Lebanon Valley Baseball League Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Lebanon Valley Baseball League.
label: Creator
content: Darnbach, Ray
topic: label: Topic
content: Sports -- 20th century
label: Topic
content: Baseball -- 1930-1970
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The collection was purchased from the Americana Mail Auction through George Rinsland, circa 1970.
creator: label: Creator
content: Lebanon Valley Baseball League.
label: Creator
content: Darnbach, Ray
setName: label: See more items in
content: Lebanon Valley Baseball League Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: This collection documents the history of the Lebanon Valley Baseball League, and includes names of the teams which played, reports of games, problems attendant to both professional and amateur status of a minor league, and League standings. It contains newspaper clippings, letters and memorandums.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: The Lebanon Valley (Pennsylvania) Baseball League was started in 1931 and was amateur through 1934. The players were paid in 1935 but the League folded in 1939 because the teams could not meet their payrolls. The League was reorganized in 1941 on a strict amateur basis. Because of World War II, the League was idle 1943-1945. From 1946-1963 the League played every summer season.

Ray Darnbach of Richland, Pennsylvania, a trucker in Lebanon, Pennsylvania since 1916, was an officer of the Lebanon Valley Baseball League for at least twenty-five years. With the exception of the 1962 and 1963 seasons, he kept scrapbooks of the League's games and events from 1936 through 1961. By March 16, 1963, he had gone to the "big diamonds in the sky," as one newspaper report put it.
 
This collection is a detailed history of the Lebanon Valley Baseball League, and includes names of the teams which played, reports of games, problems attendant to both professional and amateur status of a minor league, and League standings. It contains newspaper clippings, letters and memorandums.
 
The Lebanon Valley Baseball League was started in 1931 and was of amateur status through 1934.  The players were paid in 1935 but the League folded in 1939 because the teams couldn't meet their payrolls.  The league was reorganized in 1941 on a strict amateur basis.  Because of World War II, the league was idle in 1943, 1944, and 1945.  From 1946 through 1963, the League played every summer season.
 
The number of teams in the League varied through the years as did the communities they represented, depending in part on available sponsors and players.
 
Information in the collection includes material that covers several problem areas: players and manager criticism of the quality of umpires, getting stories to certain press people in a timely fashion, and internal friction within teams. 
 
Scattered throughout the articles about the League are newspaper clippings about major league games, well-known sports figures, such as Connie Mack, Lou Gehrig, and Babe Ruth, and also a few articles on the World Series.  There are also stories and images of boxing, bowling, swimming and other sports events.
 
One scrapbook, seemingly started in 1935 and including items added until 1945, has an eclectic flavor.  Besides Lebanon Valley Baseball League articles, there are images and newspaper clippings of the killing of John Dillinger, the Bruno Hauptman trial, the Dionne quintuplets and floods in Pennsylvania.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Cubic foot (3 boxes)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1936-1963
custodhist: label: Custodial History
content: The collection was transferred from the Division of Community Life (formerly the Division of Home and Community Life, now the Division of Cultural and Community Life) to the Archives Center on August 31, 1983.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0067
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Scrapbooks
label: Type
content: Clippings
label: Type
content: Correspondence
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Processed by Robert Harding, archivist, 1983.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Scrapbooks -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Clippings -- 20th century
label: Genre/Form
content: Correspondence -- 20th century
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Lebanon Valley Baseball League collection was originally a series of scrapbooks, kept annually, of newspaper write-ups of the League games through the baseball season. It contains some correspondence regarding League affairs. Also included are pictures and stories of major sports events which were presumably of interest to the owner.
 
This collection is of interest to persons studying amateur baseball from 1936-1963 in the minor league.  The collection traces the development of the League and its teams.  It also portrays the dedicated persons who kept the game and League going.