Baseball is a game involving idiots…

September 6, 2013 by · 2 Comments 

The Cleveland Daily Herald” issue of May 15, 1876 has an interesting perspective on the game of baseball, as provided by a Brazilian (see below).  The entire article may be viewed at:  Dom Pedro’s Views of the National Game.

Reporting the world of sports…

June 10, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 

One of the passions held by many is sports, and each season provides a new opportunity to cheer on one’s favorite teams as they follow their efforts through to a hopeful championship. It is not coincidence that “fan” is a diminutive form of the word “fanatic”. The hobby of collecting early newspaper adds an opportunity to broaden support for a  team by including an historical perspective possible only through all this hobby has to offer.

Baseball, football, basketball, tennis, golf, horse racing, soccer, and on and on. You name the sport and reports can be found in newspapers going back to the very beginning of the sport, or the beginning of newspapers. We once offered a newspaper from Springfield, Massachusetts—where basketball was founded—reporting the very first public game ever played. It is the holy grail of newspaper reports on basketball, and now resides in the archives of the Library of Congress. Similar gem items can be found for other sports as well.

If a report cannot be found on the very beginning days of a sport, finding reports as old as possible is a quest which never ends. Baseball traces its history back to 1839 (although exactly when & how it was founded is up for some discussion) so finding a newspaper with a bonafide baseball report as close to this year is a worthy goal. We have some issues back to 1855 on our website, and game reports become more frequent during and just after the Civil War.

But with baseball it’s often the golden era that attracts the most attention, from when Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and other standouts from the 1920’s and 1930’s were making headlines. Just following Ruth’s standout career can create a formidable collection, from early mention of him in the majors (how about 1914?), his first Major League game appearance, his first home run, a report of him being sold to the Yankees, and then his stellar career as a home run record-setter. All were reported in newspapers.

And there was a host of notable ball players from a generation before,  including Nap Lajoie, Branch Rickey, Henry Chadwick, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson, & Christy Mathewson to name a few. In fact baseball had its own daily newspaper from the 1880’s titled the “Official Record” which chronicled nothing but baseball reports of the day.

Illustrations of baseball players are a special treat and add a graphic & displayable dimension to any collection. The popular illustrated newspaper “Harper’s Weekly” (and other well-know illustrated issues of the day) had many issues which featured half page or full page baseball prints, as well as a few doublepage centerfolds and front page prints which are particularly desirable.

There are some ancillary items which are intriguing, several found in the scientific-themed periodical “Scientific American”, which featured a new electric scoreboard dating back to the 1800’s, and a novel invention of a “mechanical baseball pitcher”. There are baseball reports of Jim Thorpe, who, although was more famous for his Olympic and football prowess, was a notable baseball player as well. Newspapers with reports involving Jesse Owens are equally noteworthy. And just a focus on World Series games would result in a sizable collection, with the goal of owning the championship report for every World Series from 1903 to the present. The “Black Sox” scandal of 1919, which involved members of the Chicago White Sox team being accused of throwing the Series, made headline reports for the next two years as the case was investigated and brought to a painful conclusion.

Although the most collectible of sports, baseball is by no means the only. Football reports became common in the 1890’s and into the early 20th century. Again, “Harper’s Weekly” did much to provide a graphic account of the sport, with both illustrations and photos of players and action, showcasing the minimal amount of protection that was worn in comparison to what’s found in the game today.

Collecting by team makes for even more focused collection. Among the more popular would have to be the Yankees in baseball, and Notre Dame in collegiate football. But any team name for any sport can be searched out of our website, whether it be collegiate football, the NFL, or nearly any other sport you can think of. Even something as obscure as pre-1800 boxing reports and ballooning can be found within collectible newspapers. Give it a try.

With golf it was Bobby Jones who gave the sport some prominence with his accomplishments which culminated in the “triple crown” victory, after which he left the sport to pursue a movie career. But again “Harper’s Weekly” put many golf themed prints in its pages, several done by noted artist A.B. Frost, which make for displayable items for any golf enthusiast.

Tennis was another sport which made the pages of “Harper’s Weekly” and those that are framed make great display items for any den. Track and field, bowling, bicycling, curling, fishing (with prints by A.B. Frost and Frederic Remington), hunting, sailing (including the America’s Cup), skiing, automobile racing, archery, and even surfing are a portion of a lengthy list of sporting events found in newspapers of the day.

Whatever sport you follow and whatever the era, the world of rare & early newspapers has much to offer. Add an historical dimension to your hobby. There is much from which to choose.

Newspaper Reports of Olympic Proportions…

August 10, 2012 by · Leave a Comment 

As the 2012 Olympics come to an end, the staff at Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers thought our readers might appreciate reviewing collectible newspapers with coverage of past Olympics.  While considerably more issues are available within our inventory than what is shown, at least the list will provide a snap-shot of such greats as Jesse Owens, Nadia Comaneci, Jim Thorpe, Gertrude Ederle, and more.  Please ignore the few scattered issues within this link that do not belong, and enjoy your walk back through Olympic history.  View Newspapers With Olympic Coverage

Collector Eric Fettmann on Babe Ruth & Yankee Stadium…

October 24, 2011 by · 2 Comments 

Our website item #584134 offers a New York Times newspaper from 1914 which has the earliest mention of Babe Ruth in that newspaper, and possibly any newspaper. Has anyone found earlier mention? The listing also mentions a report of a new Yankee Stadium being built–with an illustration of it–but I could find no documentation of it elsewhere. Eric offers further information on both with his comments:

Tim,

As for your item 584134, this may well be the first mention of Ruth in a newspaper. The earliest I can come up with is April 6, a week after this. But I didn’t have access to Baltimore papers, so there may be something earlier there.
As for the mysterious Yankee Stadium, here’s something from the NY Times in 1993:
“The Highlanders, soon known as the Yankees, had a middling record, while the nearby Giants were usually at or near the top of their league. So when the Polo Grounds burned in 1911, the Yankees used a certain calculating humility in letting the Giants temporarily use their own park. At the same time the Yankees said that they were building a new stadium at 225th and Broadway. That project slowed, perhaps for money reasons, and in 1913 the Yankees temporarily moved to the rebuilt Polo Grounds where, for rent of $55,000 a year, they rubbed schedules with the Giants.
It was there, in 1915, that the Yankees wore their first pinstripes, even as the 225th Street project was abandoned.” Eric

10 Most Shocking Deaths in Sports History…

April 23, 2011 by · Leave a Comment 

We recently became aware of another blogger’s post we thought you might appreciate.  While rare newspapers bring us news of varied events, none grabs our attention quite like the 1st reports of tragedy.  In some cases, the untimely death of an athlete such as Dale Earnhardt, or a musician such as Elvis Presley, are profoundly impacting since they are often so unexpected.  It is with this in mind we draw our attention to one writer’s view of the “10 Most Shocking Deaths in Sports History“.  You may or may not agree with all of the names on the list, but each story reminds us of the brevity of life, and the anguish when such brevity is realized in the prime of life.  Note:  The writer, Jena Ellis, has included links to the 1st reports for each person on her list.  Feel free to comment.

The 10 Most Shocking Deaths in Sports History

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