The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball: A Complete Record of Teams, Leagues and Seasons, 1876–2019

This comprehensive U.S. minor league baseball reference, edited by distinguished baseball historians Johnson and Wolff, represents a monumental contribution to the sport’s documentation. The first new edition in 13 years is a two-volume behemoth that offers an unparalleled historical record of the minor leagues through the 2019 season. It captures the rich legacy of the minor leagues prior to the seismic changes from the 2020 season cancellation due to the pandemic and the 2021 minor league restructuring due to Major League Baseball’s takeover. This asset’s scope is impressive; it covers league standings, presidents, playoff results, leaders from the earliest years, and records on affiliations starting in 1963. It also details every city to ever host a minor league franchise, providing essential context to researchers. One thing it’s not is a complete player database, since it excludes individual statistics for all minor leaguers.