About the Author

Allan Simpson, the founding editor of Baseball America, covered the draft when no one else even knew how. In the early days of the draft, Baseball tried to deflect attention away from the draft, believing that limiting the amount of information available gave teams a negotiating advantage when trying to sign players. When Baseball America came along in the early 1980s, though, Simpson started shining a light to this unappreciated corner of the game, and since then the baseball draft has grown in prominence and become a televised event. Simpson made draft coverage a central part of Baseball America's editorial mission, introducing fans to young players as they entered professional baseball on their way to becoming stars. Now retired from the day to day operations of Baseball America, Simpson has spent the last few years digging through baseball archives to find more draft information than has ever been available before, and he pulls it all together in the Baseball America 50th Anniversary Draft Book.