8x10.5" w/suede cover and glossy pages in bw. The baseball section includes full page 1903 and 1904 team photos. Both include manager Branch Rickey and black player Charles Thomas who was the team's catcher. The 1904 team were the Ohio Conference Champions. Thomas is also included on the 1903 football team picture page. The relationship between Rickey and Thomas is unbelievably compelling and was the catalyst behind Rickey eventually helping to break down the color barrier in the Major Leagues when he signed Jackie Robinson (formerly of the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues) to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Rickey previously coached at Ohio Weslyan University in the early 1900s, where he saw firsthand as Charles Thomas, the only black player on his team, was intimidated and slurred, often denied a room during travel. After arranging for his player to bunk in his room, Rickey witnessed the angst this discrimination brought to Thomas, who sobbed and rubbed his hands, saying "Black Skin. Black Skin. If Only I could Make Them White." Struck by his player's pain, Rickey promised him that one day racial equality would come. Once Rickey became president of the Dodgers in 1942, he was in a position to effect change in Major League Baseball's long-standing color barrier, signing Robinson, who would play his first game in the Major Leagues a year and a half later. The suede cover is worn and deteriorating including much missing suede surface material from the spine but binding remains tight. Trace of moisture staining on top margin of first few pages and some aging to first and last pages but contents overall remain clean and pages (due to nice quality paper stock used) remain quite nice w/little signs of wear/aging. Largely VF to Exc including the previously mention team pages. The 1904 baseball team image in this book was also done as a large format photo with only a few copies known to exist and one example sold at auction in 2011 for $4,700. This is a more affordable alternative to owning such an historic image.