Shieber: Baseball on the ‘Saturday Evening Post’ cover
From SABR member Tom Shieber at Baseball Researcher on March 3, 2019:
The cover art of the Saturday Evening Post is unquestionably the magazine’s most iconic feature. And throughout the 20th century, the Post enthusiastically embraced baseball as a favorite topic for these celebrated covers. By my count, no fewer than 67 issues of the Post overtly associated our national pastime with the magazine’s wholesome, all-American values by adorning its cover with baseball-related artwork. Here’s a brief look at a few of these covers, as well as a complete list of each and every one from the 20th century.
June 6, 1908
The Post of June 6, 1908, was the first to feature a baseball-related cover. Titled “Watching Baseball through a Fence,” artist James Ellsworth “Worth” Brehm depicted five boys struggling to catch a glimpse of a ball game through outfield wall knotholes.
The Post revisited this theme half a century later when Norman Rockwell’s “Knothole Baseball” graced the cover of the August 30, 1958, issue of the magazine. Note that Rockwell cleverly signed the artwork by “carving” his name into the wooden fence.
Read the full article here: https://baseballresearcher.blogspot.com/2019/03/baseball-on-cover-of-saturday-evening.html
Originally published: March 4, 2019. Last Updated: March 4, 2019.