Conversation so far:
When were the Bill James Baseball Abstracts written?
self-publishing an annual book titled The Bill James Baseball Abstract beginning in 1977.
What was in the abstract?
18 categories of statistical information that you just can't find anywhere else, presented 68 pages of in-depth statistics.
Who read it?
Seventy-five people purchased the booklet.
What was an example of the statistical information in the abstract?
CANNOTANSWER.
When was the last abstract published?
James wrote an annual preview of the baseball season for Esquire, and continued to do so through 1984.
Were they popular?
While writers had published books about baseball statistics before (most notably Earnshaw Cook's Percentage Baseball, in the 1960s), few had ever reached a mass audience.
Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
James began writing baseball articles after leaving the United States Army in his mid-twenties.

Question: Where were his first articles published?
Self-contained rewrite: Where were Bill Jame's first articles published?