What We're Reading: November 2024

Election 2024. It dominated the news cycle for the majority of the year, and now that it has come to pass, we are stuck examining the outcome and figuring out how it happened. The selections for this month feature analysis of the election on the national, state, and local levels. We pull articles from the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the San Francisco Standard for this reflection, with an emphasis on the data graphics each paper employed to tell the story with more than words. And lastly, for a little bit of something else, we have an article from the Chronicle about the ongoing issues around transgendered players in the college women's volleyball scene that puts SJSU at the center of the drama. The Chronicle has been doing in-depth, targeted reporting on the issue, which should be highlighted.

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Key to Trump's Win: Big Losses for Harris Across the Country

New York Times, November 23, 2024

So many of us San Francisco voters are wondering what went wrong in the election at the beginning of this month. This piece from the New York Times takes a look at the voting behaviors of the country as a whole, offering compelling graphics that chart the voting change from 2020 to 2024. Read it in PressReader, which offers a digital replica of the print paper, so you can see the graphics in their printed glory, or read it on NYTimes.com where you can interact with the data with this courtesy link.

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Hanging out in SF’s Trumpiest neighborhoods

San Francisco Standard, November 11, 2024

The Standard uses data from the San Francisco Department of Elections and interviews with residents to dig into the trend towards Trump observed in the City's southeast corner, including Visitacion Valley and the Portola District. The handiwork of the Standard's data graphics person, Noah Baustin, is on display in an interactive graphic that maps votes by precinct in this piece as well as others filed under Election 2024, for example the article reporting on the low(er) voter turnout this year. The Chronicle put out a similar piece with interactive maps that explores the Trump trend in the southeast corner of SF, getting even more granular by highlighting, on a map, the two "Trumpiest" precincts in the entire City, showcasing the handiwork of graphics reporter Harsha Devulapalli and deputy data editor Aseem Shukla. 

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2024 Election Results

San Francisco Chronicle, last updated Dec. 7, 2024

As a special project dashboard, the SF Chronicle's 2024 election results page has been updated daily since the election and provides many interactive graphical representations of voting trends on a national, state, and local level. We offer this to you with a gift link to bypass any potential paywalls since this is the type of dynamic reporting not available in the library's subscription to the Chronicle through NewsBank. You can also view their California election dashboard and their San Francisco election dashboard. One of the most striking graphics is the change from blue to red of many counties in California, as well. 

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Legal Bid to Bench Trans Player Spiked 

San Francisco Chronicle, November 27, 2024

This article is the penultimate piece to date in the Chronicle's reporting on the lawsuit barring transgender women from playing college volleyball as brought forth by some players on the San Jose State University team. Now, the SJSU volleyball season is over, but several lawsuits and the future of women's sports remain. You can check out reporter Anne Killion's most recent piece to see where everything stands at the moment.

Baseball Season at the Magazines and Newspapers Center

Believe it or not, many librarians on the 5th floor of the Main Library are avid baseball fans. Our allegiances range from the Giants to the A's to the Angels (sorry Dodgers fans). We're sort of like Marianne Moore in that way (influential modernist poet, librarian at NYPL, and avid baseball fan)--you wouldn't expect librarians to be baseball fans, would you? (Leave a comment to correct us if we're wrong!) Nonetheless we were jazzed about opening day a few weeks ago and look forward to the new season.

Here are our recommendations for keeping up with the baseball season with sports journalists: 

The Athletic 

This is a proprietary website that requires a subscription to access a lot of their features, but it is the leading standard in sports reporting. Word from our librarians is that the Athletic poached the top sports reporting talent from the legacy print media a couple years ago. From their website: "The Athletic’s 400+ person, full-time newsroom delivers premium coverage of hundreds of pro and college teams across 47+ North American markets and all 20 European football clubs in the English Premier League." The New York Times acquired The Athletic in 2022 but they have specific rules about what types of NYT subscriptions include access to content on The Athletic. Unfortunately the NYT website subscriptions we offer through SFPL do not include this access, but if you have your own subscription, you may qualify. 

The Athletic is a good bet if you have some disposable income to throw at another subscription and if you are into sports in general, beyond baseball. If you're primarily concerned with baseball, look no further than our very own San Francisco Chronicle... 

The San Francisco Chronicle 

Sports section, baseball beat: The SF Chronicle online has a dedicated tag for the Giants, where you can find all their reporting on the team. If you don't have your own subscription to the SF Chron's website, then this isn't much help. 

Not to fear, at SFPL we do provide a database that gives you access to the content of the SF Chronicle. 

San Francisco Chronicle - Most Recent Issues

(alternative link to text-only content)

From that page, you can read the daily paper exactly as it appears in print by clicking on the date that you'd like to read. 

You can also do a search to bring back Giants-centric content. 

The journalists who cover the baseball beat are John Shea, Shayna Rubin, and Susan Slusser primarily. You can copy and paste this search string into the search box to bring back their reporting:  

 ("John Shea" or "Shayna Rubin" or "Susan Slusser") and Giants

(search is not case sensitive)

The database will sort your results by date, so you'll see articles about the most recent games at the top of the list. 

You can try this same search swapping out Giants for Athletics or A's, etc. 

The Players' Tribune, Querida San Francisco by Sergio Romo

Sergio Romo threw one last pitch for the Giants about one year ago after helping lead the team to three world series titles for the nine years he wore SF orange. Although he had departed the Giants in 2016 and had retried from baseball in 2022, he returned in March 2023 for the last pitch at Oracle Park. The letter, published the day of Romo's last pitch, appears in Spanish and in English and offers a sentimental reflection on the power of the game within families and within communities--our misfit community of San Francisco in specific. Anyone else remember that 2010 world series win? I remember watching part of it from the emergency room at Saint Mary's on Stanyan. We so very much appreciate this stroll down memory lane with Romo, even one year on.

Los Angeles Times

What do we know about that other city down south that has a pretty famous baseball team? We know enough to know they think Dodgers fans are crawling out of the cracks even in San Francisco.

"The hat came about because I'm a Dodger fan," said shop owner Anthony Madrid, who said he opened the shop in 2013. "You live anywhere in L.A., anywhere in California, you are going to be a Dodger fan."

Anywhere in California?

"Even in San Francisco," he said. "You'd be surprised."

From "Dodgers should embrace locals who love them," LA Times April 13, 2024 

Regardless of some people's opinions they print in the newspaper, the Los Angeles Times remains a great source for California baseball reporting and SFPL provides access to a database with that content as well. 

Los Angeles Times - Most Recent Issues

A simple search from here with your favorite team's name (ahem, cough, Dodgers) may be sufficient to get you the good stuff, but if your fave is the Angels, you may need to pair your keyword angels with the keyword baseball because angels is used to describe much more than a baseball team in everyday nomenclature. Just remember to sort your results by date so you get the most recent news at the top. Look for the sorting menu at the top left corner of your results screen. 

Dave Zirin, The Nation 

Zirin is a sports journalist reporting for The Nation, and his writings follow a political bend germane to the publication. SFPL subscribes to the print magazine and the digital version on Flipster, but you'll find most of Zirin's pieces on the Nation's website.

He often has interesting things to say about baseball in addition to the other sports he covers. Most recently he dipped his toes into the drama with the A's (formerly known as the Oakland A's) in an April 5, 2024 piece calling the GAP heir and A's owner John Fisher a "petty authoritarian" and shining a light on his retaliation against outspoken team members Ruiz and Rooker. 

Speaking of the A's holdover in Sacramento before making their final move to Las Vegas in 2028, Zirin says, "To see Fisher humiliate this franchise and the city of Oakland on his way out the door demands a rebuke" and goes on to pointedly say, "This isn’t about baseball. It’s about capital flight from our cities. It’s about the subjugation of our history. It’s about the 1 percent picking the meat off the bones of our cities."

Do you agree, and if so, what would your rebuke be?

Other Newspapers 

If you're like our bud Marianne Moore, you're probably itching for that Yankees content!

Marianne Moore throws the first pitch at Yankees stadium 1968. Library of America: Poetry in Motion by Larry Merchant

San Francisco Public Library provides access to newspapers from other geographic areas as well, namely the New York Times in many formats. Explore more newspapers under eNews on our webpage. 

Magazines and Newspapers - Access eNews Collections

What's your favorite team and how do you keep up with their record? Leave a comment to let us know.

Reading the Giants

As the San Francisco Giants enters the big leagues to face off the Texas Rangers in the World Series, many baseball fans in the San Francisco Bay Area are already gearing up for the upcoming games, rain or shine. In honor of this rare event, the Magazines & Newspapers Center highlights the Giants magazine devoted to San Francisco's favorite baseball team.

Published quarterly, the Giants magazine contains feature articles about the San Francisco Giants baseball team and its players. In each issue, you'll find full-color profiles on various team members, close-up batting, pitching, and action shots from past games, behind the scenes tidbits, an events calendar for upcoming games and related Giants community activities, and more.

To keep up with latest news on the SF Giants, check out SF Gate's sports news page which highlights new developments as they occur through news feeds, fan forums, blogs, and tweets.

On Hannibal's Trail: Biking the Alps

The Magazines & Newspapers Center of the San Francisco Public Library presents a program of history, travel, and unforgettable adventure!

Join us as BBC correspondent Danny Wood recounts Hannibal's war against Rome (circa 218 BCE), featuring a 2,000-mile journey of armored men and elephants - a trek that history has never forgotten. Relive the adventure in the modern day as Danny Wood and his two brothers follow the ancient footsteps of Hannibal - from Iberia, across the Pyrenees and the Alps - this time on bicycles!

- Address: 100 Larkin Street (at Grove)

- Location: Main Library, Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room

- Event Date and Time: Saturday, September 18 (10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.)

Football

Where will the NFL play its first regular-season game overseas? Who will be the Oakland Raiders’ starting quarterback? Who’s tops in the Pac-10? Will the 49ers’ defense show improvement this year? Which California Golden Bears wide receiver was recently named an ESPN Preseason All-American? Who is the NFL’s youngest head coach?

Whether your interest is NFL or college football or both, the following magazines will keep you informed during the upcoming football season: ESPN, Sporting News, USA Today Sports Weekly, and Sports Illustrated. The Magazines and Newspapers Center subscribes to all of these titles.

These magazines will “fire up” fans with predictions; game coverage and analysis; and interviews of the famous, up-and-coming, and not-so-famous players. Read articles and feature stories about your favorite players. Get information on various professional and college football leagues. Check out the Preseason All-American picks. See high-quality, color action photos.

The online versions of ESPN and Sports Illustrated give the most up-to-the-minute breaking news. Enthusiasts who want to stay “in-the-know” about football stats and world-wide leagues will enjoy examining digital viewing and real-time scores by signing up through the magazines online membership programs. If this isn’t enough, watch highlights and playbacks from selected games on the NFL virtual highlights front pages. It’s sure to keep you entertained for days on end. Sooo!…“Are You Ready For Some Football?”!

International Gymnast

The 2007 USA Gymnastics National Championships (2007 Visa Championships) will be held in San Jose, California on August 15-18. The 2007-08 U.S. National Team for women’s and men’s artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, and acrobatic gymnastics will be named at the conclusion of the competition.

International Gymnast magazine provides insight into the gymnastics world. Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner are currently associated with the magazine as contributing editor and associate publisher. This glossy, informative, and comprehensive publication covers the national and international gymnastics scene. Each issue has numerous exquisite color stop-action photographs; in-depth articles on competitions; profiles and interviews of gymnasts and coaches; and a calendar of events. A centerfold color poster of a gymnast in action is included in every issue.

The Magazines and Newspapers Center has issues of the magazine from 1972 to the present.

Baseball All-Star Game

The 78th Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be played in San Francisco on July 10, 2007 at AT&T Park. Perhaps you might wish to read about the first time San Francisco hosted the All-Star Game in 1961 at Candlestick Park.

The Magazines and Newspapers Center has the San Francisco Chronicle Index, 1950-1980 on microfiche. In the index, under the topic “Baseball, Major League – All-star Game…," you will find citations to San Francisco Chronicle articles on July 11, 1961 (day of the game) and on July 12. The Center has a complete set of the San Francisco Chronicle on microfilm.

The Chronicle Sporting Green headline for July 11, 1961 announced “Ford and Spahn to Start Today In ‘Dream Game’ at Candlestick." Additional articles, “Ol’ Casey Banquet Hit” and Art Rosenbaum’s “Why the All-Star Players Really Care," provided even more pregame color for the event.

The San Francisco Chronicle front page headline for July 12, 1961 stated with chagrin “How Wind Conquered Mighty All-Stars." The front page of the Chronicle Sporting Green for the same day continued the feeling with the headline “The Wind Howled and Stars Cried."

The Chronicle Sporting Green recapped the game in a July 12 article “Mays’ Hit Ties It, Run Clinches It” by Bill Leiser. The opening sentence poetically described the end of the game: “Sharp, sudden, crackling hits by Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Roberto Clemente gave the National League a 5-4, 10-inning victory over the American League in the 30th All-Star Game yesterday after the contest had all but exploded in struggling Stu Miller’s face.”

Photograph of Candlestick Park courtesy of San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.