Books……..

Around 1991-ish I was in an antique store in Huntington Beach, CA.  The sports card (especially baseball) craze was at its peak.  It was winter, about 5:00 pm on a Saturday, getting dark, and a little chilly.  As it was close to closing time, there were precious few minutes to rummage through the treasures….but I came across four books published by Grosset and Dunlap:

·         The Magnificent Yankees by Tom Meany, 1952

·         Lucky to be a Yankee by Joe DiMaggio, 1947

·         Babe Ruth by Tom Meany, 1947

·         Yogi Berra by Joe Trimble, 1954

I think I paid $20 - for the four books - no dust jackets.  Little did I know that it would lead to my becoming a collector of adolescent sports literature - non fiction and fiction (e.g.: the Chip Hilton series) These books I named above were part of a Grosset and Dunlap series named “The Big League Baseball Library” which includes several other titles.  This morphed into another series called “The Grosset Sports Library” which went into the 60’s and 70’s and covered hockey, football, basketball, and golf - in addition to baseball.  I say morphed because Grosset reissued many of the titles from TBLBL in the GSL. 

In addition to the four books above, the other titles in the Big League Baseball Library include:

·         Baseball Complete by Russ Hodges, 1952

·         Baseball’s Greatest Players by Tom Meany, 1953

·         Milwaukee’s Miracle Braves, by Tom Meany, 1954

·         The Artful Dodgers, by Tom Meany, 1954

·         The American League, by Ed Fitzgerald, 1955

·         The National League, by Ed Fitzgerald, 1955

·         Baseball’s Hall of Fame, by Ken Smith, 1952

·         My Greatest Day in Baseball, by John P. Charmichael (and others), 1945

·         Roy Campanella by Dick Young, 1952

·         Baseball for Everyone by Joe DiMaggio, 1948

·         Inside Baseball by Arthur Daley, 1950

·         The Jackie Robinson Story by Arthur Mann, 1950

·         Bob Feller’s Strikeout Story by Bob Feller, 1947

·         Pitching to Win by Bob Feller, 1948

This seems to be all of the titles in the Big League Baseball Library.  I can only tell from the books listed on the dust jackets.  (These all had dust jackets, although I have found a few, like My Greatest Day in Baseball, with a picture/hardcover.)  As I said, Grosset transitioned these into a new series called the Grosset Sports Library.  They reissued the following books:

·         The Jackie Robinson Story

·         Baseball Complete

·         Babe Ruth

·         Baseball’s Hall of Fame

·         Inside Baseball

In addition, the following titles were issued for the Grosset Sports Library:

·         Run to Daylight by Vince Lombardi, 1963

·         Pro Quarterback, My Own Story by Johnny Unitas and Ed Fitzgerald, 1965

·         The Making of a Pro Quarterback by Ed Richter, 1963

·         Gordie Howe by Stan Fischler, 1967

·         Arnold Palmer by the editors of Gold Digest Magazine, 1967

·         The Amazing Mets by Jerry Mitchell, 1964

·         Inside Pro Football by Hal Higdon, 1968

·         Wilt Chamberlain by George Sullivan, 1966

·         Willie Mays by Arnold Hano, 1966

·         Sports Shorts by Mac Davis, 1959

·         Sandy Koufax by Jerry Mitchell, 1966

·         Comeback Quarterback – by Earl Morrall and George Sullivan, 1969

All of the Grosset Sports Library books are hardcover with a picture cover - no dust jackets. 

There are many more sports book sets that go back to the early 1900’s when sports, football and baseball in particular, became a bigger part of American life.  Those four “Yankee” books that I found in California started a whole different branch of collecting for me - so in addition to baseball cards from the 60’s and 70’s…I am now collecting sports books.  What a day that proved to be.