Some 20 years before the first World Series games would be played, the champions of the National League (Boston Beaneaters) and American Association (Philadelphia Athletics) were honored on the front page of The Sporting Life newspapers, two weeks apart in October of 1883. These are marvelous montages offering us precious peeks into the earliest days of the sport on a professional level. Boston's featured stars are: player-manager John F. Morrill, J.E. Whitney, C.G. Buffington, Michael Hines, M.M. Hackett, J.J. Burdock, Ezra Sutton, S.W. Wise, Joseph Hornung, C.A. Smith and P.R. Radford. The A's players are: manager-right fielder A. Knight, H. Stovey, R. Mathhews, G.W. Bradley, F. Corey, E. Bowen, J. O'Brien, J. Stricker, M. Moynihan, D.A. Jomes, J. BirchalW. Crowley and R. Blakiston. The spines are split as each was pulled from a bound volume, making these quite possibly the only copies available in private hands.