Resources

For Further Reading

Smithsonian Books
- Margaret N. Salazar-Porzio. ¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2020.
- Stephen Wong and Dave Grob. Game Worn: Baseball Treasures from the Game’s Greatest Heroes and Moments. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books, 2016.
- Harry L. Katz. Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress. New York: Smithsonian Books and Harper, 2009.
- Stephen Wong. Baseball Treasures. New York, NY: Smithsonian Books and Harper, 2007.
- Stephen Wong. Smithsonian Baseball: Inside the World's Finest Private Collections. New York: Smithsonian Books and Harper, 2005.
Washington Baseball
- Frederic J. Frommer. You Gotta Have Heart: Washington Baseball from Walter Johnson to the 2019 World Series Champion Nationals. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2020.
- Shirley Povich. The Washington Senators. New York: Putnam, 1954 and Ashland, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2010.
- Gary A. Sarnoff. Wrecking Crew of ’33: The Washington Senators’ Last Pennant. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2009.
- Frank Ceresi and Mark Rucker. Baseball in Washington, D.C. Images of America Series. Mount Pleasant, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2002.
General
- John Thorn. Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012
- Lawrence Ritter. The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It. New York: HarperPerennial, 2010.
- Philip J. Lowry. Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of All Major League and Negro League Ballparks. New York: Walker and Company, 2006.
- David Halberstam. Summer of ’49. New York: HarperPerennial, 2006.
- A. Bartlett Giamatti. A Great and Glorious Game. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 1998.
Biography
- Jane Leavy. The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created. New York: Harper, 2018.
- Charles Leerhsen. Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015.
- Adrian Burgos, Jr. Cuban Star: How One Negro-League Owner Changed the Face of Baseball. New York: Hill and Wang, 2011.
- Jules Tygiel. Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy. 25th Anniversary Edition. Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
- Brad Snyder and Alan M. Dershowitz. A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight for Free Agency in Professional Sports. Omaha, NE: Notable Trials Press, 2007.
- David Maraniss. Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006. Also available in Spanish as Clemente: La pasión y el carisma del último héroe del béisbol, Vicente Echerri, translator.
- Jonathan Eig. Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005.
- Richard Ben Cramer. Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.
Collecting
- Museo de Filatelia de Oaxaca. Beisbol+Filatelia. Oaxaca, Mexico: MUFI, 2013.
- United States Postal Service. Play Ball!: Great Moments in Major League Baseball History. Washington, D.C.: USPS, 2012
- Dave Jamieson. Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession. New York: Grove Press, 2011.
- Michael O'Keeffe and Teri Thompson. The Card: Collectors, Con Men, and the True Story of History's Most Desired Baseball Card. New York: William Morrow, 2007.
- John Bloom. House of Cards: Baseball Card Collecting and Popular Culture. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Race and Ethnicity
- Bill Nowlin and Julio M. Rodriguez, editors. Dominicans in the Major Leagues. Phoenix, AZ: Society for American Baseball Research, 2022. Also available in Spanish as Dominicanos en las Ligas Mayores, Reynaldo Cruz, translator.
- Bill Nowlin and Edwin Fernández, editors. Puerto Rico and Baseball: 60 Biographies. Phoenix, AZ: Society for American Baseball Research, 2017.
- Lawrence Baldassaro. Beyond DiMaggio: Italian Americans in Baseball. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2011.
- Adrian Burgos. Playing America's Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line. American Crossroads Series. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2007.
- Neil Lanctot. Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
- Robert W. Peterson. Only The Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Other Baseball-Related Content

Baseball and the Postal Service: Teaching Race and Gender through Two American Institutions
Smithsonian Learning Lab presentation
Baseball and Philately from the Vault of the National Postal Museum
Chief Curator Daniel A. Piazza shared philatelic highlights from the National Postal Museum’s exhibition Baseball: America’s Home Run with members of the Collectors Club of New York as part of the club’s Virtual Philatelic Program Series. Recorded Wednesday, October 21, 2020.
Smithsonian Institution Baseball-Related Objects
Baseball-related objects in Smithsonian museum collections
Playing to Win - Baseball
Virtual exhibition webpage

Baseball and Philately from the Vault of the National Postal Museum

Chief Curator Daniel A. Piazza shared philatelic highlights from the National Postal Museum’s forthcoming exhibition Baseball: America’s Home Run with members of the Collectors Club of New York as part of the club’s Virtual Philatelic Program Series. Recorded Wednesday, October 21, 2020.

Learn more About Baseball and Philately from the Vault of the National Postal Museum