19th Century Baseball

One Stop Shopping for All Your 19th Century Baseball Knowledge Needs!

"The players may change, the stadiums may change, but on the field, the game of baseball never changes."

To whom can this quote be attributed? Well, technically, only to me, as I just made it up off the top of my head! However, change a word here and there, and the paraphrase can be credited to countless baseball fans who love baseball in great part because its the same game as the one they remember from their childhood.  A strike is still a strike, a stolen base is still a stolen base, a pair of spikes is still a pair of spikes.

Or is it?

The fact is, while the on-the-field modern game has changed relatively slowly, it is markedly different from the earliest forms of American baseball played in the mid and late 1800s.  Precursors like rounders and townball laid the groundwork for the modern game but included rules that ball fans of the 20th and 21st centuries would scarcely recognize.

Collage of modern day rule book describing the rules and regulations
of baseball's earliest days - 19 C. Baseball

One of the best resources on the web to learn more about the 19th century baseball is "19th C. Baseball".  The site includes a great amount of information about early teams, players, and rules, and sprinkles a wonderful collection of period photographs and images throughout the site.  You'll be sure to leave the site with a new appreciation for the origins of our national game.

Unidentified college baseball team photo circa 1878 - 19 C. Baseball

View the 19th Century Baseball website

Pacific Coast League Digital Collection

The Majors of the West Coast

Before Major League Baseball sent the Dodgers and Giants to California in 1958, the PCL was California baseball, and its heyday is still fondly remembered by many fans.  From the first half of the 20th century, when the Pacific Coast League enjoyed its reputation as an "almost major league", to its role today as one of Minor League Baseball's three Triple-A leagues, the history of the beloved Pacific Coast League is rich.

Many images from the rich past of the PCL can be viewed online as part of a digital collection hosted by the Oakland Museum of California. The majority of the collection consists of digitized photographic negatives of pictures taken of the Oakland baseball team in training and on the field by photographer M.L. Cohen in the 1920s and '30s.  Some images three-dimensional objects and team ephemera also are included.

Screen shot of some of the Pacific Coast League Collection
Oakland Museum of California

View these the Oakland Museum of California's Pacific Coast League Digital Collection

The National Pastime - SABR Publication Archive

Baseball may be a game, but that does not preclude it from scholarly study.


SABR, the Society for American Baseball Research offers an almost complete run of its annual journal The National Pastime, from 1982 to 2009.  A convention-focused publication, The National Pastime offers unique perspectives on the variety of geographic regions that have played host to the  SABR convention over the years and is available digitally through SABR's website to members and non-members alike.

The National Pastime serves as a "literary outlet for SABR members to publish their research, in comparison to the more statistically inclined Baseball Research Journal" (SABR site)

Read issues of The National Pastime - The National Pastime Archive

The Playograph

"Live" Baseball, 1920s style

Baseball is great in person, great on television, and in my humble opinion, especially great through the cracking and popping of an AM radio station.  But for many fans of the game in the 1910s-1930s, the next best thing to going to a game was "watching" a game on a Playograph, seen below.

Playograph in use in Muncie, Indiana - 1923
Digital Media Collection, Ball State University

Typically proudly displayed and operated near city squares, often outside movie theaters or newspaper offices, Playographs drew fans in droves.  On big game days, crowds blocked city sidewalks in their attempts to keep up with "live" game action on the magical board, an over-sized visual aid that not only showed the score and the line-up, but actually simulated each pitch through a series of lights and symbols.  The board was put into motion by two Playograph operators as they received updates of each play via telegraph.

Think of the Playograph as an analog version of MLB's current "Gameday" visual:

More archival photos of the Playograph
Playograph on display at Raleigh News and Observer Office - North Carolina Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill (via student project site)
Crowd watching Playograph during the 1911 World Series - Library of Congress via Flickr

1912 description of the Playograph
Description of the Playograph - Yale Scientific Monthly, 1912

Leonard Breecher Tobacco and Chewing Gum Card Collection

Baseball and Bubble Gum

The thrill of getting something "for free" is even more exhilarating when the freebie is related to baseball. This was certainly the case in the early 20th century when tobacco, candy, and chewing gum companies printed "trade cards" with the company name attached for advertising purposes.  For many ball fans, these drawings were some of the first images they had seen of their baseball heroes, and the baseball card collecting frenzy was born.


This digital component of a larger University of Louisville collection holds 154 digital images of baseball cards from the early 20th century.

Christy Mathewson, NY Giants

Back of Christy Mathewson Card
Piedmont Cigarette

View the Leonard Breecher Tobacco and Chewing Gum Card Collection
Repository: The University of Louisville Library

NC State baseball - 1900

Padded breeches and all!

North Carolina State's baseball team in 1900. Not yet called NC State, the AMC stood for [North Carolina College of] Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.

View many other images of NC State baseball through the years
Repository: NC State Special Collections Resource Center