Baseball Digest, Volume 6, Number 6, August 1947 ; Baseball's Best Stories of the Month

64 pages. Wraps. Illustrated. Cover torn along bottom half of spine. Fate stamped in ink on the front cover. Discolored patch on back cover. Pages 31-34 unbound at center staples but remain in middle of book. This issue represents a fascinating snapshot in time of baseball in the early post-WWII years. Baseball Digest is the longest running baseball magazine in the United States. The magazine was created in 1942 by Herbert F. Simons, a sportswriter for the Chicago Daily Times. Simons first published the magazine in August 1942, and served as its editor-in-chief until 1963. In 1981, Joan Whaley was published as its first female contributor. Among the authors in this issue are: Red Smith and Shirley Povich. Among the topics covered are: Babe Ruth, The Greatest First Baseman, the Pressbox, Frankie Gusine, Pat Mullin, Del Webb, and a photograph inside the front cover of Joe E. Brown. In 1935 Chet Smith, the sports page editor of the Pittsburgh Press. The 1940s were a time of significant change for baseball. Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraged the major leagues to continue functioning, which they did throughout the period. Things returned to normal after players were released from their military obligations late in the 1945 season and came back en masse beginning in 1946. After the War, there were a couple of major events. Mexican League owners signed major league players like Max Lanier, Sal Maglie and Bobby Estalella, the top Cuban players of the era and some Negro League stars to form a strong challenge to MLB supremacy. Another key event was the signing by Branch Rickey of Jackie Robinson of the Kansas City Monarchs, a move that integrated baseball. Robinson debuted with the Montreal Royals in 1946 and four other ex-Negro Leaguers played in the Brooklyn Dodgers chain, most notably Roy Campanella. Robinson made his Major League debut on Opening Day of 1947. Robinson won the support of teammates and of Commissioner Happy Chandler, and by the end of the season, the American League had also integrated. The movement was so rapid that by the end of the decade, the Negro Leagues were on the verge of collapse. The 1940s is the only decade during which no new stadiums were built. All but the St. Louis Browns, Chicago Cubs, and Cincinnati Reds set attendance records during the decade, as there was a large attendance boom after the end of the War. There were 81 scheduled night games in 1940 and 384 in 1949. Night games had actually been a key to baseball continuing through World War II: essential workers could not take time off to attend afternoon games, so more night games were scheduled to give them some badly-needed entertainment options. Many minor leagues were started and re-started after the War, creating a brief golden age for the minors which would be cut short in the 1950s due in large part to television changing Americans' entertainment habits. Presumed First Edition, First Printing thus.…