Spring training is upon us, ushering in the first notes of spring in the midst of the last long month of winter, as it has for over a century. The history of baseball is as integral to the fiber of the sport as is the annual trip to warmer weather and the reporting of pitchers and catchers, and no history of the game is complete without reference to one of its first serious historians. Dr. Harold Seymour’s PhD was the first awarded based on baseball research, and his book (referenced above in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Emanuel Celler, who was considering sports antitrust legislation during the 85th Congress) influenced generations of sports historians. Modern baseball historians such as John Thorn have rightly identified his wife, Dorothy Seymour Mills, as equally essential to the scholarship presented in the three seminal Seymour tomes (Baseball: The Early Years; Baseball: The Golden Age; Baseball: The People’s Game), and regularly cite the two as major contributors to our understanding of the game.
Letter to Emanuel Celler and Copy of Article, 10/26/1957; Committee Papers (HR85A-F11.16); Committee on the Judiciary; Records of the U.S. House of Representatives, RG 233.
The 2018 MLB All Star Game takes place in Washington, DC, this week, and for those not fortunate enough to see it in person, the sights, action and especially sounds will be accessible to audiences around the globe via television, streaming and radio. While technology such as “Statcast” and field microphones are commonplace today, far less technology permeated the game in the 1950’s. Enter Stan Sellers and his patented “Sports Sound System”, designed to enrich the ballpark experience by amplifying the on-field chatter so that every fan in attendance, as well as at home watching on TV or listening on radio, could hear the true sounds of baseball. However, Sellers found resistance from the baseball establishment to his plan for installing the sound system across organized baseball. In turn, Sellers took his complaints to Congress.
Professional baseball has been deemed exempt from antitrust laws ever since the Supreme Court decision of 1922. In the 1950’s, several Congressional committees took up the task of investigating possible legislative oversight of baseball’s monopoly status, including the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Emanuel Celler.
It was to this committee, considering sports antitrust legislation during the 85th Congress (1957-1958), that Stan Sellers sent his pleas for help. The letter, dated August, 1957, suggests support from several well-known baseball figures, mentions his thoughts on what he perceives as the monopolistic tendencies of MLB, and insists that fans are “simply wild to hear the hassles which occur on the diamond”!
Hope everyone enjoys the sights, and sounds, of the 2018 All Star Game!
Archival note: In Clifford Berryman’s cartoon, Uncle Sam offers a baseball bat called “National Big Stick” to a player in a Nationals uniform, a reference to President Theodore Roosevelt’s “big stick” diplomacy. Teddy bear assures him that, “it’s a victory getter, all right!”
Arthur Pue Gorman was a U.S. Senator from Maryland from 1881 to 1899, and again from 1902 (see credential above) until his death in 1906. Gorman was also the starting shortstop and president of an early incarnation of the Washington Nationals, and would later serve on the Mills Commission, which erroneously named Abner Doubleday as the inventor of baseball.
Senate credential for Arthur Pue Gorman, 2/18/1902; Records of the U.S. Senate
While we’re still reeling from the National’s Opening Day victory, we wanted to share this awesome new (free!) eBook from the National Archives.
“Baseball: The National Pastime in the National Archives” tells the story of baseball in America through documents, photographs, audio, video, and other records preserved at the National Archives. Chapter 9 “Saving the Integrity of the Game” features records from congressional hearings during the steroid era.
The book can be downloaded for free on your iPhone, Android, iPad, and eReaders, so check it out!
Congress in the Archives will feature monthly staff posts on our blog. Today’s post comes from Adam Berenbak.
Today is Opening Day in DC and all eyes are on the Nationals, especially their new mascot based on William Howard Taft. Taft is being celebrated as an addition to the ‘Presidents Run’ not only because he was an accomplished statesman and President, but because he is recognized as the first president to ever throw out a ‘first pitch’ on Opening Day, April 11, 1910.
Though the game is mostly remembered for Taft’s first pitch, Walter Johnson was the star, pitching within one hit of a no-hitter for Washington. Frank ‘Home Run’ Baker (who earned his nickname the following year with two dramatic home runs in the World Series) was the one batter to luck into a hit off of Johnson that day. In the fourth inning, Baker came to bat and lined a foul ball towards the President’s box. Though the ball missed Taft, it careened into the adjacent box, narrowly missing Vice President James Sherman before hitting Secretary of the Senate Charles Bennett in the head. Luckily for all involved, the ball “had spent its force when it landed in the box,” leaving everyone uninjured. Later reports and references to the incident, though, incorrectly refer to Bennett as the Secretary of State (and report that he was knocked out!).
As Secretary of the Senate, the chief legislative officer in the Senate, Bennett helped to usher the Senate into the modern era. In doing so, he was one of the first to collect and publish the various procedures of the Senate into a concise guide for Senators. He also enjoyed frequent outings to Boundary Field, and then National Park (later Griffith Stadium), to watch baseball.
Though no mascot of Bennett will be around during this year’s opening day game, their story reminds us all to watch out for the foul ball!
Will the Base Runner Start for Third? by Clifford Berryman, 8/17/1906, U.S. Senate Collection (ARC 6010644)
We’ve got baseball fever in Washington! The National’s have made it to the postseason (which starts today) for the first time since the team moved to DC. Who will you be rooting for?
On September 30, 1927 New York Yankee Babe Ruth became the first baseball player in the major leagues to hit 60 home runs in a season. Years earlier in 1920, Clifford Berryman’s political cartoon featured Presidential candidates Warren G. Harding and James M. Cox pondering Ruth’s secret of success. Harding hit a “home run” in the November elections and beat Cox by a landslide.
From our Senate Collection of Clifford Berryman political cartoons!
Ambitious Home Run Hitters, 8/3/1920, U.S. Senate Collection (ARC 1691371)
Since the First Congress in 1789, the records of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have documented the history of the legislative branch. Discover the treasures in our holdings here!
The Center for Legislative Archives is part of the National Archives.
For more information, visit The Center for Legislative Archives
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“ Let’s Go Nats! The Washington Nationals’ first playoff game is tonight against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s clear who Uncle Sam is cheering for!
“ [Untitled]
Series: Berryman Political Cartoon Collection, 1896 - 1949
Record Group...](https://64.media.tumblr.com/8b06b4b4c78f3d1a36d8f710b88dfa4b/tumblr_oen9urVHWT1qhk04bo1_1280.jpg)
