(Photo by Josh Strope) Many teams from around the country will be participating in the tournament this week, including local squads such as Wheeling and Moundsville.

WHEELING — The Edgar Martin Beast of the East Classic has become such a tradition in the Ohio Valley that it’s sometimes easy to take the enormity of it for granted. That’s because co-directors B.A. Crawford and Bo McConnaughy make organizing the 126-team event — believed to be the largest in the country — look easy. Actually, they have it down to a science. But Crawford, a retired Wheeling businessman, and McConnaughy, the veteran baseball coach at West Liberty University, will be the first ones to point out it’s the folks at the fields that keep things running smoothly throughout the four-day event, which begins in earnest Thursday. ‘‘All of those people that have been with us all these years have done a fantastic job,’’ said McConnaughy, who started the Beast along with Crawford in 1989. ‘‘Without their dedication, loyalty and willingness to put in up to 12-hour days, it wouldn’t be anything.’’ Just think about it. The Beast is played on 27 fields at 24 locations up and down the Ohio Valley from as far south as New Martinsville to as far north as Weirton and Cadiz. ‘‘We have teams that request certain fields every year because of how they’re treated,’’ McConnaughy said. It’s clearly not a Wheeling event anymore. And the best part about it, everyone benefits. From the organizations who run the fields to the businesses that reap the rewards of the July 4th weekend economic boom. ‘‘We’ll fill hotels from St. Clairsville all the way to Washington, Pa.