OT- Does Anyone have any ideas about this guide

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Posted By: Jason

I recently got a guide with the cover indicating that its the 1876 Spalding Offical Guide. The guide is 52 pages and contains the 1876 league constitution. On close reading it is clear that the item does not come from 1876. There are ads which indicate that splading won awards for the 1904 and 1908 (or possible 1900) world's fairs and indicate that splading has been the office guide "since" 1876 and a notice that spalding was given permission to prodcue the official guide for 1881. There are no reprint marking. I am wondering if this was some sort of early 20th century giveaway by Spalding

Any ideas

Jason

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Posted By: barrysloate

1876 was the first year Spalding printed his guide, and they are quite rare. They are also widely reprinted. My guess is you have the latter.

Edited to ad I missed the post-1900 dates. I don't know what that is. Can you scan the cover?

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Posted By: Jason

Unfortunatly I am not computer savy enough to figure out how to get my scanner to work- but the cover looks just like the 1876 cover should look- I have seen the reprints so I'm not sure that it offers much of a clue- the ads I am refering to are intersting becuase the one on the inside front cover is first baseman's mitts which as far as I can tell are the early 1900 type cresent stlye gloves- clearly not the workman type gloves which would be in a 1876 guide- actually I doubt that any glove would be in the 1876 guide. Also note that the ball ads sell the offcial ball for 1.25 which seems much more like a 1900's price

Thanks Jason

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Posted By: barrysloate

Well, we know it's not from 1876, but it's unclear what year it is actually from. It's not ringing a bell.