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George Wright's Personal Copy of Base Ball Player's Pocket Companion With His Hand Drawn Diamond Diagram (1860)
The finest baseball book extant and for more reasons than what is on the surface. The book itself is incredibly rare and important, but it is also signed by baseball's first superstar and he has added a hand-drawn diagram of a baseball diamond! This Third Edition of the Base Ball Players Pocket Companion, was published by Mayhew & Baker of Boston in 1860. The rarest of the three editions, perhaps only three are known. Many 19th century collectors and historians consider this to be THE single most important early baseball book. Includes rules, regulations and diagrams for both the Massachusetts and New York Games. Soft cloth covers are stamped with gilt imagery of the earliest ballplayer. Flyleaf is inscribed in pencil and initialed by George Wright himself, "Given me by an admirer of the game of base ball and self, 1876...G.W...Boston Mass." For your edification, 1876 was his "rookie" year for Boston of the National League and was in fact the "rookie" season for the National League as a whole! On the following page, George Wright has drawn a simple diagram of a crude baseball diamond! It mimics somewhat the classic printed diagram on the following page. Wright's parameters are the same 60' feet between bases and his own 85' diagonally from second to home. The book shows extensive wear including staple rust worn through on the flyleaf and "diamond" page. There is staining to the cover and water damage throughout, but the book is still solid and all pages are attached. Pencil is dark and clean, some of the words and initials of the inscription are enhanced in pencil, we believe by George I himself. Not by the 18th century British monarch, but the King of 19th Century Base Ball.
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