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The Ball Teamhttps://www.loc.gov/item/ncl2004000115/PP/

teacher’s guideprimary source set

Baseball Across a ChangingNationBaseball has been part of the culture of the United States since the earliest days of the nation, and the ways in which the game has changed through the centuries provide opportunities to explore changes in U.S. society.

Front Cover of Jackie Robinson Comic Bookhttp://www.loc.gov//item/97519504/

Historical Background

Baseball came to American shores as an immigrant,

a variant of the many bat-and-ball games common

in England, and it expanded and adapted as the

new nation did. It was heavily concentrated in the

northeastern U.S. in the early decades of the 19th

century, but the upheavals of the Civil War led to its

spread, as young

soldiers from other

regions learned

the game from

their comrades

and brought it

back home with

them at war’s end.

The new

technologies and

communications

tools that

facilitated the

nation’s expansion

did the same for baseball. New developments in

printing made it possible to publish advertising cards

with images of baseball teams and players, as well as

baseball-themed sheet music with vivid covers. The

rise of inexpensive illustrated newspapers provided

readers with daily updates on teams around the

league, while the telegraph and the telephone carried

the results of games across the country at lightning

speed. By the time cities began springing up on the

west coast of the continent, their residents could keep

up with their favorite teams back east almost as well

as Bostonians or Baltimoreans could.

As the U.S. became a more urban and industrial

nation in the late 19th century, baseball saw a surge in

popularity. While it had been known as a “gentleman’s

game” several decades before, now it pulled in men

and women of the working world who claimed the

game as their own. In factory towns and cities across

the country, workers found leisure in a sport that

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was likely much less physically demanding than their

own jobs. By 1900, baseball had become a popular

sport for young people in cities, played in improvised

neighborhood fields called sandlots. During an era

of public debate over urbanization, baseball was

sometimes presented

as a cure to what

were seen as the ills

of urban life.

The expansion

of U.S. influence

worldwide during

the late 19th century

and 20th century

was accompanied

by the international expansion of baseball. The U.S.

government used baseball to promote goodwill abroad,

both in foreign countries and in newly-acquired U.S.

territories, and military authorities ensured that

troops overseas had ample facilities and opportunities

to play ball.

At home, Depression-era government camps for

migrant farm workers had regular baseball games,

and during World War II, residents of internment

camps for Japanese Americans organized dozens of

baseball teams, playing their games behind barbed

wire, under the eye of armed guards.

Even as baseball expanded its reach geographically,

the major professional leagues excluded or

marginalized many players based on racial or gender

identity. African American players were excluded from

the major professional leagues in the late 19th and

early 20th centuries, instead playing in all-African

American leagues or on independent professional

teams. After the World War II, Jackie Robinson and

other African American players integrated the major

leagues, enduring hecklers and death threats to do

so. Native American players participated in the major

leagues, but were often subject to insults and racial

slurs, and were portrayed in stereotypical ways in

Chinese baseball team, Honoluluhttps://www.loc.gov/item/2014688347/

team promotions and news coverage.

A number of Hispanic players born outside of the

U.S. played in the major leagues in the late 19th

and early 20th centuries, particularly Cuban-born

players, who encountered fewer obstacles than other

Hispanic players did. Armando Marsans became the

first Cuban-born player to play for the major leagues

on July 4, 1911.

Women have played baseball for more than a century,

on college teams, in amateur leagues, and on

independent semi-pro and professional teams, even

though they continue to be excluded from the U.S.

major leagues. In the early 20th century, a number

of barnstorming professional teams made up mostly

of women, often called “bloomer girl” teams, traveled

the country playing local all-male teams. During and

shortly after World War II, when many male baseball

players were in the military, major-league executives

launched a multi-city women’s professional league

that lasted for almost a decade, providing women in

baseball with the highest level of visibility that they

have experienced to date.

Baseball continues to change in our own times, and

continues to provide valuable opportunities to explore

the ways in which a popular sport can both reflect and

advance changes in larger society.

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Invite students to select an illustration or photograph to analyze, and ask them to respond to the following

prompts:

• Why did you select this particular image?

• If the photographer or illustrator came to your class, what questions would you ask?

• Write a caption for your image

Assign or allow students to choose a depiction of a baseball game, identifying or describing the following:

• Who is playing the game?

• Who is the audience for the game?

• What is the setting?

• What equipment do the players have?

• How was this depiction made?

Create a timeline: Ask students to select a number of items, research the items, and identify significant events

and social changes that took place at the time each item was created. As a follow-up question, ask students to

identify a social change that is currently taking place in the United States and describe ways in which they see

baseball either reflecting or contributing to that change.

Suggestions for Teachers

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Additional Resources

Baseball Americana

https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/baseball-americana/about-this-exhibition/

Branch Rickey Papers

https://www.loc.gov/collections/branch-rickey-papers/about-this-collection/

Baseball, Race Relations, and Jackie Robinson

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/robinson/

Baseball’s World Series

https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/baseball.html

Baseball, Race and Ethnicity: Rounding the Bases

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/bases/

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Primary Sources with Citations

Thomas, Isaiah. A little pretty pocket-book. Worcester, 1787. From Library of Congress Rare

Book and Special Collections Division.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbc0001.2003juv05880/?sp=51

Boetticher, Otto. Union prisoners at Salisbury, N.C. Illustration. 1863. From Library of

Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

https://www.loc.gov/item/94508290

Williamson, C. H. Champions of America / Williamson, Brooklyn. Photograph. 1865. From

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

https://www.loc.gov/item/92514548

Norworth, Jack, and Albert Von Tilzer. Take Me Out to the Ball Game. New York: The New

York Music Co., 1908. From Library of Congress.

https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200033481

Edison, Thomas A. The Ball Game. Film. Thomas A. Edison, Inc., 1898. From Library of

Congress Motion Picture Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.

https://www.loc.gov/item/00563587

“Three Indian Stars of Baseball Chief Myers, Benders, and Johnson,” The Tacoma times,

June 3, 1918.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085187/1913-06-03/ed-1/seq-2/

Hines, Lewis W. The Ball Team. Composed mainly of glass workers. Indiana. Aug. 1908.

L.W.H. [Lewis Wickes Hine]. Photograph. 1908. From Library of Congress Prints and

Photographs Division.

https://www.loc.gov/item/ncl2004000115/PP/

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Fullerton, Hugh S. “Playground Baseball League Takes Boys Off Streets and Puts Them Into

Health,” The Day Book. February 26, 1914.

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1914-02-26/ed-1/seq-27/

Armando Marsans, Cincinnati Reds, baseball card portrait. Illustration. 1912. From Library

of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

https://www.loc.gov/item/2008677923/

Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

https://www.loc.gov/item/2014688347/

Chinese baseball team, Honolulu. Photograph. 1910. From Library of Congress Library of

“Girls Organize Sure ’Nough Ball Club – Know How to Play,” The Day Book. Jan. 6, 1916.

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045487/1916-01-06/ed-1/seq-5/

“Science Explains ‘Babe’ Ruth’s Home Runs,” Richmond times-dispatch. July 18, 1920.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045389/1920-07-18/ed-1/seq-49/

New York female “Giants” - Miss McCullum catcher and Miss Ryan at bat. Photograph. 1913.

From Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

https://www.loc.gov/item/2008677276

First colored world series, opening game Oct. 11, 1924, Kansas City, Mo. Photograph. 1924.

From Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.18576/

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Rothstein, Arthur. Baseball game. Tulare migrant camp. Visalia, California. Photograph.

1940. From Library of Congress, Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information

Photograph Collection.

https://www.loc.gov/item/2017774677/

Adams, Ansel. Baseball game, Manzanar Relocation Center, Calif. Photograph. 1943. From

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppprs.00369/

American soldiers in India have taught these Burmese nurses to play softball. Photograph.

1942? Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

https://www.loc.gov/item/2017871571/

[Front cover of Jackie Robinson comic book]. Photomechanical print. c1951. Library of

Congress Serial and Government Publications Division.

http://www.loc.gov//item/97519504/