Baseball Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

Play Ball:  Historical Baseball Maps Available from Ball State University Libraries

Sunday is Opening Day for Major League Baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals playing at the Pittsburgh Pirates in the afternoon and the New York Mets taking on the Kansas City Royals in the evening.  The Ball State University Libraries’ GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) created custom maps to commemorate some special teams in baseball history.

Black Diamonds: Negro League Baseball Teams, 1920-1949 (above, click to enlarge) identifies the locations and names of the Negro League Baseball teams.  The map is based on the book The Complete Book of Baseball’s Negro Leagues: The Other Half of Baseball History by John Holway.  Photographs on the map are from the book Playing America’s Game by Michael L. Cooper, which is available from the Educational Technology and Resources Collection in Bracken Library.  The map is available for circulation from the GRMC or in digital format from CardinalScholar.

The Girls of Summer: All-American Girls Professional Baseball League Teams, 1943-1954 is also available in the GRMC.  This map is based on the book A Whole New Ballgame: The Story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League by Sue Macy, which is also available from the Educational Technology and Resources Collection.  The map features the women’s baseball teams that began playing during World War II made popular by the motion picture “A League of Their Own.”  This map is also available in digital format.

The GRMC also includes two large-format plotters that can be used to print large maps or posters.  And a large laminator can preserve the project.  Any member of the Ball State University community may charge the printing and lamination to a Bursar’s account.

For more information about cartographic resources or large-format printing, please contact the GRMC at 765-285-1097.