Baseball.
"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind
of America had better learn baseball."
| Jacques Barzun
of America had better learn baseball."
| Jacques Barzun
Baseball Hall of Fame.
Among baseball fans, "Hall of Fame" means not only the museum and facility in Cooperstown, New York, but the pantheon of players, managers, umpires, executives, and pioneers who have been enshrined in the Hall. The first five men elected were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson and Walter Johnson, chosen in 1936; roughly 20 more were selected before the entire group was inducted at the Hall's 1939 opening. As of January 2019, 329 people had been elected to the Hall of Fame, including 232 former Major League Baseball players, 35 Negro league baseball players and executives, 22 managers, 10 umpires, and 30 pioneers, executives, and organizers. 114 members of the Hall of Fame have been inducted posthumously, including four who died after their selection was announced. Of the 35 Negro league members, 29 were inducted posthumously, including all 24 selected since the 1990s. The Hall of Fame includes one female member, Effa Manley.
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12 June 1939: Inaugural Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.
The inaugural Hall of Fame election results were announced in the media on 2 February 1936, and featured Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner as the Class of 1936. After 20 more members were added to the Hall of Fame in the elections in 1937, 1938 and 1939, the first Induction Ceremony was held on 12 June 1939 – with all 11 living electees present in Cooperstown. Lou Gehrig is recognized as a member of the Class of 1939, but Gehrig was not elected until late in the year after it became clear that his playing career was over due to complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Craig Biggio: HOF Class of 2015.
Baseball ABC.
Published in 1885, author Peter Newell's guide to baseball literature features an illustrated paper cover and chromolithograph illustrations.
CLICK on the icon to read this classic book, courtesy of the Library of Congress.
CLICK on the icon to read this classic book, courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Dressed to the Nines: A History of the Baseball Uniform.
From the Baseball Hall of Fame: "There is something special about the baseball uniform, a mystique that is hard to pin down. Whether we are looking at someone in a uniform or we are trying it on ourselves, it is the feeling of the fabric, the design on the cap and jersey, the colors, cut, and history of the outfit, that all lend meaning to our relationship with the game."
CLICK on the icon to learn more about the "look" of the game from the Hall of Fame.
CLICK on the icon to learn more about the "look" of the game from the Hall of Fame.
Baseball Memories.
Abbott and Costello.
The classic baseball routine from 1953. |
23 June 1984.
NBC's Game of the Week becomes Chicago Cubs Ryne Sandberg's Game of a Lifetime with Harry Caray's memorable play-by-play. |
Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Nobody did the seventh inning stretch better than Harry Caray (or faster than "Da Coach").
Die Hard Cub Fan Jim Belushi narrates a tribute to Harry Caray. |
This Week in Baseball. Twenty Years of Unforgettable Great
Plays and Bloopers. |
Published by the National Archives (2013)
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Baseball: The National Pastime in the National Archives.Baseball: The National Pastime in the National Archives tells the story of baseball in America through documents, photographs, audio, video, and other records preserved at the National Archives.
It covers the two world wars, contract disputes, civil rights, equal access and opportunity on and off the playing field, the steroids era, the universal appeal of the game, Presidential involvement, improvements to the sport, Little League, Spring Training, Opening Day, and celebrations along the way. The eBook features notable players including Roberto Clemente, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Casey Stengel, Andrew Rube Foster, Grover Cleveland Alexander, Joe DiMaggio, Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson, Curt Flood, Joe Tinker, and Hank Aaron. Major League teams covered include the Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Washington Senators, Texas Rangers, Cincinnati Reds, New York Yankees, and New York Giants. |
Baseball: America's Presidents, America's Pastime.
Bush 43 at Yale, 1968.
Bush 41 at Yale, 1948. [SEE STORY]
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“Baseball is our national pastime.” Calvin Coolidge was the president who put those words together. But the nation’s 30th president is hardly the Nation’s only chief executive to acclaim the game.
Baseball’s relationship with America’s presidents is almost as old as the game itself. Abraham Lincoln, who threw baseballs with his sons, had a baseball field constructed behind the White House. In 1910, President William Howard Taft became the first president to throw out the baseball season’s first pitch. As the exhibit shows, most subsequent presidents have followed his example. Baseball: America’s Presidents, America’s Pastime showcases how baseball has mirrored trends in our larger society. At various points, the sport has personified America’s racial, economic, and national struggles. During good times and bad, presidents have connected with this uniquely American sport. Just as George W. Bush attended a World Series game after 9/11, Herbert Hoover attended the World Series in 1929 and 1931 to calm fears during the Great Depression. Harry S Truman used the sport to return the Nation to a sense of normalcy. He threw out the first pitch at a game six days after Japan surrendered on September 2, 1945. His presence meant the war was over and peace had returned. In telling this important piece of our history, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is using baseball-related documents and artifacts from its archives as well as from other presidential libraries. The exhibit also draws from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, and other collections. Explore American history through the close relationship between baseball and our presidents. March 21 through October 4, 2015 at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. [EXHIBIT REVIEW] [EXHIBIT PHOTOS] |
When George H.W. Bush met Babe Ruth.
George Herman Ruth registered for the World War I draft, but was never selected. The Babe eventually joined the ranks of the New York National Guard, where he was looking pretty svelte in his uniform (saluting the camera in 1924).
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In 1948, a cancer-stricken Babe Ruth donated an original manuscript of his autobiography to Yale University. He presented the gift in an on-field ceremony at Yale Field, where he was greeted by the Bulldogs’ baseball team captain, young George H.W. Bush.
Little did anyone know at the time that George Herbert Walker Bush would go on from this face-to-face meeting with greatness to become the 41st President of the United States of America. Bush was officially accepted into Yale in 1942, but he was not able to enroll until 1945 — because he was too busy becoming the youngest aviator in the Navy at the age of 18. He went on to fly in 58 combat missions for which he received the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation. With his health failing, Ruth spent much of 1948 in and out of the hospital before passing away in August. Though both the slugger and the statesman look cheerful in the photo, Bush would later call the meeting “tragic.” |