Every year in the early winter, a swarm of dri-fit quarter-zips descends upon some mammoth, labyrinthian hotel to whisper, whine, schmooze and booze.
These are MLB’s winter meetings, an annual jamboree of hand-shaking, deal-making and general industry jibber-jabber. If you’re a casual baseball fan, you’ve probably heard mention of the meetings as a place where offseason business gets done. That’s somewhat true. The event — this year’s edition will run Sunday to Wednesday in Dallas — is both a lot more and a lot less than that.
It’s best to think of the gathering as the baseball world’s annual convention.