According to the 13 October 1917 Motion Picture News, recently retired Major League pitcher Marty McHale announced "a five-part novelty feature for state rights consumption, entitled The Baseball Revue of 1917. Directed by Tom MacAvoy [sic], the picture offers every diamond celebrity of both major leagues in an intimate and original series of views." McHale and Tris Speaker formed the Athletic Feature Film Company with headquarters at 218 West 42nd Street in New York City. The picture was set for the state rights market that week. Another item in the same issue added that New York Evening World sports writer Arthur "Bugs" Baer "prepared a special set of titles for the feature, written in a semi-humorous vein and which are veritable 'Fables in baseball' in themselves." Also, the picture contained "some excellent views of President [Woodrow] Wilson in attendance at the World Series Games."
       This picture was constructed so that it could be released in single reels, as a series, or as a five reel feature, depending upon the demands of the local exhibitors, according to the 3 November 1917 Motoography. Two of the reels were exclusively from the 1917 World Series. That same week's Moving Picture World, which referred to the film as a seven-reeler, outlined Marty McHale's offer to supply state rights buyers baseball players from major league teams in their areas to appear and talk at the screenings. Several championship White Sox players would appear regardless of territory.
       Baseball players and managers appearing in the film included Giants manager John McGraw, Clarence Rowland, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Eddie Collins, Benny Kauff, Connie Mack, Home Run Baker, Eddie Cicotte, Grover Alexander, Babe Ruth, Miller Huggins, Smoky Joe Wood, Hughy Jennings, Larry Doyle, Rube Marquard, Clark Griffith, George Stallings, Fielder Jones, Stuffy McInnis, Chief Bender, Ed Walsh, Jack Coombs, Jim Thorpe, Heine Zimmerman, Joe Jackson, and Buck Herzog.