 2014-01-09.
  3. "Homepage - Eastman Innovation Lab".
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