Let's Learn All About It!

Great books and cool educational resources for all ages.

Let's Learn All About It!

Great books and cool educational resources for all ages.

Baseball!

History

Table of Contents

POEMS AND SONGS

	By Douglas Florian, famed for his picture-book poetry collections, Poem Runs (Harcourt Children’s Books, 2012) is a wonderful illustrated collection of baseball poems for ages 4 and up.
	“Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” it turns out, is the third most frequently sung song in America, topped only by “Happy Birthday to You” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” See Ben Nussbaum’s Take Me Out to the Ball Game (Soundprints Audio, 2006) in the Smithsonian American Favorites series for illustrated lyrics to the song, background information, a sing-along music sheet, and an audio CD. For ages 3-7.
	Baseball’s Greatest Hit by Andy Strasberg, Robert Thompson, and Tim Wiles (Hal Leonard Corporation, 2008), illustrated with period prints, photos, and newspaper clippings, is a 200+-page history of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” with accompanying CD. For teenagers and adults.
	Who doesn’t know these lines?: But there is no joy in Mudville/Mighty Casey has struck out. Ernest L. Thayer’s immortal Casey at the Bat is available in many editions – of which one of the best is the version “copiously and faithfully illustrated” by Christopher Bing and published by Chronicle Books (2000). Bing’s version of Thayer’s famous poem is designed to look like a vintage scrapbook, stuffed with newspaper clippings and pasted-in memorabilia. For all ages.
	Hear James Earl Jones recite Casey at the Bat.
	Dan Gutman – in Thayer-esque rhyme – continues the saga of Casey in his picture-book Casey Back at Bat (HarperCollins, 2009). Casey, given a second chance, slams the ball out of the park, sending it off around the Earth, when it knocks the Leaning Tower of Pisa askew, takes the nose off the Sphinx, and does in the dinosaurs. For ages 5-9.
	A long list of baseball poems and songs can be found at the Baseball Almanac. Included is an entire “Casey Collection” (among the contributors is Garrison Keillor) and lyrics to dozens of baseball songs by such performers as Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Rogers, and Bob Dylan.

WHAT ABOUT THE GIRLS?

	In David A. Adler’s Mama Played Baseball (Harcourt Children’s Books, 2003), set in the days of World War II, Amy’s father has gone to war and her mother, who needs a job, decides to become a professional baseball player. (But “baseball is just a game,” Amy thought.) She changes her mind, however, when her mother joins the All-American Girls’ Professional Baseball League. For ages 4-8.
	Shana Corey’s Players in Pigtails (Scholastic Press, 2003) is the story of feisty Katie Casey who, though a disaster at dancing and baking, could “catch any ball with any mitt with her eyes closed” and “hit any ball with any bat with one hand behind her back.” She comes into her own in 1942, when she tries out for the newly formed all-girls team, the Kenosha Comets. For ages 5-9.
	Marissa Moss’s Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen (Simon & Schuster, 2004) is the picture-book story of Jackie Mitchell, 17-year-old pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts, who – in an exhibition game in 1931 – struck out both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. (She won the day, but women were still banned from professional baseball.) For ages 5-9.
	Deborah Hopkinson’s Girl Wonder (Aladdin, 2006) is the picture-book story of Alta Weiss who – despite many objections – wangled a place as pitcher for the all-male Vermilion Independents in 1907. Soon she was the star of the team and people flocked to see the “Girl Wonder.” Told in the first person, this is a delightful read. An appendix includes a biography of Weiss and a timeline of women in baseball. For ages 5-9.
	Dirt on Their Skirts: The Story of the Young Women Who Won the World Championship by Doreen Rappaport and Lyndall Callan (Dial, 2000) is the story of the famous 1946 game between the Racine Belles and the Rockford Peaches, as seen through the eyes of Margaret, a young baseball fan. Included are period photos of the players and the original scorecard of the game. For ages 6-10.
	The All-American Girls’ Professional Baseball League is also the subject of the 1992 movie A League of Their Own, in which washed-up ex-player Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) takes a job coaching the Rockford Peaches and takes them all the way to the World Series. Rated PG.
	Audrey Vernick’s She Loved Baseball (Collins, 2010) is the picture-book story of African-American civil-rights activist (and baseball lover) Effa Manley, who founded the Negro League team the Newark Eagles and became the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. For ages 5-9.
	From the National Baseball Hall of Fame, see Women’s History: Dirt on Their Skirts for a series of lesson plans on women in baseball (categorized under Rookie, Intermediate, and Advanced) and an extensive book list.
	From Smithsonian magazine, see The Feminist History of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”
	Also see Women’s History (Not Just for Girls.)

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