Program Description
Event Details
Des Moines has had professional baseball for 115 years. On Wednesday, August 9, join author Steve Dunn in a look back at the city’s rich relationship with the sport. Dunn’s presentation will include the teams, players and ballparks that have brought enjoyment to millions of fans from Babe Ruth on down.
This program will be offered in English and interpreted in ASL. If you would like to attend online, you can register here.
About the speaker:
Author Steve Dunn had four decades of newspaper experience before he retired in early 2014 and moved to Des Moines. He worked as a reporter, sportswriter, and managing editor for daily and weekly newspapers in three states, including the last 15 ½ years as managing editor of the Daily Gate City in Keokuk.
He has written bios for the Society for American Baseball Research of Randy Hundley, Joe Decker, Bill Faul, John Holland, Charlie Hollocher, Del Howard, Don Kessinger, Jim Hickman, Salty Saltwell, Kevin Tapani, and Kerry Wood. All either played with or worked in the front office of the Chicago Cubs. The life-long Cubs fan also has written ten game stories for SABR, including Ernie Banks’ 500th home run; Banks’ first game with the Cubs on September 17, 1953; the Cubs’ Opening Day extra-inning victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on April 6, 1971; and Ron Santo’s major-league debut on June 26, 1960.
Last year, he self-published a book about the history of professional baseball at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers in Des Moines, “Principal Park: A Diamond in the Rough.”
He and former state Sen. Pat Deluhery have published a book about the latter’s political career, including working for U.S. Sen. Harold Hughes of Iowa from 1969 to 1975 and briefly for U.S. John Culver of Iowa in Washington, D.C. Deluhery also served in the Iowa Senate from 1979 to 2002. The political memoir is called “Engaged: Pat Deluhery and the Golden Age of Democratic Party Activism.”
Dunn was an usher for the Iowa Cubs, the triple-A affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, from 2015 to 2019 and in 2022.
He and his wife, Cindy, have two daughters and four grandchildren who live in West Des Moines and Phoenix, Arizona. His hobbies include bike riding, playing pickleball, volunteering at Capitol View Elementary and the Food Bank of Iowa in Des Moines, participating in Des Moines Golden K Kiwanis Club activities and playing his clarinet in the Greater Des Moines Community Band.
For more about the author, go to stevedunnauthor.com.