You may have heard that a young man named Abner Doubleday invented the game known as baseball in Cooperstown, New York, during the summer of 1839. Doubleday then went on to become a Civil War hero, while baseball became America’s beloved national pastime. Not only is that story untrue, it’s not even in the ballpark. Doubleday was still at West Point in 1839, and he never claimed to have anything to do with baseball. In 1907, a special commission created by the sporting goods magnate and former major league player A.J. Spalding used flimsy evidence—namely the claims of one man, mining engineer Abner Graves—to come up with the Doubleday origin story. Cooperstown businessmen and major league officials would rely on the myth’s enduring power in the 1930s, when they established the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in the village.As it turns out, the real history of baseball is a little more complicated than the Doubleday legend. References to games resembling baseball in the United States date back to the 18th century. Its most direct ancestors appear to be two English games: rounders (a children’s game brought to New England by the earliest colonists) and cricket. By the time of the American Revolution, variations of such games were being played on schoolyards and college campuses across the country. They became even more popular in newly industrialized cities where men sought work in the mid-19th century. READ MORE: Oval Office Athletes and the Sports They PlayedIn September 1845, a group of New York City men founded the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club. One of them—volunteer firefighter and bank clerk Alexander Joy Cartwright—would codify a new set of rules that would form the basis for modern baseball, calling for a diamond-shaped infield, foul lines, and the three-strike rule. He also abolished the dangerous practice of tagging runners by throwing balls at theCartwright’s changes made the burgeoning pastime faster-paced and more challenging while clearly differentiating it from older games like cricket. In 1846, the Knickerbockers played the first official game of baseball against a team of cricket players, beginning a new, uniquely American tradition.
Baseball has always been a popular – if not the most popular – sport in America, and promotional posters were very common. | Source: http://bit.ly/2ZwTIj6
Before the movies, TV or radio, when choices for entertainment were far more limited, the attendance at baseball games was huge and baseball stars were national celebrities to even a greater extent than they are today. Most of the major baseball players of the 19th century and not well-remembered. But the 20th century brought with it magazines, newspapers and later radio. So fans interested in baseball history are well acquainted with the likes of early players like Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb and certainly Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. As we entered the era of TV fans got to watch televised games featuring greats like Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Joe Dimaggio, Hank Aaron, Roger Maris, Derek Jeter and so many others.
Aside from magazine photos, there have been two major visual representations of baseball available to the public: posters and baseball cards. Posters were used extensively to promote and publicize baseball, baseball teams and baseball games. Baseball cards, on the other hand, which often came in the package when you purchased bubble gum or cigarettes, were collected by fans, frequently by kids, often bought, sold and traded and have become in time very valuable collector items.
For example, a rare Honus Wagner 1909 baseball card fetched a selling price of 1.2 million dollars. And there are many others valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. As these cards become every more rate, their value continues to increase.
Early baseball posters also have increasing collector value as they are retrieved from attics and basements all over the country, or discovered in obscure storage units or archives.
But viewers of baseball posters did not look at them as collector are and collectors of baseball cards were not concerned with the ultimate value of these items. If you were a kid trying to find a Babe Ruth card to fill out your collection commemorating the 1927 Yankees, to you that card was priceless.
In the modern digital age fans of baseball are much less motivated by seeing posters and the interest in collecting baseball So it is interesting to look back on what this visual representation of The National Pastime was designed and what they looked like.
Bill Dobbins is a professional photographer, videographer and writer based in Los Angeles. His work has been exhibited as fine art in two museums, a number of galleries, and he has published eight books, including two fine art photo books:
Bill Dobbins THE BODY PHOTOGAPHER became well known for his male and female physique photos - images of the aesthetic, athletic body.
Using the same distinctive personal style, characterized by strong graphics and a classic look in both color and BW, Bill Dobbins has also developed a body of work featuring fashion, beauty and glamor photos In a world in which so many images create a level of "noise" that makes it hard for advertisers to be noticed, Bill's work cuts right through the confusion and grabs the eye.
Bill has created two art photos books: The Women: Photographs of the Top Female Bodybuilders (Artisan) and Modern Amazons (Taschen) and his fine art work has appeared in two museums and several galleries.
WEBSITES
BILL DOBBINS PHOTOGRAPHY
www.billdobbinsphotography.com
BILL DOBBINS ART
www.billdobbinsart.com
THE FEMALE PHYSIQUE WEBZINE/GALLERY
www.billdobbins.com
EMAIL: billdobbinsphoto@gmail.com