Who has the best baseball library?

[murphusa]

The best or largest would be two different things. I have about 1,200 in my library but I am missing a couple important books from the turn of the centuary I would like to have.

[bigtrain]

I'd say quality trumps quantity in this discussion. You could probably have a library of ten thousand baseball books published in the past 25 years but that wouldn't be the best. I think Max's collection is very impressive, lots of early volumes and almost impossible to find dustjackets. His "Baseball As Viewed by a Muffin" is incredible, probably no more than 3 or 4 have survived.

[barrysloate]

There's a collector in New Jersey who has virtually every baseball book ever published, save for a few of the very rare and expensive ones. But he's never posted on this board and collects totally under the radar.

I still have my very best books but sold off nearly everything else. Many of the big baseball libraries have been broken up and sold in recent years.