Sports Business Baron A.G. Spalding Inspires in New Biography

Baseball Hall of Famer Albert Spalding played, managed, and co-owned a team, but changed the game forever with his sporting goods manufacturing company.

A portrait of A.G. Spalding from the interior of his biography "A League of His Own" due out in January 2026. The image is from 1910 when he ran for office in the U.S. Senate. Bain Collection/Library of Congress

Albert Goodwill Spalding is baseball’s top salesman of all time.

Thanks to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author Mark Andrew Stein, baseball fans now have the definitive guide on just how valuable Spalding is to the game. Stein’s soon-to-be-released biography of the Baseball Hall of Famer (Class of 1939)—“A League of His Own: A.G. Spalding and the Business of Baseball”—unleashes a treasure trove of acquisitions, innovations, and partnerships sparked by one of America’s most successful entrepreneurs in the 1800s. Yet, despite all the prior accomplishments and discoveries made by Spalding that are detailed in the book, to most in the sporting world, the name was simply associated with equipment stamped with his name on it.