The Western League: A Baseball History, 1885 through 1999
Author: W.C. Madden, Patrick J. Stewart
Publisher: McFarland & Company
ISBN: 0786410035
Pages: 330
Summary: This book is an awkward attempt to impose some continuity to three very different and disparate baseball leagues, failing at both historical analysis and storytelling.

History is a messy affair. Events don't fall in nice, neat order that makes for easy interpretations and timelines. People rarely leave documentation about their daily events, and when they do, their accounts can't always be trusted. In all, writing about the history of anything can be a sloppy and frustrating process. 

The thing is, an author and historian can go into a writing project with a game plan that can counter the frustration level. Too bad W.C. Madden and Patrick J. Stewart did not do so in The Western League: A Baseball History, 1885-1999. 

This book is really a history of four Western Leagues: the original Western League that became today's American League in 1900; the Class A minor league centered in Nebraska, Iowa, and Oklahoma; the short-lived Class D Western League that grabbed the moniker when the Class A league went under, and today's independent Western Baseball League. They shared nothing in common: no owners, no affiliation levels, no players, no teams, and a few cities.

That's why it's misleading to construct a chronology where these four leagues are presented as one league. The original Western League (1888-1899) was populated by teams in larger Midwestern cities: the original Milwaukee Brewers and Kansas City Blues were part of this league (as were the Davenport Onion Weeders, Des Moines Prohibitionists, St. Joseph Clay Eaters, and Omaha Omahogs). This Western League officially ended play when several Western League owners decided to move into larger Eastern cities, like Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., to form the American League. The Class A Western League began play the same year, but with none of the teams, owners, or players of the original Western League. Though this Western League began with franchises in major Midwestern cities -- like the St. Paul Saints, Minneapolis Millers, and Des Moines Hawkeyes, the league rapidly descended into smaller cities like Hutchinson, Kansas, and Pueblo, Colorado. When the Class A went under, the Class D Nebraska State League was quick to grab the Western League name and play in some of the cities (Sioux City, Sioux Falls, Pueblo) where the Class A league played, but this league lasted only three seasons, and the Class A Western League reclaimed its name in 1947. When the independent Western Baseball League began operations in 1994, it didn't even pretend to have any historical ties to the Class A Western League: the WBL was purely a West Coast phenomenon.

So why do the authors of the Western League insist on imposing a chronology that the historical record just doesn't support? Heck, you might as well throw in the Japanese minor-league Western League as long as you're at it. The point is that sharing a name -- and only partially sharing it, in the case of the Western Baseball League -- doesn't make for historical continuity. The authors do try to trot out some historical justification for their actions in the Introduction, arguing that the Class A Western League is the true Western League and that all the other Western Leagues are linked, but their justification is as follows: "If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it is a duck." OK, that's a really compelling argument. 

Also, while this book makes for a quick read, it's hard to tell exactly what the authors were trying to accomplish. There's a year-by-year record of the three leagues, complete with statistical leaders and standings, but most of the yearly synopses concern former Western League players who reached the big leagues. Assertions are made, but there's no supporting documentation: an author cannot claim that in a given year all the teams made money and not follow with some sort of citation: I'm not arguing that everything or anything should be footnoted, but a more explicit list of sources must be maintained for credibility. While there are some good snapshots of baseball from the 1920s and 1930s, overall this book is a weak effort to chronicle four leagues with very little in common. --Kevin Reichard

Related Links

Western Baseball League

History of the 1885 Western League Keokuks

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