What if?

For those of you who enjoy reading alternative fiction (and baseball!) The End of Baseball (Ivan R. Dee: 2008) is a rare treat. Author Peter Schilling imagines what might have happened had a long-rumored attempt by Veeck to integrate baseball did, in fact, occur. As the rumor goes, during the 1940s, Veeck planned to purchase the Phillies and stock it with Negro League stars but then-commissioner Kennisaw Mountain Landis vetoed the purchase. In the alternate-reality created by Schilling, Veeck purchases the flailing Philadelphia A's from Connie Mack and replaces the roster of white players with African-American ballplayers such as Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard, and Josh Gibson. Landis is thwarted through the intervention of politicians and the press. But Veeck and his team must overcome racism and both overt and furtive attempts by the Commissioner to force the A's to fail.

There is an obvious similarity between The End of Baseball and the earlier novel, New York Yanquis, by Bill Granger. In each case, an owner sets out to create a "dream team" to shake up the Game. And there are similar reactions by fans and rivals, alike. But while Yanquis is light and humorous, The End of Baseball is a more serious and realistic portrayal of both the game and players facing bias.

The novel takes place in 1944 when most of America was still, for the most part, segregated. Despite fighting a war on two fronts, the military still kept the races apart; many hotels and restaurants - even those in the seemingly more-open North restricted access to Blacks; and, of course, baseball was still a white-man's game. It is with this backdrop that Schilling sets out to "re-write" history.

For the most part, Mr. Schilling does a credible job of establishing the atmosphere of bigotry. There are those things that you expect - the antipathy by white players and fans of other teams, as well as from the Commissioner. But where Schilling fails is with the third party on the diamond: the umpires. While the black players put up with beanballs, being spiked, even intentionally walked to keep from breaking records set by whites, nowhere are the umpires illustrated as having any prejudice. I would imagine that in reality, umpires in that society would have openly called balls strikes or vice versa, as well as call close plays outs, or home runs foul if they strayed too close to the pole. Umpires in Schilling's story are actually more benign, and even invisible, factors.

Schilling's  overriding premise is that if Veeck's team was successful, all racism would melt away. And that a team stocked with all-star talent would win over all types of fans - even those in rival stadiums. I'm not so sure this would be the case. You are left wondering: would Philadelphia fans really pack the stands if the team was racing for a pennant, albeit one during a year where each of the teams had had their best talent stripped away by the war effort?

The story also includes a plot line where J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI determine to prove that the black players are actually associated with the communist party, but this story is never fully developed and eventually fades away to be more or less a non-issue, as if Schilling somehow forgot about it.

These shortcomings aside, the book is still entertaining. The setting is well-established and Schilling goes to great length to describe train rides as well as the sights, sounds, and smells of those old ball parks. He also does a very credible job of creating believable characters - albeit based on real people; he's done his homework in getting the characters of, not only Bill Veeck, but Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Campanella, to act and "sound" believable. You end up rooting for them to succeed and hoping that the great experiment will somehow change baseball, and American society.