Know Your SFPL call numbers - 796.3 "Ball Games"

"Base Ball in Alaska" - source: America's National Game; Historic Facts Concerning the Beginning, Evolution, Development and Popularity of Base Ball by Albert G. Spalding; cartoons by Homer C. Davenport (American Sports Publishing Company, 1911).
The Dewey Decimal call number 796 comprises "Athletic and outdoor sports and games."  It's not surprising surprising that more than half of this section falls within the Dewey Decimal section for ball games point -- 796.3.

Here is a delineation of subjects within the 796.3 section:

796.31 - Ball thrown or hit by hand -- includes handball and lawn bowling

796.32 - Inflated ball thrown or hit by hand -- including basketball (796.323), netball (796.324), and volleyball (796.325).

796.33 - Inflated ball driven by foot -- including football (actually American football - 796.332), rugby (796.333), soccer (called football everywhere else - 796.334), Canadian football (796.335), and Australian rules football (796.336)

796.34 - Racket games -- including tennis (796.342), squash (796.343), badminton (796.345), table tennis (796.346), and lacrosse (796.347)

796.35 - Ball driven by club, mallet, bat -- including golf (796.352), polo (796.353), croquet (796.354), field hocket (796.355), baseball (796.357), and cricket (796.358).

The numbers apply to the history of each sport as well as information on watching, coaching or playing each sport. Biographies of sports figured are shelved on the 3rd floor in the General Collections Department in the "B" section.

Now that you have been coached with this knowledge -- Play ball!

Giants Of The Past

image source: San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection

The Library salutes the San Francisco Giants in the World Series with a small display of photos of the Giants from years past. courtesy of the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, San Francisco Public Library. Books on baseball are also here on the Fourth Floor.

Stop by the Library before or after attending the Giants Parade on October 31.

The 2012 San Francisco Giants - World Series Bound Once More

Our San Francisco Giants are National League Champions once again after coming from behind to win two dramatic playoff series against the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals.  Now it's on to Detroit!

The 2012 Giants share several players from the 2010 roster, and they also share a similar tendency to inflict delightful torture upon their fans.  In 2010 we presented a reading list of books covering San Francisco Giants history.  Since then, quite a few books have been published that allow readers to relive that magical season.



Several of these books are written by Bay Area sports journalists.  San Jose Mercury News reporter Andrew Baggarly has written A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants.  In this book, Baggarly brings the season back to life with personal anecdotes about players and the day-to-day experiences of the team.  This Is Our Time!: The 2010 San Francisco Giants World Series Champions, written by Chris Haft, the Giants' beat reporter for Mlb.com, also provides insights from his daily coverage of that team.  



Worth the Wait is a photographic celebration of the season featuring photography by Brad Magin; KNBR sports radio personality Brian Murphy, the author of San Francisco Giants: 50 Years, wrote the accompanying text and player profiles.  San Francisco Giants: Torture to Rapture recounts 2010 campaign through words and images from the San Francisco Chronicle.  Giant Surprise: San Francisco's 2010 World Champions is a richly illustrated summary of the team's playoff and World Series run.  

Two earlier books, Tales From the San Francisco Giants Dugout by Nick Peters and Giants Past And Present by Dan Fost have also been republished in updated editions that include the 2010 championship season.



Another recent title, 100 Things Giants Fans Should Know And Do Before They Die by Bill Chastain, features short chapters about 100 players and events from throughout the team's San Francisco. Finally, San Francisco Giants by Tricia O'Brien is a black and white photo collection spanning the team's history from its arrival in 1958 to 2011.


Let's hope this year's team will continue to give us exciting memories that will captured in future books about our San Francisco Giants.

Let's go Giants!


A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants by Andrew Baggarly (Triumph Books, 2011).

Giant Surprise: San Francisco's 2010 World Champions (Triumph Books, 2010).

Giants Past And Present by Dan Fost (MVP/MBI Pub. LLC, 2011).

100 Things Giants Fans Should Know And Do Before They Die by Bill Chastain (Triumph Books, 2011).

San Francisco Giants by Tricia O'Brien (Arcadia Pub., c2011).

San Francisco Giants: Torture to Rapture: 2010 World Series Champions (KCI Sports Pub., 2010).

Tales From The San Francisco Giants Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Giants Stories Ever Told by Nick Peters with Stuart Shea (Sports Pub., 2011).

This Is Our Time!: The 2010 San Francisco Giants World Series Champions: The Inside Story: Improbable, Wild, Unforgettable by Chris Haft and Eric Alan (Confluence Books, 2011).

Worth the Wait by Brian Murphy (Skybox Press, 2011).

"Your 2010 National League Champion San Francisco Giants: A Reading List," San Francisco Public Library Art, Music and Recreation Center [blog] (October 26, 2010).

Your 2010 National League Champion San Francisco Giants: A Reading List

As we all await the opening pitch for the 2010 World Series at China Basin it’s hard for all of us die hard fans not to remember all the Giants teams of years past. The team has a rich lore to be read about and savored.

The franchise’s 128 year history, both in New York and San Francisco, is documented in The Giants Encyclopedia, a history and compendium of players, managers and broadcasters. In Giants: Collector’s Edition provides a history and statistical overview of the team through 1993 (its 110th anniversary). Fifty Years By the Bay is a 50 year (1958-2007) history of the Giants in San Francisco. Giants Past & Present by free-lance journalist Dan Fost, is a well-illustrated history of the team from its origins to the present.

The Original San Francisco Giants, written by local broadcaster Steve Bitker, is an in-depth look at the Giant’s first season in the City that profiles every player on that team. Game of My Life and Giants: Where Have You Gone? are both books that interview Giants of the past. The former allows players a chance to recall their most memorable games in a Giants uniform; the latter looks at the post-baseball lives of many fan favorites.

Tales From the San Francisco Giants Dugout is a collection of memories of the San Francisco franchise, including the teams successes and failures, but giving perspective on what it means to be a Giants fan. Giants of the Golden Gate is a personal take on the great moments of Giants history.

Magic By the Bay retells the 1989 dual pennant runs of the Giants and the Oakland Athletics that resulted in the Bay Bridge World Series. Splash Hit! tells of the building of Pacific Bell (now AT&T) Park and the sold-out inaugural 2000 season.

For the most devoted of fans, the library’s Magazines and Newspapers Center also has a 16 year run of the Giants Magazine. As part of the Art, Music and Recreation Center reference collection we have more than a decade of the pre-season publication, the Giants Official Yearbook.

We look forward to bringing you next years books celebrating this season’s championship team. Until then...

Go Giants!


Reading List:

Fifty Years by the Bay: The San Francisco Giants 1958-2007 by Chuck Nan (AuthorHouse, 2006).

Game of My Life: San Francisco Giants by Matt Johanson (Sports Pub. L.L.C., 2007).

Giants: Collector's Edition by Joseph Hession (Foghorn Press, 1993).

The Giants Encyclopedia by Tom Schott and Nick Peters (Sports Publishing Inc., 2003).

Giants Magazine (Woodford Pub. and San Francisco Giants).

Giants of the Golden Gate: 50 Gigantic Memories from Five Decades of San Francisco Giants Baseball by A.J. Hayes (A.J. Hayes, 2008).

Giants Official Yearbook (University Sports Publications Co., Inc., 2001-).

Giants Past & Present by Dan Fost (MVP Pub., 2010).

Giants: Where Have You Gone? by Matt Johanson and Wylie Wong; foreword by Jon Miller (Sports Pub., c2005).

Magic by the Bay: How the Oakland Athletics and the San Francisco Giants Captured the Baseball World by John Shea and John Hickey (North Atlantic Books, 1990).

The Original San Francisco Giants: The Giants of '58 by Steve Bitker (Sports Pub., 2001).

Splash Hit!: Pacific Bell Park and the San Francisco Giants by Joan Walsh and C.W. Nevius (Chronicle, 2001).

Tales from the San Francisco Giants Dugout by Nick Peters (Sports Pub., 2003).

Play Ball: New Books for a New Baseball Season

The coming of spring means the return of baseball. It also heralds the arrival of a new batch of baseball books. Here is a selection of new titles at the San Francisco Public Library for lovers of America's pastime.

One tradition of baseball fandom and its literature is to identify the superlatives of the game. Top of the Order: 25 Writers Pick Their Favorite Baseball Player of All Time is an eclectic mix of essays about these writer's often unlikely choices of favorites. High Heat is Tim Wendel's quest to settle the question of who has pitched the fastest in baseball history. He interviews many baseball greats, studies the historic record and considers the pictures of today to reach his conclusions.

Mark Kurlansky's Eastern Stars is a study of how the town of San Pedro de Macoris in the Dominican Republic became a hotbed of baseball talent, baseball providing a lucrative alternative to the poverty of the sugar cane fields. In Satch, Dizzy, and Rapid Robert, Timothy Gay unearths a little known history of the early integration of baseball in off-season contests known as barnstorming. He retells head to head contests and legendary pitching match-ups between black and white teams of the 1930s and 1940s.

The Baseball Codes by Jason Turbow is about an aspect of the game that is often a fascinating mystery to its fans, the unwritten code of honor that players insist that they should and do follow. In Mint Condition, Dave Jamieson gives us a history of the business and hobby of collecting baseball cards. Entitled after a Yogi Berra-ism, 90% Of The Game Is Half Mental by former Village Voice sportswriter Emma Span is a collection of thoughtful and humorous essays from her time covering New York's teams.

In addition to books written for the fan, we also have many books in our collection for those who wish to play the game. One of our newest titles is Play Ball by Tom O'Connell. Written for the baseball manager or coach, O'Connell presents 100 different team drills to incorporate into practice and teach fundamentals.

The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America's Pastime by Jason Turbow with Michael Duca (New York : Pantheon Books, 2010).

The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macorís by Mark Kurlansky (Riverhead Books, 2010).

High Heat: The Secret History of The Fastball and the Improbable Search for The Fastest Pitcher Of All Time by Tim Wendel (Da Capo Press, 2010).

Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession by Dave Jamieson (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010).

90% Of The Game Is Half Mental: And Other Tales from the Edge of Baseball Fandom by Emma Span (Villard Books, 2010).

Play Ball: 100 Baseball Practice Games by Tom O'Connell (Human Kinetics, 2010).

Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball before Jackie Robinson by Timothy M. Gay (Simon & Schuster, 2010).

Top of the Order: 25 Writers Pick Their Favorite Baseball Player of All Time by Sean Manning, editor (Da Capo Press, 2010).

Histories of African American Athletes

Sports and athletics have proven to be an avenue to fame, fortune and advancement for African Americans. They have also provided a platform to challenge discrimination and help to change American society. At the same they still illustrate inequities within American society. Below are a few recent books looking at this issue.

Out Of The Shadows: A Biographical History of African American Athletes is a collection of biographical essays placing its subjects within a historical context and showing them as agents of social change. The book covers historical figures like Jack Johnson, Jesse Owens, Satchel Paige, Arthur Ashe and Muhammad Ali and current sports figures like Tiger Woods and Venus and Serena Williams. It includes chapters like “Jackie Robinson: racial pioneer and athlete extraordinaire in an era of change,” “Wilma Rudolph: the making of an Olympic icon,” “Jim Brown: superlative athlete, screen star, social activist,” and “Bound by blackness or above it? Michael Jordan and the paradoxes of post-civil rights American race relations.”

Carrying Jackie's Torch: The Players Who Integrated Baseball-- And America by Steve Jacobson also traces a history through biographical chapters. In addition to looking at the early players to integrate baseball like Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, the author also discusses less well-known figures like Emmett Ashford, major league baseball’s first black umpire, and Bob Watson, the first African-American to be hired as a baseball executive.

Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics by Jeremy Schaap looks at the courage of track star Jesse Owens within the wider story of the 1936 Olympics and the racial and religious tensions of Nazi Germany.

William C. Rhoden, a columnist for the New York Times has written $40 Million Slaves: The Rise, Fall, And Redemption of The Black Athlete. Mr. Rhoden’s thesis is that success and wealth on the playing field for African American’s has not translated into power or influence within the sports industry.

Stepping Up: The Story of Curt Flood And His Fight for Baseball Players' Rights by Alex Belth is about baseball player Curt Flood, a pioneering, tragic figure who fought against baseball's reserve clause, but never realized the benefit of becoming a free agent. A newer book, A Well-Paid Slave: Curt Flood's Fight For Free Agency In Professional Sports by Brad Snyder, is now on order at the library.

All-Stars: Baseball by the Bay

In celebration of San Francisco hosting the 78th Annual All-Star Game, the Art, Music and Recreation Center presents a display showcasing the Library’s collection of baseball material with images from books, the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, and the Dorothy Starr Sheet Music Collection, with a focus on the all-stars.

Since 1933, the stars of the American and National Leagues have competed against each other in the All-Star Game. With the exception of 1959-1962, when two games were held yearly, and 1945, when no game was played due to wartime restrictions, the game has been an annual event that features the best talent from both leagues. This mid-season exhibition game used to just be for fun and to promote the sport, but since 2003 it has also been used to determine home field advantage for the upcoming World Series.

2007 is the third time the All-Star Game has been played in San Francisco and the first time at AT&T Park: it was held at Candlestick Park in 1961 and 1984. In celebration of San Francisco hosting the 78th Annual All-Star Game, this display showcases the Library’s collection of baseball material with images from books, the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection and the Dorothy Starr Sheet Music Collection, with a focus on local stars from 1961 and 1984. Play Ball!

Exhibition: July 9 – October 4, 2007
Main Library, Fourth Floor, Wall Case outside Page Desk

100 Larkin Street (at Grove)