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Picture of the day -
September 18, 2006
Saltville Alkalies Baseball And Catchers Mitt
Click photo to enlarge
For the first half of the 20th century, the
game of baseball
truly was the American pastime. The major leagues were enjoying the
golden era of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Ty Cobb, Honus
Wagner, Christy Mathewson and many other baseball legends. Back
then, virtually every little boy in America longed to
grow up and play big league ball just like their larger-than-life
heroes.
But Yankee Stadium and the other Major League ballparks weren't the
only places that one could go to see a great baseball game back
then. All across America, virtually every little town and
whistlestop had a semi-pro baseball team that played in a league
against similar teams from the neighboring towns. And so it was in
the Mountain Empire.
Locally, there were several semi-pro teams that played against one
another two or three times a season. The players on these teams
earned money for playing the game they loved, but it was nowhere
near enough to live on. This required most of them to work on a
regular job in order to make ends meet. While the vast majority of
them never made it to the big leagues, they were still able to enjoy
playing a kids game as adults and make a little money in the
process.
Back in those days semi-pro baseball games were very popular,
and the bleachers were usually quite full of enthusiastic
spectators. But in the 1950's, the golden age of baseball began to
decline as the golden age of television offered a free alternative
for entertainment. One-by-one, many of the small-town teams folded,
resulting in the consolidation of the leagues and requiring longer
trips for the visiting teams. Longer trips equaled more expense so
even more teams had to fold. Unfortunately, by the late 1960's there
were only a handful of semi-pro baseball teams left across the
country.
 One
of the last teams to fold was the Saltville Alkalies, an extremely
talented and well-backed team from the tiny town of Saltville,
Virginia.
Although it was smaller than many of the towns their team played
against, Saltville had one of the best teams in the Burley Belt
League. In fact, the Alkalies were perennial favorites to take the
league championship, and they usually did.
Why were the Alkalies so good? They had the backing of the Olin
Mathieson Chemical Corporation. In addition to supplying the
financial needs of the team, Olin Mathieson also sponsored a
lunch-time baseball program which provided plenty of practice for
the Saltville players, and there were plenty of players to choose
from because every company in town fielded teams of workers to
participate in the lunch-time league!
Thanks to the deep pockets of Saltville's corporate sponsors, the
Alkalies were one of the most well-funded teams in the country, and
Saltville's fans were loyal to the very end. When they finally
folded in 1967, it was because they had run out of competition instead
of fan interest and money.About the photo: Today's picture features one of the many
wonderful displays in Saltville, Virginia's
Musuem Of
The Middle Appalachians.
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