Spalding Baseball Guides

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Posted By: Josh Siegel

Does anyone know what the first year Spalding issued a Baseball Guide? I know the company was started in 1876. I came across a guide from 1876, but am not 100% sure on it? Thanks for any input, Josh

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Posted By: barrysloate

Josh- 1876 was the first year Spalding issued a guide, and it is really more of a league constitution. But almost every 1876 guide out there is a reprint, so I would be very careful if you are thinking of buying one. And they are kind of hard to distinguish from the real thing (which is very rare).

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Posted By: Josh Siegel

Thanks Barry,
I came across one and it just didn't feel like paper that old, hence the hesitation.

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Posted By: barrysloate

Given the poor paper quality that was used for the guides, if you were actually able to find one from 1876 it would likely be tattered. I have probably seen half a dozen in Excellent condition, and that's just impossible. These were carefully made reprints that are really pretty hard to distinguish.

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Posted By: Phil Garry

It appears to me that over the past couple of months the prices of the vintage Spaldings from the early 1900's have increased dramatically, at least on ebay. Has anyone else who collects these noticed this?

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Posted By: barrysloate

Phil- I sold one low grade one from the teens and it tanked. But I did see a couple that absolutely floored me- one early 20th century guide in decent shape went for over $700 (can't remember the year).

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Posted By: chris

This one just closed on ebay for nearly a grand.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ANTIQUE-Spalding-Official-Baseball-Guide-Book-1878-RARE_W0QQitemZ140268473275QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item 140268473275&_trkparms=39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A13%7C240%3A1308&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

The oldest I have is 1888 and next is 1907. chris

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Posted By: Josh Siegel

I'll get a photo up of the guide. It might no be until Wednesday or Thursday, but I'll get one up here. Thanks for the input.

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Posted By: Jason Mishelow

I have a guide that might be a copy of what you came across. The cover is for the 1876 spalding guide and the contents are a reprint of such, however, if you look at the adds on the inside front and back covers you will notice that they reference the 1900 and 1904 world fairs. Also the paper is much thicker then real guides- almost a cardboard for the covers. I have posted about this guide before but noone seems to have any real info. The best quess is that its some sort of early reprint.

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Posted By: barrysloate

There is a whole run of Spalding Guides, from 1876 to 1905, that was reprinted by Horton in 1989. These are clearly marked reprints inside, and could never be confused with the originals. I have a set and they are great for reference.

But I agree with Jason I have no idea where that 1876 originated.

I wanted to add collectors may see reprints of the 1867 Beadle Guide popping up on ebay. Those were reprinted by SABR and were given out at one of their national conventions. Could the 1876 have also been distributed by SABR?

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Posted By: Shawn

Josh, not sure if this helps you much, but I think everyone would be interested in looking at the link below. It is a list of the Spalding Guides from 1889-1939 with images. This comes to us from what I think is one of our most underrated resources: The Library Of Congress.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/d?spaldingbib:20:./temp/~ammem_newC:

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Posted By: Shawn

Here is a excerpt about the Libraries plans for the list...

"The Library of Congress has more than one thousand of these guides, believed to be the largest collection held by any institution. A small sample is offered here in Spalding Base Ball Guides, 1889-1939; in the future, the entire collection may be digitized and made available on this Web site. The twenty Official Indoor Base Ball Guides and fifteen Spalding's Official Base Ball Guides currently presented are examples of the annuals described above."

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Posted By: Shawn

Also, it is not really spelled out on the site, but if you click on the front cover image you can then view the book in its entirety. (page by page)

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=spalding&fileName=00148/spalding00148.db&recNum=0&itemLink=D?spaldingbib:23:./temp/~ammem_X4zZ::