Hall of Fame Yearbooks.

[Lordstan]

It occurs to me that these books seem to get no love.
I have collected them since the 80's. At first, I got the older ones as the covers were perfect mediums for getting autographs. I continued to add over the years and am now 2 editions (1945 and 1953) short of the complete run from 1939 to 1980.
Being that I have nothing better to do I figured why not present a little primer for those that are interested. (As a disclaimer: I am not a professional writer, so please forgive any lack of eloquence). I have included pictures(not to scale) along the way to show as examples. At the end will be a link to the Photobucket folder with all of my collection.


Size
The HOF yearbook has changed quite a bit since the beginning.
They started out small and grew in size both dimensionally and in number of pages.

1939-1949 they were 6x9in and had around 20-30 pages.



1949-1969 8x10in size 30-40 pages. It grew most years as pictures of new inductee plaques were added.


1970-1973 8.5x11in


1975


1981-Present 8.5x11in


Format
From 1939 – 1980 the books were read in a landscape orientation.
Since 1981 they are read in portrait orientation.


Content

From 1939 to 1969 the content and flow of the material stayed the same.
The first , up to 20 pages or so, were spent documenting and describing subjects including the origins and history of baseball to that point in time, the Hall itself and it’s displays, Cooperstown’s importance in baseball history, etc. Pictures of Doubleday, HOF displays, notable past and present baseball figures, and Cooperstown are interspersed in the historical descriptions.
Following that are pictures of the Hall of Fame plaques of all the current inductees, in order of induction. The last page usually shows that years inductees.

In 1970, the content flow changed. There are fewer pages of history. Somewhat more pages and pictures of HOF displays are present. Following that are the HOF plaques, still in induction year order, but now each plaque also has a paragraph about the player either above or below it.
The final few pages show the inductee records, HOF game results, and miscellaneous induction ceremony pics.

Starting in 1981 the Yearbook became the book everyone is familiar with today. There are lots of beautifully laid out pictures with a blurb about each inductee. (Very Hollywood if you ask me. I prefer the old school ones.)


Dating

The newer editions, since 1981, are very easy to tell the year because the pictures of the inductees are on the covers. The older ones are a bit more difficult to date without inspecting more closely.

There are two ways to date the older editions. The first is to look at the plaques. The last plaques listed are the persons inducted that year. This is the only way for the books from 1939 to 1949 as there is no copyright date listed. Starting in 1949, there are copyright dates on the inside of the first page.


General cover design

From 1939-1949, the cover is a leatherette type material with a cutout revealing the BBHOF building picture which is on the next page. The backs are blank with same material. (see pictures above). The 1939 has the date on the cover. The rest do not.

From 1949-1969 the cover is composed of baseball diamond surrounded by 4 drawings of a pitcher and batter. Colors can vary from red to blue to silver, for the 1964 silver anniversary edition. The backs are blank.

From 1970-1980, the cover is composed of 5-7 pictures of the town, buildings, and displays. The backs have a large area filled with replica signatures of many inductees.

From 1980-present, the cover is a painting or picture of the inductees. The back usually has more HOFer pictures.


Binding

In the years 1939-1969 the books were bound using staples.

From 1970-1973, they were spiral bond with plastic spirals bindings.


From 1974-1980, the bindings were a flat glued design.

From 1981-present, the bindings have varied.


Years made

I wrote to the HOF library and they sent me a listing what HOF yearbooks they had and how many copies. They couldn’t tell me whether the editions with multiple copies were the same cover/format.

YEAR COPIES YEAR COPIES YEAR COPIES
1939 1 1956 2 1968 2
1942 2 1957 3 1969 3
1945 2 1959 3 1970 3
1946 3 1960 2 1972 3
1948 2 1961 2 1973 3
1949 4 1962 2 1974 3
1951 3 1963 2 1975 3
1952 2 1964 2 1976 2
1953 2 1965 2 1977 2
1954 3 1966 2 1978 3
1955 3 1967 2 1980 2

The first year on record, according to the BBHOF, is 1939. This followed by an undated book but has Gehrig's plaque so is either a revised 1939 or a 1940.(Yay! Gehrig's induction year- Thanks Jimmy{Kingofclout} for the trade last year for mine)





As you can see, the years 36-38, 40-41, 43-44, 47, 50, 58, 71, and 79 all appear to not have had any yearbook made.

Additionally I have found multiple editions made in 3 years so far.
In 1949 I have found 3 editions. One is the older smaller version. The other two match the next generation of format, but one is blue and the other is red.




In 1951 and 1952, there were red and blue editions made. In 1954, there were 2 red editions made.

I think they are very nifty collectibles. They currently are not very expensive, but are often difficult to find. I hope you enjoyed my brief primer and collections of yearbooks.

BTW Please let me know if any of you have the 1945 or 1953 editions.

My collection link
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v2...F%20Yearbooks/

Best to all,
Mark

[mr2686]

Great write-up Mark. I always thought "program" and "yearbook" were interchangeable for the HOF but it looks like they are separate...at least they are now. I see the 1959 on ebay listed as "program". Was there once just one item produced per year and it's considered both a program and yearbook?

[Lordstan]

Thanks Mike for reminding me.

I do need to clarify a bit the difference between the HOF program, yearbook, and scorecard. Unfortunately, due to a lack of understanding, these words are often used interchangeably and incorrectly.

The HOF program is a fairly new publication for the BBHOF. As far as I can tell the HOF started making induction ceremony programs beginning in 1982. These commemorate and are distributed at the induction ceremonies themselves. They are usually very thin in comparison to the Yearbook. The cover and contents are different from the Yearbook. I believe these are usually freely distributed.

This is the 1984 HOF YEARBOOK.


This is the program (not mine. I got the pic off of ebay)


The scorecard is a third publication which is sold at the HOF Game played at Doubleday field. It is truly a scorecard with the grids in place for scoring of the game. Neither the HOF yearbook nor the program have ever had grids for scoring a game. Most of the scorecards are very thin and sometimes even a one page folded cardboard material. I believe these are also free to those attending the game.

Scorecards appear to have been produced starting in 1939. I can't confirm whether or not they have been produced every year. I would assume they would've been made every year there was a HOF game played.

The 1939 scorecard is a little different from the other years. It is listed as a program for Doubleday field, and is more along the lines of what a regular season game program would be like. There are multiple pages with ads and article. Towards the center are the scoring grids, without team names.
As I have never handled any of the scorecards from the 1940's I can't say when the HOF switched to the thinner format. The earliest one on ebay is 1943 which appears to be one page. Perhaps the 1939 edition is the only one like that as it was the first HOF game and 1939 was the centennial celebration of baseball.

Here is my copy.


Here is the 1943 edition I found on ebay





Hope that clears any confusion.

Best,
Mark

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Mark- This is outstanding work! I have picked them up at random over the years but had no idea what was out there.

I hope more publication collectors rally to present their specialties. I did this a year or so ago with the Putnam team history books and was able to add a great deal to my knowledge thanks to folks like Max Weider.

Once again great job!

[stone193]

Hi Mark

Thanx for the writeup! That's more than I ever knew.

Very nice signed items. The '39 copy is classic.

I know you spent some time on this and appreciate the effort - good job and thanx for sharing.

[Lordstan]

Wow what are the Odds? Three replies all Mikes!

Well thanks guys. One of the best aspects of this site is the sharing of information. Just my humble contribution.

Best,
Mark