A League of His Own: A.G. Spalding and the Business of Baseball

by Mark A. Stein

Albert Goodwill Spalding became the initial star pitcher of the first professional sports association, cofounded baseball’s National League, founded the world’s greatest sporting goods empire, owned the team that became the Chicago Cubs, organized an around-the-world tour to promote baseball, broke the first players union, and crushed three rivals of the National League before retiring to San Diego. A monopolist in true Gilded Age fashion, he sought to create a bicycle trust even as he battled advocates of a baseball trust.A moralist who railed against alcohol and gambling, he sired a child with a long-time mistress. He was a man of many firsts in the fields in which he the highest winning percentage as pitcher, first player to receive a percentage of gate receipts, the first player to openly wear a glove while playing (and, by virtue of his status, to make it acceptable for other players to wear gloves), the captain of the first NL champion, the founder of the first vertically integrated sporting goods firm, the first to build a chain of specialty retail stores, the first leader of the U.S. Olympic movement. This is the firstcomprehensive biography of Albert Goodwill Spalding’s fascinating life, including his compulsion to put his name on every ball, racquet, discus, bicycle, football, bat, hat, and mask his company produced.

352 pages, Hardcover

Published January 6, 2026

Reviews

[Alina Tugend · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had the fortune to read an advance copy and found the book's history of Spaulding and the enormous impact he had on the evolution of the business of baseball in this country to be fascinating. It's amazing how little has been written about this seminal figure who arguably did more to shape "America's pastime" than any one else in the sport.