Baseball Nuggets

Monday, February 2, 2015

Happy Groundhog Day

In honor of Groundhog Day, let's see some articles about Shadow Ball.

I found my first reference to Shadow Ball in an article about the tour of Japan in late 1913.

Evening Post (Charleston, SC) - December 31, 1913

The practice carried on for several decades.

Omaha World Herald - September 15, 1945

It wasn't just confined to baseball, but softball got in the act.

Omaha World Herald - July 28, 1952

And not just pantomiming having a ball, but some were led to believe that special glowing equipment would be used.

Morning Olympian (Washington) - July 29, 1940

Not so, as it turns out.

Morning Olympian (Washington) - July 31, 1940

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

“Bloomer Girls” in Clinton county, New York - a partial bibliography

I came across Barbara Gregorich's book Women at Play: The Story of Women in Baseball, Volume 1 the other day. It reminded that I had done a bit of research on the "Bloomer Girls" in Clinton county, NY. This was originally posted on my Mark's Ephemera blog almost four years ago. Since I published that article the site move out from under the links. I've corrected it there and have copied it over here.

For more information about "Bloomer Girls" the Library of Congress has a sampling of articles from historic newspapers.

postcard
Library of Congress

“Bloomer Girls” in Clinton county, New York - a partial bibliography

from the NYS Historic Newspapers site ( http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/ ) arranged chronologically

“Local Paragrams.” The Plattsburgh Sentinel 18 July 1902: 5.
Available from http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn85026976/1902-07-18/ed-1/seq-1.pdf

“Saranac Lake Wants Girl Baseball Team.” Plattsburgh Daily Press 31 August 1920: 7.
Available from http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84031094/1920-08-31/ed-1/seq-7.pdf

“Saranac Lake Wants Girl Baseball Team.” The Plattsburgh Sentinel 31 August 1920: 1.
Available from http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn88075736/1920-08-31/ed-1/seq-1.pdf

“Bloomer Girl Star Praised By McGraw.” Plattsburgh Daily Press 6 August 1926: 2.
Available from http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84031094/1926-08-06/ed-1/seq-2.pdf

“Bloomer Girl Star Praised By McGraw.” The Plattsburgh Sentinel 6 August 1926: 5.
Available from http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn88075736/1926-08-06/ed-1/seq-5.pdf

“Six Members of Bloomer Girls Team Injured.” The Plattsburgh Sentinel 10 August 1926: 4.
Available from http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn88075736/1926-08-10/ed-1/seq-4.pdf

“Reds Look Like Contenders In 1940 Campaign.” Plattsburgh Daily Press 9 January 1940:2.
Available from http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84031094/1940-01-09/ed-1/seq-2.pdf

“Vermont Team, Bloomer Girls To Play In City.” Plattsburgh Daily Press 10 September 1942: 2.
Available from http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84031094/1942-09-10/ed-1/seq-2.pdf

“Burlington Athletics to Meet Cards; Bloomer Girls the Old Timers.” Plattsburgh Daily Press 12 September 1942: 2.
Available from http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84031094/1942-09-12/ed-1/seq-2.pdf

Barcomb, Peg. “Old Rouses Point.” The North Countryman 7 April 1977: 3.
Available from http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn84031178/1977-04-07/ed-1/seq-3.pdf

lithograph, 1904
Library of Congress

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Muffinisms

We call them errors. But they were referred to, for a while, as muffinisms.

We don't known how many muffinisms the Olympics made, but the score wasn't in their favor.

Cincinnati Daily Gazette - August 31, 1869

Prizes by Peck and Snyder, including a huge pretzel to a player for excellence in "muffinism."

New York Herald - April 25, 1869

Alleged muffinisms, the call for a "dead" ball, and explanations as to what "muffs" aren't.

Cincinnati Daily Gazette - August 11, 1869

images from GenealogyBank.com

Mails and Morals - or more Cigarette Pictures

While digging around the digital archives of GenealogyBank.com for articles on cigarette cards, I came across an article that centered around the dead letter office of the Post Office Department. The article describes what the dead letter office does with objectionable material. I found the last paragraph, describing the process of manufacturing cigarette cards, to be most interesting and I've transcribed it below.

The cigarette manufacturers entered into arrangements with photographers by which the pictures were turned out on an enormous scale. The photographers went into the market and purchased all the photographs suitable for their purpose that they could get, including portraits of actresses, dancers and event society women in ball costume. Girls were even hired to pose. The photographs obtained were mounted in sized matched on huge cards, 100 or more on each. Each card was placed before the camera and reproduced on a smaller scale. From the resulting negative whole sheets were turned off, the little photographs being afterward cut apart and delivered to the cigarette manufacturer. In this simple manner they could be reproduced by millions.

The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.) - November 30, 1895

15 years later the cigarette cards were still going strong.

The Palestine Daily Herald (Texas) - June 2, 1910

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Cigarette Pictures in the news

The Hauls of Shame website has a nice post on Mort Rogers' score cards. A bit rich for my wallet, although I like looking at them.

It did cause me to take a peek through various old newspapers for cigarette cards, though. Not all cigarette cards featured base ball players or other athletes. There was a bevy of beauties. Maybe too much bevy was showing for some people. Also included are some games that the youth were playing with the cards.

I've arranged the articles chronologically.

Concerned about his parishioners' morals...