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Posted By: ramram

One of the items in my collection that I enjoy the most is a set of original team scorebooks of the Pittsburgh Pirates. There are three and they all measure roughly 9"x11". The first covers the 1895 season and part of the 1896 season. The second covers the 1908 season and the final one covers the 1913 season and most of 1914. All of the home games are scored in detail since the home team was responsible for the scorebook but some of the road games are scored as well. Some "challenge" games are included as well which weren't part of the season schedule. One of them is a great post season series against Cleveland with Joe Jackson. Another is against Detroit. These scorebooks are particularly enjoyable as they include many of the players from the T-card sets as well as Mayo's and even OJ's. I also have a reproduction panoramic photo from one of the games from 1908 against Chicago. The photo is dated. You can actually tell the moment this photo was taken by looking at the scorebook. At the time of the photo the players have just completed an inning and are leaving the field. Stranded runners at second and third are leaving their bases. There is only one occurrence of this situation in the game. It's neat to think that this scorebook was up in the scorers booth when this photo was taken. [I guess I've got too much time on my hands, huh].


Actually, the panoramic is a set of three photos, taken left to right and combined later by the photographer. In the left portion of the photo you see the outfielder in the ready position. In the middle of the photo you see the players heading towards their dugouts at the end of the inning. At the right of the photo you'll notice no outfielder since they were all in the dugout by the time the photographer reset his camera and photographed this portion of the field.