Born in Chicago, Illinois, Holtzman wrote for his hometown papers for over 50 years.

Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard, who was sports editor of the Sun-Times for part of Holtzman's career, called him "the dean of American baseball writers," and went on to say "He never smiled, but he had the keys to Cooperstown.

Among Holtzman's contributions to the game during his career was the creation of the save statistic in 1959.

[4] In 1999, Holtzman retired as a newspaper writer and was named the official historian of Major League Baseball.

"[5] Holtzman wrote or edited more than a dozen books, including No Cheering in the Press Box, a collection of interviews with 18 sportswriters that was published in 1974.