New York Yankee media guides

[Denny]

I'm collecting New York Yankee yearbooks and media guides. Does anyone know how far back the Yankees yearbooks and media guides go? My earliest yearbook is 1950 and my earliest media guide is 1960.

[YankeeFan]

The first year for the yearbooks is 1950.

I have most of the media guides from the 1960's - 1980's, and a few after that. I have had Yankees media guides from the mid-to-late 1950's, so I know they exist, but I don't know exactly when they started. They started publishing their own, official Yearbook in 1955, so that may be the year for the media guides too.

I also have an unofficial one, published by a sports writer if I remember correctly, from 1937. I'll look for it and post a few pictures.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

The first true Yankee Media Guide was issued in 1955. That is multi-page, stapled guide.

Prior to that the Yankees issued tri or quad fold Roster Guides. The earliest I have ever seen is 1932 but I have no idea if the run was continuous or when it started.

The absolute "king of Media Guides" was the late Joe Cronin. Joe designated what he considered each teams first guide and also listed their earlier Roster Guides when he found one.

At times over the past 30 years I disagreed with Joe as to what constituted a guide vs. a roster. The Cubs and several other teams had multi-page stapled guides back to the mid-30s but because they only contained a roster and no bio's Joe did not call them guides.

I guess each of us can designate what we consider a guide, for me it contains multiple pages and is stapled (of course new guides are perfect-bound.)

I collect all 30 MLB teams and the NFL, at this time I am working on the insane task of obtaining media guide from what I consider the top 68 college football schools from the 1960s and 70s. That is when I followed them growing up!

[YankeeFan]

40 pages, mostly player bios. A few other informational pages, including the 1937 schedule and annual standings.

[Hot Springs Bathers]

Jack- I have always loved those NY Mirror books, I have seen several for both the Dodgers and Giants too.

They were premiums given out by the newspapers in the highly competitive New York market. That was really a cool time to be a baseball fan.

[JayZim13]

I have a 1937 Daily Mirror guide (its basically a mini yearbook) for all three New York teams