‘Laws of Base Ball’ documents fetch record $3.2 million at auction

A trove of historical documents that shed fresh light on the origins of baseball sold at auction on Sunday for more than $3.2 million, a record auction price for papers related to the sport that became America’s “national pastime.” The 23 pages of yellowed documents included original notes about the setting of official rules of the then-emerging sport of base ball, which evolved in the 19th century from earlier games using bats and balls.