Joyce Sports Research Collection Manuscripts

A collection of materials on the All-American Girls Baseball League, a women's professional league active in the Midwest from 1943 to 1954. The greater part of the collection consists of records preserved by Dr. Harold T. Dailey (1894–1971), a South Bend, Indiana oral surgeon who served the league's South Bend Blue Sox franchise in various executive capacities. Much of the Dailey material is included in a set of ten loose-leaf notebooks totaling over 1,100 leaves. The notebooks were apparently intended as a documentary history of the league, and perhaps as source material for a narrative history that Dailey never wrote.

Included are minutes of the meetings of the AAGBBL Board of Directors, financial information, and player information and statistics, as well as correspondence, newspaper clippings, printed ephemera, and photographs. Notebooks are arranged chronologically and cover the full span of the league's history—with an emphasis on the South Bend franchise.

The AAGBBL Collection also incorporates other components, including papers of league manager D. C. "Chet" Grant; several groups of player questionnaires; and league-related printed matter. MSSP 0014

1 vol., 37 cm., 250 leaves, with 200 pages of manuscript entries in various hands; 14 additional manuscripts; 1 clipping: A collection of records, mostly financial, of the Birmingham (Alabama) Black Barons, 1923 to 1930. During this period the Barons were an elite African American team, affiliated with the Negro Southern League (1920–23, 1926) or the Negro National League (1924–25, 1927–30).

The most significant item in the collection is a bound cash book, showing the club's financial accounts with each of its players for the seasons 1926 through 1930. Individual player accounts for a given season typically occupy two facing pages; each credit (usually in the form of salary) and debit (cash advances, equipment charges, fines, etc.) is indicated. Among the notable players in the ledger is Leroy "Satchel" Paige. A few non-player accounts are also noted.

In addition to the ledger, the collection includes a few team-related letters, receipts, and other records. MSSP 0001

Financial records related to the Detroit Tigers American League professional baseball team.Two bound accounting ledgers document the business operation of the Detroit Base Ball and Amusement Company and its successor the Detroit Base Ball Company. Entries in the ledgers record income and expenses for a wide variety of transactions, including player salaries, spring training trips, world series games, routine business matters, and other subjects. Among the notable names in the ledgers are Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, and manager Hughie Jennings. Formats include account books. MSSP 0016.

36 letters and telegrams, some with enclosures; 6 newspaper clippings: Correspondence relating to the New York Yankees' efforts to encourage state legislation (primarily the 1918 Lawson Bill) to permit Sunday baseball in New York. Many of the letters are directed to Yankees president Jacob Ruppert, by politicians responding to the club's inquiries about their stance on the matter. There are also carbon copies of letters from the Yankees, and several items to and from Brooklyn Dodgers president Charles H. Ebbets. MSSP 0010.

238 containers and 5 flat storage drawers; 122.79 cubic feet. The Pfefer Collection comprises the business papers and promotional materials of U.S. professional wrestling manager and booking agent Jacob "Jack" Pfefer (1894-1974), one of the sport's most colorful and influential figures in the second quarter of the 20th century. It includes manuscript material, printed matter, and photographs, most notably: pro wrestling programs (20 containers); photographic prints, mostly publicity portraits (52 containers); scrapbooks of clippings (40 containers); wrestler files (35 containers); business and financial records (58 containers); correspondence, mostly incoming (13 containers); and posters, handbills, and other graphic formats (8 containers and 5 flat storage drawers). MSSP/PFEFER.

This small collection consists of legal documents and correspondence related to Curt Flood’s lawsuit, Flood v. Kuhn against Major League baseball’s reserve clause in the early 1970s. The legal documents include official court papers from the Appellate Court case in the Second Circuit of Appeals (1971) and the Supreme Court decision (1972) against Flood. The correspondence largely consists of letters to and from the law firms Arnold & Porter and Wilkie, Farr, & Gallagher, who represented Bowie Kuhn (the Commissioner of Baseball) the National League, and the American League. MSSP 10008

Papers related to the professional football career of Roger Ellis. Materials include original contracts from the American Football League, the National Football League, and the Canadian Football League; correspondence and ephemera from his playing days from several teams including the New York Giants, New York Titans, New York Jets, the Oakland Area Football Club, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and the Montreal Alouette. The correspondence documents the daily life of a professional football player in the late 1950s and 1960s, and the correspondence between Ellis and the New York Titans, in particular, contains significant information about negotiations over his contracts.MSSP 10103

Lawrence A. Bucynski Baseball Correspondence includes nine pieces of correspondence from the summer of 1949 between baseball player Lawrence Bucynski, George Trautman, the President of the National Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, and the Abbeville (Louisiana) Athletics of the minor Evangeline League. The letters discuss a salary dispute between Bucynski and the Abbeville baseball team. Formats include letters and telegrams. MSSP 10141

6 vols. Five of the six volumes in this group (for 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, and 1952) are Indians payroll ledgers, with figures entered for each semi-monthly pay period. The hundreds of named employees include players, office workers, scouts, ground crew, ushers, ticket takers, and police. Each volume contains about 200 pages of content, plus inserts; pages measure around 35 x 42 cm. Four of the five volumes are disbound. The 1940 volume (21 x 29 cm., around 250 pages of content plus inserts) is more various in content than the other five. It includes club income and/or expenditures, in daybook form, relating to salaries, ticket sales, uniforms and equipment, travel, stadium maintenance, advertising, and a host of other categories. A closing statement indicates that the Indians made a net profit of $169,291.58 in 1940. MSSP 0022.

2 vols., 45 cm., 149 and 151 leaves, with a total of around 590 pages of manuscript entries; 34 additional manuscripts associated with the 1934-40 book: Two cash books detailing the finances of the Philadelphia National League baseball club (the Phillies) from March 1922 to July 1928, and from November 1934 to June 1940.

During these years, but especially in the 1930s under Gerald P. Nugent, the team was notable for its poor play, decrepit park, and financial insolvency. The two books are similar in format. Income and expenditures are itemized in daybook form. A typical in-season month—July 1937—contains nearly 100 lines of identified expenditures, some of which are further annotated. These include payroll (players' salaries are lumped together), travel costs, equipment, gate receipt payouts, fees, etc. On the revenue side, there is for in-season months a game-by-game breakdown of income, especially with regard to ticket pricing. The later book's 30-odd enclosures include receipts for income from high school football games. MSSP 0009.

1 vol., 36 x 40 cm., 280 leaves, with 20 pages of manuscript entries. The printed column headings in this oversized volume read: Date / Player / From Club / Agreement / Class / Cost / Exchange / Remarks. The book includes transaction details in manuscript on some 175 players whom the Athletics either contractually controlled or (presumably) tried out during the 1920, 1921, and 1922 seasons. MSSP 0021.

This small collection includes two notebooks of financial records kept by owner/coach DeBenneville "Bert" Bell of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles during the 1937 season. One consists of player salaries, broken down by game; the second records advertising revenue from the Eagles' game programs. There is also a personal letter written by Bell in 1934 to his future wife, Frances Upton. Bell served as NFL commissioner from 1946 to 1959. MSSP 1009-.

30 letters and telegrams related to Homer Clifford Selby (1880-1959), a Portsmouth, Ohio shoe company executive who in late 1931 assumed leadership of a committee to rescue the National Football League's Portsmouth Spartans from insolvency. Throughout 1932—when the Spartans lost to the Chicago Bears in a playoff for the NFL title—Selby remained deeply involved, though he ultimately failed to raise enough money to pay the club's debts; the Spartans moved to Detroit in 1934, becoming the Lions. Most of the letters in the collection were written by or directed to Selby, and relate to the team's finances (especially players' back wages). MSSP 1006.

1 vol., 36 cm., 106 leaves, with 57 pages of manuscript entries: A ledger for the fiscal years ending in 1889 and 1890 partly filled with the financial records of an unidentified late-nineteenth century manufacturer of baseballs. The company made more than thirty different makes of ball, from the "American League" (wholesale about $7.00 per dozen) to the "I.X.L." (24 cents per dozen).

Records include itemized cost estimates for each make of ball; sales to specific vendors; and yearly inventories. MSSP 0013.

About 175 pieces of correspondence and other records; 1 brochure. A collection of business records of the fishing line company founded in 1840 by the flax spinner Henry Hall, at Highland Mills, Orange County, New York. Included are around 100 records from the early 1880s, mostly orders and invoices from customers and suppliers. Also present are around 75 pieces of correspondence written in 1900 by D. D. Anderson of the New York sales office, directed to company president Alexander G. Hall at Highland Mills. From 1882 to 1895 the concern was known as Henry Hall & Sons; from 1898 to 1904 it was Henry Hall Sons Co. MSSP 7005-1 to MSSP 7005-28.

About 900 letters, many with envelopes; 10 pieces of printed ephemera. The Batchelder correspondence consists primarily of business and personal letters directed to William Batchelder, an oar manufacturer in Lancaster, Coos County, New Hampshire. Batchelder was born in Effingham, New Hampshire in 1826 or 1827, the eldest son of the farmer Stephen Batchelder (1791-1870) and Betsey Hutching. The family's involvement with the crafting of oars dates to at least the 1850s; in the 1860 federal census both Stephen and William Batchelder are identified as "Master Oarmakers". After the Civil War W. & J. Batchelder (subsequently William Batchelder & Co.) grew into an important supplier for oar retailers in Boston, Portland, Gloucester, and elsewhere. By the later 1870s Batchelder was receiving orders from firms in Chicago and San Francisco. Individual orders range from a few oars to more than 500. Many of his wholesale customers were boat builders, including at least one—Oliver & Tullis of Philadelphia—who specialized in racing shells. The Batchelder collection includes around 730 incoming business letters, ranging in date from 1863 to 1886. Common types include orders, inquiries, freight and shipping arrangements, late payment excuses, and occasional complaints regarding quality. Some of these letters include Batchelder's endorsements, often in shorthand. Taken together, the letters shed light on most aspects of Batchelder's business, from raw material procurement and product promotion to sales, shipping, credit extension, and payment. Also in the collection are around 220 personal letters, mostly directed to William and mostly dating from the 1860s, 70s, and 80s. These are typically from his parents, his many siblings, and his children. Some have a direct bearing on the business, especially those written in the 1860s by his brother (and partner) John (b. 1829). MSN MN 5010-1 to MSN/MN 5010-112.

1 document, partly printed: A completed major league transfer agreement, documenting the sale of player Edward ("Jeff") Sweeney (1888–1947) from Richmond to the New York Yankees for $300.00. The document is signed by Yankees president Jacob Ruppert. MSSP 0004.