Opening Day Auction Closing May 9th
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/10/2015
In the days before radio and television, the only way for baseball fans to receive news of their favorite teams was in the newspaper. While some newspapers published an evening edition, most fans had to wait until the following day to find out if their team won or lost. However, during the World Series, many newspapers employed a mechanical "Player Board", the absolute latest in modern technology, to keep fans up to date. A Player Board was a giant representation of a baseball field erected on the facade of a building on which team line ups and batteries were posted. A simulated batter, fielders and even a ball were moved around the field by operators who were fed up to the moment play-by-play information via telegraph. In this fashion, thousands would fill the sidewalk and street transfixed by the big game unfolding before their eyes.
The “Magnetic Base Ball Player Board Corp.” of New Bedford, Massachusetts assembled this 10 1/2" x 14" leather bound portfolio to showcase their product to prospective customers. Forty-nine original photographs demonstrate the popularity of these Player Boards by showing massive crowds in cities throughout the world eagerly following the World Series. Visible in the photos are the lineups and teams representing stars such as Babe Ruth and the infamous 1919 Black Sox. Dating from 1918 to 1925, almost a decade's worth of World Series' are shown in cities such as New York City (Times Square), Salt Lake City, Oklahoma City, Phoenix, Houston, Baltimore, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, New Bedford, Hartford, Long Beach, Ca.; Akron and in Canada; Winnipeg, Manitoba and in Sydney Australia. The photos range in size from 4 1/2" x 4 3/4" and 8" x 10" and are mounted on black album pages. The original album has been beautifully bound in black leather upon which is stamped “Collection of Barry Halper" whose collection this was once a prized part of.