Post #5: Library of Congress Trip

The trip to the Library of Congress was about as productive as I could have expected considering the time constraints. I had already formed a list of books and their call numbers the night before by browsing through the online catalog. So, when we finally got to the main reading room just before 2 o’clock, I checked the catalog again to see whether the books I intended to request had already been charged to someone. Fortunately, they were not charged out and my request slips were stamped at 2:11 p.m. The books weren’t delivered until nearly an hour and a half later though, leaving me just over an hour to look through them.

The four books that I requested were: Jackie Robinson’s Little League Baseball Book (written by Jackie himself as the title suggests); Happy Birthday, Little League by Gerald Newman; Play Ball!: The Story of Little League Baseball by Lance and Robin Van Auken; and Growing Up at Bat: 50 Years of Little League Baseball by Harvey Frommer. Jackie Robinson’s book did not deal with integration, but rather was an instructional how-to book with regard to developing specific baseball skills (hitting, throwing, base running, etc.) Mr. Newman’s book was geared for juvenile readers and did not touch on integration either. The Van Aukens’ book, however, did have a decent amount of useful information. There were a couple pages dealing with racial tension in the South Carolina little leagues in 1955, as well as a whole chapter on Little League’s integration of the sexes. Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I was unable to take much of a look at Mr. Frommer’s book. I was able to photocopy some of the relevant parts of the Play Ball! book before closing time though.

I will return to the Library of Congress if I am unable to find these, or the other books I have on my LOC catalog list, at local libraries. My next main step will be to visit the Little League Baseball Museum in Williamsport, PA over spring break. I also plan to start looking for some newspaper articles at that time.