GOOD OLD DAYS:

It’s purely coincidental, but very appropriate, that the acronym for Ron Salisbury’s restaurant conglomerate, Restaurant Business, Inc. is RBI.

That’s a baseball term, as is the Hot Stove League, a series of dinners Salisbury hosts at several of his restaurants during baseball’s offseason.

Salisbury is a huge baseball fan, and in a recent radio interview on KLAC-AM, explained what the term refers to and how it ties in to the dinner circuit.

“It started as a thought going back to the old Hot Stove League days when there was nothing else to do during the winter.

“Guys and gals would just sit around and talk about baseball, so we decided to do a series of four dinners during the months there’s no baseball,” he said.

The Hot Stove League began around 1912 when baseball fans would meet during the cold winter months at neighborhood haunts — saloons, pool rooms, general stores, barbershops and drugstores — huddled around a potbellied stove to keep warm, talking about the past season and their favorite baseball teams.

Salisbury’s Newport Beach restaurant, The Cannery, has been hosting the Hot Stove League dinners since 2004, with past guest speakers and baseball greats including Bobby Grich, Rod Carew, Maury Wills and Doug DeCinces.

DeCinces has become an integral part of the dinners, welcoming guests, introducing the speaker, setting the tone for the evening’s discussion and moderating the question-and-answer session following the meals.

“We bring in top-notch baseball people — people with experience and a lifelong career in baseball,” he said.

“The people who attend the dinners are baseball people, and they get an opportunity to get very close to the speakers, who aren’t there just to give speeches.”

The concept of the Hot Stove League has changed as well, DeCinces said, due to the year-round nature of the season, with free agency and baseball trades taking place all the time.

“In the old days, guys would sit around and discuss how can we improve, what was interesting, what insights did we gain from the past season?”

They were more like get-togethers, he said, for people who missed the game in the off-season and wanted to remember the past.

Today, the team and its personnel change every year, and the enormous popularity of Fantasy Baseball almost guarantees more information being delivered daily.

Angels’ owner Arte Moreno is scheduled to appear at The Cannery’s first dinner Nov. 13.

Salisbury keeps the guest list small — around 35 people — so the dinner stays intimate and people don’t feel like the speaker is lecturing. “You feel like you’re having dinner with them, you talk, shake their hand, ask questions.”

The money raised from the dinners supports local charities like the Angels Baseball Foundation and Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities.

The Cannery will welcome Bob Motley on Dec. 12, Tim Salmon on Jan. 8 and Frank Robinson on Feb. 12.

For Salisbury, hosting the dinners is an opportunity for him to meet baseball’s greats as well.

“These are some of my childhood heroes, and when everybody goes home, sometimes I sit around with these guys.

“We’re having a bottle of wine and talking, and I pinch myself and think ‘who can I call and tell where I am?’” he said.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: The Cannery Hot Stove League

WHEN: Arte Moreno, Nov. 13; Bob Motley, Dec. 12;

Tim Salmon, Jan. 8; Frank Robinson, Feb. 12

WHERE: The Cannery of Newport, 3010 Lafayette Road, Newport Beach

COST: $700

INFO: To purchase tickets, contact Natasha Downs at (949) 673-0777 or e-mail nash-nb@elcholo.com. Tickets include cocktail reception, sit-down dinner and the opportunity to meet the guest speaker.

SUE THOENSEN may be reached at (714) 966-4627 or at sue.thoensen@latimes.com.