Welch Miners

There were two iterations of minor league baseball in Welch, West Virginia, and both were named the Welch Miners. The first competed in the Mountain State League from 1937 to 1942. After World War II the Miners were re-formed for 1946 and competed in the Appalachian League through 1955.

Before affiliated minor league baseball reached Welch, there was a team of actual Welch miners, who called themselves the Senators, assembled from the local coal mines to compete in the Coalfield League. That team spurred the building of Blakely Field, which served as home to the Senators and to both iterations of the Welch Miners.

The Mountain State League Miners finished second three times and fourth three times and made the playoffs every year, but never won the league title, though they did reach the finals in 1941.

The Appalachian League Miners started out rough, posting a 33-84 mark and an eighth-place finish in their first year back in 1946. Things improved, though, and the Miners won the Appalachian League in 1952 and 1953. That proved to be the high-water mark for the franchise, as financial trouble eventually forced a move across the mountains to Marion, Virginia, after the 1955 season.

While the Miners never produced a Hall of Famer, they did send a number of players to the majors. The most notable is Dave Bristol, a 1951 Miner who went on to a twelve-season career as manager of the Cincinnati Reds, Milwaukee Brewers, Atlanta Braves, and San Francisco Giants, with an all-time record of 657-764. He is credited with helping build the Big Red Machine, having managed Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez in their early years. One player on the 1948 Miners had already had a good major league career: pitcher Max Butcher, who went 95-106 across ten seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates from 1936 to 1945, put up a respectable 4-3 record with a 2.37 ERA for the Miners at age 35.

Today the closest professional baseball to Welch is in Bluefield, West Virginia, about 33 miles away.