Southern Illinois does have a dazzling baseball history, and Southern Illinois University Carbondale assistant professor Toby Brooks is writing about it.

His book, tentatively titled "Season of Change," is going to encompass much more however, namely West Frankfort in its heyday when the mining industry was its peak and what happened as the town shriveled in the years to come.

The year is 1948, and West Frankfort Cardinals are winners of the Illinois State League championship and play in their own stadium built a year earlier.

"This will be a story overall of how the town came to be. This was the heyday of West Frankfort. There were three movie theaters, a bus line and a trolley. At its peak, the town population was 30,000. Now, it's about 8,000. How did that happen?" asked Brooks who is program director of athletic training clinical education in the Department of Kinesiology at SIUC.

Answering his own question both from family history (Brooks' father was miner in Southern Illinois) and other research, Brooks' answer is succinct.

"The loss of the mining industry in general. You could stand, for example, on the city hall steps in Herrin and see 17 active mines in business. Now, there are none," Brooks said.

Still, it's baseball history and lore in this region that will likely attract readers.

Brooks stumbled on to his story by accident.

Speaking publicly about 14 months earlier on the debut of the Southern Illinois Miners baseball team in Marion, Brooks extolled the club as the first entry of professional baseball in the region.

An elderly man walked up to Brooks and told him he was wrong. There were minor league teams in six cities including West Frankfort, Centralia, Marion and Mount Vernon.

That sent Brooks on a mission to know more as he looked for sources and perused newspaper clippings. And he's turned up some gems of information such as finding out whom the most valuable player was on the 1948 West Frankfort team - a second baseman named Earl Weaver who later managed the Baltimore Orioles to a World Series championship in 1970 and was selected to the Hall of Fame.

Jack Dorris of Benton has gotten wind of what Brooks is working on and said he will be anxious to read it.

"It was always my dream to be a major league player," said Dorris who lettered in four sports at Benton Consolidated High School.

He remembers hitchhiking to West Frankfort while he was in high school to watch the semi-pro games, including African-American teams. He saw baseball lore figures Harry Caray and Gabby Street among the spectators. Dorris tried out for the Mount Vernon team in the early 1950s.

"I didn't have a strong enough arm," Dorris said with a laugh, recounting other local people who tried out for the teams.

Brooks said he is working to have a first draft manuscript finished by Christmas.

Excitement about baseball history in Southern Illinois is brewing stronger.

On Aug. 30, the Southern Illinois Miners will dress in replica uniforms as the club honors West Frankfort on its 60th anniversary of the day the team won its championship.

scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com

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