LibGuides: Primary Sources: American Sports: Baseball

Online Sources: Baseball

All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Interviews
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Provides access to interviews with former members.
Library of Congress - Digital Collections - Audio Recordings - Baseball
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Audio recordings related to baseball available through the Library of Congress.
Library of Congress: Primary Source Set: Baseball Across a Divided Society
Library of Congress - Digital Collections - Baseball Sheet Music
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Sheet music in the Library of Congress related to baseball.
“Belles of the Ball Game”
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"... look at the League from the perspective of its “harried” male managers"
Branch Rickey's scouting report on Don Drysdale, 15 June 1954.
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"Wesley Branch Rickey (1881-1965), major league baseball manager and executive, was associated over a long career with the St. Louis Browns, St. Louis Cardinals, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Pittsburgh Pirates. While with the Dodgers in 1947, as president, general manager, and co-owner, he brought Jackie Robinson (1919-1972) into the major leagues, the first black player to be admitted. For this Branch Rickey was hailed as "baseball's emancipator." Throughout his career he was known for his recognition of baseball talent and its subsequent development, especially through the farm system which he had pioneered. He joined the Pittsburgh organization relatively late in life, but on the evidence of his 1954 scouting report on the eighteen-year- old Don (Donald S.) Drysdale (1936-1993), his baseball instincts were as sharp as ever."
Library of Congress - Digital Collections - By Popular Demand
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"2007 marks the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's rookie season for the Brooklyn Dodgers. When he stepped onto Ebbets field on April 15th, 1947, Robinson became the first African American in the twentieth century to play baseball in the major leagues -- breaking the "color line," a segregation practice dating to the nineteenth century. Jackie Robinson was an extremely talented multi-sport athlete and a courageous man who played an active role in civil rights. This presentation was created to commemorate his achievements and describe some aspects of the color line's development and the Negro Leagues. Materials that tell his story, and the history of baseball in general, are located throughout the Library of Congress. This web presentation was made possible by a generous gift from the Citigroup Foundation."
FBI Vault: Jack Roosevelt (Jackie) Robinson
FBI Vault: Joseph Paul "Joe" DiMaggio
Interview with Effa Manley, October 19, 1977
Journalists Pay Homage to Babe Ruth and the House That He Built
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"... But baseball’s grip on the American popular imagination also was fueled by the emergence in the 1920s of the game’s most dominant player, George Herman “Babe” Ruth. Ruth’s rise to stardom in these years was an essential part of an era when celebrities came to dominate the various forms of American popular culture: sports, especially baseball; radio; and the movies. In these short articles that appeared in the Literary Digest in 1921 and 1923, two baseball writers described the importance of the Ruthian home run and the majesty of Yankee Stadium, the new temple that Yankee management built in 1923 to accommodate the Babe."
Library of Congress: Baseball Cards
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"This collection presents a Library of Congress treasure—2,100 early baseball cards dating from 1887 to 1914. The cards show such legendary figures as Ty Cobb stealing third base for Detroit, Tris Speaker batting for Boston, and pitcher Cy Young posing formally in his Cleveland uniform. Other notable players include Connie Mack, Walter Johnson, King Kelly, and Christy Mathewson."
MLB.com
MLB YouTube Channel
National Baseball Hall of Fame
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Look under the Discover section of the site to look at online exhibits and to find out what resources are available at the library .
The National Pastime in the 1920s: The Rise of the Baseball Fan
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"Baseball’s growing popularity in the 1920s can be measured by structural and cultural changes that helped transform the game, including the building of commodious new ballparks; the emergence of sports pages in daily urban newspapers; and the enormous popularity of radio broadcasts of baseball games.Baseball commentators and critics expended much ink during the 1920s discussing the exact nature and composition of this new and expanding fan population. Some derided the influx of new fans to urban ballparks, in part because of the growing visibility in the bleachers of the sons and daughters of working-class Italian, Polish, and Jewish immigrants, and in part because the game seemed to be straying from its origins in traditional rural and small-town America. On the other hand, writer Edgar F. Wolfe argued in the 1923 Literary Digest that the urban ballpark was a meeting ground for Americans of all classes and backgrounds."
The National Pastime in the National Archives
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A pdf that includes a sample of photos and documents related to baseball from the U.S. National Archives.
See the Fort Wayne Daisies and the Racine Belles train for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League
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Official Website of the AAGPBL
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"This virtual scrapbook is filled with articles, photographs, interviews, and statistics that give you an up-close-and-personal look at the pioneering women who played professional baseball from 1943 through 1954. "
Primary Source Learning: Women in Baseball
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"Use this primary source set of women in baseball to have students examine cultural attitudes of American women from the late 1800s through the 1920s."
Primary Source Spotlight: Baseball
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Sources from TPS - Barat and the Library of Congress.
The Spalding Base Ball Guides, 1889-1939
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"Spalding Base Ball Guides, 1889-1939 comprises a historic selection of Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guide and the Official Indoor Base Ball Guide. The collection reproduces 35 of the guides, which were published by the Spalding Athletic Company in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guide was perhaps the premier publication of its day for the game of baseball. It featured editorials from baseball writers on the state of the game, statistics, photographs, and analysis of the previous season for all the Major League teams and for many of the so-called minor leagues across the nation. The 15 Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guides included in this online collection were published between 1889 and 1939."
Take me out to the ball game / Jack Norworth [sheet music]
"Tinkers to Evers to Chance!"
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Includes the poem "Baseball's Sad Lexicon" as well as baseball cards for the three players.
Topics in Chronicling America - Jim Thorpe - Great Native American Athlete
Witness: Women's Baseball in WWII
Library of Congress Digital Collection: Branch Rickey Papers
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"The approximately 1,750 baseball scouting reports from the 1950s and 1960s presented here are part of the papers of Branch Rickey (1881-1965), best known as the executive who broke Major League Baseball's color line by signing Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers roster in 1947. By that date, however, Rickey had already built an impressive career as a player, manager, and baseball executive, which eventually earned him a place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The scouting reports, which are located in a series of baseball files in the Rickey collection, were compiled between 1951 and 1964. They are mostly concentrated in the years 1951-1956 and 1962-1963, while Rickey was associated, respectively, with the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Cardinals."

Universal Newsreels, Release 170, August 16, 1948

This video, published by Universal Pictures Company Inc., is about the death of Babe Ruth.

American History in Video This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber:VIVAAllows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries.

Universal Newsreels, Release 81, October 4, 1956

This newsreel, published by Universal Pictures Company, is about the U.S. Air Force, Jackie Robinson, and Roy Campanella.

American History in Video This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
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Subscriber:VIVAAllows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries.

Scully calls Aaron's historic 715th home run

4/8/74: Vin Scully calls Hank Aaron's milestone home run as he passes Babe Ruth for the most career home runs

https://youtu.be/QjqYThEVoSQ

West Coast Hails First World Series, 1959/10/05

Published: 1959

Usage: Public Domain

Universal Newsreels via The Internet Archive

https://archive.org/details/1959-10-05_West_Coast_Hails_First_World_Series

Book Sources: Baseball

A selection of books/e-books available in Trible Library.
Click the title for location and availability information.

Off campus access instructions (for e-books)

Ballplayers in the Great War by Jim Leeke (Compiled by); Gary Mitchem (Editor); Mark Durr (Editor)
Call Number: GV863.A1 B32 2013
ISBN: 0786475463
Publication Date: 2013-06-20
Bo Knows Bo by Bo Jackson; Dick Schaap
Call Number: GV865.J28 A3 1990
ISBN: 0385416202
Breakout: From Prison to the Big Leagues by Ron Le Flore; Jim Hawkins
Call Number: GV865.L37 A33 B8
ISBN: 0060125527
Casey at the Bat: The Story of My Life in Baseball by Casey Stengel
Call Number: GV865.S825 C3
as told to Harry T. Paxton
Catching Dreams: My Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues by Frazier "Slow" Robinson with Paul Bauer
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Call Number: Online - EBSCO ebooks
ISBN: 0815606583
The DiMaggio Albums by Richard Wittingham (Compiled by); Joe DiMaggio
Call Number: GV865.D5 A3 1989 (2 vols.)
ISBN: 0399134875
Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908 by Dean A. Sullivan (Editor)
Call Number: GV863.A1 E27 1995
ISBN: 0803242379
Field of Hope by Brett Butler; Jerry B. Jenkins
Call Number: GV865.B88 A3 1997
ISBN: 0785271449
An Inspiring Autobiography of a Lifetime of Overcoming Odds
Final Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1972-2008 by Dean A. Sullivan (Editor)
Call Number: GV863.A1 F53 2010
ISBN: 0803259654
Hardball: The Education of a Baseball Commissioner by Bowie K. Kuhn
Call Number: GV865.K78 A3 1987
ISBN: 0812912780
A History of Baseball in 100 Objects by Josh Leventhal
Call Number: GV863.A1 L485 2015
ISBN: 1579129919
: A Tour through the bats, balls, uniforms, awards, documents, and other artifacts that tell the story of the national pastime
I Had a Hammer by Hank Aaron
Call Number: GV865.A25 A3 1991
ISBN: 0060163216
I never had it Made by Jackie Robinson as told to Alfred Duckett
Call Number: GV865.R662 A3
In the Ballpark: The Working Lives of Baseball People by George Gmelch; J. J. Weiner
Call Number: GV863.A1 G62 1998
ISBN: 1560988762
Late Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1945-1972 by Dean A. Sullivan (Editor)
Call Number: GV863.A1 L28 2002
ISBN: 0803292856
Lifetimes: The Great War to the Stock Market Crash by Neil A. Hamilton et al.
Call Number: E766 .L48 2002
ISBN: 0313317992
American History through Biography and Primary Documents
The Mick by Mickey Mantle; Herb Gluck
Call Number: GV865.M33 A35 1985
ISBN: 0515085995
Middle Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1900-1948 by Dean A. Sullivan (Editor)
Call Number: GV863.A1 M52 2001
ISBN: 080329283X
My Favorite Summer 1956 by Mickey Mantle
Call Number: GV865.M33 A3 1991
ISBN: 0385412614
The Perfect Yankee by Don Larsen; Mark Shaw
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Call Number: Online - EBSCO
ISBN: 9781571670434
Pete Rose: My Story by Peter I. Rose; Roger Kahn
Call Number: GV865.R65 A3 1989
ISBN: 0025606115
We Were the All-American Girls by Jim Sargent
Call Number: GV875.A56 S37 2013
ISBN: 0786469838
: Interviews with Players of the AAGPBL, 1943-1954
Yaz Baseball the Wall and Me by Carl Yastrzemski
Call Number: GV865.Y35 A3 1990
ISBN: 038526769X
The Yogi Book: I Really Didn't Say Everything I Said! by Yogi Berra; Joe Garagiola (Foreword by); Larry Berra (Introduction by); Tim Berra (Introduction by); Dale Berra (Introduction by)
Call Number: GV865.B4 A32 1998
ISBN: 0761110909

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