In my ongoing study into the history of baseball general managers, one question has been bugging me the more I dig: Who was the first GM?

The answer may be insoluble, like the real missing link (could it be Johnny Damon?). Some of that might have to do with the nature of the job. It grew out of other jobs—field manager, owner, business manager, etc.—as baseball's off-field personnel become more and more specialized. It's part of the team growing. First, there were just team captains. Then as teams went pro, they needed money men to back them up, dividing the on-field and off-field chores. Captains became field managers, who also typically handled personnel decisions. Then came GMs and coaches and travel secretaries and stretching and flexibility specialists.

And the name thing does get in the way a bit. Oftentimes the GM role was filled by personnel with various and sundry titles.

The first reference I can find to someone filling the general manager role for a team was W.H. Conant with the old Boston Beaneaters. He was named to the role on December 17, 1884. However, Conant was a part-owner of the team and was one of the triumvirate of owners (A.H. Soden and J.B. Billinsg being the other two) who sold the club to George Dovey in 1906. It appears that Conant's role was as a general manager on the business side, not a general manager in the sense that we understand today.

GMs, as I define them, are typically hired hands that manage the personnel on the team without managing them on the field. There are tons of caveats though. Some GMs are rewarded with a piece of the team. Some GMs also fill the manager's role. However, I exclude owners who decide to act as their own GM and field managers whose chores bled into the GM arena (as early managers did).

The first man who fits these criteria was a general manager for an organization that never fielded a team but that affected three major leagues. That man was John McGraw and the team was an unnamed Baltimore organization in a proposed major league, the American Association, that never actually took the field but bridged the gap between the old American Association and the American League.

Back when the National League was withstanding the Players League wars in 1890, team ownership got extremely incestuous. Owners of stronger teams supported the weak until the threat of the rival league was averted. However, as both the PL and the original American Association folded, the National League swallowed their talent as well as some of their teams but retained its bloated ownership.

With the NL the sole major league, owners started shifting their personnel from one team to another. They basically stole from Peter to pay Paul. The 12-team circuit started to show signs of severe competitive imbalance.

The old Baltimore Orioles, once a force in the NL, had been stripped of most of their stars prior to the 1899 season in favor of the Brooklyn Superbas, who were under joint ownership. John McGraw and Wilbert Robinson remain in Baltimore. After that season, threats that the NL would contract to either ten or eight teams swirl. One rumor was that the Orioles would be moved to the minor Eastern League (now the International League).

On January 18, 1900, stock company was formed to bring a franchise in the proposed American Association to Baltimore. On January 26, at the Eutaw Hotel the team is formally organized and McGraw is named the general manager. The previous day he secured a lease for Union Park, the ballpark previously used by the NL Orioles. McGraw claims to have sent letters to every player on the Orioles offering them a spot on the proposed team. Many of the Baltimore players are said to be ready to jump to McGraw's new team, according to one player, Bill Clarke.

Meanwhile, the NL denies rumors that the Washington and Baltimore clubs are going to be contracted as "fakes and pipe dreams" (Jan 28, Atlanta Constitution). It also allows Ban Johnson and the then-minor league American League to shift franchises to Chicago and Cleveland and to propose a shift to Philadelphia (which does not actually occur) to counter the American Association's moves.

On February 3, the backers of the Philadelphia AA franchise pull out. On February 7, a court orders the AA Baltimore franchise to withdraw from Union Park. On February 15, the AA calls it quits, at least for 1900 as the Philadelphia franchise fails to find backers or a park. The NL claims that Washington and Baltimore will remain in the league.

McGraw and Robinson return to the Orioles, signing a contract for the 1900 season on February 28, but they are sold together to St. Louis for $15 K on March 23. On March 8, the NL announced that both Washington and Baltimore were being lopped off and that they would be an 8-team circuit for 1900. While all of this is going on McGraw re-floats the idea of the AA Baltimore franchise. Realizing this is no longer a credible threat, he proposes a semipro league based in Baltimore. Rumors are floated by the NL that he is headed to Chicago until the Cubs deny them.

When the deal to the Cards finally happens, both players refuse to report until May 8, but both have the reserve clause expunged so that they will be free after the season. He oddly refuses the Baltimore managerial job after Patsy Tebeau resigns in August. Directly after the season Ban Johnson announces that Baltimore, with McGraw in tow, and Washington will be in the AL for the 1901 season. The NL scoffs at the idea of the AL becoming a major league. Johnson then shifts a team to Philadelphia (the Athletics), and the rest is history.