The Deadball Sporting News
The Bible of Baseball Before World War I
Quick Guide to The Bible of Baseball
All baseball fans over a certain age are familiar with The Sporting News.
However, there’s a lot you probably don’t know about the early days of the paper — including things that might be helpful to realize if you are a replayer.
It’s almost impossible to find actual copies of these old papers. I’ve seen individual issues of The Sporting News from as far back as the early 1930s go up for auction. I’ve also seen bound collections of entire years from the 1940s and 50s go up from time to time. I have never, though, seen an entire issue of the newspaper from before 1914 up for sale anywhere.
I presume that all of those papers crumbled a long time ago, and that all we have left are these microfilm pictures taken ages ago.
Below are a few assorted points and tidbits to guide all Deadball Era fans in their quest.
Legibility Issues
This one will probably catch you by surprise.
As much as I love The Sporting News, it simply wasn’t so great before J. G. Taylor Spink took over back in 1914.
For one thing, the pages were scarcely legible.
Try it out yourself. See how much you can read of this 1902 article about Rube Waddell:
It’s not so easy, is it? Even when I zoom in on the original PDF documents, I still have trouble. I believe this is due to the poor fidelity of the original microfilm photographs, combined with the poor quality newsprint that the Spink family decided to use.
Compare that with a similar article in Sporting Life:
The difference here is obvious. Remember, these are from contemporary sporting publications: in fact, the publishing date is the exact same day.
And, just for fun, let’s look for an article from a major Los Angeles newspaper from that same day, since the Rube Waddell story originated from way out west.
That probably gives you an idea as to why I use so many local newspapers. The newsprint is simply clearer, even when I zoom way out.
And I’m willing to bet that the vast majority of my readers have never read a full article about a PCL game from before the great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Well, now you have!
Boxscore Blues
Most of us think of boxscores when we think of The Sporting News. The early issues did publish the boxscores. But, well, they might not be exactly what you were expecting.
Here’s a random clipping of several American League boxscores from that same 1902 issue of The Sporting News:
These are all games from May 29, 1902.
Here are the same boxscores from Sporting Life:
Not only are the boxscores from Sporting Life easier to read, but they also include game summaries, something that The Sporting News didn’t include for years.
In fact, the contrast here is so stark that I wonder at times how The Sporting News managed to survive those early years. It’s a well-known fact that TSN was the benefactor of a very favorable World War I contract with the American League that helped it give issues away for free to soldiers returning from the European battlefields. However, the paper had to get that far first — and I’m not quite sure how it could even compete.
Again, for the sake of comparison, here are the same boxscores in The Evening Star (Washington, DC), along with the game stories:
Again, you can see why I prefer the local papers over the national sports publications.
Doggerel
Now, it’s not all bad. There is a bit of fun in those ancient, crumbling pages.
Anybody who is familiar with pre-World War I newspapers knows to expect awkward literary references and bad poetry at every corner.
The poetry in these old issues of The Sporting News, however, is part of the charm.
Here are a few examples from the old editorial page:
You could probably say the same thing about the old and stody fans of the sport today.
Grantland Rice is always a classic. This, though, is probably his most famous piece of doggerel verse from 1912, a classic that time has forgotten:
Well, now you know what sportswriters used to do during the off-season.