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"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime."
~ Babe Ruth

This Primary Source Set includes images, sheet music, a motion picture and analysis tools to help teach about baseball across various sectors of American society.

Use these lesson plans (created by educators for educators) to explore topics about baseball in America with your students in your classroom:

Jackie Steals Home - (Grades 9-12) Students explore racism in the United States, both in and out of sports.

Rounding the Bases - (Grades 9-12) Students use primary sources focused on baseball to explore the American experience regarding race and ethnicity.

Two Unreconciled Strivings - (Grades 11-12) Students examine the tension experienced by African-Americans during the Gilded Age. The Play section highlights the African-American experience in baseball.

When Work is Done - (Grade 11) Students develop albums that reflect a thesis about leisure time in the United States between 1900 and 1950. Students may choose to focus on the topic of baseball for their group album projects.

Is there a title (or two) that you always read to (or with) your students when teaching about the topic of baseball in America? Are there invaluable reference books that you use when working with this theme? Staff from The Library of Congress have generously donated favorite titles for the "Baseball... As American as Apple Pie..." theme. We hope you will contribute your favorite titles to our growing bibliography!

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Create your own collaborative lesson plans using material related to this month's theme assembled from The Learning Page Collection Connections:

Baseball Cards, 1887-1914 - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Baseball was growing in popularity at the turn of the century. This collection of 2,100 early baseball cards provides a launching point for the study of this era of United States history.

By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Discover strategies to integrate Library of Congress primary source documents illustrating baseball’s story historically, culturally and economically into your teaching.

Spalding Base Ball Guides - (Summary Only)

Stars and Stripes: The American Soldiers' Newspaper of World War I, 1918-1919 - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Search the collection using the term "baseball" to find related articles.

Photographs From the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933 - (Summary and Teaching Resources) Search this collection using the term "baseball" for hundreds of photos documenting the popularity of the sport of baseball during the Progressive Era.

These terms may be useful when searching for items related to this theme in the American Memory collections.