Description
The Dick Dobbins collection includes materials pertaining
mainly to the Pacific Coast League (PCL), and the teams that comprise the league.
The bulk of the material was collected by others and purchased by Dobbins, and dates
from 1902 to 1957; materials that were collected or created by Dobbins date from
1946 through 1998. Included in the collection are records of the Pacific Coast
League's head office and official publications, printed materials relating to the
PCL, both the teams and individual players, including: programs, scorecards,
yearbooks, articles, final statistics, records, player sketches, blue books, and
baseball cards; and photographs of teams, players, PCL staff, and stadiums. Teams
with the largest amount of materials are the Oakland Oaks, the San Francisco Seals,
and the Los Angeles Angels. Also included are typescripts for Dobbins' works on the
Pacific Coast League,
Nuggets on the Diamond and
The Grand Minor League, and audio recordings of
interviews Dobbins conducted with players and PCL staff. Also included in the
collection are scrapbooks and newspaper clippings on the league as a whole and for
specific teams, and a small amount of material related to Major League
Baseball.
Background
Dick Dobbins, a resident of Berkeley, California, began collecting baseball cards in
1946, the beginning of a life-long passion for the Pacific Coast League (PCL). After
many years of collecting cards, photographs, and other PCL-related memorabilia,
Dobbins eventually developed a business dealing in baseball memorabilia during the
late 1960s. Later, he organized the first Northern California sports memorabilia
show, which focused as much on the PCL as it did on Major League Baseball. He
authored many articles on such topics as collecting memorabilia, the history of
baseball in the San Francisco Bay Area, and the PCL. He was a consultant to the
National Baseball Hall of Fame, the San Francisco Examiner, and the San Francisco
Giants. In 1994 he co-authored (with Jon Twichell) a definitive history of baseball
in the San Francisco Bay Area, Nuggets on the
Diamond. He subsequently authored The Grand Minor
League: an Oral History of the Old Pacific Coast League, which was
published posthumously in 1999. The Pacific Coast League (PCL) was founded in 1903, and consisted of four franchises
from the California League - Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles -
and two new franchises in Portland and Seattle. For the next 54 years, the PCL was
the dominant baseball presence on the West Coast, eventually adding franchises in
Hollywood and San Diego. For much of that time, the PCL had no contractual
affiliation with the rest of professional baseball, and was often referred to as the
"Third Major League." While major league teams from the American and National
Leagues routinely negotiated with PCL teams for the rights to individual players,
the PCL was not part of the major/minor league system. The PCL's talent pool was
extraordinary, as evidenced by the number of National Baseball Hall of Fame
inductees beginning their careers in the PCL, including Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams,
Tony Lazzeri, "Lefty" Gomez, the Waner brothers, Ernie Lombardi, and Harry
Heilman.
Extent
Extent: 52 boxes, 34 volumes, 18 albums, 6 oversize boxes
(64 linear feet)
Restrictions
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection
materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Library and
Archives, North Baker Research Library, California Historical Society, 678
Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Consent is given on behalf of the
California Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not
intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such
permission must be obtained from the copyright owner.
Availability
CHS is not taking appointments for research at this time. Please check the Library's website updates: https://californiahistoricalsociety.org/collections/north-baker-research-library/