Early Out-of-Town Scoreboards

From SABR member Brian McKenna at Glimpses Into Baseball History on July 11:

The newspaper business thrived along with America’s interest in baseball. But, fans demanded a faster turnaround of information. Crude scoreboards, often referred to as bulletin boards, were provided for the fans at one park to keep track of the happenings at another as early as 1870. Peter Morris in A Game of Inches suggests that the first permanent scoreboard was installed at White Stockings Park in 1880. But, as seen, the information was available a decade earlier.

Other billboards located off-site – at newspapers officies or other gathering spots throughout a city – were seen as early as 1868. These locations, especially at the news offices, became hot spots. Information of all kinds was displayed for those interested. This might include any array of information about the baseball world and, of course, scores were an important aspect of this.

Read the full article here: http://baseballhistoryblog.com/2954/the-scoreboard/



Originally published: July 15, 2011. Last Updated: July 15, 2011.