Beruflich Dokumente
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William Akin is able to paint a clear picture of the growth of Americas Pastime in
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
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
the sport became commercialized the excess of the games followers conflicted with
the sports own ideology, causing it to lose its respectable supporters. (21)
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
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
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
The English and Scots-Irish who settled the area continued to be clannish and
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-
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