Since those years there is no denying that there is risk involved in owning a franchise. The business of baseball has been wrought with conflict between owners and players, leagues and players' unions, and team lawyers and players' lawyers. Those that research this industry claim that the Major Baseball League's monopoly, negotiations for increasingly large salaries for players, strikes by players, ticket prices,
and the aging of the core fan base are all factors that have contributed to the slowed growth of this industry in recent years. However, despite the perceived problems, attendance by fans at major league games have been between 50,043,384 in 1994 to a high of 72,968,953 in 2004.2
1 Major League Baseball, as cited in USA Today 28 (November 1990):2c.
2 Major League Baseball, as cited in "Baseball - Major League Regular Season Attendance", Sports Business Research Network database. (Viewed 8 June 2005).
Baseball Almanac
http://baseball-almanac.com/
A comprehensive and freely available Web site which includes information on the economic aspects of baseball.
The Base fall Archive: The Business of Baseball
http://baseball1.com/c-economics.html
Up-to-date information on labor issues, legal issues, salaries and team finances.
The Baseball Chronology
http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chronology/
A chronology of the history of baseball provided by Baseballlibrary.com. Gives an overview of each era of baseball history with economic aspects highlighted.
Baseball Prospectus
http://www.baseballprospectus.com
This Web site offers a free statistical database containing a substantial number of statistics searchable by name of player, name of team and any year from 1871 to the present. The site also includes baseball news, chat, RSS feeds, radio broadcasts, and a list of events. Some services on this site are available only to subscribers.
The Business of Baseball
http://www.businessofbaseball.com/
Prepared by the Society for American Baseball Research, the site offers a variety of research tools for studying the business aspects of professional baseball, including databases and spreadsheets, documentation by jurisdictions exploring relocation and/or expansion, current and historical documents, biographies of individuals related to the business of baseball, selected book reviews, articles, papers, and commentaries, as well as interviews with individuals that have had an impact on the business.
"The Economic History of Major League Baseball," by Michael J. Haupert, in EH.net Encyclopedia of Economic and Business History (Economic History Association).
http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/haupert.mlb
This article from the online EH.net Encyclopedia of Economic and Business History provides an overview of the economic history of baseball, and includes tables of players' salaries, ticket costs and franchise values from 1920-2002. This essay also includes a comprehensive bibliography.
Historic Baseball Resources at the Library of Congress.
http://www.loc.gov/topics/baseball/
Links to selected digital resources relating to baseball history available online from the Library of Congress web site.
Levin, Richard C., George J. Mitchell, Paul A. Volcker, George F. Will. The Report of the Independent Members of the Commissioner's Blue Ribbon Panel on Baseball Economics. New York : Major League Baseball.
http://www.mlb.com/mlb/downloads/blue_ribbon.pdf [PDF Format: 639 KB / 93 p.]
The Commissioner's Blue Ribbon Panel on Baseball Economics, representing the interests of baseball fans, was formed to study whether revenue disparities among clubs are seriously damaging competitive balance, and if so, to recommend structural reforms to ameliorate the problem.
Sabermetrics
http://dmoz.org/Sports/Baseball/Sabermetrics/
Web link list of sabermetrics sites which offer an analysis of baseball through objective evidence, especially baseball statistics.
The Baseball Index
http://www.baseballindex.org
A free Web resource which includes references to books, magazine articles, programs, pamphlets, films, recordings, songs, poems, cartoons, advertising, or anything else that may be of interest to the baseball fan or researcher. It is an ongoing project of the Bibliography Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)
John Stilton's Baseball-links.com
http://www.baseball-links.com/links/Ballparks/
Comprehensive links page on ballparks.
The Essential Baseball Library by Dan Nichols
http://baseball1.com/bb-data/bbd-bib.html
The "library" created has 57 entries. To be listed, a work had to be recommended by more than 3 researchers and members of the Society for American Baseball Research. The two works mentioned most often were The MacMillan Baseball Encyclopedia and Lawrence Ritter's The Glory of Their Times. A special section on baseball statistics is included.
Yahoo Baseball Directory
http://dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/sports/baseball/index.html
A Web directory with categories for baseball media, finance, salaries, stadiums, etc.
Baseball Cards 1887-1914
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bbhtml/bbhome.html
Cigarette card collector Benjamin K. Edwards preserved these baseball cards in albums with more than 12,000 other cards on many subjects. After his death, Edwards' daughter gave the albums to noted poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg, who donated them to the Prints and Photographs Division of The Library of Congress in 1954. The digitized cards are part of the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division of The Library of Congress.
Emergence of Advertising in America: Tobacco Advertisements
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/
Images of baseball trading cards used by tobacco companies between 1850 and 1920 to advertise their products.
Works on baseball cards in The Library of Congress collection
http://catalog.loc.gov
A price catalog of baseball gloves as collectibles in The Library of Congress collection
http://catalog.loc.gov
Major League Baseball site
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/sponsors/index.jsp
MLB Advanced Media manages the official league site, www.MLB.com,
and each of the 30 individual club sites. Information on team sponsorship.
Major League Baseball Organization Directory
http://baseball1.com/bb-data/bbd-ad1.html
Directory of major league organizations which includes names of directors, mailing addresses, telephone and fax numbers.
Major League Baseball Players Association
http://mlbplayers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/pa/info/history.jsp
History of this association reflects the labor history of baseball.
Major League Baseball Team Directory
http://baseball1.com/bb-data/bbd-ad2.html
Directory of American and National League teams, addresses and telephone numbers.
National Sporting Goods Association
http://www.nsga.org
Provides numerous services for members including research reports, market reports and a Cost of Doing Business Survey for the sporting goods industry.
Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)
http://www.sabr.org/
Established in Cooperstown, New York in August, 1971. Fosters the study of baseball, assists in developing and maintaining the history of the game, facilitates the dissemination of baseball research, stimulates interest in baseball, and safeguards the proprietary interests of its members' research efforts.
National Baseball Hall of Fame Library
http://abner.baseballhalloffame.org/search
Search the online catalog of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library. Contains the most extensive collection of archival material devoted exclusively to baseball in the world. Researchers are encouraged to utilize the Bartlett Giamatti Research Center.
Baseball Prospectus. Davis, Calif. : Ravenlock Media,
LC Call Number: GV865.A1 B346
LC Catalog Record: 97664090
Annual publication which provides statistical analysis and rating of baseball players. Offers performance analysis of 1,600 players in the majors and minor leagues, the top 40 prospects and draft choices. Includes essays on all 30 Major League clubs. For more statistics like these see the Baseball Prospectus Web site reviewed in this guide.
Burk, Robert Fredrick. Much More Than a Game : Players, Owners, & American Baseball Since 1921. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2001.
LC Catalog Record: 00041774
LC Call Number: GV880.B869
Publisher's description:
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/unc041/00041774.html
Well-researched baseball labor history of the 20th century. Especially useful to researchers is the "Bibliographic Essay" giving primary source information on pages 347-357.
Kagan's the Business of Baseball. Carmel, CA : Paul Kagan Associates, 2001.
LC Call Number: GV880.B86
LC Catalog Record: 2001207020
Table of Contents: http://research.kagan.com
Annual publication that provides an industry overview with statistics on the leagues, teams, players, media, stadiums, franchise valuations, ticket prices, expansion fees, media ownership, licensing and merchandise, and the revenues and expenses of all major league teams.
McKelvey, G. Richard. For It's One, Two, Three, Four Strikes You're Out at the Owners' Ball Game : Players versus Management in Baseball. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., 2001.
LC Call Number: GV880.15.M35
LC Catalog Record: 2001041020
Focuses on the baseball strikes of 1972,1981,1985 and 1994, the role of the labor unions and collective bargaining.
Miller, Marvin. A Whole Different Ball Game : The Inside Story of the Baseball Revolution. Preface by Studs Terkel. Introduction by Bill James.
Chicago : I.R. Dee, 2004.
LC Call Number: GV880.M57
LC Catalog Record: 2004052741
The author was the founding executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association. In the preface Studs Terkel describes him as the "most effective union organizer since John L. Lewis." Firsthand account of the "revolution" in major league players' salaries and benefits.
Powers, Albert Theodore. The Business of Baseball. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2003.
LC Call Number: GV880.P69
LC Catalog Record: 2002152442
A delightful history about ball players and owners, their disputes, negotiations and resolutions.
Each chapter begins with interesting quotes such as " Baseball, like some other sports, poses as a sacred institution dedicated to the public good, but it is actually a big, selfish business with a ruthlessness that many big businesses would never think of displaying. " by Jackie Robinson
Quirk, James and Rodney P. Fort. Pay Dirt : The Business of Professional Team Sports. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1992.
LC Call Number: GV716 .Q57
LC Catalog Record: 92015349
Table of Contents:
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/prin031/92015349.html
Publisher's description:
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/prin031/92015349.html
Describes the business and economics of professional sports at the beginning of the 1990s.
Stree-rike Four! What's Wrong with the Business of Baseball? Edited by Daniel R. Marburger.
Westport, Conn. : Praeger, 1997.
LC Call Number: GV880.S84
LC Catalog Record: 96044685
Discusses collective bargaining, free agency, salary arbitration, salary caps and luxury tax.
Includes information about the increased use of revenue-sharing in Major League Baseball, the effect of the strike of 1994, the antitrust issue and an overview of baseball in the 21st century.
Zimbalist, Andrew S. Baseball and Billions: A Probing Look Inside the Big Business of Our National Pastime. New York, NY : BasicBooks, 1992.
LC Call Number: GV880.Z56
LC Catalog Record: 91059016
Discusses team ownership, franchise finances, player performance and salaries, the minor league, the media, the impact of stadiums on city finances and the antitrust remedy.
Zimbalist, Andrew S. May the Best Team Win : Baseball Economics and Public Policy.
Washington, D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, 2003.
LC Call Number: GV880.Z58
LC Catalog Record: 2002156494
The author argues that major league baseball has been a monopoly since 1922. He considers some of the problems of today's baseball industry as: "labor tensions, competitive dominance by high- revenue teams, migration of game telecasts to cable, escalating ticket prices, and an aging fan base."
Baseball and American Culture : Across the Diamond. Edward J. Rielly, editor. New York : Haworth Press, 2003.
LC Call Number: GV867.64 .B36
LC Catalog Record: 2002015134
The following chapter deals with the baseball advertising.
Newman, Roberta. "Here's the Pitch : Baseball and Advertising."
Petrone, Gerard S. Tobacco Advertising: The Great Seduction. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 1996.
LC Call Number: HF6161.T6 P48
LC Catalog Record: 96006405
Glossy reproductions of baseball cards and cigarette inserts on pages 57 and 155 with a short history.
Norris, James D. Advertising and the Transformation of American Society, 1865-1920. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990.
LC Call Number: HF5813.U6 N67
LC Catalog Record: 90002760
For additional titles on this topic, see the Baseball Card Bibliography.
Baseball Management and Marketing
Abrams, Roger I. The Money Pitch : Baseball Free Agency and Salary Arbitration. Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2000.
LC Class Number: GV880 .A27
LC Catalog Record: 99087922
Describes the negotiation and arbitration of ball players' salaries and the relationship of baseball team owners, players, agents and the union.
Baseball and American Culture : Across the Diamond. Edward J. Rielly, editor. New York : Haworth Press, 2003.
LC Call Number: GV867.64 .B36
LC Catalog Record: 2002015134
The following chapters deal with baseball management and labor relations.
Puerzer, Richard J. "From John McGraw to Joe Torre : Industrial Management Styles Applied throughout the History of Major League Baseball." and
Shallcross Koziara, Karen. " Baseball Labor Relations : Is It Safe to Go Back to the Ball Park?"
Budig, Gene A. The Inside Pitch -- And More : Baseball's Business and the Public Trust. 1st ed.
Morgantown : West Virginia University Press, 2004.
LC Call Number: GV880 .B83
LC Catalog Record: 2003116516
Table of Contents:
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy046/2003116516.html
As president of the American League from 1994-2000 the author examines major issues in growing the game in the 21st century.
Papers of Branch Rickey, 1890-1969 (Archival Manuscript Collection)
LC Call Number: 0451G (Manuscript Reading Room)
Also available on Microfilm: 22,326-2P (Manuscript Reading Room)
Catalog Record: mm82037820
Of particular interest for researchers is a manuscript collection and finding aid for the papers of Wesley Branch Rickey, major league baseball player, manager, and executive, which reflects the history of baseball business from 1936 to 1965.
Williams, Pat and Michael Weinreb. Marketing Your Dreams: Business and Life Lessons from Bill Veeck, Baseball's Promotional Genius. Champaign, IL : Sports Publishing, Inc., 2000. ISBN: 1-58261-182-3
LC Catalog Record: 00101417
Note: Not available in the collections of the Library of Congress as of September 2008.
Draws from the career of a master promoter of baseball. Records the power plays and financial management style of Bill Veeck, former owner of the Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns and the Chicago White Sox.
Additional works on the baseball business in the Library of Congress may be identified by searching the Online Catalog under appropriate Library of Congress subject headings. Choose the topics you wish to search from the following list of Library of Congress subject headings to link directly to the Catalog and automatically execute a search for the subject selected. Please be aware that during periods of heavy use you may encounter delays in accessing the catalog. For assistance in locating the many other subject headings which relate to baseball as a business, please consult a reference librarian.
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