Past Time Ball

Fresh finds from the archives. Old ballgames, older ads and the best team names ever set in metal type.

Full-page newspaper photograph of pitcher Joe McGinnity in a New York uniform waving his right arm overhead, headlined This Is the Famous Iron Man of McGraw's Team, credited to a Republic photographer.

This is the famous Iron Man of McGraw's team

New York Giants
St. Louis, Missouri · 1903

Full-length newspaper portrait of Jesse Burkett holding a bat, headlined Burkett Chases a Bleacherite, with a caption explaining he chased a heckler who bolted out the Grand Avenue gate.

The sun god bolted when he saw Burkett climbing the fence

St. Louis Browns
St. Louis, Missouri · 1902

Spalding's Encyclopedia of Base Ball advertisement with a drawing of a batter and catcher, listing numbered how-to booklets from How to Bat through How to Run the Bases, plus Spalding's Official Base Ball Guide for 1906.

Everything from How to Bat to How to Organize a League, ten cents each

The Times-Journal
Malvern, Arkansas · 1906

Newspaper item reading Call the score please. Here it is: Monday's game, Yellville 8 Newark 1. Tuesday, Yellville 5 Newark 3. Wednesday, Newark 4 Yellville 1.

"Call the score please." Yellville takes two of three from Newark

Mountain Echo
Yellville, Arkansas · 1905

Newspaper item about a boy with the financial acumen to climb a tree outside the ballpark to watch a base ball game and save his fifteen cents, ending with Don't interfere with him.

Don't interfere with the boy in the tree

Mountain Echo
Yellville, Arkansas · 1905

Four-line newspaper item saying Ben Ward says it takes a good man to umpire a ball game and referee a fight at the same time, but that he did it last Tuesday.

Ben Ward umpired the ball game and refereed the fight at the same time

Mountain Echo
Yellville, Arkansas · 1905