Use Restrictions

The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

"Official Souvenir Score Card World's Series 1933" program, C0424, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Donor is unknown.

Processing Information

Processing and finding aid completed by Meghan Glasbrenner in February 2024.

Historical Information

The selling of souvenir score cards and programs at baseball games goes back almost as long as professional baseball itself. However, the version that we think of today was introduced by Harry M. Stevens. Born in Derby, England in 1855, Stevens immigrated to the United States in 1882. Finding the score cards currently being sold to be low quality as they didn't assist in identifying players, Stevens designed a new version which included, in addition to the score card, illustrations on the front cover, a full roster of players and their positions inside, and space for advertisements. Low printing costs and the ability for businesses to purchase advertising space quickly made Stevens' new design appealing to team owners, and soon nearly every professional ballpark was selling souvenir score cards to fans. Stevens' design is still the standard used today.

The 1933 World Series, referred to at the time as the World's Series, was played over five games from October 3-7, 1933 between the Washington Nationals (commonly referred to as the Senators) and the New York Giants. Both teams had first-year player-managers who would go on to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, Joe Cronin for Washington and Bill Terry for New York. While the Senators were heavily favored going into the series, strong pitching from the Giants led to an easy victory, winning four out of the five games. The 1933 World's Series was the last in Washington, D.C. until 2019.

One of the American League's eight charter franchises, founded in Washington, D.C. in 1901, the team was known officially as the Washington Senators from 1901-1904. The name changed officially to the Nationals from 1905-1955, before returning to the Senators from 1956-1960. The name "Nationals" only appeared on the team's uniforms for two seasons before being replaced with the "W" logo and the team would be commonly referred to as the Senators throughout its history. The Senators eventually moved and became the Minnesota Twins in 1961. The current Washington Nationals team, the former Montreal Expos, moved to Washington, D.C. in 2005.

Scope and Content

"Official Souvenir Score Card World's Series 1933" program. Interior contains headshots identifying officers and players for the Washington Nationals and the New York Giants and narratives introducing each of the teams. The center fold contains a blank score card to be filled in by spectators during the game. The score card for this copy is partially completed in pencil and the scores entered indicate the program was possibly used during Game 3 of the series, which Washington won 4-0.

Arrangement

This is a single item collection.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research center holds the Jack Rottier photograph collection which includes photographs and slides of Washington Senators baseball games.

The Library of Congress holds one of the world's largest and most diverse collections of baseball-related materials.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Baseball
• Baseball -- Scorekeeping
• Baseball programs
• Memorabilia
• New York Giants (Baseball team)
• Sports
• United Publishing Company
• Washington Senators (Baseball team : 1901-1960)
• World Series (Baseball)