What do the holdings of the Hoover Institution Archives, renowned for its collections on international political history, and the sport of baseball have in common? At first glance, it would appear little. Yet a recent visit by a representative of the National Baseball Hall of Fame led us to search for documents related to the history of our national pastime, and the results were surprising. The following are some of the baseball artifacts we found in the archives, ranging from photographs of early baseball games at Stanford University through documents showing the various ways that baseball has surfaced in wartime, humanitarian relief activities, and politics throughout the twentieth century.
