Who has the best baseball library?

[Hot Springs Bathers]

We have kicked around the wonderful Putnam series of baseball books the last week. This made me wonder who has the best baseball library/book collection out there outside of Cooperstown?

What makes the best library? Number of volumes, quality of editions?

There is a wonderful photo scan on golfdigest.com right now of the 16,000 volume golf book collection of Alastair Johnston, Exec. VP of IMG. The Gigapan photos allow you to actually get up close to each volume to read titles.

Does anyone out there have a baseball library this size?

[murphusa]

The best or largest would be two different things. I have about 1,200 in my library but I am missing a couple important books from the turn of the centuary I would like to have.

[bigtrain]

I'd say quality trumps quantity in this discussion. You could probably have a library of ten thousand baseball books published in the past 25 years but that wouldn't be the best. I think Max's collection is very impressive, lots of early volumes and almost impossible to find dustjackets. His "Baseball As Viewed by a Muffin" is incredible, probably no more than 3 or 4 have survived.

[barrysloate]

There's a collector in New Jersey who has virtually every baseball book ever published, save for a few of the very rare and expensive ones. But he's never posted on this board and collects totally under the radar.

I still have my very best books but sold off nearly everything else. Many of the big baseball libraries have been broken up and sold in recent years.

[baseballart]

We have kicked around the wonderful Putnam series of baseball books the last week. This made me wonder who has the best baseball library/book collection out there outside of Cooperstown?

What makes the best library? Number of volumes, quality of editions?

There is a wonderful photo scan on golfdigest.com right now of the 16,000 volume golf book collection of Alastair Johnston, Exec. VP of IMG. The Gigapan photos allow you to actually get up close to each volume to read titles.

Does anyone out there have a baseball library this size?

Mike

I've been downsizing my library with respect to the post-Grobani years, so my collection is considerable smaller. At its peak, it was probably about 3000 or so. I suspect that there are more baseball books published each year than golf, and trying to accumulate all titles published would drive one crazy.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

I agree quality trumps quantity. I also respect those folks that try to add everything that they can.

My library has about 2,500 volumes but I am not very strong in the pre-1930 titles. I think the thing that always pleases me when I do pick up an early title is how well most of them were written. I would tend to agree with George Plimpton's old "little ball" theory. the smaller the ball the better the literature.

I also think we are just now seeing the golden age of football books, each year the research and writing seems to be getting better.

Barry, I would love to know more about the library you mentioned. Does he have it displayed well? I think most card collectors would agree, until you find a could way to enjoy your cards they are not much fun. The same goes for books or any memorabilia, until you can display them for your own enjoyment they are not very exciting.

The golf library I mentioned earlier is very well done. I am just running out of square footage and shelf space. My wife says I should box my run of guides (Spalding, Reach & TSN) but I enjoy picking them up to read quite often. Perhaps a larger house????

[baseballart]

I think most card collectors would agree, until you find a could way to enjoy your cards they are not much fun. The same goes for books or any memorabilia, until you can display them for your own enjoyment they are not very exciting.



Mike

My problem seems to be that I am addicted to Globe Wernicke bookshelves

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2147/2218377644_36223f5a90_o.jpg

[barrysloate]

Mike- I kind of lost touch with the NJ collector even though we had been pretty close friends at one time. I know he has many nice barrister bookcases which house the better titles; and for the more modern ones, I believe he has them packed away. But I probably haven't seen his collection in about ten years. I know he has a Muffin book (I sold it to him), and a Chadwick book, and virtually every other vintage title, but like every collector he is missing some.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Max I was lucky to have a couple of 100 year old barrister bookcases handed down through the family, they are perfect and great protection for my better titles.

The rest of my baseball books are in 7 ft. five shelve cases picked up and finished by me. I have over 1,500 football books stored in a dry warehouse. There is nothing worse than wanting to look through something at 9 at night and remembering it is stored several miles away!

Barry, I would love to see a nice coffee table collectors book just dedicated to baseball books, full color throughout. In the back several of the top collectors could be interviewed and their collections showcased. Perhaps someday!

[Hot Springs Bathers]

By the way Max I have been straining my eyes trying to read those great titles in that beautiful case!

[Jason19th]

I think that it is nearly impossible to have a great "baseball" library. The topic is simply too broad. You could have 20,000 volumes and 90% of it could be junk. I think that the quality of a collection is defined by its focus. By collecting one topic i.e 19th Century or World Series or in my case Negro leagues you are able to collect the type of non-traditional material that really makes a collection and collecting interesting. In the Negro League area I have been able to "discover" material like a short bio of Rube Foster in "The Negro in Chicago" (1921) or a brief Negro League History in WPA books like "The Cavalcade of the Negro" (1940), or an amazing essay on Jackie Robinson by Langston Hughes that I never would have noticed if I was simply looking for baseball books in the broad sense.

I would also argue that condition is less important for books. While cards are most memorabilia are objects of art, books are more important for the information that they contain. In many instances I think that the flaw such are library markers, margin notes or book plates add to the piece. I often look at my 1964 Knoxville Tennessee Library Copy of "Great Negro Athletes" and wonder how the book was viewed in that time in that place.

[barrysloate]

A good baseball library needs a cut-off date, say pre-1970, or something like that. There are so many baseball books being written today it seems endless. It's great for scholarship, but nobody could collect them all.