Book Review: West Virginia Baseball: A History, 1865-2000

In a book that can sometimes come across as strictly a regurgitation of facts,

William Akin is able to paint a clear picture of the growth of Americas Pastime in

West Virginia Baseball from 1865-2000.

Akin relies on company records and first hand accounts, and a fair number of

newspapers to discuss the games rise to popularity in the northern part of the state.

His thesis, which argues that coal companies were largely paternalistic in organizing

coalfield baseball leagues, is well articulated and ultimately well supported, but the

book suffers from a number of glaring errors.

From the onset, its the town of Wheeling, W.V. that becomes the setting of

Akins work. Its in Wheeling where an advertisement was placed in the paper in the

hopes of finding more teammates to form a club. The early teams of Wheeling would

dominate the state, it turned out, ultimately being part of the reason of the games

demise in the late 60s and early 70s. There its failure can be attributed to

competitive inequality which drove local participants to become spectators, but as

the sport became commercialized the excess of the games followers conflicted with

the sports own ideology, causing it to lose its respectable supporters. (21)

Professionalism entered the game in 1876, with the Wheeling Standards

becoming West Virginias first professional team less than a year later. Leagues in

the early 1880s began to pop up, both on the local level, and professionally. So

began a constant leagues folding and collapsing. Teams would float for league to

league, plagued by financial woes. This section proves to be troublesome from Akin,

who lists out series of financial transactions and misgivings that plagued both
owners and teams, that though ultimately proves the emergence of capitalism in the

game in West Virginia, but is distracting and difficult to read.

For years the game would continue to grow, temporarily hindered by the

temperance movement. Two of the reformers goals, abolishing the use of alcohol

and the enforcement or passage of Sunday blue laws, cut deeply into the welfare of

baseball. West Virginia adopted prohibition before the rest of the country, first as

county option and then as a statewide prohibition. Fairmont and Clarksburg had

reputations of being good Sunday towns for Baseball. The amateur and semi-pro

teams all playedon Sundays as well. In 1913 the prosecuting attorney of Marion

County announced that baseball had been tolerated on Sundays before, but he

would now stop it in the county. (68)

Finally, when Akin gets to what will become the heart of his argument his

opening fails to wonder, his introduction falls flat, calling the coal planes of West

Virginia culturally, physically, and economically isolated. He continues adding that

The English and Scots-Irish who settled the area continued to be clannish and

suspicious of strangers until recent times. (108) Though it would be irresponsible

to say the region didnt have transportation difficulties, or that the mountains didnt

form some sort of physical barrier would be irresponsible, but as is ignoring the

well documented diversity of the region, especially in its coalfields, where African-

Americans made up a solid part of the workforce.

Soon communities across the state (not just in the population rich areas to

the north) all had baseball teams that competed against one another. These leagues
were fairly strictly segregated, with black and white team plying in the occasional

barnstorming match.

It becomes clear from the onset that though Akin does seek to prove the

point of his stated thesis, but is rather a baseball romantic lost in a trove of

information. Often times the information, such as the evolution of the games

written rules regarding plunking distract from his argument. Akin sets out with a

good goal in mind, and provides decent info on the coal towns, but otherwise comes

up just a bit short.