STARRED Book Review: Sometimes Orange Is Almost Gold

Reviewed by Warren Maxwell

Hilarious, warmhearted, bite-sized stories of a cult softball team from West Virginia

“There can’t be too many people in this world who had more fun than we did tonight. And we got slaughtered in two softball games.”

Since 1998, a Bad News Bears-inspired softball team has been tearing up the fields of Morgantown, West Virginia. They’ve built a reputation around losing far more games than they win and having more fun than the winners—or anybody else for that matter. Dressed in “county orange” and white uniforms—as in “When I appeared before the judge, I was in my county orange”—Chico’s Bail Bonds have made a tradition out of playing chaotic, occasionally drunk softball, celebrating wins and losses alike at the 123 Pleasant Street bar, recounting the stories together, and then creating literary records of the events.

These records are mashups of familiar yet disparate genres. There’s a dash of the tall tale, the frenzied sports announcer, and the romantic writer who can memorialize the most insignificant moments, lift up failure, laugh at it, and love it. Sometimes Orange Is Almost Gold gathers hundreds of post-game write ups, stretching from 1998 to 2025, along with photos across the decades, stats, and pop out highlights of team members past and present.

“Anybody who has seen Porterfield in a pair of shorts will know that he has only two muscles in his legs. He pulled both of them.’”

I’ve never read a book quite like this one. It has charm, wit, adventure, and a strange anthropologic intrigue. It is a record of a unique kind of community, one that centers around sports yet values friendship and joy above anything as commonplace and shallow as winning. Even without any first-hand knowledge of Chico’s Bail Bonds or the many players who’ve filled its ranks, it’s difficult not to get swept up in the mythology of this rambunctious team.

Whether describing a disastrous loss (“Chico’s were dominated, humiliated, spit on, cummed on, and overmatched against a young and rejuvenated, hard charging Mega Corp, losing 19-1 in game 1 and 18-3 in game 2, goddamn!”) or memorializing team members who’ve passed away, there’s a special beauty to this book that comes from a sheer of-the-moment authenticity.

As is abundantly clear from the photographs included, nothing is hidden in this story of a multi-decade running softball institution. Here we see men of all ages playing amateur softball, cheering one another on, drinking, getting hurt, mostly losing, and absolutely loving it.

“Weak bats, tired legs, and empty souls. Chico’s Bail Bonds, the world’s most lovable softball team, shit the bed in the most lackluster of early season performances ever.”

The book’s layout, an explosive array of photos of all shapes and sizes clustered on pages alongside ever-expanding paragraph-long game summaries, grabs the eye and invites readers to bounce from story to story without necessarily following the linear chronology. Although years are organized together and each game is given at least a few sentences of description, the book exudes a rules-be-damned attitude that emphasizes fun over any specific method for reading.

At the end of the day, this book is a record, an archive of all the games and all the stories (excluding the Lost Years of 2003-2006 that may or may not have fallen victim to faulty storage), all the Chico’s inspired memorabilia and outrageous outfits, and all the “bonds” that were formed over twenty seven years. In that respect, it far surpasses its intended purpose—this is a hyper-local book that inspires, that makes you wish you were on that softball team.

Sometimes Orange is Almost Gold tells decades of comedic, full-hearted post-game stories about an unforgettable amateur softball squad.

Thank you for reading Warren Maxwell’s book review of Sometimes Orange Is Almost Gold by Jim Antonini and Suzanne Reynolds! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.

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