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The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game
Chris von der Ahe knew next to nothing about baseball when he risked his life's savings to found the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals. Yet the German-born beer garden proprietor would become one of the most important -- and funniest -- figures in the game's history. Von der Ahe picked up the team for one reason -- to sell more beer. Then he helped gather a group of ragtag professional clubs together to create a maverick new league that would fight the haughty National League, reinventing big-league baseball to attract Americans of all classes. Sneered at as "The Beer and Whiskey Circuit" because it was backed by brewers, distillers, and saloon owners, their American Association brought Americans back to enjoying baseball by offering Sunday games, beer at the ballpark, and a dirt-cheap ticket price of 25 cents. The womanizing, egocentric, wildly generous Von der Ahe and his fellow owners filled their teams' rosters with drunks and renegades, and drew huge crowds of rowdy spectators who screamed at umpires and cheered like mad as the Philadelphia Athletics and St. Louis Browns fought to the bitter end for the 1883 pennant. In The Summer of Beer and Whiskey, Edward Achorn re-creates this wondrous and hilarious world of cunning, competition, and boozing, set amidst a rapidly transforming America. It is a classic American story of people with big dreams, no shortage of chutzpah, and love for a brilliant game that they refused to let die.
342 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2013
145 people are currently reading
1449 people want to read
About the author
Edward Achorn
5 books66 followersEdward Achorn, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Distinguished Commentary, is an editorial page editor with The Providence Journal. He is also author of Fifty-Nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had. His reviews of books on American history appear frequently in the Weekly Standard. He lives in an 1840 farmhouse outside of Providence, Rhode Island.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 167 reviews
April 24, 2022
As the weather heats up, I start to breathe baseball. I joke that my circadian rhythm is intrinsically tied to the baseball season because my mood brightens or sours depending whether there is a game to be played or not. My winter “seasonal affective disorder” is actually “baseball deprivation disorder” and so on. While a lifelong student of the history of the game, one area where I have gaps in my learning is the game’s early history, from its birth until Babe Ruth started hitting home runs. A friend recently read Summer of Beer and Whiskey so I decided to pick it up for myself.
The early days of baseball were loaded with heavy drinkers, gambling, and no discipline in the club houses. While the first major leagues may have started in 1869, a mere ten years later, interest in the game started to fizzle out. The emergence of the National League in the nation’s largest markets- Chicago, Philadelphia, New York opened the games to only the wealthiest of fans. Admission cost $.50 and games were not played on Sundays, still considered the lord’s day by many. Enter German immigrant and self made man Chris Von Der Ahe of St Louis. A brewer and grocer with political connections, he bought the St Louis Browns of the Association League and remade the team in his image. Through his networking, the Association became a league to rival the National League in 1883, starting with an eight team charter. As per agreement of the two leagues, the first “World Series” would be played between the two league winners following the 1883 season. Already baseball was starting to take on a modern field.
Von der Ahe brought a discipline to the St Louis Browns, forerunner of the Cardinals, that was unknown in most circles. The National League attempted to keep out the riffraff with a long blacklist but the Association would hear none of it, as teams including the Browns and rival Philadelphia Athletics believed in giving players a second or third chance. Only four members of the Louisville Eclipse caught throwing games were frozen out of both leagues. What the new league needed was fans, and Von der Ahe and his cronies in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh agreed to set admission at $.25 and have games on Sundays. The working person would be able to afford a ticket and children could save up and go as well. Von der Ahe spruced up St. Louis’ Sportsman Park and opened a beer garden in the outfield, as fans flocked to the park in the 1883. By year’s end Association teams would outdraw their National League contemporaries, demonstrating that the game was becoming a national game, not just one for the upper class.
The 1883 season provided a hard fought pennant race between the St Louis Browns and Philadelphia Athletics. The National League race was dominated by the Boston Red Stockings, with the Chicago White Stockings finishing a distant second. Von der Ahe could have been George Steinbrenner one hundred years earlier, constantly meddling with his manager and interfering with team affairs. Before year’s end he actually fired his manager and took over the team’s day to day operations himself, referring to team captain Charlie Comiskey for matters concerning the actual game. Comiskey only twenty three learned leadership skills and went on to become the Browns manager and later the owner of the Chicago White Sox, not to be confused with the White Stockings, a forerunner to today’s Cubs.
While Von der Ahe attempted to install discipline in his league, early baseball was not without controversy due to lack of rules. There was only one umpire so many players got away with hidden ball tricks and cheating. A walk was seven balls not four, and foul balls themselves were not strikes and often in play, depending on the ball park. A four man umpire crew would not be in effect for another sixty years. Early lack of equipment especially for catchers and batters lead to injuries and hit batsmen did not merit a free pass to first. Teams were walking wounded, only using one or two starting pitchers the entire year. Rotations and bullpens did not emerge for nearly a century. Perhaps the reason I do not know much about the early history of baseball is because the game did not seem as polished as it is now, as I shake my head at the lack of both rules and discipline. Of course, Von der Ahe would have been shocked if he saw what Babe Ruth thought of discipline thirty five years later. Von der Ahe’s lower admission and beer gardens opened the game to the masses, spurring on more amateur and professional leagues across the country, players hoping for a chance to make the big leagues. The game was truly becoming national.
While I believe Babe Ruth’s seasons in 1920-23 saved baseball, Chris Von der Ahe’s visionary planning did the same forty years earlier. Four franchises from the Association still exist today- St Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Brooklyn now of Los Angeles. Eventually the two leagues merged creating the original sixteen franchises. That was still twenty years after Von der Ahe’s time. His belief in lower admission, beer, and Sunday baseball opened the game to all fans, getting me in the mood to get out to the old ball park. With the thermometer telling me it’s baseball weather, there will be many more ball related books upcoming this season.
⚾️ 4 stars 🍻
The early days of baseball were loaded with heavy drinkers, gambling, and no discipline in the club houses. While the first major leagues may have started in 1869, a mere ten years later, interest in the game started to fizzle out. The emergence of the National League in the nation’s largest markets- Chicago, Philadelphia, New York opened the games to only the wealthiest of fans. Admission cost $.50 and games were not played on Sundays, still considered the lord’s day by many. Enter German immigrant and self made man Chris Von Der Ahe of St Louis. A brewer and grocer with political connections, he bought the St Louis Browns of the Association League and remade the team in his image. Through his networking, the Association became a league to rival the National League in 1883, starting with an eight team charter. As per agreement of the two leagues, the first “World Series” would be played between the two league winners following the 1883 season. Already baseball was starting to take on a modern field.
Von der Ahe brought a discipline to the St Louis Browns, forerunner of the Cardinals, that was unknown in most circles. The National League attempted to keep out the riffraff with a long blacklist but the Association would hear none of it, as teams including the Browns and rival Philadelphia Athletics believed in giving players a second or third chance. Only four members of the Louisville Eclipse caught throwing games were frozen out of both leagues. What the new league needed was fans, and Von der Ahe and his cronies in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh agreed to set admission at $.25 and have games on Sundays. The working person would be able to afford a ticket and children could save up and go as well. Von der Ahe spruced up St. Louis’ Sportsman Park and opened a beer garden in the outfield, as fans flocked to the park in the 1883. By year’s end Association teams would outdraw their National League contemporaries, demonstrating that the game was becoming a national game, not just one for the upper class.
The 1883 season provided a hard fought pennant race between the St Louis Browns and Philadelphia Athletics. The National League race was dominated by the Boston Red Stockings, with the Chicago White Stockings finishing a distant second. Von der Ahe could have been George Steinbrenner one hundred years earlier, constantly meddling with his manager and interfering with team affairs. Before year’s end he actually fired his manager and took over the team’s day to day operations himself, referring to team captain Charlie Comiskey for matters concerning the actual game. Comiskey only twenty three learned leadership skills and went on to become the Browns manager and later the owner of the Chicago White Sox, not to be confused with the White Stockings, a forerunner to today’s Cubs.
While Von der Ahe attempted to install discipline in his league, early baseball was not without controversy due to lack of rules. There was only one umpire so many players got away with hidden ball tricks and cheating. A walk was seven balls not four, and foul balls themselves were not strikes and often in play, depending on the ball park. A four man umpire crew would not be in effect for another sixty years. Early lack of equipment especially for catchers and batters lead to injuries and hit batsmen did not merit a free pass to first. Teams were walking wounded, only using one or two starting pitchers the entire year. Rotations and bullpens did not emerge for nearly a century. Perhaps the reason I do not know much about the early history of baseball is because the game did not seem as polished as it is now, as I shake my head at the lack of both rules and discipline. Of course, Von der Ahe would have been shocked if he saw what Babe Ruth thought of discipline thirty five years later. Von der Ahe’s lower admission and beer gardens opened the game to the masses, spurring on more amateur and professional leagues across the country, players hoping for a chance to make the big leagues. The game was truly becoming national.
While I believe Babe Ruth’s seasons in 1920-23 saved baseball, Chris Von der Ahe’s visionary planning did the same forty years earlier. Four franchises from the Association still exist today- St Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Brooklyn now of Los Angeles. Eventually the two leagues merged creating the original sixteen franchises. That was still twenty years after Von der Ahe’s time. His belief in lower admission, beer, and Sunday baseball opened the game to all fans, getting me in the mood to get out to the old ball park. With the thermometer telling me it’s baseball weather, there will be many more ball related books upcoming this season.
⚾️ 4 stars 🍻
June 30, 2022
The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game was a delightful romp through the early days of baseball in the latter part of the nineteenth century in a rapidly changing America. Having been an avid fan of baseball since I was a child listening to baseball games on the radio with my father, I loved this book. The author, Edward Achorn, sets the stage perfectly in his Preface highlighting one of those magical and unthinkable finishes only possible in baseball. The St. Louis Cardinals are up aginst the Texas Rangers in the final game of the World Series on the evening of October 28, 2011, as portrayed in this exciting passage:
And so begins this wonderful slice of American history in baseball's madcap beginnings in a rapidly changing America. Chris von der Ahe, an immigrant from Germany, knew nothing about baseball when he risked his life savings to found the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals with the idea that he would be able to sell more beer. Von der Ahe then gathered together a ragtag group of professional clubs together to take on the National League. Since these ragtag clubs were backed by brewers, distillers and saloon owners snidely referred to as "The Beer and Whiskey Circuit." But this ragtag group drew large groups of rowdy spectators cheering and opening up the sport of baseball to many more classes of people with their enthusiastic support of baseball as they all fight to the end as the Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Browns fought bitterly to the end for the 1883 pennant. I loved this book.
". . . David Murphy of the Texas Rangers, took a swift hack at a 97-mile-per-hour fastball and launched a long fly ball to left field. Red-jacketed fans in the St. Louis crowd of 47,399 were already on their feet yelling, waving white 'Rally Squirrel' towels in honor of the American gray squirrel whose repeated dashes across the field had prophesied the Cardinals' improbable upset of the Philadelphia Phillies in the Division Series playoffs three weeks earlier. As the ball soared into the night, Cardinals' left fielder Allen Craig sprinted hard, turned around, and, backpedaling, thrust up his left arm, framed by the wall's giant picture of the Cards' legendary pitcher and showman Dizzy Dean, star of the Depression-era champions known as the Gashouse Gang. Fans fixed their eyes on the dying arc, bracing to bellow ear-splitting screams. When Craig's glove swallowed the ball, they jumped up and down, slapped backs, shook hands, hugged, laughed, wept. Ecstatic young athletes in white and red uniforms, swarmed over the field, forming a mound atop closer Jason Motte. Fireworks boomed over the stadium, splashing piercing colors into the sky that were reflected beyond center field on the Gateway Arch, symbol of the city's critical role in America's bold westward expansion. Another splendid page in St. Louis history had been written."
And so begins this wonderful slice of American history in baseball's madcap beginnings in a rapidly changing America. Chris von der Ahe, an immigrant from Germany, knew nothing about baseball when he risked his life savings to found the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals with the idea that he would be able to sell more beer. Von der Ahe then gathered together a ragtag group of professional clubs together to take on the National League. Since these ragtag clubs were backed by brewers, distillers and saloon owners snidely referred to as "The Beer and Whiskey Circuit." But this ragtag group drew large groups of rowdy spectators cheering and opening up the sport of baseball to many more classes of people with their enthusiastic support of baseball as they all fight to the end as the Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Browns fought bitterly to the end for the 1883 pennant. I loved this book.
"Outfits and safety concerns aside, the new league was reminding Americans why they so loved the game. Something about baseball captured the national spirit, its striving, impatient, rebellious nature superimposed over a love of pastoral beauty, justice, and order. Moreover, baseball seemed to epitomize the American interplay between communal effort and something more essential: brilliant individual achievement."
April 3, 2022
Baseball pennant races always are exciting. no matter the league or the year. In 1883, there was an exciting finish to the end of the American Association's season and this season is captured in this well-reasearched book by Edward Achorn.
The title will draw in readers and it sounds like it was a very wild time in the game. While it was true that many of the players were hard drinkers and were "rewarded" with adult beverages, the bulk of the book deals with the business of the game, such as it was in the 19th century, as well as the play on the field.
The American Association was considered a major league at the time and both Achorn and narrator Ax Norman, who does a good job on the narration, are careful to treat it as such. The best work in the book is about Moses Fleetwood Walker. a Black catcher who was the first Black player to be in a game considered Major League. (Jackie Robinson would be the first in Organuzed Baseball, as we know MLB today) Achorn's accout of Walker's treatment and how he handles it is well written and well spoken by Norman.
This is a good account of the 1883 pennant race and will bring the reader back to that time in the game complete with the booze, the gamblers, the train transportation and even happy fans of the Philadelphia Athletics cheering their champions at the platform. Recommended for readers who enjoy books on baseball of that era.
The title will draw in readers and it sounds like it was a very wild time in the game. While it was true that many of the players were hard drinkers and were "rewarded" with adult beverages, the bulk of the book deals with the business of the game, such as it was in the 19th century, as well as the play on the field.
The American Association was considered a major league at the time and both Achorn and narrator Ax Norman, who does a good job on the narration, are careful to treat it as such. The best work in the book is about Moses Fleetwood Walker. a Black catcher who was the first Black player to be in a game considered Major League. (Jackie Robinson would be the first in Organuzed Baseball, as we know MLB today) Achorn's accout of Walker's treatment and how he handles it is well written and well spoken by Norman.
This is a good account of the 1883 pennant race and will bring the reader back to that time in the game complete with the booze, the gamblers, the train transportation and even happy fans of the Philadelphia Athletics cheering their champions at the platform. Recommended for readers who enjoy books on baseball of that era.
October 9, 2013
Summer of Beer and Whiskey started off as a book about the St. Louis Brown(stockings). It ended up being the story of the pennant race of one season in the American Association (eventually focusing equally on Philly and Cincinnati).
Growing up in a baseball crazed family and having a grandfather that quoted St. Louis Browns (and Cardinals) stats ad nauseum, I was in fear of more statistics. Grandpa drove everyone nuts with his baseball stories. And this book did have some stats. But the author deftly wove them into the storytelling. There were all kinds of anecdotes that I'd never heard or thought of. Baseball was not some little ball diamond with high school size bleachers and a dirt field. The 1893 Sportsman Park, sat 16,000 people and people were obsessed. Standing room was 10 people deep right up to the foul line. Police had to keep them off the field, people often going onto the field during play. Ball players were crazy characters...cheating was rampant and the fans cheered it (like stealing home from second base without tagging third) because there was only one umpire who was often looking the other way. Tripping was legal (wth?). A pitcher often tried to hit a batter (no automatic base rule). It was up to the player to stay out of the way. They played ball without gloves, often incurring horrendous injuries. Catchers had no masks. It was a brutal sport. Baseball teams were owned by brewers because they had a stake in the concessions. It sounds more like WWE wrestling, than modern day baseball.
I knew I would love this book from the title of the first chapter "In the Big Inning"...get it? "in the beginning"...because 1893 fans said God approved of baseball in the bible, right from the first sentence. German born Chris Von der Ahe, the owner of the Browns, was a fantastic character, that rivaled Yogi Berra's mangled quotes. "Take dot blanked blanked horse back to der barn unt starve him to death. Don't give him noddings to eat but hay and oats."
I really liked how the evolution of the architecture of the baseball stadium was shown. Things we take for granted as normal design concepts of a sports venue were shown from the beginning...covered seating, exiting, the first scoreboard provided to see the scores of games around the country (transmitted by telegraph) etc... the first venues having folding chairs. The "bleachers" coined from the people who were bleached by the sun, sitting in them. Fascinating architecture from a book not about architecture.
This was really 4 1/2 stars for me. It was a perfect accompaniment for post season baseball. Living in St. Louis made all the history that much more real. The one thing I didn't understand was that in the beginning (big inning), the author described Von der Ahe as a hilarious, happy go lucky owner who knew nothing about baseball. By the end of the book, he was a meddling, hot-headed tyrant owner. And, I wanted lots more photos. All in all, great story telling.
Go Cards!
Growing up in a baseball crazed family and having a grandfather that quoted St. Louis Browns (and Cardinals) stats ad nauseum, I was in fear of more statistics. Grandpa drove everyone nuts with his baseball stories. And this book did have some stats. But the author deftly wove them into the storytelling. There were all kinds of anecdotes that I'd never heard or thought of. Baseball was not some little ball diamond with high school size bleachers and a dirt field. The 1893 Sportsman Park, sat 16,000 people and people were obsessed. Standing room was 10 people deep right up to the foul line. Police had to keep them off the field, people often going onto the field during play. Ball players were crazy characters...cheating was rampant and the fans cheered it (like stealing home from second base without tagging third) because there was only one umpire who was often looking the other way. Tripping was legal (wth?). A pitcher often tried to hit a batter (no automatic base rule). It was up to the player to stay out of the way. They played ball without gloves, often incurring horrendous injuries. Catchers had no masks. It was a brutal sport. Baseball teams were owned by brewers because they had a stake in the concessions. It sounds more like WWE wrestling, than modern day baseball.
I knew I would love this book from the title of the first chapter "In the Big Inning"...get it? "in the beginning"...because 1893 fans said God approved of baseball in the bible, right from the first sentence. German born Chris Von der Ahe, the owner of the Browns, was a fantastic character, that rivaled Yogi Berra's mangled quotes. "Take dot blanked blanked horse back to der barn unt starve him to death. Don't give him noddings to eat but hay and oats."
I really liked how the evolution of the architecture of the baseball stadium was shown. Things we take for granted as normal design concepts of a sports venue were shown from the beginning...covered seating, exiting, the first scoreboard provided to see the scores of games around the country (transmitted by telegraph) etc... the first venues having folding chairs. The "bleachers" coined from the people who were bleached by the sun, sitting in them. Fascinating architecture from a book not about architecture.
This was really 4 1/2 stars for me. It was a perfect accompaniment for post season baseball. Living in St. Louis made all the history that much more real. The one thing I didn't understand was that in the beginning (big inning), the author described Von der Ahe as a hilarious, happy go lucky owner who knew nothing about baseball. By the end of the book, he was a meddling, hot-headed tyrant owner. And, I wanted lots more photos. All in all, great story telling.
Go Cards!
May 11, 2013
I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway. This book is a well written glimpse into the beginnings of professional baseball in America. Baseball in the 1880s was a much rougher game than it is today, played with much less concern for player safety or sportsmanship. Baseball players of the era had a reputation for wild living off the field, which Chris von der Ahe and other early owners and managers tried to curtail, to make the game more appealing to the public. Von der Ahe also pushed for Sunday baseball, and for the sale of beer and whiskey at the ballparks, things baseball fans take for granted today, and for cheaper admission prices to expand the fan base to include poor immigrants. The book also deals with the issue of racism in baseball in an era not far removed from the War Between the States. Mr. Achorn manages to write about the details of specific games in a way that makes them exciting rather than boring. The reader can really feel the ailments suffered by the players. If the reader can resist the temptation to skip to the end of the book, the text builds to an exciting conclusion that captures the excitement and tension that exists in pennant races up to the present day. The book includes a telling Epilogue, chronicling what happened to the players, owners and managers later in their lives. I really enjoyed this book, and would also like to read Achorn's Fifty-nine in '84.
July 7, 2020
An interesting read. Not as fun as the cover promised to be - most of the book concerns the pennant race in 1882, so it gets bogged down in the details. I think I would have found it more compelling if it had been organized differently, or if Achorn had written it so that you rooted for one team.
The cover blurb gives you the impression that it's mostly about Chris von der Ahe and the St Louis Browns, but it deals equally with the Philadelphia Athletics and the Cincinnati Reds, with time out for other teams and a chapter on the treatment of black players at the time. A lot of interesting stuff, but several times I lost track of which team Achorn was talking about and had to flip back to see who we were talking about or which player was being discussed, and lost the thread a bit. In the chapter about black players, he also quotes extensively from the press at the time, and after awhile, you start to tire of all the racism. You know it was there, fewer examples would have sufficed for me.
Interesting information about the early days of baseball, but doesn't live up to the promise of the cover, or even make that convincing a case that the American Association indeed saved baseball.
The cover blurb gives you the impression that it's mostly about Chris von der Ahe and the St Louis Browns, but it deals equally with the Philadelphia Athletics and the Cincinnati Reds, with time out for other teams and a chapter on the treatment of black players at the time. A lot of interesting stuff, but several times I lost track of which team Achorn was talking about and had to flip back to see who we were talking about or which player was being discussed, and lost the thread a bit. In the chapter about black players, he also quotes extensively from the press at the time, and after awhile, you start to tire of all the racism. You know it was there, fewer examples would have sufficed for me.
Interesting information about the early days of baseball, but doesn't live up to the promise of the cover, or even make that convincing a case that the American Association indeed saved baseball.
November 30, 2021
It's easy to think that baseball's pre-Ruthian past is a mysterious, unknown netherworld of barely perceptible men wearing gaudy uniforms and nearly ubiquitous handlebar mustaches. But there was a sport of baseball long before Babe Ruth, and there's a history there of colorful figures who were larger than life in their own time and perhaps more than a little worthy of deeper study.
"The Summer of Beer and Whiskey," by Edward Achorn, is a fantastic look at one particular season in baseball's antediluvian past, the summer of 1883. The National League is supposed to be the only game in town, but the upstart American Association is trying to make baseball more competitive and restore the game to some semblance of its former profitability, after cheating and gambling scandals the previous decade had undermined the sports' status among average Americans. At the center of these efforts is Chris Von der Ahe, a German immigrant and owner of the St. Louis Browns (forerunners to today's MLB Cardinals), who desperately wants to win a pennant during this tumultuous season. Other teams, including the Philadelphia Athletics, are vying for the crown as well, and in a rollicking narrative, Achorn details how the season came down to the last series of games to determine the ultimate winner.
I'm a huge baseball book reader, having been a fan of the sport for a long time (I still love baseball, though like a lot of people I don't follow a particular team or watch it much anymore). So this book was going to be something that I'd probably read anyway. But I enjoyed the heck out of it, because it was an entertaining look at the sport at a time in its history when its status as "the national pastime" was no certain thing (and indeed, in our more modern era, it has been surpassed by football in the hearts of most American sports fans). Achorn captures the tenor of the times using contemporary news reports (with the old-timey conventions of the language back then in full effect, though you know in your heart that the people quoted probably used a few choice four-letter words from time to time in their daily lives), and conveys the colorful personalities of old-timey baseball with wit and verve.
Baseball was on the brink of becoming irrelevant in 1883, but thanks to the efforts of Von der Ahe and his fellow owners, the American Association's tight pennant race helped save the sport. With everything from a manager fired mid-season from a successful team (shades of Steinbrenner vs. Billy Martin a century later) to a jumping-jack pitcher whose motion to the plate drew guffaws but whose pitches left hitters bewildered, "The Summer of Beer and Whiskey" is an entertaining romp through the early days of baseball's history.
"The Summer of Beer and Whiskey," by Edward Achorn, is a fantastic look at one particular season in baseball's antediluvian past, the summer of 1883. The National League is supposed to be the only game in town, but the upstart American Association is trying to make baseball more competitive and restore the game to some semblance of its former profitability, after cheating and gambling scandals the previous decade had undermined the sports' status among average Americans. At the center of these efforts is Chris Von der Ahe, a German immigrant and owner of the St. Louis Browns (forerunners to today's MLB Cardinals), who desperately wants to win a pennant during this tumultuous season. Other teams, including the Philadelphia Athletics, are vying for the crown as well, and in a rollicking narrative, Achorn details how the season came down to the last series of games to determine the ultimate winner.
I'm a huge baseball book reader, having been a fan of the sport for a long time (I still love baseball, though like a lot of people I don't follow a particular team or watch it much anymore). So this book was going to be something that I'd probably read anyway. But I enjoyed the heck out of it, because it was an entertaining look at the sport at a time in its history when its status as "the national pastime" was no certain thing (and indeed, in our more modern era, it has been surpassed by football in the hearts of most American sports fans). Achorn captures the tenor of the times using contemporary news reports (with the old-timey conventions of the language back then in full effect, though you know in your heart that the people quoted probably used a few choice four-letter words from time to time in their daily lives), and conveys the colorful personalities of old-timey baseball with wit and verve.
Baseball was on the brink of becoming irrelevant in 1883, but thanks to the efforts of Von der Ahe and his fellow owners, the American Association's tight pennant race helped save the sport. With everything from a manager fired mid-season from a successful team (shades of Steinbrenner vs. Billy Martin a century later) to a jumping-jack pitcher whose motion to the plate drew guffaws but whose pitches left hitters bewildered, "The Summer of Beer and Whiskey" is an entertaining romp through the early days of baseball's history.
December 29, 2021
Recently, I was flipping through the channels trying to find something to watch and happened upon the MLB channel. It has been showing, kind of over and over, the Ken Burns baseball documentary , it was fascinating, and I’m learning,so is the history of baseball in general!
So after become disenchanted with hockey and specifically the Blackhawks, long story….look up their latest controversy if you don’t already know…. I decided maybe I’d watch and learn about baseball and kind of fell down a rabbit hole. Who knew there was so much info out there about the history of baseball.
Anyway, this was a super well written book about the early days of baseball and the many characters involved, and I really enjoyed it. So 5 stars and best reads pile. The nay-sayers are wrong baseball really isn’t boring at all.
I’m new to it, not coming from a family that really cares about sports at all, especially baseball, but I’m actually looking forward to baseball in the spring and hopefully the lock out will be over by then and the resurgence of covid won’t ruin it.
So after become disenchanted with hockey and specifically the Blackhawks, long story….look up their latest controversy if you don’t already know…. I decided maybe I’d watch and learn about baseball and kind of fell down a rabbit hole. Who knew there was so much info out there about the history of baseball.
Anyway, this was a super well written book about the early days of baseball and the many characters involved, and I really enjoyed it. So 5 stars and best reads pile. The nay-sayers are wrong baseball really isn’t boring at all.
I’m new to it, not coming from a family that really cares about sports at all, especially baseball, but I’m actually looking forward to baseball in the spring and hopefully the lock out will be over by then and the resurgence of covid won’t ruin it.
April 19, 2025
This was a fascinating book. I learned so much and it absolutely deepened my appreciation for the history of baseball.
Only thing that keeps it from being five stars is that there are a LOT of names to follow, and they tend to go team by team for chunks, which messes with the timeline. A few more standings updates would have helped also.
Otherwise- wonderful baseball history book
Only thing that keeps it from being five stars is that there are a LOT of names to follow, and they tend to go team by team for chunks, which messes with the timeline. A few more standings updates would have helped also.
Otherwise- wonderful baseball history book
August 27, 2013
The Summer of Beer and Whiskey is a delightful read about the “ancient history” of baseball. One can tell they are going to get something different about the American pastime with a subtitle that reads “How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game.” This is the chronicle of the season of 1883, when a new upstart league – the American Association – came to challenge the establishment’s National League.
Without knowing much about baseball, the outlandish German immigrant Chris Von der Ahe – a grocer and saloon keeper – realizes that he can make money by organizing games on Sunday, widening the sport’s audience to the masses, and selling plenty of alcohol. Edward Achorn’s research, which draws deeply from press reporting, enhances his 130 year old tale with a wide variety of colorful stories and bizarre anecdotes about the period, the people, and the game. As professional baseball was still in its infancy, the author reveals much the sport’s chaotic nature, as well as the new industrial nation’s quickly growing love affair with the game.
Interspersed within the work is a combination of two narrative styles. The first, and more revealing, is a background description of the sport, organization, and its major characters during the early 1880s. So surprisingly different then the baseball of today, it is the previously unknown elements of the young sport that contrast greatly from our modern game that are most interesting. The game was faster, despite walks requiring seven balls. The teams were fairly transitory organizations, some shifting cities and names multiple times during the decade. Players, numbering only a dozen or so per team, were usually gloveless, overworked, and often competing injured. Playing grounds were roughly constructed and extra-large in size, making those “nonathletic” homeruns much more infrequent. Special ground rules existed for unusual obstructions including standing water. The small wooden stadiums often succumbed to fire.
The second writing approach here is an account of the close pennant race between Von der Ahe’s St. Louis Browns (now the Cardinals) and the vanished Philadelphia Athletics. Many games are described in detail, including the big ones associated with the final weeks of the season. We are treated to Von der Ahe’s overly eager micromanagement approach, the unruly behavior of many of the era’s players and fans, and quirky moments in games, including a young pitcher whose unusual jumping technique made him more famous than his mediocre statistics.
Without knowing much about baseball, the outlandish German immigrant Chris Von der Ahe – a grocer and saloon keeper – realizes that he can make money by organizing games on Sunday, widening the sport’s audience to the masses, and selling plenty of alcohol. Edward Achorn’s research, which draws deeply from press reporting, enhances his 130 year old tale with a wide variety of colorful stories and bizarre anecdotes about the period, the people, and the game. As professional baseball was still in its infancy, the author reveals much the sport’s chaotic nature, as well as the new industrial nation’s quickly growing love affair with the game.
Interspersed within the work is a combination of two narrative styles. The first, and more revealing, is a background description of the sport, organization, and its major characters during the early 1880s. So surprisingly different then the baseball of today, it is the previously unknown elements of the young sport that contrast greatly from our modern game that are most interesting. The game was faster, despite walks requiring seven balls. The teams were fairly transitory organizations, some shifting cities and names multiple times during the decade. Players, numbering only a dozen or so per team, were usually gloveless, overworked, and often competing injured. Playing grounds were roughly constructed and extra-large in size, making those “nonathletic” homeruns much more infrequent. Special ground rules existed for unusual obstructions including standing water. The small wooden stadiums often succumbed to fire.
The second writing approach here is an account of the close pennant race between Von der Ahe’s St. Louis Browns (now the Cardinals) and the vanished Philadelphia Athletics. Many games are described in detail, including the big ones associated with the final weeks of the season. We are treated to Von der Ahe’s overly eager micromanagement approach, the unruly behavior of many of the era’s players and fans, and quirky moments in games, including a young pitcher whose unusual jumping technique made him more famous than his mediocre statistics.
June 11, 2019
Only true lovers of baseball will appreciate this history of the early game. The one constant through all the years has been baseball.
April 5, 2017
I found it enthralling and entertaining about a long lost era that won't be repeated again!
February 7, 2021
Interesting to think that base ball barely survived its early days without these owners and players.
May 9, 2013
I wrote this review for the newspaper's book section:
April 1. “Almost wintry at the ball park and thoroughly cheerless.” That might sound like a recent Twins home opener, but we’re talking about April 1, 1883, in St. Louis, where the game of baseball was about to be transformed.
Edward Achorn recaptures the season that saved baseball in “The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game.”
In the late 1870s, the national pastime was a disgrace. Gamblers in cahoots with dishonest players corrupted the games spectators were paying to see, so spectators (the word “fan” hadn’t been coined yet) stopped paying to see them. Heavy-handed National League officials made the sport even less appealing by expelling big-city teams and blacklisting star players — not just for cheating, but also for insisting on being paid.
Into this downward spiral stepped Chris von der Ahe, an immigrant St. Louis saloon owner with an outsized personality and the ambition to go with it. Von der Ahe bought into the St. Louis Browns and with some like-minded men in Louisville, Brooklyn, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, helped create the rival American Association in 1881. Unlike the National League, these teams played on Sundays, the only day off for working-class folks. They charged 25-cent admission, half the National League’s 50 cents. They sold beer and whiskey. Spectators came by the thousands.
All they needed now was a pennant race, and in 1883 they got one so memorable it’s surprising that we don’t remember it.
Perhaps it’s because the game that Achorn describes is so different from the one we know. Arm-weary pitchers went days without relief. Road trips lasted a month.With no radio or TV, people waited outside newspaper offices for telegraph updates. The color line hadn’t been drawn yet in Reconstruction-era America, meaning Fleet Walker could play on a white team decades before Jackie Robinson.
Yet some things abide: misbehaving players and penny-pinching owners. The Yankees’ George Steinbrenner had nothing over Von der Ahe, who fired both the Browns’ manager and top player in the last weeks of the pennant race.
With so many stories and personalities, Achorn struggles to maintain a coherent narrative at times. Some digressions are worthy of full books, and maybe they will be. This book includes samples from Achorn’s fine biography, “Fifty-Nine in ’84.”
As with that book, Achorn’s gift for storytelling shines in the climactic games of the season. Vivid scenes put the reader in the stands as pitchers pelt batters, fielders crash through fences and the forces of nature whip up a blinding ninth-inning dust “hurricane.”
When the dust settles, one team will win the pennant, and Americans will rediscover their love of baseball.
April 1. “Almost wintry at the ball park and thoroughly cheerless.” That might sound like a recent Twins home opener, but we’re talking about April 1, 1883, in St. Louis, where the game of baseball was about to be transformed.
Edward Achorn recaptures the season that saved baseball in “The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game.”
In the late 1870s, the national pastime was a disgrace. Gamblers in cahoots with dishonest players corrupted the games spectators were paying to see, so spectators (the word “fan” hadn’t been coined yet) stopped paying to see them. Heavy-handed National League officials made the sport even less appealing by expelling big-city teams and blacklisting star players — not just for cheating, but also for insisting on being paid.
Into this downward spiral stepped Chris von der Ahe, an immigrant St. Louis saloon owner with an outsized personality and the ambition to go with it. Von der Ahe bought into the St. Louis Browns and with some like-minded men in Louisville, Brooklyn, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, helped create the rival American Association in 1881. Unlike the National League, these teams played on Sundays, the only day off for working-class folks. They charged 25-cent admission, half the National League’s 50 cents. They sold beer and whiskey. Spectators came by the thousands.
All they needed now was a pennant race, and in 1883 they got one so memorable it’s surprising that we don’t remember it.
Perhaps it’s because the game that Achorn describes is so different from the one we know. Arm-weary pitchers went days without relief. Road trips lasted a month.With no radio or TV, people waited outside newspaper offices for telegraph updates. The color line hadn’t been drawn yet in Reconstruction-era America, meaning Fleet Walker could play on a white team decades before Jackie Robinson.
Yet some things abide: misbehaving players and penny-pinching owners. The Yankees’ George Steinbrenner had nothing over Von der Ahe, who fired both the Browns’ manager and top player in the last weeks of the pennant race.
With so many stories and personalities, Achorn struggles to maintain a coherent narrative at times. Some digressions are worthy of full books, and maybe they will be. This book includes samples from Achorn’s fine biography, “Fifty-Nine in ’84.”
As with that book, Achorn’s gift for storytelling shines in the climactic games of the season. Vivid scenes put the reader in the stands as pitchers pelt batters, fielders crash through fences and the forces of nature whip up a blinding ninth-inning dust “hurricane.”
When the dust settles, one team will win the pennant, and Americans will rediscover their love of baseball.
May 13, 2013
This is really not the story of liquor, but rather the story of the American Association, a professional baseball league that in the 1880's provided baseball with a rebirth after gambling scandals and a new paradigm for selling tickets.
Achorn has taken on the role of historian for early baseball with this book following his story of Old Hoss Radbourn and his 1984 - 59 win season. Here we get a broader look at an entire league that would provide major league baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and Brooklyn Dodgers, but in 1883, the season they established themselves and their popularity it was because audacious owners like the quirky Chris Von Der Ahe in St Louis defied the tradition.
They reduced tickets to 25 cents, played on Sundays, and sold beer and whiskey in the stands. The old National League was aghast, as were the moralizers of the day, but for the working class this was the place to get away from the drudgery of work and the result was fun, excitement, and financial success.
Achorn introduces us to starts like Mullane, Stovey, Browning - giants in their time, prototypes of future superstars. He also shows us how dirty the game could be played, throwing at batters with impunity, taking advantage of having only one umpire to scan the entire field, spikes, brawls, and scuffed up balls, but he also shows us the classic tension of a pennant race, the exhaustion of the players at the end of the season, and the soaring and crashing hopes of fans.
It is baseball as we know it in the book, even if we might not have recognized all of it in the field with no gloves, motley uniforms, pitchers working entire games and often consecutive games. In sell outs fans sat in the outfield.
There is no judging of the talents of the men who played then in comparison to the players today, just as we cannot truly imagine what the statistics of Bonds, Clemens, Rodriguez and other steroid monsters would have been without their chemical enhancement.
All we can do is look through Achorn's writing and enjoy a pennant race played 150 years ago. And it is still good theater.
Achorn has taken on the role of historian for early baseball with this book following his story of Old Hoss Radbourn and his 1984 - 59 win season. Here we get a broader look at an entire league that would provide major league baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, and Brooklyn Dodgers, but in 1883, the season they established themselves and their popularity it was because audacious owners like the quirky Chris Von Der Ahe in St Louis defied the tradition.
They reduced tickets to 25 cents, played on Sundays, and sold beer and whiskey in the stands. The old National League was aghast, as were the moralizers of the day, but for the working class this was the place to get away from the drudgery of work and the result was fun, excitement, and financial success.
Achorn introduces us to starts like Mullane, Stovey, Browning - giants in their time, prototypes of future superstars. He also shows us how dirty the game could be played, throwing at batters with impunity, taking advantage of having only one umpire to scan the entire field, spikes, brawls, and scuffed up balls, but he also shows us the classic tension of a pennant race, the exhaustion of the players at the end of the season, and the soaring and crashing hopes of fans.
It is baseball as we know it in the book, even if we might not have recognized all of it in the field with no gloves, motley uniforms, pitchers working entire games and often consecutive games. In sell outs fans sat in the outfield.
There is no judging of the talents of the men who played then in comparison to the players today, just as we cannot truly imagine what the statistics of Bonds, Clemens, Rodriguez and other steroid monsters would have been without their chemical enhancement.
All we can do is look through Achorn's writing and enjoy a pennant race played 150 years ago. And it is still good theater.
May 24, 2015
Reading about base ball of long ago is a bit like having your grandfather share sordid details of his life with you; some things are probably better left unsaid. But while many of the tales send you running to the kitchen to grab a knife in the misguided hope that gouging out your eyes will erase those disturbing mental images, other tidbits leave you glad you listened.
Cap Anson, the bribery attempts, the public lambasting and attacks on umpires, all recounted in Edward Achorn’s “The Summer of Beer and Whiskey,” definitely do not show the nascent national pastime at its finest, to say the least. And as a life-long Philadelphian I could have done with fewer sordid details of the behavior of the residents of my hometown – did we really have to have a listing of the ugly crimes committed during the Athletics’ championship parade?
However, as I implied, the book also had details I’m very glad to have read: A coin-flip to decide who bats first! One ball used the entire game! A one-and-a-half man pitching rotation! Sixty-eight complete games in one season – by ONE guy! Nine inning games finishing in less than 2 hours on a regular basis! No gloves! I would have loved to shake a player’s hand at the end of a season.
The aspect of the game during those years which drew most of my cheers – apart from a Philadelphia team winning it all – was how the regular season meant everything. None of this playing 162 games to see who is really good but then giving one third of all the teams, some barely above .500, a chance to be crowned the best. The season should mean everything when it comes to determining the best. Eh, what do I know – whenever I hear the story about the prodigal son I always celebrate the son who remained by his father’s side.
The prodigal son - I bet he shared a sordid detail or two with his grandson.
Cap Anson, the bribery attempts, the public lambasting and attacks on umpires, all recounted in Edward Achorn’s “The Summer of Beer and Whiskey,” definitely do not show the nascent national pastime at its finest, to say the least. And as a life-long Philadelphian I could have done with fewer sordid details of the behavior of the residents of my hometown – did we really have to have a listing of the ugly crimes committed during the Athletics’ championship parade?
However, as I implied, the book also had details I’m very glad to have read: A coin-flip to decide who bats first! One ball used the entire game! A one-and-a-half man pitching rotation! Sixty-eight complete games in one season – by ONE guy! Nine inning games finishing in less than 2 hours on a regular basis! No gloves! I would have loved to shake a player’s hand at the end of a season.
The aspect of the game during those years which drew most of my cheers – apart from a Philadelphia team winning it all – was how the regular season meant everything. None of this playing 162 games to see who is really good but then giving one third of all the teams, some barely above .500, a chance to be crowned the best. The season should mean everything when it comes to determining the best. Eh, what do I know – whenever I hear the story about the prodigal son I always celebrate the son who remained by his father’s side.
The prodigal son - I bet he shared a sordid detail or two with his grandson.
July 15, 2013
A very entertaining read about the early ancient days of Baseball and how a wacky german businessman had a bold brash plan to save baseball from the Natinal league.That leagues owners only wanted the highest of society to attend games. Enter Chris Von Der Ahe and the American Association and the St. Louis Browns.
The new league encouraged lower prices (a more affordable $.25 as opposed to $.50, which was too much for a working man to afford.) Beer at games and sunday games.
the ensuing pennant chase in the A.A. revitalized baseball to such a point that the "national Pastime" has never been close to the brink of extinction since.
Achorn brings Von der Ahe and the league to wonderous life. He shows just how crazed and bizarre baseball was at that time, 7 balls for a walk, the pitcher could hit you with a pitch as much as he pleased ( there was no rule sending a hit batsman to first), playes often were not substituted for unless horribly injured.
Von Der Ahe (an 19th century steinbrenner clone if there was such a thing) is a fascinating figure as is baseball in the 1870's. Kudos to Achorn for bringing this forgotten man and forgotten league back into the light.
The new league encouraged lower prices (a more affordable $.25 as opposed to $.50, which was too much for a working man to afford.) Beer at games and sunday games.
the ensuing pennant chase in the A.A. revitalized baseball to such a point that the "national Pastime" has never been close to the brink of extinction since.
Achorn brings Von der Ahe and the league to wonderous life. He shows just how crazed and bizarre baseball was at that time, 7 balls for a walk, the pitcher could hit you with a pitch as much as he pleased ( there was no rule sending a hit batsman to first), playes often were not substituted for unless horribly injured.
Von Der Ahe (an 19th century steinbrenner clone if there was such a thing) is a fascinating figure as is baseball in the 1870's. Kudos to Achorn for bringing this forgotten man and forgotten league back into the light.
August 17, 2020
Definitely an enjoyable read. As a baseball fan, it's always fun to read the deep detail about various games, the play-by-play action, in this case, of games taking place in 1883. Crazy stuff but always great! I was a bit disappointed, however, that the "beer and whiskey" theme seemed to fade away after the first half of the book. After that, almost the whole story was about different players, different games, and the overall history of the American Association and the other "leagues" that were created. Still fun, but not what I'd hoped for. Perhaps there wasn't any more to tell, but if so, the book could have been shortened. Too many examples of "the greatest play anyone had ever seen," "perhaps the most extraordinary hitter of the era," etc. (I'm paraphrasing here, but the superlatives are constantly sprinkled throughout). In total, though, this was a good book in illuminating the lives and actions of Chris Von Der Ahe and others, whom (I'll admit) I'd never heard of before. A decent read for serious and detail-oriented baseball fans ("fanatics" at the time!).
October 28, 2013
If you would like some insight to the world of baseball in the late 1800's, then this is the book for you. If you love baseball, then this is the book for you.It's well written and full of interesting facts.It's a guide to how a businessman in 1883 helped shape how baseball is played today.It shows how he fought to have games played on Sundays, and how he changed the relationship between owners and players. Not only do we learn about this era of baseball, but we also follow the the exciting 1883 season.This book is a joy to read.
October 5, 2014
Achorn's historical narrative describes the 1883 season of the American Association, soon to be come the National League and an indepth description of numerous baseball franchises, predominantly the St
Louis Browns (Cardinals) and the Philadelphia Athletics (Kansas City and now Oakland). A very informative and enjoyable read.
Louis Browns (Cardinals) and the Philadelphia Athletics (Kansas City and now Oakland). A very informative and enjoyable read.
May 3, 2015
The story of how a German beermaker, Chris Von der Ahe, bought a baseball team to sell more beer. He bought the St. Louis Browns (now Cardinals) and opened up baseball games to Sunday, beer and cheap tickets. These things were all forbidden in 1883. He probably saved the game.
September 21, 2019
Well, yes, the “beer and whiskey” is somewhat discussed and dispensed with in the first chapter. The book is, though, generous with its description of the German Biergarten tradition as imported to America, which faced stiff opposition from the Puritans of the East Coast. Among those Puritans were the Brahmins of the National, who tried to “save” baseball from its reputation as a game of gamblers and lowlifes. They tried to gentrify the game by forbidding alcohol at games, and by not playing on Sundays (although that decision was made easier by existing blue laws in many states). The National League also blackballed players and whole teams, like the Cincinnati Reds, and raised ticket prices to 50 cents to freeze out the “cheap” element.
But the new American Association, ended up breaking those rules. Aided by Van der Ahe in St. Louis, who took over a new team, the Brown Stockings, and abetted by the equally beer-loving Germans in Cincinnati, the American Association took on the older league, and filled a niche for fans who only had Sunday’s to see baseball.
Achorn covers the Association’s 1883 season, when they fielded 8 teams in the Midwest, from St. Louis to the New York Metropolitans, to the Louisville Eclipse. It was a time when a team was lucky to have one good pitcher, who was expected to pitch every game, every inning. When players regularly fought on field, and fielded with no gloves or catcher’s masks.
Notable personalities in Claude Charlie Comiskey, who played and coached for the Browns along his way to building the Chicago White Sox. That season he coined the word “fan” to describe the baseball fanatic. It was also the years the Louisville batters found a carpenter to custom turn strong bats for the, birthing the Louisville Slugger.
The chapters of the book follow the season, stopping along the way to describe the other teams’ personnel, and how some of the Association teams tried to break the color barrier.
A thorough examination off the season when baseball became Aerica’s game again. Years later, the American Association was folded into the National League, bringing in the Brown Stocking (now the Cardinals’, and returning the Reds to the fold.
But the new American Association, ended up breaking those rules. Aided by Van der Ahe in St. Louis, who took over a new team, the Brown Stockings, and abetted by the equally beer-loving Germans in Cincinnati, the American Association took on the older league, and filled a niche for fans who only had Sunday’s to see baseball.
Achorn covers the Association’s 1883 season, when they fielded 8 teams in the Midwest, from St. Louis to the New York Metropolitans, to the Louisville Eclipse. It was a time when a team was lucky to have one good pitcher, who was expected to pitch every game, every inning. When players regularly fought on field, and fielded with no gloves or catcher’s masks.
Notable personalities in Claude Charlie Comiskey, who played and coached for the Browns along his way to building the Chicago White Sox. That season he coined the word “fan” to describe the baseball fanatic. It was also the years the Louisville batters found a carpenter to custom turn strong bats for the, birthing the Louisville Slugger.
The chapters of the book follow the season, stopping along the way to describe the other teams’ personnel, and how some of the Association teams tried to break the color barrier.
A thorough examination off the season when baseball became Aerica’s game again. Years later, the American Association was folded into the National League, bringing in the Brown Stocking (now the Cardinals’, and returning the Reds to the fold.
September 27, 2022
This work from Edward Achorn was a joy to read as the successor to the Saint Louis Brown(stockings) of the American Association of the 1880s finds itself chasing the pennant as the Cardinals of 2022. Through this book I learned how professional baseball in the era of Reconstruction was tainted by corruption scandals which had the existing National League and the future of the game in doubt. Chris Von der Ahe was a German grocer in Saint Louis who also owned a beer hall in the city. Although his lack of understanding of baseball comes out in many passages in the book, it become clear he loved the game as the owner of the Saint Louis club. With the National League run by puritans that limited alcohol consumption and banned Sunday ballgames, Mr. Von der Ahe saw opportunity to sell more beer on Sunday afternoons and to reach a wider audience setting ticket prices at 1/2 the cost of a National League ticket. The 1883 pennant chase between Saint Louis, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia is a fantastic story with wonderful anecdotes such as Philly pitcher Bobby Mathews throwing four complete games over a six day stretch in late July to the train travel needed to enable the eight teams from New York to Saint Louis to carry out a season and bring in revenue to keep it afloat. The American Association brought baseball to a much wider audience than the National League, operating independently for a decade before ultimately joining forces with the senior professional baseball organization. By rejuvenating baseball in the "river cities" of Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Saint Louis, the American Association broke through and revitalized the sport at a crucial juncture in the 1880s.
May 16, 2024
How did I ever come to read a 2013 book about baseball in 1883?
It started, for me, with Achorn’s book on the convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln in 1860. It was so well-written and insightful that I decided to seek out other books by this author - and I found this obscure book about early baseball.
The title is a little misleading, but the book is just a delight.
It’s about baseball in the 1880s - the powerful national league wasn’t doing so well. Baseball was dying from the rot of gambling, drinking and snooty team ownership.
Along came Chris Von der Ahe, a German immigrant who owned a beer garden in St. Louis. He hooked up with some brewers and bar owners in other cities, and voila, a whole new game emerged.
Unlike the National League, Von der Ahe and his American Association opted to appeal to working class folks, reducing ticket prices from 50 to 25 cents, encouraging Sunday games and of course, allowing fans to buy beer.
It was a tough game for tough players. Here’s a look that fans of modern baseball will find enlightening.
No one wore gloves except for catchers who had what today might be more like a tattered batting glove.
Pitchers could, and did, try to hit batters, without penalty. A hit batsman did not go to first base.
A foul ball was not a strike; but if caught on one hop, the batter was out. It took seven balls to walk and foul balls were not strikes.
Each team carried maybe two pitchers so tired arms were frequent.
Von der Ahe’s belief in lower admission, beer, and Sunday baseball opened the game to all fans, and his story is an underrated one.
I gave this four stars instead of five because I cannot recommend it to people who care nothing of baseball But it’s a dandy, fast moving read.
March 5, 2018
It's finally March! Time for baseball books. My baseball book time just happened to coincide with a flight to St. Louis for a conference, and I remembered this book that I heard something about on NPR like four years ago. So I went and found it at the library. And read most of it on the plane.
It was fun. It's about this pennant race in the early 1880s, between the team that would become the Cardinals, and the progenitors of the Philadelphia Athletics. And in a bigger way, it's about how this German immigrant beer hall entrepreneur saved professional baseball by cutting prices and serving beer and having Sunday games, so that regular working people would come out to the park. And then his St. Louis team ended having this great season (along with the A's and Cincinnati), and Americans got all into baseball all over again. Achorn has a nice style. He also mixes in great little anecdotes about the various players. Different world of professional sports too - this was a time when a team that was struggling late in the year might just grab a kid basically off the street and throw him in to pitch. At one point the Athletics get this kid from Yale who had pitched well there, and then they just hire the catcher too, because why not? They had like two pitchers and they each had to pitch a complete game every time. May as well see what this kid from Yale can do.
Not too long of a book either. Not too short, not too long. Good for getting back into baseball mode.
It was fun. It's about this pennant race in the early 1880s, between the team that would become the Cardinals, and the progenitors of the Philadelphia Athletics. And in a bigger way, it's about how this German immigrant beer hall entrepreneur saved professional baseball by cutting prices and serving beer and having Sunday games, so that regular working people would come out to the park. And then his St. Louis team ended having this great season (along with the A's and Cincinnati), and Americans got all into baseball all over again. Achorn has a nice style. He also mixes in great little anecdotes about the various players. Different world of professional sports too - this was a time when a team that was struggling late in the year might just grab a kid basically off the street and throw him in to pitch. At one point the Athletics get this kid from Yale who had pitched well there, and then they just hire the catcher too, because why not? They had like two pitchers and they each had to pitch a complete game every time. May as well see what this kid from Yale can do.
Not too long of a book either. Not too short, not too long. Good for getting back into baseball mode.
December 23, 2020
The Summer of Beer and Whiskey is the history of the 1883 St. Louis Browns. The team, which played in the old American Association, which was itself created by the Browns' German immigrant founder, Chris von der Ahe. Von der Ahe was a saloon keeper first and foremost and he founded the team - and insisted they play on Sundays - for one reason: to see more beer. The league that he then created for them to play in was derisively known as the Beer and Whiskey League, for upstanding citizens of the 1880s did not attend ball games on the Lord's Day - Sunday ball did not come to Philadelphia until 1934.
As for von der Ahe's team, well, with the possible exception of Arlie Latham and Charlie Comiskey (yes, the same Comiskey whose Chicago White Sox would create baseball's biggest scandal), the Browns were a ragtag group of men who won many a game by grit, determination and sometimes knavery, if not skill. They were also plenty happy to be imbibing great quantities of said liquor. Yet, in a story full of colorful characters, the one with the darkest story stands out most: Cap Anson who perhaps singlehandedly forced baseball into decades of segregation.
Edward Achorn does a fine job rendering the atmosphere of 1883 into text. He has painstakingly researched virtually every detail of the 1883 season - too thoroughly in some places. While the characters spring from the pages, reading a pitch-by-pitch retelling of a game that was played 130 years ago was simply too much.
As for von der Ahe's team, well, with the possible exception of Arlie Latham and Charlie Comiskey (yes, the same Comiskey whose Chicago White Sox would create baseball's biggest scandal), the Browns were a ragtag group of men who won many a game by grit, determination and sometimes knavery, if not skill. They were also plenty happy to be imbibing great quantities of said liquor. Yet, in a story full of colorful characters, the one with the darkest story stands out most: Cap Anson who perhaps singlehandedly forced baseball into decades of segregation.
Edward Achorn does a fine job rendering the atmosphere of 1883 into text. He has painstakingly researched virtually every detail of the 1883 season - too thoroughly in some places. While the characters spring from the pages, reading a pitch-by-pitch retelling of a game that was played 130 years ago was simply too much.
June 16, 2016
This was a delightful read! Baseball in 1883 wasn't quite the game we know today. Although pitchers were no longer pitching strictly underhand, as in the early days of the game, they were required to release the ball below the shoulder. Pitchers usually stayed on the mound (which wasn’t yet a mound) the entire nine innings, Will White, who played for the Cincinnati Reds during the '83 season, pitched in 401 major league games during his career and finished all but seven of them. (249) A batter had to take seven balls to be walked and they used the same ball throughout the game. By the end, it was often soft and harder to hit hard. Outside of the catcher, few wore gloves. Rules were often made up at the day of the game, such as times when the number of fans crowded into the outfield, the teams agreeing to count a hit into the fans as a ground-rule double. At this time, there was only one umpire, which made it easier for players to cheat. Even then players were known by nicknames such as Jumping Jack Jones (a pitcher who jumped with his release), Chicken Wolf (the only meat he'd eat was chicken of which he had 4 servings a day), Long John Reilly, and Old Hoss Radbourn. Achorn brings these characters to life as he tells the story of an exciting season.
In the early 1880s, baseball appear to be fading away. In the 1870s, a series of gambling scandals had rocked the game. The National League (the main league of the day) reacted by cracking down on gambling, but also beer sales at ballparks. With the hopes of attracting a more affluent crowd, they raised ticket prices to fifty cents (a lot for a working man). No games were played on Sunday. Then, in 1883, a new league was formed (American Association, not to be confused with the American League), which set ticket prices at twenty-five cents, allowed games on Sunday, and sold beer at the ball parks. Achorn makes the case that this league (known as the Beer and Whiskey League) helped save baseball. The tight pennant race of 1883, between Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Browns, caught the public's attention. At the end of the season, fans were gathering at empty ballparks to watch the scores being posted on the scoreboard as the results were telegraphed in. Achorn tells the story of the race in a way that brings it to life, capturing the excitement of the fans along with the personality of the players and coaches. Philadelphia won the pennant by one game, but they were floundering at the end of the season with worn-out pitchers. They were so beaten that they declined to play a series against the Boston Red Stockings, the winner of the National League pennant, which would have been the first "World Series." They were welcomed home with a parade that rivaled the welcome given to veterans returning from the Civil War.
One of the key personalities in the story was the owner of the St. Louis Browns, Chris Von der Ahe. He was a German immigrant who owned a grocery store, then a beer garden. He risked it all on establishing a team, and made a fortune but later lost it. He is portrayed as impulsive, overbearing, but extremely generous. Interestingly, one of the players he recruited was Charlie Comiskey, who later founded the Chicago White Sox and who was remembered on their ball field (Comiskey Park) until 2003 when they changed the name to a corporate sponsor. Von der Ahe died in 1913. At his funeral, the "Reverend Frederick H. Craft wove baseball imagery into his homily:
“'First base is enlightenment; second base is repentance; third base is faith, and the home plate is the heavenly goal!' He declared. 'Don't fail to touch second base, for it leads you onward toward third. All of us finally reach home plate, though some may be called out when they slide Home.'" (259)
Weaving into the larger story is the account of race relations at this stage of the game. There are two other African American ball players who played in the majors long before Jackie Robinson was born. Fleet Walker played for Toledo, a team that joined the American Association in 1884, and even before then William Edward White played for the National League's Providence Grays. However, segregationist ideals were to win out and it wouldn't be until 1947 when Jackie Robinson was called up to the Brooklyn Dodgers that the racial barrier was broken.
The American Association lasted only a decade. In 1892, the league's top four teams joined the National League. These include the St. Louis Cardinals (formerly the Browns), the Cincinnati Reds, the Pittsburgh Pirates (formerly the Alleghenys) and the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers (who joined the league in 1884 and are now the Los Angeles Dodgers). Achorn tells the story of how the Pittsburgh Pirates earned their name (given to them by sportswriters) after the "Alleghenys" tried to "steal" two ball players who had committed to play for the Philadelphia Athletics. (245). The Athletics eventually folded, but when a new team was organized in the city (which by then already had the Phillies), they adopted the name Athletics (which left Philadelphia for Kansas City and now are in Oakland). Another American Association team that must have had a similar reincarnation is the Baltimore Orioles.
I enjoyed this book. My only suggestion is that I would have liked to have seen the year put more into context of what was happening outside of baseball. Achorn does this a little, such as referring to a joke about a player who, the year before upon President Garfield's assassination, was asked about the event. The ballplayer responded by asking what position Garfield played. He also mentions the shooting of Jesse James, in connection to the governor of Missouri attending a ball game. The governor had made it a priority to wipe out the James Gang and had recruited members of the gang to shoot Jesse. When Robert Ford was convicted of the murder of Jessie James, the governor pardoned him two hours after the trial and then sent him $10,000 in reward money.
If you love history and baseball, I recommend this book.
In the early 1880s, baseball appear to be fading away. In the 1870s, a series of gambling scandals had rocked the game. The National League (the main league of the day) reacted by cracking down on gambling, but also beer sales at ballparks. With the hopes of attracting a more affluent crowd, they raised ticket prices to fifty cents (a lot for a working man). No games were played on Sunday. Then, in 1883, a new league was formed (American Association, not to be confused with the American League), which set ticket prices at twenty-five cents, allowed games on Sunday, and sold beer at the ball parks. Achorn makes the case that this league (known as the Beer and Whiskey League) helped save baseball. The tight pennant race of 1883, between Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Browns, caught the public's attention. At the end of the season, fans were gathering at empty ballparks to watch the scores being posted on the scoreboard as the results were telegraphed in. Achorn tells the story of the race in a way that brings it to life, capturing the excitement of the fans along with the personality of the players and coaches. Philadelphia won the pennant by one game, but they were floundering at the end of the season with worn-out pitchers. They were so beaten that they declined to play a series against the Boston Red Stockings, the winner of the National League pennant, which would have been the first "World Series." They were welcomed home with a parade that rivaled the welcome given to veterans returning from the Civil War.
One of the key personalities in the story was the owner of the St. Louis Browns, Chris Von der Ahe. He was a German immigrant who owned a grocery store, then a beer garden. He risked it all on establishing a team, and made a fortune but later lost it. He is portrayed as impulsive, overbearing, but extremely generous. Interestingly, one of the players he recruited was Charlie Comiskey, who later founded the Chicago White Sox and who was remembered on their ball field (Comiskey Park) until 2003 when they changed the name to a corporate sponsor. Von der Ahe died in 1913. At his funeral, the "Reverend Frederick H. Craft wove baseball imagery into his homily:
“'First base is enlightenment; second base is repentance; third base is faith, and the home plate is the heavenly goal!' He declared. 'Don't fail to touch second base, for it leads you onward toward third. All of us finally reach home plate, though some may be called out when they slide Home.'" (259)
Weaving into the larger story is the account of race relations at this stage of the game. There are two other African American ball players who played in the majors long before Jackie Robinson was born. Fleet Walker played for Toledo, a team that joined the American Association in 1884, and even before then William Edward White played for the National League's Providence Grays. However, segregationist ideals were to win out and it wouldn't be until 1947 when Jackie Robinson was called up to the Brooklyn Dodgers that the racial barrier was broken.
The American Association lasted only a decade. In 1892, the league's top four teams joined the National League. These include the St. Louis Cardinals (formerly the Browns), the Cincinnati Reds, the Pittsburgh Pirates (formerly the Alleghenys) and the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers (who joined the league in 1884 and are now the Los Angeles Dodgers). Achorn tells the story of how the Pittsburgh Pirates earned their name (given to them by sportswriters) after the "Alleghenys" tried to "steal" two ball players who had committed to play for the Philadelphia Athletics. (245). The Athletics eventually folded, but when a new team was organized in the city (which by then already had the Phillies), they adopted the name Athletics (which left Philadelphia for Kansas City and now are in Oakland). Another American Association team that must have had a similar reincarnation is the Baltimore Orioles.
I enjoyed this book. My only suggestion is that I would have liked to have seen the year put more into context of what was happening outside of baseball. Achorn does this a little, such as referring to a joke about a player who, the year before upon President Garfield's assassination, was asked about the event. The ballplayer responded by asking what position Garfield played. He also mentions the shooting of Jesse James, in connection to the governor of Missouri attending a ball game. The governor had made it a priority to wipe out the James Gang and had recruited members of the gang to shoot Jesse. When Robert Ford was convicted of the murder of Jessie James, the governor pardoned him two hours after the trial and then sent him $10,000 in reward money.
If you love history and baseball, I recommend this book.
August 9, 2014
Every year when I go to Cooperstown I try to bring a baseball book with me for reading material, and this year I picked a good one, The Summer of Beer and Whiskey, by Edward Achorn. Not only is it well written and suspenseful, but for someone who thinks he knows a lot about baseball it told me a lot I didn't know.
Ostensibly, the book is about the 1883 season of the American Association, a league that only lasted about a decade but is credited by Achorn as solidifying baseball as America's pastime. "All over the country, it had become an open question whether professional baseball could even survive. Spectators were abandoning the sport, which seemed destined to wilt away, another American fad on its way to oblivion."
But the American Association, which was also known as the "Beer and Whiskey League," changed that. The dominant league at the time was the National League: "with its fifty-cent tickets and ban on Sunday ball, marketed the game only to the rich, or at least the upper middle class--the lawyers, accountants, and businessmen who had the freedom to take a break late in the afternoon and go out to the ballpark."
A German immigrant name Chris van Ahe, who had a thriving grocery and beer garden business, "had another idea: to welcome working men and fellow immigrants, those who toiled all week and could not break free from their jobs to attend a game."
Van Ahe founded the St. Louis Browns (to make things confusing, these are not the Browns of the later American League who moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles, but instead are the antecedents of the Cardinals) and with seven other cities founded the upstart American Association. William Hulbert, who ruled the National League with an iron fist, resolutely banned Sunday ball and alcohol, but van Ahe, who didn't know much about baseball, saw it as a way to sell beer.
Van Ahe is the emotional center of the book. Achorn describes him as "George Steinbrenner, Charlie Finley, and Bill Veeck rolled into one--haughty, temperamental, driven to win, wildly experimental, and madly in love with a dazzling show. He had a splash of Yogi Berra in him, too, which surfaced in his expression of Zen-like axioms." Late in the season, van Ahe interferes with his manager Ted Sullivan so much that Sullivan quits, leaving the team without a manager during the stretch run. Steinbrenner and Billy Martin, anyone?
Achorn covers the season in great detail. The game was not quite as we know it today--players didn't wear gloves, there was only one umpire (runners would routinely take a sharp left at second base and cut across the diamond toward home if the ump wasn't looking), batters did not take a base upon being hit by a pitch (which gave pitchers free reign in throwing chin music), it took seven balls for a walk, and when there were big crowds, the spectators could stand in the outfield.
But baseball was wildly popular, especially in the cities where the teams were winning. The '83 season came down to the Browns and the Philadelphia Athletics (not the team that today is in Oakland). Achorn covers the colorful players, such as the Browns' Arlie Latham, who had a big mouth, the young Charles Comiskey, who would one day own his own team (the AL White Sox), and Tony Mullane, known by the great nickname "The Apollo of the Box." On the Athletics were Harry Stovey (a pseudonym--he didn't want his parents to know he played the degrading sport of baseball) who was the game's early home run champion, Bobby Matthews, only five-foot-five and 140 pounds, but winner of the most games of anyone who is not in the Hall of Fame (he died of syphilis at 46), and Daniel "Jumping Jack" Jones, a pitcher recruited straight from Yale University who had an odd way of delivering the ball--he made what looked like a jumping jack, which delighted and amused spectators.
Perhaps what's most different about the game then than it is now is the way pitchers were used. Teams only had two or so, and they threw until basically their arms fell off. There were no relief pitchers per se--a pitcher just went until he couldn't go anymore. As Achorn covers the pennant stretch, the Athletics are struggling because Matthews was hurt and Jones had a dead arm. I won't spoil the result--I didn't know who won the pennant, and it was a thrilling read.
There are other interesting tidbits about that season. It was when the term "fan" was coined (short for fanatic, and it replaced the usual term of "crank") and the first Louisville slugger was made by a woodworker named Hillerich. There is also a sad chapter on the color barrier. Moses Fleetwood Walker, depending on your definition, was the first African American player in professional baseball. He played one season for the American Association, but of course had it tough. Mullane, his pitcher, wouldn't even acknowledge his signs. It was Cap Anson, manager of the NL Chicago White Stockings (now the Cubs) who doomed blacks in baseball by refusing to take the field with them: "Anson vowed that he would never again share field with a black man. He was determined to devote his considerable influence, for the rest of his career, to making sure that no other white professional would, either. Regrettably, he succeeded."
The American Association eventually folded, doomed by rival leagues and players who defected. Four teams--the Cardinals, Dodgers, Reds, and Pirates, merged with the National League and exist today. A few players, such as Comiskey and Reds second-baseman Bid McPhee, are in the Hall of Fame. Many are largely forgotten, such as van Ahe, whom Achorn believes should be in the Hall. I'll conclude with this passage which pretty much sums it up: "In a league of drunks, actors, minstrels stars, cartoonists, tea merchants, dreamers, newspaper correspondents, bombastic grocers, epileptics, hot-tempered Irish managers, fainting catchers, fetishistic and hard-of-hearing sluggers, great shaggy mammoths, owners playing in their street clothes, inauspicious yellow dogs, and seriously confused left-handed third basemen, anything might happen."
May 25, 2020
The 1883 season pennant race between the St. Louis Browns and the Philadelphia Athletics. Plenty of colorful characters such as Browns owner Chris Von der Ahe and the Athletics late season pitching savior, Daniel "Jumping Jack" Jones. In this pre-fielding glove era there were plenty of injuries and both teams limped into their final games hoping lame pitchers and gimpy batters could last out the season. The Beer and Whiskey part was prominent in getting crowds back to baseball games. Many of the largest east coast cities still prohibited not only alcohol, but Sunday games as well. Von der Ahe was key to getting St Louis and its large German immigrant population, to allow both. This forced the hand of the other cities, giving us the beginnings of professional ball as we know it.
Well worth the time of sports fans and social historians as much of 19th Century America and its citizens appears.
Well worth the time of sports fans and social historians as much of 19th Century America and its citizens appears.
August 8, 2024
The story of the 1883 baseball season of the American Association, which gave the fledgling National League a run for its money, before being partially absorbed by the NL. The book focuses on the St. Louis Brown Stockings (who would one day become the Cardinals) and their eccentric German owner, Chris Von der Ahe. American capitalism at its finest - underpricing the NL, playing games on Sunday, and serving beer at the ballpark - all of which revitalized fans enthusiasm for baseball and brought the game to the masses. It seems that each team in the league was filled with a cast of characters, several of which would ultimately end up in the Baseball Hall of Fame, many years after their playing days were over. A quick and fun read for baseball and history fans alike.
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