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Baseball Scorecards, Yearbooks & Books
11 Lots
 Lot 182. 1889 Athletic Sports in America, England and Australia Including Base Ball. Focusing on Al Spalding’s 1889 baseball good will tour of four continents, this 711-page book contains more than 500 pages of baseball history, including 300 pages by Chicago journalist Henry Clay Palmer on the tour itself. It also has a three-page preface by Henry Chadwick, generally regarded as the “father of baseball.” Extremely interesting read, but also valuable for its hundreds of illustrations. It contains a dozen full-page b&w photos of Baltimore, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Louisville, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis and Washington Ball Clubs. Frontispiece is an amazing full-page chromolithograph of the Chicago and All American Team Exhibition Game at the Crystal Palace Grounds in London. Published by Hubbard Brothers, 1889, it has a g-vg cover with ex pages. The cover is somewhat loose but attached, and there is some spotting and wear to the front cover, and staining to the back. Sixteen pages are missing, including two of the chromolithographs. It remains an excellent baseball reference, and the showstopper is still intact across from the title page. We’ve seen this book offered with similar problems for $1,500. It’s a seminal book that’s exceedingly hard to findthese days.
Winning Bid $357.
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 Lot 183. Rare 1915 Scorecard with Pitchers Babe Ruth, George Sisler in the Printed Lineup. The scorecard is scored in pencil for the second game of a July 25 doubleheader in St. Louis between the Boston Red Sox and the Browns. Ruth is among the pitchers listed for Boston, and Sisler, for St. Louis. In 1915, Ruth was in his first full season with the Red Sox, and he helped them to capture the American League championship by posting an 18-8 record. Meanwhile, Sisler, a rookie, was dividing time between the mound and first base. Future Hall of Fame members Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper were also in the printed lineup. Ruth pitched in the first game of the doubleheader. Sisler pitched the final two innings of the nightcap, which ended in a 1-1 tie. The “Good Enough Score Book,” which sold for one penny, has tape along the spine and both outer edges. It has chips along the spine and edges, and the date is written twice in pencil on the cover. Interestingly, the scorecard contains an advertisement for Nadja Caramels, which issued baseball cards in 1909 and 1910. Ruth joined the Red Sox briefly in 1914 after starting the season with the minor league Baltimore Orioles. He had been signed by Jack Dunn, the Orioles’ owner and manager, and he became known as “Jack’s newest babe.” The name stuck, and “Babe” was soon on the way to establishing himself as baseball’s greatest player. By 1915, he was in Boston’s pitching rotation with Rube Foster, Dutch Leonard and Smokey Joe Wood. Pre-1920 scorecards are extremely difficult to find, and few are more desirable than this one.
Winning Bid $324.
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 Lot 184. 1919 Chicago Black Sox at New York Yankees Scorecard with Shoeless Joe Jackson. This scorecard, consisting of eight pages plus the covers, is neatly scored in pencil for a game the Yankees won, 6-5, on July 30. Jackson collected one hit. Two future Hall of Fame members were in the White Sox lineup, Eddie Collins and Ray Schalk. Collins had two hits. Besides Jackson, the seven other players who would be banned from baseball following the 1919 World Series scandal are listed in the pre-printed lineup: Buck Weaver, Chick Gandil, replaced that day by Charles Risberg, who also was banned, Oscar Felsch, Fred McMullin, Eddie Cicotte and Claude Williams. The program is free of significant creases, shows some light foxing on the covers and has a split along the spine. Scarce relic from the guys qualified for the Hall of Infamy.
Winning Bid $795.
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 Lot 185. Scarce Book, The Birth of a Nation’s Pastime, by Gene Kessler. This 1933 paperback, about 4” x 6”, reproduces Henry Chadwick’s The Base-Ball Guide for 1872 and supplements it with updated information on the history and status of the game. The original guide provides a review of the 1871 season, the first for the Professional Baseball Players’ National Association (the National Association). Kessler adds a brief profile of Chadwick, the “Father of Baseball,” and interviews Jim White, the last surviving member of baseball’s “Big Four,” which also included A. G. Spalding, Ross Barnes and Carl McVey. The book is vg to vg-ex with water stains on the last eight pages.
Winning Bid $83.
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 Lot 186. 1934 Chicago White Sox Yearbook with Lyons, Appling, Simmons. The Murray Book Corp. of Chicago was ahead of its time in producing this yearbook in 1934 for the White Sox. Yearbooks didn’t become common until the late 1940s and early 1950s. This 32-page yearbook has a colorful cover with artwork representative of the period. Inside, full pages are devoted to key players, including Ted Lyons, Luke Appling, Al Simmons, Muddy Ruel and Mule Haas. Vg+ to ex copy. Scarce publication produced long before collecting yearbooks became common. MB $100.
Winning Bid $240.
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 Lot 187. 1949 Brooklyn Dodgers Yearbook. Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese are featured in this 48-page yearbook. Carl Erskine and Chuck Connors are among the future players. The 1949 Dodgers won the N.L. pennant. Vg+ to ex.
Winning Bid $264.
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 Lot 188. Partial Set of 5 Original Brooklyn Dodgers Yearbooks: 1951-54, 1956. All have Willard Mullin’s “Bum” on the Cover. Charlie Dressen led the 1952 and 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers to the N.L. title. Each yearbook contains about 48 pages. The Dodgers greats are here – Robinson, Reese, Hodges, Campanella, Snider, Furillo, etc. In the 1951 yearbook, fourth printing, Walt Alston is pictured as the manager at Quebec. Vg+ to ex copy. Joe Black makes his debut in the 1952 yearbook, vg-ex. Junior Gilliam and Johnny Podres are additions to the team in 1953, vg-ex. Alston is introduced as the manager in the 1954 yearbook, ex. Don Hoak, Sandy Amoros, Don Zimmer and Tom La Sorda are new faces. The 1955 Dodgers were the World Champions, and they receive plenty of coverage in the 1956 yearbook. There is a team photo followed by seven pages of photos and text. Sandy Koufax is among the fresh faces, along with Charley Neal, Gino Cimoli and Jim Gentile. Ex.
Winning Bid $489.
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 Lot 249. 1960 New York at Pittsburgh World Series Program from the 7th Game. The Bombers from the Bronx outscored Pittsburgh, 55-27, and Bobby Richardson won MVP honors. But tenacity, teamwork, and clutch hitting and pitching brought the World Championship to Pittsburgh. Few clutch hits are more memorable than Bill Mazeroski’s Series-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game 7. The program is nicely illustrated and neatly scored in blue ballpoint. This example has an ex-m cover and nm-m inside pages.
Winning Bid $125.
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 Lot 261. Rare, Original 1936 Babe Ruth’s Baseball Advice. Of all the Babe Ruth products that were marketed, certainly this is one of the scarcest and sweetest. How better to enable Ruth to connect with his legions of fans than to release a book of baseball tips from the great home run hitter geared toward children. To top it off, it was published the same year that Ruth and the inaugural class of five were inducted into the fledgling Hall of Fame. The book is soft-cover with striking red and yellow graphics around a photograph of the children and Babe. Overall, 32 pages of advice, beginning with a single-page preface from the Babe, on pitching, batting, fielding and almost every other aspect of baseball. Each page of text is accompanied by a photo page. Remarkably clean copy with a 1” tear to the staple binding. The pages are crisp. Solid ex copy. Reprints of this book made in 1980 are being offered for $150. This is much better. Just for fun, let’s start the bidding at.
Winning Bid $148.
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