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Baseball and Hobby Books
9 Lots
 Lot 180. Early Card Collecting Reference Books, Original Research Material, Periodicals. This collection comprises 1960s-70s paperback reference books, collector checklists, dealer catalogs, periodicals and more. It will be of special interest to the serious collector interesting in the development of the card collecting hobby. Three of the hobby’s pioneers are represented: Jefferson Burdick, Charles R. Bray and Edward C. Wharton-Tigar. Everything is softcover. Burdick is the author of two books: Pioneer Postcards, circa 1963 edition, Nostalgia Press, ex. And 2. The American Card Catalog, 1967, complete, f covers, back cover detached, vg interior. 3. Irv Lerner created one of the more interesting publications: Who’s Who in Card Collecting, 1970 first edition, f-g. Fascinating! 4. Pre-dating all of these is The American Book of Checklists by Bray. On mimeographed pages, Bray presents checklists for more than 130 sports and non-sport sets. Vg. Others include: 5. Sport Americana Baseball Card Checklist, circa 1975, ex+. 6. Collecting Cigarette Cards by Dorothy Bagnall, 1973, ex. 7-8. Football Card Check List, circa 1970, f-g, and Hockey Check List, circa 1969, vg+, both from Card Collectors’ Co. 9. 1976 Hockey Checklist Guide, Wimmer & Stommen, ex+. 10. The Modern B.B. Card Checklist Book by The Trader Speaks, 1948-74, ex. 11. Card Catalog Additions 1960-1970, Edward A. Broder, additions to the ACC, p-f. 12. Wharton-Tigar appears in signed personal correspondence dated 1978. In a mimeographed letter signed E. C. Wharton-Tigar, he asks a collector for assistance in ensuring the checklists are accurate for T202, T204, T205 and T212-1 cards. The checklist was scheduled for publication in the World Index. More than 30 pages of checklists are enclosed. Other Personal Correspondence: 13. “Cartophilic Typed Listing, No 12,” more than 50 pages with red-pen corrections of checklists for Goodwin, Hess, Lone Jack, Beck and Kalamazoo Bats cards. 14-18. Five lists from the 1970s prepared by Richard S. Eagan. Several discuss how Topps should be cataloged. 19. Issue No. 1 of The Old Judge by Lew Lipset, 1985, ex-m. 20-36. 17 miscellaneous 1980s-90s dealer catalogs, many for books. 37-50. Issues #1-13 plus 15 of The Vintage & Classic Baseball Collector magazine, ex-m to nm. 51. Baseball Cards: A Collector’s Guide, 1982, “By the Editors of Consumer Guide.” 52-54. One 1981 and two 1990s issues of Sports Collectors Digest. Truly a remarkable collection from the estate of a collector who is listed in the 1970 Who’s Who.
Winning Bid $956.
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 Lot 181. 4 Pioneering Baseball & Sports Cards Reference Books Including 3 First Editions. Two books are the first published by “Sport America,” and another is the first Standard Catalog. 1. The 1979 Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide By James Beckett & Dennis Eckes, white-cover first edition, printed Feb. 1979. Owner’s initials on the bottom edge; otherwise, ex to ex-m. 2. The Sport Americana Football and Basketball Price Guide by Beckett and Eckes, first edition, 1979. Initials on bottom edge; otherwise, vg-ex. 3. Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards by Dan Albaugh, first edition, 1988, ex-m. 4. The Sports Collectors Bible by Bert Sugar, second edition, 1977. Inititals on the bottom edge; otherwise, vg-ex.
Winning Bid $83.
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 Lot 182. Early 1900s American Collotype The Big League Illustrated Child’s Baseball Book. The Chicago-based American Collotype Co. published this stapled soft-cover pamphlet. It is variously dated as a product of the 1890s and the 1920s. “Collotype” was a type of printing that originated in the 1800s. Including the cover, five full-color pages of boys in 1890s garb illustrate the story of two neighborhood baseball teams at play. The book measures 3 ¾” x 5 1/8” with 12 pages. Ex+ with a 1/16” edge tear.
Winning Bid $113.
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 Lot 183. Won in the Ninth by Christy Mathewson, Lose with a Smile by Ring W. Lardner. Mathewson’s novel is the first in the “Matty’s Boys” series, and Lardner’s is his last, published in 1933 around the time of his death. The R. J. Bodmer Co. of New York published the Mathewson book in 1910. It has green oxford cloth boards featuring what appears to be a paste-down picture of the Hall of Fame pitcher. Between the novel and the photo instructional in the back is a one-page advertisement for the book. This page is half-missing. Otherwise, this very-hard-to-find book is vg+ to ex. All of the photo plates are present; one is loose. The book apparently was published without a dust jacket. The owner’s name is inside the front cover and on the front end-page. Lardner’s novel is in the same format as his first successful book, You Know Me Al. The story is told through letters by a fictional major league player who writes about such real players as Casey Stengel, Babe Herman and Hack Wilson. The book is an ex first edition without a dust jacket. There is a gift inscription on the front end-page. Both of these scarce books will make wonderful additions to a baseball library.
Winning Bid $291.
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 Lot 184. 1912 Pitching in a Pinch or Baseball from the Inside by Christy Mathewson. Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson combines wit with instruction to help readers comprehend the “pinch,” the moment when a pitch can determine the outcome of the game. This is the 1912 Grosset & Dunlap edition of the book. Hardback green binding with baseball equipment pattern in brown on the boards. Vg+ book, no dj.
Winning Bid $152.
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 Lot 185. 1950s Booklets Profiling HoF Players, One by Rowswell, One with Callahan Art. Rosey Rowswell was the colorful and beloved voice of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1936-55. In 1951, with Pittsburgh’s Fort Pitt Brewing Co., he produced a 78-page booklet, Baseball Stars of Yesteryear. In it, he provides biographical sketches of 15 Hall of Fame players, including Wagner, Cobb, Ruth, Gehrig and Walter Johnson. Vg+ with several small holes in the cover. In 1952, the Heurich Brewing Co. of Washington, D.C., distributed Baseball’s Hall of Fame Records, Pictures of the Game’s Immortals. The booklet is a companion piece to the Callahan Hall of Fame card set. In 16 pages including the covers, it presents 62 of the Mario DeMarco drawings that were used in the set. Chips in the front and back covers. The pages inside are vg-ex.
Winning Bid $50.
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 Lot 186. Signed Books by Lee Allen, Lawrence S. Ritter. Allen’s book is The Hot Stove League, and Ritter’s, The Glory of Their Times. After traveling 75,000 miles to interview early 1900s baseball players, Ritter produced what Red Barber called “the single best baseball book of all time.” Ritter signed as “Larry Ritter” on the title page of this 1966 first printing hardback. The signature, personalized and in red, is a gem mint 10. The book and dj are ex. Ritter died in 2004. Allen’s prowess as a story teller is well displayed in his book, a 1955 apparent first edition. Allen was a journalist, contributed to TSN and served as the historian at the Hall of Fame until his death in 1969. The book and dj are ex. Allen’s signature, a 10, follows a personalization and is dated June 13, 1955. It is on the front end-page.
Winning Bid $248.
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 Lot 187. 26 Baseball Books Including 9 Volumes from the “Redefinition” Series. The Redefinition books provide a nicely illustrated summary of baseball’s development. All are first edition hardbacks without dust jackets as issued in 1989 or 1990. Ex. 1. Baseball’s Beginnings: The Old Ball Game by Mark Alvarez. 2. Baseball in the 1970s: The New Professionals by Randy Rieland. 3. The Games Greatest Gloves: The Fielders by Jim Kaplan. 4. Those Fabulous Long Ball Hitters: The Sluggers by John Holway. 5. Pitching Power and Precision: The Hurlers by Kevin Kerrane. 6. The World Series: October’s Game by Paul Adomites. 7. Baseball in the Depression, 1930-1939: Low and Outside by William B. Mead. 8. Baseball in High Gear: Speed by Steve Fiffer. 9. Baseball in the Roaring Twenties: The Lively Ball by James A. Cox. Seven more books, also hardbacks issued without dust jackets, are from the “Baseball Legends” series. The players covered by four different authors are Cobb, Walter Johnson, Mathewson, Musial, Wagner, Ted Williams and Cy Young. Ex. Two other hardbacks, both lacking djs, are Baseball: Hall of Fame Stories of Champions by Sam and Beryl Epsetin, vg-ex, and Big-Time Baseball by Harold H. Hart, f. The eight remaining books are paperbacks, including biographies of Aaron, Mays, Musial, Spahn and Williams, all from the 1960s or 1970s. Three are nm, and none is less than vg.
Winning Bid $92.
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 Lot 188. 2 John E. Spalding Classics on Baseball in California + a SABR Publication. The self-published Spalding books are Always on Sunday: The California Baseball League, 1886 to 1915 from 1992 and Sacraments Senators and Solons: Baseball in California’s Capital, 1886 to 1976. Both are soft-covers in ex-m condition. Each contains more than 175 pages of informative, readable text, photos and useful reference material. Accompanying the books is the 1998 SABR program for the annual convention held in San Francisco. It contains 64 pages of California baseball history beginning in the 1870s. Ex.
Minimum Bid $75.
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