The crack of the bat on a ball, the smack of a ball hitting a mitt, and the umpire’s cry of “You’re out!” Ah, the sounds of summer. America’s most popular pastime hit a home run in early Nebraska–be it high school, college, league or pick-up at the sandlot, boys and men enjoyed a game of baseball.
In this
Union College game from 1911-1912, the player sliding into base wears a uniform, while the player stretching a mitt to catch the ball looks to be wearing street clothes.
Other college photos in Nebraska Memories show the teams lined up in uniform, sometimes with coaches and ball boys. Towns, big and small, also had
their teams and
fans showed up to the games.
Younger boys may have played in a
league or, as in
this picture, in a pick-up game on a lot or playground. These boys don’t seem to have had a home plate or bags for the bases, but there seem to be plenty of bats and mitts as the pitcher winds up for a pitch. And there wouldn’t have been a problem of spiking, as more than one of the boys appears to be barefoot.
Baseball even made an appearance on-stage at the Omaha Community Playhouse with a production of
Damn Yankees. These unnamed Omaha crooners may or may not have played baseball at some time in real life, but I’m sure they were crowd pleasers.
Visit
Nebraska Memories to search for or browse through many more historical images digitized from photographs, negatives, postcards, maps, lantern slides, books and other materials.
Nebraska Memories is a cooperative project to digitize Nebraska-related historical and cultural heritage materials and make them available to researchers of all ages via the Internet. Nebraska Memories is brought to you by the Nebraska Library Commission. If your institution is interested in participating in Nebraska Memories, see
http://nlc.nebraska.gov/nebraskamemories/participation.aspx for more information, or contact
Beth Goble, Historical Projects Librarian, or
Devra Dragos, Technology & Access Services Director.
