The 1930s were the last great days of semiprofessional, independent, and amateur baseball and in many cases produced some of the wildest baseball west of the Mississippi and in the South. There were various leagues and federations, each of which had its own rules and regulations. Most popular of all were the various tournaments — an outgrowth of the Depression — run on the local, state, and national level. The tournaments were important for a variety of reasons:

1. They were the closest reminders of what the game was like before the era of organized baseball;

2. they became a way for organized baseball to recruit young players, especially for the new minorleague farm teams. Eighteen-year old Bob Feller was playing for a Des Moines semipro club when he was signed by a major-league scout;

3. they helped keep the spirit of amateurism alive;

4. they...