This book is definitely not a usual one for me. However, it is a book I could not pass up when I saw it up in Cooperstown, New York a couple of years back when my friend, Pam, and I went up there to explore all the sites that actually existed and were used in the Nancy Drew mystery, The Secret of Mirror Bay. After all, Cooperstown is famous for its baseball, and this book happens to be authored by none other than Edward Stratemeyer, the same man who created Nancy Drew (and whose daughter authored Mirror Bay!). Thus, even though I'm not a sports fan at all, and even though I'm not normally a fan of series books for boys, I picked this up for no other reason than to have a collectible from my visit to Cooperstown. However, as I was chatting with another friend recently, he was asking me about books written by Edward Stratemeyer, and I had to admit I have never read one. So, thanks to his prompting, I picked up this book and gave it a read.
1 - The Gun Boys of Lakeport, or The Island Camp (1908)
2 - The Baseball Boys of Lakeport, or The Winning Run (1908)
3 - The Boat Club Boys of Lakeport, or The Water Champions (1909)
4 - The Football Boys of Lakeport, or The Champions of the School (1909)
5 - The Automobile Boys of Lakeport, or A Run for the Mountains (1910)
6 - The Aircraft Boys of Lakeport, or The Rivals of the Clouds (1912)
While the "boys" in the book are quite a few in number, Stratemeyer seems to focus on four or five main boys, with a number of supporting characters that have minimal dialogue or action. The main characters are Joe Westmore and his older brother, Harry, and their good friend, Fred Rush. Other boys who share the spotlight are Link Darrow and Paul Shale. Rounding out the cast are the minor players, such as Frank Pemberton, Walter Bannister, Matt Roscoe, and a few others whose names only appear once or twice throughout the story. On the other side of the tracks, you have the bullies/villains of the story, which include Dan Marcy, a carry-over from the previous book who caused the boys considerable problems when they were out hunting; Si Voup, the captain of the opposing baseball team who will do anything to win the championship; Sidney Yates, another player of the opposing team who pulls some nasty tricks that get him punished severely by his father; and then there is Montgomery Jaddell, the school principal who is quite the stick in the mud, and who seems dead-set on making life as difficult as possible for the boys during their last weeks of school for the year.
While there is the main story involving the formation of the Lakeports amateur baseball team and their struggles to earn money to buy uniforms and equipment, as well as their games against various opposing teams from the surrounding towns, there are a couple of smaller adventures along the way - such as a stolen boat that leaves the boys stranded on Pine Island and the kidnapping of the Lakeports' two strongest players just before the final championship game. The boys also come up against some vagrants who think they are going to report their activities, as well as a bull that somehow gets loose and runs rampart through the main street, and a stolen cash box (that Harry and Joe's father mistakenly believes Harry took!). Again, there are no major mysteries, and most everything centers around the boys' baseball activities. Again, the subject matter of the book is not necessarily my cup of tea, but the writing is actually well-done, the story nicely paced, and the characters are varied enough to avoid a cookie-cutter cast.
The internal illustrations are by Max Francis Klepper (1861-1907), who was a German-born artist who immigrated to the United States in 1876 and grew up in Indiana before working in Illinois and New York. He contributed illustrations to a number of magazines, such as Collier's, Harper's Monthly, Cosmopolitan, and others, as well as providing illustrations for several books during the early 1900s, one of which was this particular book. More information about the artist can be found here: Max Francis Klepper.
Something I found rather interesting is the copyright page. Pretty much all references to this book I was able to find online provides a copyright and publication date of 1908. However, the copyright page for this book lists the original Copyright as 1905, by A. S. Barnes & Co., under the title "The Winning Run." The Copyright of the Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. edition is 1908, under the title "The Baseball Boys of Lakeport, or The Winning Run." I was unable to locate any information regarding that earlier copyright, or even a book (or magazine serial) published under the name "The Winning Run" by A. S. Barnes & Co., leaving me to wonder just where that copyright originated.
Another surprising fact about the book is its length. The story is 315 pages, which is nearly 100 pages more than most of the children's series books I am used to reading from the first half of the 20th century. This must have been somewhat the standard in the very early 1900s, as ads in the back of the book indicate the first three Dave Porter books were 312, 286, and 304 pages, respectively. Other series listed in those ads show books of various lengths - from 300 pages to 310 pages to 320 pages to 330 pages, and even one book at a whopping 431 pages! It's actually rather sad that the decades passed, the length of these books aimed at children and young adults gradually decreased to just a little over 200 pages, and ultimately down to just 180 or so pages per book.
Overall, not a bad story, and while I may not be rushing out there to hunt down the other five books in the series, if I do happen across any of them at some point, I'm likely to pick them up just to read the further adventures of these Lakeport boys!
RATING: 9 silk hats with the top knocked in out of 10 for a wholesome story of sportsmanship, friendship, and adventure, with a lot of sports and a bit of mystery thrown in for good measure.
