1908 Baseball Newspaper Guide: New York City
Time for the fun part!
1908 Baseball Newspaper Guide: New York City
It seems to be an opportune time to look at old New York baseball newspapers, especially with the recent news of the end of The New York Times sports page.
Ever wonder what The New York Times sports page looked like in 1908? Well, there’s no need to wonder anymore.
The New York Times
We’ve looked at a lot of newspapers so far. Does it surprise you to learn that The New York Times cost only 1 cent back in 1908?
Well, if you were a sports fan in 1908, I’d recommend saving the penny.
The baseball news received a grand total of 2 columns, despite the fact that all 3 local teams were active. There were no cartoons, no editorial notes, and really nothing of much interest.
You’ll notice as well that The New York Times did not print boxscores of every game played on June 9, which places it near the bottom of the sports sections we’ve looked at so far.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. If you are interested in studying baseball in pre-World War II sports sections, use a variety of newspapers. Don’t just use The New York Times. This is even more the case when it comes to pre-World War I seasons.
New-York Tribune
With the 3 cent price tag, you know we’re in fancy territory.
As for the sports section — well, it’s something. I’m not convinced that it’s much better, though.
We’ve got the same problem here that we had with The New York Times. There are no out-of-town boxscores, and there really isn’t much coverage. The articles are short and lackluster, and there are no rumors or gossip pieces that are so valuable to researchers.
Surely we can do better.
The World
The evening edition of The World is different. You’ll see news from the June 10 baseball games in its pages.
Also - the most up-to-date baseball news is on the first page, not inside.
I mean, the sporting news on the first page is so massive that there is literally no room for anything else.
One thing that surprises me about these old newspapers is how little room play by play descriptions of the game took. You’d think that they would take pages. They were good at conserving space and not mincing words, I guess.
I should note that “the best sporting page in New York” was a shell of what it once was. If you really want some fun, go check out the issues of this paper from 1905 or before.
Even though it wasn’t as good as it once was, The World in 1908 still had a lot of fun to offer.
The Sun
The Sun is the paper I go to first when I’m dealing with pre-World War I games in New York. It’s particulary good for anything in the 19th century.
It’s not the best sports section in the world, but at least the box scores are all present.
The long, detailed stories of the 19th century were long gone by 1908. However, the coverage is still pretty good and detailed.
A big thank you goes out to those who pointed out that my Pittsburgh article was wrong. The trade rumor was for Irv “Young Cy” Young, not for the elder Young.
I should also point out that The Sun is the only paper in New York I have found that had advertisements for each day’s baseball games. Even the theater sections of the other papers seem to be missing the baseball advertisements. I’m not sure if I’m just not looking hard enough, or if something else is going on.