The San Diego Public Library system has formed a partnership
with the Ted Williams Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research,
"SABR." SABR was founded in Cooperstown, NY
in 1971. It is a not-for-profit
organization with over 7,000 members worldwide—researchers, biographers,
baseball fans, and statisticians. The Ted Williams Chapter of the Society has
donated funds which have allowed the Central Library to purchase early issues
of The Sporting News from 1886 to 1969 on microfilm from the University
of Notre Dame, The Sporting Life from 1883 to 1917 on microfilm, a
baseball scrapbook collection and various 19th century sports
newspapers from 1857 to 1886. As part of this partnership, San Diego Public
Library will soon have an electronic link from the Library Catalog to the SABR
Baseball Index. This index, compiled by SABR volunteers, assigns detailed
subject headings to over 175,000 books, magazine articles, programs, pamphlets,
films, recordings, songs or cartoons about the subject of baseball. Once the
link to the Library Catalog is live, patrons will be able to look up books from
the SABR Baseball Index in the Library Catalog and get call numbers and
availability for the library system.
Material relating to baseball is primarily located in the Art,
Music & Recreation Section of the Central Library. Biographies of baseball
figures are located in the History Section, novels about baseball are located
in the Literature Section and some of the reference books pertaining to
baseball in California are located in the California Room. In addition to
books, the Art, Music & Recreation Section also has CD-ROMs, video
documentaries and feature films about baseball, sheet music of baseball songs,
compact discs featuring songs about baseball, as well as baseball books on
tape. The reference books pertaining to baseball are located in the Art, Music
& Recreation Section as well as basement storage. Some of the branch
libraries also have unique baseball titles which are not owned by Central.
THE CATALOG
Baseball material can be researched in several ways. In the
Library Catalog, one can search BASEBALL as a subject or as a keyword. Library
users searching for a format other than book
can specify MUSIC RECORDING, VIDEO MATERIALS, etc. under Limit the
Search: By Material Type.
Magazine articles on baseball can be found by searching the InfoTrac
OneFile. If only a citation is given, the patron can obtain the magazine at
the Call Desk if it is owned by the library. Newspaper articles can be searched
in Proquest which indexes dozens of newspapers from all over the
country. Many of these articles are full text and may be printed out at the
computer.
THE INTERNET
www.sabr.org
Society for American Baseball Research
Find out about SABR's publications, collections, and activities.
www.baseballamerica.com
Baseball America Online
Information on high school, college teams, plus major and
minor leagues and drafts.
www.baseballhalloffame.org
National Baseball Hall of Fame
Read about hall of famers and honorees, view exhibits and
collections.
www.mlb.com
The Official Site of Major League Baseball
Look up statistics on teams and individual players as well
as baseball news.
www.baseball-links.com
Baseball Links
Links to baseball history, international baseball and youth
baseball
www.baseball.com
Baseball.com
Links to team websites, fantasy leagues and baseball news.
ART, MUSIC, & RECREATION SECTION
Reference Books
America's national game: historic facts concerning the beginning,
evolution, development and popularity of baseball by A. G. Spalding. 1911. R797
SPALDING
The Barry Halper Collection of baseball memorabilia. 1999. R796.357 HALPER
Baseball: a comprehensive bibliography by Myron J. Smith. 1986. Supplement 1, 1985-May 1992, 1993.
R796.357 SMITH
Baseball and American culture: a thematic bibliography of
over 4,500 works by
Donald E. Walker. 1995. R796.357 WALKER
Baseball by the numbers: how statistics are collected, what
they mean, and how they reveal the game by Willie Runquist. 1995. R796.357 RUNQUIST
Baseball card price guide. 2002. R769.49796 BASEBALL
Baseball guide. 2002. R796.357 BASEBALL
Baseball register. 2002. R796.357 BASEBALL
The baseball research handbook by Gerald Tomlinson. 1987. R796.357
TOMLINSON
The biographical encyclopedia of the Negro baseball leagues by James A. Riley. 1994. R796.357
RILEY
The cultural encyclopedia of baseball by Jonathan Fraser Light. 1997.
R796.35703 LIGHT
SABR presents the home run encyclopedia: who, what and where
of every home run hit since 1876. 1996. R796.35726 SABR
Circulating Books
Baseball and the color line: the African-American experience by Tom Gilbert. 1995. 796.357
GILBERT
Fear strikes out: the Jim Piersall story by Jim Piersall. 1999. 796.357
PIERSALL
Missed it by that much: baseball players who challenged the
record books by
Victor Debs, Jr. 1998. 796.357 DEBS
Nineteenth century baseball: year-by-year statistics for the
major league teams, 1871 through 1900 by
Marshall D.Wright. 1996. 796.357 WRIGHT
Pride of Havana: the history of Cuban baseball by Roberto Gonzalez. 1999. 796.357
GONZALEZ
Stolen! a history of base stealing by Russell Roberts. 1999. 796.35727
ROBERTS
Videorecordings
Baseball by Ken Burns. 1994. VC 796.357 BASEBALL
Heart of San Diego: Buzzie Bavasi. VC B/BAVASI
The pride of the Yankees DVD 791.4372 PRIDE
Music Recordings
Baseball's greatest hits. 1989. CD782.42164 BASEBALL'S
Baseball's greatest hits: let's play II. 1990. CD 782.42164 BASEBALL'S
Books on Tape
Great time coming: the life of Jackie Robinson. 1996. AC B/ROBINSON
October 1964 by David Halberstam. 1994. AC 796.357 HALBERSTAM
Picture File
San Diego Padres file containing pictures of the team and some individual
players.
CD-ROMS
Sammy Sosa high heat baseball 2001. CDROM 796.86357 SAMMY
High heat baseball 2000. CDROM 794.86357 HIGH
Music Scores
The mighty Casey: a baseball opera in three scenes by William Schuman. 1954. M782
SCHUMAN
Baseball in music and song. 1954. RM 786 BASEBALL
HISTORY SECTION
Biographies
Joe DiMaggio: the hero's life by Richard Ben Cramer. 2000.
B/DIMAGGIO
Nolan Ryan: the road to Cooperstown by Nolan Ryan. 1999. B/RYAN
LITERATURE SECTION
Fiction
Havana heat by Darryl Brock. 2000. Fic BROCK
Snow in August by Pete Hamill. 1997. Fic HAMILL
The sports pages: a critical bibliography of twentieth-century
American novels and stories featuring baseball by Grant Burns. 1987. R016.8135 BURNS
CALIFORNIA ROOM
More than a ballpark: an investment in our future: a
ballpark for San Diego.
1998. RCC 796.357 MORE
History of San Diego baseball. 1993. RCC 796.357 HISTORY
The Pacific Coast Baseball League, 1903-1947. 1947. RCC 797 PACIFIC
Padres magazine: official game day magazine for the San
Diego Padres. 1998.
RCC 796.357 PADRES
San Diego Padres 1969 inaugural yearbook. 1969. RCC 796.357 SAN
Vertical Files containing newspaper clippings on the San
Diego Padres and many individual players.
CALL DESK
Periodicals
Baseball America. (1988-1996)
The Sporting News. (1886 to the present; current year's issues in Art & Music)
Sports Illustrated. (1954 to the present; current issue on display near
Science Section)
Sporting Life. (1883-1917 on microfilm in Storage)
New York Clipper. (Various issues between 1857 and 1883 on microfilm in
Storage)
Baseball Players Chronicle (1867 on microfilm in Storage)
American Chronicle of Sports & Pastimes (1868 on microfilm in Storage)
New England Base Ballist (1868 on microfilm in Storage)
Official Baseball Record (1885-1886 on microfilm in Storage)
Baseball Scrapbooks (1853-1882 on microfilm in Storage)