Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide, 1911
Price: $300.00
Original Wraps. New York: American Sports Publishing Co., March 1911, 1911. First Edition. Good.
First edition. Publisher's pale green pictorial wrappers, with yellow border, batter in white and red uniform to front wrapper, lettered in blue and red. Good copy, with front wrapper loose but holding, light chipping to spine ends, light soiling to wrappers, a touch of scuffing to rear panel, small closed tear to right edge of front wrapper, blue checkmark to front wrapper and title page, and previous owner's information on label affixed to first page. Overall, a good copy, without tears to pages. This guide covers the 1910 baseball season, which ended with the Philadelphia Athletics defeating the Chicago Cubs four games to one to claim the World Series. Some important baseball figures photographed throughout the guide are Ty Cobb (p. 94), Cy Young and Nap Lajoie (p. 98), and Connie Mack (p. 110). Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide was an annually issued guide first published in 1878 by sporting goods magnate A. G. Spalding. During the 19th century, Spalding and Reach's guides included the rules and regulations for playing the game and were the primary source of sports statistics and analysis of the prior year. From 1881 to 1908, Spalding's Guide was edited by Henry Chadwick, often referred to as the "Father of Baseball." Chadwick made significant contributions to the rules of the game, created the modern baseball box score, and introduced a number of vocabulary words that are still used to today, like "strike out," "cut off," and "fungo." Chadwick passed away in 1908 and was succeeded as editor by longtime sportswriter John B. Foster. Item #JBF005
