Phil S. Dixon

Phil S. Dixon is a road warrior, veracious interviewer and tireless researcher who has interviewed over 500 players, wives and their offspring for a unique perspective of the Negro baseball experience, works for which he won a SABR MacMillan Award for his excellence in historical research. He’s best known for his 7 non-fiction books which includes “The Negro Baseball Leagues A Photographs History, 1867-1955,” a Casey Award winner.

He is a member of SABR (The Society of American Baseball Researchers) and Missouri Writers Guild. His work has been praised by educators and such luminaries as Fay Vincent “Baseball Commissioner” and Stephen Jay Gould “American Paleontologist.” Dixon is a Humanities Kansas presenter and a past Missouri Humanities speaker. He recently traveled to over 200 American cities and internationally into Canada with a presentation titled the “Kansas City Monarchs In Our Hometown.” His talks are a fluid mix for those who enjoy professional presentations that are both humorous and insightful. Phil’s motto is “why bore your audiences and readers with sabermetrics when a touch of humor will suffice.”

Baseball’s quintessential barnstormer is a designation he embraces. His latest release, “The Dizzy and Daffy Dean Barnstorming Tour; Race, Media and America’s National Pastime,” continues that tradition. His works are full of stories which familiarize readers with baseball’s forgotten Negro stars through primary source interviews he’s conducted from 40 years of research. In addition to books he owns copyrights for poems and a movie script. He is a true American griot, and a lifetime of collecting political, sports and television memorabilia hasn’t dulled his quest for greater knowledge.

Dixon left home at age-17 to pursue a musical career. He traveled the mid-west and Southern Chitlin' Circuit. He journaled his experiences. His free-lance writing for the Kansas City Call led to a major league press pass, which eventually landed him a job with the American League Kansas City Royals where he worked in Public Relations. In 1990 he co-founded the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City. He is the husband of a Dr. (Kerry) his wife of 35 years, and father of three HBCU college graduates who represent (Langston, Howard and Fisk). Phil, a Kansan at birth, now makes his home in Missouri with the wife, the children, his trumpet and album collection while eagerly awaiting his weekly edition of the Kansas City Call.