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Finding Aid to the Dick Dobbins Collection on the Pacific Coast League,
1866-1999, bulk 1902-1999 MS 4031
MS 4031, MSP
4031
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Table of contents
Collection Title: Dick Dobbins collection on the Pacific Coast
League
Dates: 1866-1999,
Date (bulk): bulk 1902-1999
Collection Numbers: MS 4031, MSP
4031
Creator:
Dobbins, Dick,
1934-1999
Physical Description:
Extent: 52 boxes, 34 volumes, 18 albums, 6 oversize boxes
(64 linear feet)
Repository:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
Physical Location: Collection is stored onsite.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in English.
Abstract: 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.
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/
Use of the audiotapes may require the creation of listening copies for some
recordings.
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.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use
of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], Collection of Dick Dobbins: Baseball Historian,
Memorabilia Expert, Fan Extraordinaire, 1902-1999, MS 4031, California
Historical Society.
Some of the materials in the collection have been published in the following
books:
Dobbins, Dick.
The Grand Minor League: An Oral History of
the Old Pacific Coast League
. Emeryville, CA: Woodford Press,
1999.
Dobbins, Dick, and Jon Twichell.
Nuggets on the Diamond:
Professional Baseball in the Bay Area from the Gold Rush to the
Present
. San Francisco: Woodford Press, 1994.
Photographs and albums of trading cards in this collection are shelved as MSP
4031.
There are no alternate forms of this collection.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
Dobbins, Dick,
1934-1999--Archives.
Pacific Coast
League--History.
Pacific Coast
League--Pictorial works.
San Francisco Seals
(Baseball team)--Pictorial works.
Oakland Oaks (Baseball
team)--Pictorial Works.
Los Angeles Angels
(Baseball team)--Pictorial Works.
Baseball-- California--History.
Baseball--California--Pictorial
works.
Baseball--California--San
Francisco.
Baseball--California--Oakland.
Baseball players-- United
States--Interviews.
Baseball players-- United States--Pictorial
works.
Baseball
players--California--History.
Baseball players--California--Pictorial
works.
Baseball players--California--San
Francisco.
Baseball
players--California--Oakland.
Photographic prints.
Photograph albums.
Baseball cards.
Ephemera.
Audiocassettes.
Oral histories.
Scrapbooks.
Gift of Mrs. Judith P. Dobbins and family, December 1999.
No additions are expected.
Processed by Wendy Welker and Tanya Hollis, with the assistance of Doug
McWilliams, Matthew Kroot, and John C. Lamberson, 1999-2006. Funding for
processing this collection was provided by Mrs. Judith Dobbins.
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.
History of the Pacific Coast League
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.
As the population on the West Coast grew and transportation over longer distances
became less time-consuming and expensive, there was a push to move Major League
Baseball west. In 1958, the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and the New York
Giants to San Francisco, ending the unopposed popularity of the three most affluent
PCL teams, as well as the independent status of the PCL. Shortly after the arrival
of Major League Baseball to California, the PCL was incorporated into Major League
Baseball's national farm club system. The PCL still operates as of 2009 as a AAA
minor league, the most advanced classification below Major League Baseball.
Scope and Contents of Collection
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.
Arranged mainly as received, organized by document type, in four series: Series 1:
Pacific Coast League Records; Series 2: Printed Materials, Scrapbooks, and
Clippings; Series 3: Dick Dobbins Personal Papers, Research Materials, Writings and
Collections; Series 4: Photographs and Albums. Many documents were removed by Dick
Dobbins and never refiled; Doug McWilliams, a colleague of Dobbins, assisted with
the refiling of the documents in their original order.