Bud Selig’s successor, Rob Manfred, will almost certainly continue to report on the financial health of baseball. While these reports may be factual, they do not quite represent the entire truth.

Part Two of our extended excerpt of “The Selig Years” from Will Big League Baseball Survive?: Globalization, the End of Television, Youth Sports, and the Future of Major League Baseball, by Lincoln A. Mitchell. (READ THE FULL STORY ON PLATE COVERAGE)

Pitcher Bob Humphreys‘ input was extremely important as I started doing research for my Milwaukee Brewers historical book, so I decided to create a full-length profile for him.

Humphreys was born in Covington, Virginia on August 18, 1935.  He loved baseball and basketball, playing both sports in high school and Hampden-Sydney College.  He lettered in both sports in college, but decided to pursue baseball as a career.

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“The Selig Years” from Will Big League Baseball Survive?: Globalization, the End of Television, Youth Sports, and the Future of Major League Baseball by Lincoln A. Mitchell. Used by permission of Temple University Press. © 2017 by Lincoln A. Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.

In January 2015, Bud Selig stepped down as commissioner of baseball. He had served in that position since September 1992, although for the first six of those years, he had been acting com­missioner. Selig’s tenure of slightly more than twenty-two years was the second longest in baseball history. Only Major League Base­ball’s (MLB’s) first commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, served longer.

When Selig took over as commissioner, there were twenty-six Major League teams. To make the play-offs, teams had to win one of the four divisions, as there were no wild cards. There was no interleague play during the regular season, and steroid use was extremely rare and almost never discussed.  (READ THE FULL STORY ON PLATE COVERAGE)

How much does team success impact player reputation? Do we overrate players on famous teams, and overlook players on less successful clubs? Do players in large media markets get an unfair advantage when it comes to honors like the Hall of Fame?

While we might intuitively answer “yes” to these questions, author Brandon Isleib goes a step further in his new book, “Playing for a Winner.” Isleib seeks to quantify just how much team success – over the course of a single season and throughout a player’s career – influences how fans (and award voters) perceive player production. (READ THE FULL STORY ON PLATE COVERAGE.COM)