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Long before the Red Sox "Impossible Dream" season, Boston's now nearly forgotten "other" team, the 1914 Boston Braves, performed a baseball "miracle" that resounds to this very day. The "Miracle Braves" were Boston's first "worst-to-first" winners of the World Series. Shortly after the turn of the previous century, the once mighty Braves had become a perennial member of the National League's second division. Preseason pundits didn't believe the 1914 team posed a meaningful threat to John McGraw's powerful New York Giants. During the first half of that campaign, Boston lived down to such expectations, taking up residence in the league's basement.Refusing to throw in the towel at the midseason mark, their leader, the pugnacious George Stallings, deftly manipulated his daily lineup and pitching staff to engineer a remarkable second-half climb in the standings all the way to first place. The team's winning momentum carried into the postseason, where the Braves swept Connie Mack's heralded Athletics and claimed the only World Championship ever won by Boston's National League entry. And for 100 years, the management, players, and fans of underperforming ball clubs have turned to the Miracle Braves to catch a glimmer of hope that such a midseason turnaround could be repeated. Through the collaborative efforts of a band of dedicated members of the Society for American Baseball Research, this benchmark accomplishment is richly revealed to the reader in The Miracle Braves of 1914: Boston's Original Worst-to-First World Series Champions. The essence of the "miracle" is captured through a comprehensive compendium of incisive biographies of the players and other figures associated with the team, with additional relevant research pieces on the season. After a journey through the pages of this book, the die-hard baseball fan will better understand why the call to "Wait Until Next Year" should never be voiced prematurely.

The Winter Meetings have been Organized Baseball's annual offseason ritual since the early days of the game. This is SABR's second volume on their history, covering 1958 - 2016, plus a special section on the Negro Leagues winter meetings. The latter years of the 20th century included many monumental changes in the business of baseball. This volume covers multiple rounds of expansion, the advent of free agency, several work stoppages, collusion among the owners, and the elimination of the American and National League presidents' offices and consolidation of the two leagues as a single business entity. With contributions by 40 members of the Society for American Baseball Research: Abigail Miskowiec, Andy Bokser, Bob Whelan, Chad Hagan, Charles H. Martin, Chip Greene, Chris Jones, Christopher Matthews, Clayton Trutor, Dan Levitt, Darren Munk, David M. Kritzler and Alan P. Henry, Donald G. Frank, Duke Goldman, Gregory H. Wolf, Hawkins DuBois, Jason C. Long, Jason Myers, Jeff Barto, Jerry Swenson, Jessica Frank, John Bauer, John Burbridge, Kent Henderson, Luca Rossi, Mark Armour, Mark S. Sternman, Michael Huber, Mike Lynch, Paul D. Brown, Paul Hensler, Robert K. Whelan, Rodger A. Payne, Ross E. Davies, Steve Cardullo, Steve Weingarden, Steve West, Tim Rask, Tom Cuggino, Wayne G. McDonnell, Jr.

The '67 Red Sox fulfilled a seemingly Impossible Dream, overcoming 100-to-1 odds by climbing out of ninth place to capture the pennant for the first time in 21 years. Thousands of delirious fans streamed onto the field at Fenway Park mobbing the team, dismantling the scoreboard, climbing the screen behind home plate. It truly was, in the words of Sox radio announcer Ned Martin, "pandemonium on the field." As Peter Gammons once wrote of this great season, "It wasn't always the way it is now, and might never have been but for '67." This book is a tribute to the members of the Impossible Dream team, including biographies of all 39 players that year as well as appreciations of this remarkable season by an all-star lineup featuring Joe Castiglione, Ken Coleman, Gordon Edes, Peter Gammons, Jim Lonborg, and many more. The book also presents over 300 rare photographs and memorabilia from this special Red Sox season. A project of the Boston chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research, this volume gathers the collective efforts of more than 60 SABR members and friends of the non-profit research society.