Library of Congress Magazine July/August 2018 Baseball
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE JULY/AUGUST 2018 BASEBALL NATION STILL INDIVISIBLE INSIDE A ‘Magna Carta’ For Our Pastime Jackie and Rickey: Joined in History PLUS Root, Root’s Debut Behind Barbed Wire House of Cards LOC.GOV LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE Library of Congress Magazine Vol. 7 No. 4: July/August 2018 Mission of the Library of Congress The Library’s central mission is to provide Congress, the federal government and the American people with a rich, diverse and enduring source of knowledge that can be relied upon to inform, inspire and engage them, and support their intellectual and creative endeavors. Library of Congress Magazine is issued bimonthly by the Office of Communications of the Library of Congress and distributed free of charge to publicly supported libraries and research institutions, donors, academic libraries, learned societies and allied organizations in the United States. Research institutions and educational organizations in other countries may arrange to receive Library of Congress Magazine on an exchange basis by applying in writing to the Library’s Director for Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington DC 20540-4100. LCM is also available on the web at loc.gov/lcm/. All other correspondence should be addressed to the Office of Communications, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington DC 20540-1610. [email protected] loc.gov/lcm ISSN 2169-0855 (print) ISSN 2169-0863 (online) Carla Hayden Librarian of Congress Gayle Osterberg Executive Editor Mark Hartsell Editor John H. Sayers Managing Editor Ashley Jones Designer Shawn Miller Photo Editor Audacious and flamboyant Michael J. “King” Kelly was one of the biggest—and best—stars of early baseball history. Kelly helped Contributors Matthew Barton develop now-standard strategies such as the infield shift and the Sara W. Duke double steal, and his daring baserunning inspired the song “Slide, Sam Farber Kelly, Slide.” He later authored the first baseball biography, “Play Mike Mashon Ball: Stories of the Ball Field.” Prints and Photographs Division Susan Reyburn John Thorn Brett Zongker JULY/AUGUST 2018 InFEATURES This Issue The Game’s ‘Magna Carta’ 10 These original documents, part of the Library’s new “Baseball Americana” exhibit, helped create the game we know today. Baseball Nation 14 After centuries of play, baseball remains a source of community in small towns and big cities across this sprawling country. 6 Linked in History Walter Johnson 20 The Library’s collections hold the papers of two great baseball figures, joined in history: Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson. DEPARTMENTS 02 Trending 22 My Job at the Library 03 Page from the Past 23 Technology at the Library 04 Going to Extremes 24 Around the Library 05 25 20 Curator’s Picks News Briefs Jackie Robinson 06 Online Offerings 26 Shop the Library 07 First Drafts 27 Support the Library 08 Library in History 28 Last Word 19 Expert’s Corner ON THE COVER: Illustration by Ashley Jones based on the cover of The Sporting News’ Baseball Register for 1956 | Serial and Government Publications Division 28 John Thorn CONNECT ON Twitter: @librarycongress Instagram: @librarycongress YouTube: youtube.com/libraryofcongress Medium: medium.com/@librarycongress Facebook: facebook.com/libraryofcongress Library of Congress blogs: blogs.loc.gov Flickr: flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/ LCM online: loc.gov/lcm Pinterest: pinterest.com/LibraryCongress/ JULY/AUGUST 2018 | LOC.GOV/LCM 1 #trending AT THE LIBRARY All-Stars Lou Gehrig, Joe Cronin, Bill Dickey, Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Gehringer, Jimmie Foxx and Hank Greenberg of the American League gather before the game. Prints and Photographs Division DÉJÀ VU, ALL OVER AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A HALF-CENTURY, THE MIDSUMMER CLASSIC RETURNS TO THE NATION’S CAPITAL. This July, baseball’s best players will gather all-stars remembered him—and more surprised in Washington, D.C., for the major leagues’ when they invited him to watch the game from annual all-star game, 49 years after the nation’s the bench. capital last hosted the midsummer classic. Washington has hosted the game four times, Roosevelt threw out the first pitch toward the first in 1937—a contest that brought the players gathered near the first-base line, setting city to a standstill. off a wild scramble for the ball won by Giants outfielder Joe Moore, who kept the ball—later Washington, according to news accounts, was signed by Roosevelt—as a treasured souvenir. in “something of a dither” as the game neared. The Senate and House adjourned so members One of the game’s biggest stars almost didn’t could attend. Streets emptied as residents show. headed to Griffith Stadium or to listen to the Saying he was “tired of having people tell me radio broadcast, leaving them “deserted as what to do,” Cardinals pitcher Dizzy Dean those of a phantom city on the moon.” threatened to skip the game but changed his Despite the July heat, the game drew a mind at the last minute—a decision with standing-room-only crowd that mixed fans tragic consequences. A line drive struck Dean in the foot, breaking a toe. He returned to the From top: A fire- and baseball figures with D.C.’s own peculiar insurance map shows brand of celebrity: Among the 31,000-plus Cardinals from the injury too early and altered Griffith Stadium. in the stands were President Franklin D. his mechanics, ruining his arm and prematurely Geography and Map Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, J. Edgar Hoover, ending his Hall of Fame career. Division baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain The contest featured 21 eventual Hall of Landis, Secretary of State Cordell Hull and a Babe Ruth autographs Famers—and an American League lineup that slew of senators and representatives. a ball for a fan. Prints manager Joe McCarthy stacked with players and Photographs Division “It was even money,” Shirley Povich wrote in from his own Yankees team. the Washington Post at the time, “that a foul The Post described the result, an 8-3 AL Players battle to tip into the stands would strike or be caught by victory, as only a game in Washington would retrieve the first pitch, a United States congressman or other political thrown by President be: “McCarthy packed the American League big shot.” Franklin D. Roosevelt. all-star lineup with five of his own New York Prints and Photographs Yankees, thus gaining a 5-to-4 majority, and Division Frank Watt, an on-duty policeman in D.C.’s seventh precinct, found a better seat. Watt had with their bats they pounded out a thoroughly pitched one season in the majors years earlier constitutional decision.” and was surprised to find that some of the —Mark Hartsell 2 LCM | LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE page FROM THE PAST FINDING BASEBALL’S ROOTS As historians debunked the widely held myth that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in 1839, they discovered the game’s deeper origins. Baseball’s visual genealogy can be traced to an English book for children that included in its pages a poem and illustration dedicated to “Base-Ball”—the first known printed reference to the game. John Newbery originally published his “A Little Pretty Pocket Book” in England in 1744, a volume that featured woodcut illustrations of outdoor activities suitable to “instruct and amuse” young ones. The book was reissued many times— the earliest surviving edition dates to 1760—and Isaiah Thomas published the first American edition (shown at left) in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1787. On page 43, an illustration stationed over the title “Base-Ball” depicts three boys playing a bat-and-ball game. The accompanying verse refers to a batter striking the ball, running the bases and heading “home,” proving that baseball’s roots existed well before the United States came into being. The Ball once struck off, Away flies the Boy To the next destin’d Post, And then Home with Joy. —From “Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress” MORE INFORMATION “A Little Pretty Pocket Book,” 1787 loc.gov/item/22005880/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division JULY/AUGUST 2018 | LOC.GOV/LCM 3 going TO EXTREMES ROOT, ROOT, ROOT’S DEBUT THE LIBRARY HOLDS THE FIRST RECORDING OF BASEBALL’S UNOFFICIAL ANTHEM. Below: A 1908 Edison More than a century after its debut, “Take Me recount it being cylinder of the first recording of the song, Out to the Ball Game” stands as one of America’s sung in vaudeville a rendition by Edward best-known and most-loved songs—today, the and played by brass Meeker | Motion unofficial anthem of baseball and a joyful ode to bands throughout Picture, Broadcasting the pleasures of the ballpark. the country, and Recorded Sound especially around Division The Library of Congress holds an original 1908 Detroit, where Edison cylinder of the first recording of the song, the Tigers were Right: Sheet music for a rendition by Edward Meeker that in 2010 was “Take Me Out to the embroiled in a four- Ball Game,” submitted selected for inclusion on the Library’s National way pennant race. to the Library for Recording Registry for its cultural, historical and copyright on July 30, aesthetic importance. And if you were 1908 | Music Division walking down the Composers Jack Norworth and Albert Von street in Manhattan in the late summer or early Tilzer’s song was released early in the 1908 fall that year, you might have heard a young baseball season and quickly man sing this new song to promote the recently caught on with released Edison recording of it. the public— reports That would have been Meeker, who like other Edison recording artists in those days before radio, often sang on New York City street corners, in saloons and even on the steps of the main branches of the public library and post office to promote their recordings.