Digital archive of Baseball Magazine definitely a treat

I found a wealth of historical baseball knowledge in LA84 Foundation’s archives.  They have digitized much of Baseball Magazine’s contents from the early 1900’s.  I’ve spent a good hour just reading and browsing the material and it’s fantastic!  Even the advertisements are great! 

You can get a list of articles from 1908, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1917, and 1918 (click on each year and it will take you to their individual year’s archive).  All articles are in pdf format. 

I have some favorites already.  There’s a preview of the 1912 Giants-Red Sox World Series.  Then there’s The Art of Big League Trading by none other than John McGraw. 

And no magazine is complete without ads and Jake Stahl is hawking Ide Silver Collars in the 1912 archives (“Your Collar is the “High-Light” of Your Dress”). 

What I found amazing is that baseball media back in the early 1900’s was not so much different than it is now.  As I said, I saw previews for important postseason series.  There was an article comparing stats on all the NL secondbasemen in the league.  Who’s whos, interviews, retrospectives, everything you would see in a pre-season baseball mag or maybe even say, a baseball blog.

I guess the technology has certainly changed but the tried, true formulas of good sports journalism has remained strikingly similar. 

Anyway, this is indeed, a treasure trove, especially for those who love old baseball history.