The Continental League: A Personal History

by Russell D. Buhite

Overview

Long before there was Moneyball, a group of investors led by baseball legend Branch Rickey proposed a new economic model for baseball. Based on an innovative approach to evaluating and developing talent, the Continental League was the last serious attempt to form a third Major League. The league's brief history affords a glimpse of any number of missed chances for America's game.

As one of the original Continental Leaguers, historian Russell D. Buhite is--literally--talking "inside baseball" when he describes what happened in 1959 and 1960. Part memoir, part history, his account of the origin, development, and eventual undoing of the Continental League explores the organization's collective corporate structure as well as its significant role in building a thriving Minor League and forcing expansion on Major League Baseball. Buhite captures a lost era in baseball history and examines its lasting impact on the game.

Russell D. Buhite is professor emeritus of history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He is the author of several books, including Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America’s East Asian Policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803271906
Publisher:	Nebraska
Publication date:	05/01/2014
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Russell D. Buhite is professor emeritus of history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He is the author of several books, including Douglas MacArthur: Statecraft and Stagecraft in America’s East Asian Policy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Prologue 1

1 An Odyssey through Life and Baseball 9

2 The Continental League Conceived and Organized 34

3 The Horsehide Cartel Challenged 68

4 The Western Carolina League 106

5 The Continental League Undercut 145

Appendix 171

Notes 193

Bibliography 203

Editorial Reviews

“Russell Buhite makes a significant contribution to the rapidly growing scholarly work on baseball’s past.”—Charles C. Alexander, author of Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Depression Era

Charles C. Alexander

“Russell Buhite, a former Minor League baseball player and an accomplished historian, is well equipped to provide this entertaining, informative, insightful, and personal account of Branch Rickey’s abortive Continental League.”—James Giglio, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Missouri State University and author of Musial: From Stash to Stan the Man

James Giglio