Pacific Coast League books

[Archive]

Posted By: Adam J. Baxter

I'm interested in finding a book that covers pre-WWII Pacific Coast League player's bios and stats. Is there any such book in print? If not, is there a similar book anyone on the board would recommend? I found a couple of books on the PCL that looked promising:


The Pacific Coast League, 1903-1988 - Bill O'Neal

The Grand Minor League: An Oral History of the Old Pacific Coast League- Dick Dobbins


Thanks,
Adam

[Archive]

Posted By: Anthony Nex

You might pick up a copy of Nuggets of the Diamond, also by Dick Dobbins. It's basically an overview of the league.
Mark Macrae had some pretty in depth books, if you don't have his email shoot me one and I"ll forward it. He is an excellent resource for PCL info (and often cards as well)

[Archive]

Posted By: Behrod Hosseinzadeh

Try the library of congress database at www.loc.gov Go to "search our catalogs" then click on basic search. Type in "Pacific Coast League" under the subject heading.

Kevin Nelson has just recently published a book on the PCL..."The Golden Game: The Story of California Baseball."

I'm working on a research project on the PCL that should hopefully be done by next May. Let me know if you need anything,

Behrod

[Archive]

Posted By: brian p

A couple of great PCL books not yet mentioned are two written by John Spalding: Pacific Coast League Stars, volumes one and two. Each give a nice biographical write-up with photo on one hundred PCL players (the first one concentrates mainly on those players who had significant and lengthy PCL careers, and the second focuses on PCL players who eventually made their mark in the majors), with the best year in the PCL and overall career PCL stats listed in the first book, and each years' PCL stats and overall PCL and major league stats in the second volume. They are a great way of getting familiar with the significant players of the PCL, from its founding in 1903 to its death knell (here comes the Dodgers and Giants) in 1957. They are both out of print, but as of a couple of years ago the second one was still available from the author. Mark MaCrae would probably be able to steer you in the right direction.

An incredibly exhaustive statistical record of the PCL (with stats on every player who ever played in this same time frame, I believe) was recently released after years of research in a very limited edition. Not sure of the author's name, and don't have one (it was selling for somewhere between $100-150), but once again Mark might be able to hook you up.

Hope this helps,

Brian

[Archive]

Posted By: Max

The best baseball bibliographical source is : http://baseballindex.org/ , a project started by SABR (http://www.sabr.org ) Bibliography Committee and spearheaded by members Andy McCue and Ted Hathaway. You can search not only books, but articles from magazines.

Max

[Archive]

Posted By: Adam J. Baxter

Thanks for all th great suggestions. I looked around for the Pacific Coast League Stars books by John Spalding and found several examples of both volumes available. The second book that Brian P. Suggested may be Dennis Snelling's "The Pacific Coast League: A Statistical History, 1903-1957". I took a look at the write-up for that book and I think that might be a good one to start with.

[Archive]

Posted By: three25hits

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786400552/qid%3D999487874/sr%3D1-5/ref%3Dsc%5Fb%5F5/002-1099064-4209616/sportshollywo-20/002-6589816-9664064

Barbary Baseball: The Pacific Coast League of the 1920s
by R. Scott MacKey


If anyone has information on Paul Strand, please let me know. Working on a SABR bio and always looking for source material.

Brian

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff O

Keep in mind that Snelling's book is an encyclopedia of sorts - it's pretty much 100% stats.

Here are a few other suggestions I have enjoyed:

"Runs, Hits and an Era" by Zingg and Medeiros
"The Race for the Governor's Cup" by Wells

For stats probably the best book is Carlos Bauer's 3-volume "The Coast League Cyclopedia", thought it is impossible to find due to the highly limited print run - each copy is signed and numbered and there were only 240 sets produced.

Jeff

[Archive]

Posted By: brian p

The Carlos Bauer book Jeff referred to is the one I couldn't remember. I have never seen it, but supposedly it is the end all as far as PCL stats is concerned. Those two Spalding books should give someone just getting into PCL history the best introduction to its various characters over the pre major league on the West Coast years.

Brian

[Archive]

Posted By: Jeff O

I have been told by those much more knowledgable than myself that while Bauer's book is certainly the best and most thorough out there, that it still contains numerous errors which always plague a first work of this type. That being said, Bauer did a fantastic job on it and has years of reseach in the project, going through league guides, box scores, and just about any other source he could find.

I can't remember what I paid for the 3-volume set new, but I want to say it was somewhere around $120-200 and in my mind it was well worth it. Besides, since it's so limited it's become a collectible in its own right.

Jeff