Baseball's Business: The Winter Meetings: 1901-1957

SABR Digital Library, #43

"I treasured going to the Winter Meetings. You don't see people for a whole year and then here you are, face to face, and trying to make a deal."  — Roland Hemond (Winter Meetings attendee since 1952)

This new SABR book about the history of the Winter Meetings contains stories and hidden treasures that may help resolve moments of wonder that have periodically crossed your mind as a baseball fan or as a scholar. 

So much of baseball history happened at the Winter Meetings. This book provides you with a historical answer to the business of baseball over many of the early years of the minor leagues, the National League, and the American League, and even features a chapter on the Eastern Colored League Winter Meetings. Important philosophies regarding chosen identity, reactions to societal trends, agreements on how to operate, approval of new members, and player transactions emerged from the discussions and decisions made at the winter meetings. 

This book represents the first of two volumes to cover the history of Baseball's Winter Meetings. Volume One covers the years 1901 through 1957, and Volume Two (to be published in 2017) covers the years 1958 through 2016. The first volume covers the years of twentieth century baseball from the first year there were two "major leagues" — the American League having begun as a major league in 1901 — and running through the final year before expansion to the West Coast. The second volume brings coverage of the Winter Meetings through the 2016 gathering in Washington, D.C.