Official Baseball Guide

 Beginning in 1942, Sporting News took over from Spalding/Reach and published the annual sports "bible" known as the Official Baseball Guide. This one has it all - stats, highlights including a batter-by-batter recap of the World Series, trades and even deaths.

Spalding Baseball Guides

 Former baseball star AG Spalding parlayed his belief in the future development of baesball into a game of significant national importance. Shortly after his career ended, Spalding began a series of Sporting Goods outlets, becoming the official provider of such equipment as balls and gloves. In 1880, Spalding began publishing an annual baseball guide - the Spalding Guide - which summarized the highlights of the previous seasons. The Spalding Guide includes details such hard to find details as transactions and necrology information. The Guide continuted publishing through 1940 - providing the basis for any serious baseball fan's research library.

Street and Smith Baseball

 Street and Smith Baseball Guides started publishing in 1941 and have been continued today. Like the first blossom, its appearance on the newstand portended the arrival of spring - and a new baseball season. Chock full of interesting information, photos and statistics, they are most highly collected of all the independent sports annuals.

Street and Smith College FB

 In the 40s and 50s, College Football was king. Street and Smith started publishing its annual College Football preview magazine in 1940 - a full 23 years before its Pro Football edition. The names that grace the articles and features of these classic collectibles are a who's who of early football. What makes the Street and Smith interesting is that it is a preview of the upcoming college gridiron season - meaning the "busts" are sometimes highlighted while the future Heisman winners are not.

Who's Who in BB - Carmichael

 Sports editor John Carmichael began publishing a detailed annual publication in 1933 with a classic 544 page hard-cover book called Who's Who in Baseball. The oversized book was filled with detailed biographies and great photos of the game's players. No doubt buoyed by the success of this venture, the Carmichael Publishing Co. began publishing a paper back version of Who's Who in 1935 - directly competing with the long-time Who's Who in Baseball publication which still publishes today. Whereas the classic Who's Who publishes only players, photos and stats - the Carmichael version covers each team in some detail - providing write-ups on selected players and teams. The Carmichael version of Who's Who published continually until 1952.