So right now I’m reading Peter Gammons’ new book, It’s All About the Players: What I’ve Learned from Baseball’s Best, for a review for Bookreporter.com, which of course led me down another rabbit hole.
Gammons is one of those special writers — I’m thinking here of Thomas Boswell, Tom Verducci, Roger Angell, and the like — but before them were legends like Damon Runyon, Shirley Povich, Red Smith, Ring Lardner. They had a style that you don’t see much any more. Florid, descriptive. I guess people don’t read like they used to. TLDR (too long, didn’t read) is the watchword (or watch acronym) of the day.
All this brings me to today’s TT entry: The Sporting News’ 1943 Baseball Guide.
I purchased this, along with several other old reference books, when I was in a “phase,” working on a presentation about TSN‘s Daguerreotypes, the precursor to the Baseball Register. Unlike its descendant, the Daguerreotypes did not include all the players, just the ones who were considered at the top of the game.
But I digress…
As you can tell from the cover, this came out in the middle of World War II. The very first pages carry a cartoon rendering of Hank Gowdy, the first active major leaguer to enlist for service in World War I, juxtaposed with a photo of him in uniform in 1943. Deeper into the volume, we have a group shot of more than 30 players “in their service raiment.” Now there’s a word you don’t come across much these days.
The Guide includes the same type of statistical information found in subsequent editions but there are a few fun features, such as “Diamond Definitions.” Unlike various baseball dictionaries, these phrases are fairly unique to the times. For example, “April Cobb” was a “spring whirlwind,” supposedly someone who performed well in the preseason. “Coffee and cake” meant low pay. “Eagle claw” was a glove.
There are dozens of brief items to fill out the pages. Here are a couple that caught my eye:
- “Eight 100-game players hit no home runs.” Ouch.
- “Debuts — Successful and Otherwise.” Ditto.
But it’s not all fun and games. A somber filler about the Hall of Fame notes “15 Members of Hall of Fame Dead.” Jolly.
A list of World Series results fills a single page. It reminds me how far down I have to scroll on Baseball-Reference.com to find teams from as recently as the 1970s (which, shockingly, is 50 years ago).
You can pick up books like this for a good price on e-Bay; I was surprised how good a condition mine was in. Well worth the research for fans of the game.
is available on Amazon.com,
