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It is difficult to imagine today, but once upon a time there was life without the Internet.

The world, at that time, was not brought to your doorstep, and this was perhaps harder on the baseball fan than on anyone else in the country, for the coverage of the sport was what you found in your local newspaper.

As early as 1942 Herb Simons, a sportswriter for the Chicago Sun-Times, put together a publication that was, considering the primitive times, a pre-Internet Internet, gathering baseball stories from around the nation, done not by faceless bloggers who may or may not have credibility, but by the best baseball writers of what would become the Golden Age of baseball writing.

The publication was called Baseball Digest and, if it wasn’t as all encompassing as the Sporting News, which was simply known as the “Baseball Bible,” it wasn’t intended to be. It was not the source for baseball news, simply a place to republish the best stories in newspapers and magazines, offering statistics you could get nowhere else such as the biggest gainers and losers in batting average from year to year and pitchers’ records against other clubs.

It was filled with opinion—that of the likes of Dick Young, Jim Murray, Jimmy Cannon, Mel Durslag, Joe Falls—opinion you could enjoy, respect, and, yes, disagree with, no matter what your age.

Recently, in reading the section of the February 1973, Baseball Digest entitled “The Fans Speak Out,” I came across the following letter talking about a piece written by George Vass, a highly respected Chicago baseball writer:

Before George Vass writes anything on teams he does not directly cover, he should do some research.

In his article “What the Contenders Need for 1973” Mr. Vass reported the Yankees need help at third base where “Rich McKinney and others have struggled.”

Mr. Vass obviously did not follow the Yanks during 1972. They had one of the finest third basemen in baseball since early June, Celerino Sanchez.

Obviously, this fan had his own strong opinions.

Still does. The letter was signed: Keith Olbermann, Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.

Yes, that Keith Olbermann, who was 14 years old at the time.

Baseball Digest has survived from 1942 to the present, although it is now down to six editions a year and goes online, and because there are so many places to find your baseball stories, facts, and opinion, the magazine no longer carries the weight that it once did.

But this was really one of the greatest publications a baseball fan ever had through the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s and into the ‘80s.

There was something for everyone, really. In addition to the original material and the reprints from Esquire Magazine, Time and Look magazines, to the Nashville Banner and the Dayton Daily News and all papers of different sizes and circulation in between, there were different departments.

Hall of Fame shortstop and manager Lou Boudreau wrote “Baseball Tips for Budding Ballplayers,” an instructional section for youth.

There was the Baseball Digest Quick Quiz, which occupied young minds and old, challenging them with their knowledge of baseball history, rules and statistics. There was monthly section called “The Game I’ll Never Forget,” where star players recounted one game out of their career, be it Johnny Bench talking of the 1972 NLCS game against Pittsburgh that he tied with a home run off Dave Giusti in the ninth inning and that Cincinnati won on a Bob Moose wild pitch, or Rennie Stennett recounting his seven-hit game in Chicago in his own words.

The magazine had almost everything, right down to a less-than-challenging but fun baseball crossword puzzle that offered clues like 25 Down—“Pitcher Steve sounds like he could give you a close shave.”

The answer, of course, was Steve Barber.

For those who were into the rule book, there was a section called “Think You Know Baseball?” where under a cartoon of a sliding runner breaking up a double play Harry Simmons would set up a scenario about breaking up a double play on which with none out and the bases loaded, interference is called on the slide at second base. Both runners are ruled out, but Simmons asks what does the umpire do about Steve Garvey, who had been on third and scored on the play?

By the way, the answer on page 71 of this issue quoted the rule on interference saying since Garvey had touched home plate at the time of the interference, his run would be allowed to stand.

As great as the editorial copy was, the advertisements were better. There was an ad for a cult baseball game called APBA Baseball and for another game that advertised: “Manage in the Majors with Strat-O-Matic Baseball.”

You could send away for team mugs, jerseys, posters, 8 mm films of World Series or heavyweight championship fights, sign up for “Ted Williams Baseball Camp"–if you can imagine being so lucky–or you could bulk up on one of the body-building ads such as the one that showed a weight lifter exposing his muscular frame with the headline:

“Impossible … if not for the super body building process”

And, of course, the back cover would have an ad for Winston cigarettes, for in that era even ballplayers smoked.

Placed through the magazine were short vignettes taken from papers or provided by baseball writers–most meant to make you laugh, some to amaze you.

Take this one:

A friend of Gene Mauch once asked him how he was feeling and the Montreal manager said fine.

“My players say I’ll never have a heart attack because I don’t have a heart,” Mauch laughed. —Milton Richman, United Press International.

But, in the end, it was the stories that grabbed you.

Take this lead off a story by Jimmy Cannon: “The autopsy is going on, but there isn’t any corpse.”

Think you don’t want to read on about Brooks Robinson and how his average had fallen?

And Cannon was right. There was no corpse, for Robinson went to have one of the greatest World Series known to man against Cincinnati that October in 1970.

 And where else could you find out that all it cost the Cincinnati Reds to sign Hall of Fame first baseman Tony Perez was $2.50 for a visa or that Ken Griffey Sr. was signed by the Reds for a Reds’ jacket, a pair of sanitary socks, and $500 a month, which was more than the Reds got Dan Driessen for, as he claimed he signed for “a Reds’ yearbook and a plane ticket.”  

Thank you for reading

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tombores99
9/28
I can't imagine my childhood without Baseball Digest. It was the only mail that came to the house with my name on it, and I would read the short-stack monthly during SSR in grade school.

I remember saving the crossword puzzle for last, as many of the answers could be found elsewhere in the edition, and I measured my baseball acumen by the results on the quick quiz. - "if you score 80 or better, you are a baseball expert"

The magazine did an excellent job of pacing the material, with a healthy mix of headline articles and regular features. One of my favorite features was "The Baseball Rules Corner," and I'll never forget the rule that states that the hand is part of the bat on an HBP/foul ball, thanks to the killer drawing of a wilting ballplayer with a busted hand. Too bad that rule is rarely enforced correctly today... maybe I should send a copy of BD to the umpires union.

Thanks for bringing back some fond memories, Bob.
kenneff
9/28
Interesting to see that even at 14 Olbermann was as pompous, uninformed and spectacularly wrong as he is today.
biteme
9/28
KO was and is a passionate baseball fan. And at the very least, unlike your heroes at Fox News, he does not lie or distort the news. When I was 14, I was dreaming up ridiculous trades and sending them to Lee McPhail, the NYY General Manager. There was much less baseball information out there, but I devoured every source I could find. Getting a new Baseball Digest was like opening a Christmas gift.
BillJohnson
9/28
Now this is more the kind of article I was hoping Bob Hertzel would contribute here. Count me among the childhood BD readers, and I miss it. Thanks for taking me back to those days ...
jecanning
9/28
Thanks for this article--it brought back some nice memories from the early 1970s. As a child, I was also attracted by the fact that Baseball Digest was much smaller than a standard size magazine (I understand that this is no longer the case)--which seemed appropriate since it was the magazine that my baseball-loving elementary school friends and I rushed to read (as opposed to the larger magazines read by the grown-ups in the house).
mwright
9/28
Baseball Digest, The Sporting News, The Who's Who in Baseball annual .... that's about all we had besides the local paper at a time when the best day of the year was when the mailman delivered my Topps boxed set (before adults ruined card collecting).
sgturner65
9/29
Let's not forget the Street & Smith annual magazines that came out before Spring Training started. They were must-reads along with the others mentioned here.
dodgerken222
9/29
Always used to look forward to the spring training issue of Baseball Digest where they would publish every team's internal scouting reports on all of their prospects. Each prospect would wind up with an "outlook" that could be brutally honest.
Also, their mid-season issue where they would print every player's stats against each opposing team. That more than anything made me the stat nerd that I became.
clete6
9/30
For a minute there, I thought maybe I had been the one to write the letter about Celerino Sanchez. He's still my all-time favorite player.