This guide a fraction of the resources that exist on baseball. If you would like to pursue on of the topics introduced further, hope to broaden your understanding of something not mentioned above, or simply would like to try resources in a few different mediums, please feel free to peruse the resources below.
The resources introduced in this guide lean towards web or book format. Below are a few journals worth visiting for further information:
Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture
Nine offers a veritable universe of articles to the intrepid researcher. Centering on social and cultural content, the archive of Nine is a great way to investigate topics early in your research process. In addition to providing valuable insight, authors of material often produce extended scholarship on their article topics.
The Baseball Research Journal
Produced by the Society of American Baseball Research. A bit trickier to find an archive for, this is another option for articles on baseball history.
Base Ball: New Research on the Early Game
Less of a journal and more of a regularly published book, this resource focuses on the development of early baseball with a particular focus on the 1860s - 1930s.
Movieclips Classic Trailers. (2012, October 5). Eight Men Out Official Trailer #1 - Christopher Lloyd Movie (1988) HD. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/JSHQw85pvek.
Movieclips Trailers. (2012, September 21). 42 Official Trailer #1 (2012) - Harrison Ford Movie - Jackie Robinson Story HD. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/GlaUzQgRKPI.
PBS (2010, May 11). Baseball: The Tenth Inning a film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick (Preview). [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Mzma0K7qUfU.
The cast and characters of baseball history has spawned quite the industry on the silver screen. Below are a few examples:
Eight Men Out (1988)
42 (2012)
Baseball: The Tenth Inning (2010)
The follow-up to the 1994 documentary by Ken Burns, Baseball (which sadly lacks an online trailer). This might be a slightly more manageable option for a full viewing at only around 4-hours, but does cover a later period in baseball history. If you would rather tackle the original but minus the almost 20-hour viewing time, the first episode ("1st Inning") offers an introduction to baseball and its history in the late-19th century.
In addition to the movies and scholarship inspired by baseball, a host of autobiographies and literature on specific figures exist. Below are a few examples.
The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It by Lawrence Ritter
Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen
Babe: The Legend Comes to Life by Robert Creamer
Baseball's Great Experiment by Jules Tygiel
The two main baseball archives are the National Baseball Hall of Fame Archive and The National Archives. I encourage you to take a glance at both. They can add a lot of depth to a paper, but are also really interesting to look at and learn!