With 2017's edition of Major League Baseball now underway, I am somewhat disappointed here at the start of the season.
Why?
I won't be getting one of these this year:
Why?
Last year's edition was the final one.
Who's Who in Baseball is no more.
My tradition was to buy a copy at the beginning of each season (see: https://matthonnold.blogspot.com/2015/03/picture-36-ball-stats.html).
CVS Pharmacy always carried them.
However, this year, I stopped by there multiple times but never saw a copy on the magazine rack.
Even checked Amazon..... with no luck. And Amazon has EVERYTHING, right?
So I did some digging online and found this (from last April):
New York-based enthusiast publisher Harris Publications notified employees today that the company is shutting down, effective immediately, after nearly four decades.
Founded in 1977, Harris published a wide variety of special interest magazines over the years, including newsstand mainstays SLAM, Guitar World, XXL, King, Revolver, and Woman. At the time of its closure, the company's portfolio included Naturally, Danny Seo; Great Backyards; Celebrity Hairstyles; Juicy; Rides; Who's Who in Baseball; and Guns & Weapons, among several others.
Founded in 1977, Harris published a wide variety of special interest magazines over the years, including newsstand mainstays SLAM, Guitar World, XXL, King, Revolver, and Woman. At the time of its closure, the company's portfolio included Naturally, Danny Seo; Great Backyards; Celebrity Hairstyles; Juicy; Rides; Who's Who in Baseball; and Guns & Weapons, among several others.
Bummer!
I'm not the only disappointed baseball fan. Take a look at these excerpts from an editorial by fellow baseball fan Pete Kerzel:
Some baseball memories are fleeting, others enduring. But one of the most enduring has been the annual trek - to a news stand, bookstore, grocery store, wherever - to buy the new baseball season’s copy of “Who’s Who in Baseball,” a small, red, soft-cover that contained the lifetime major and minor league statistics of every ballplayer, along with a photo, biographical information, and a listing of the trades, transactions and disabled list stints in each one’s professional career.
Each year........ I’ve searched - some years harder than others - for “Who’s Who.” A baseball season wasn’t complete without holding that book. By the time I started covering baseball for The Associated Press in 1993, I had quite a collection of “Who’s Who” annuals - enough to take up most of a shelf on the bookcase in my home office. Each spring, I’d buy it; each winter, I’d slide it into the growing lineup of the publication.
Sadly, that tradition will end this year. Seems “Who’s Who in Baseball” has finally succumbed, a victim of the ready availability of the same information via computer keyboard.
Yeah, I know all the info in Who's Who is available online. There was just something oddly comforting and pleasing about thumbing thru the pages of that paperback with the red-orange cover.
Out for now.......
Matt