| Title | : | The Beer and Whiskey League: The Illustrated History of the American Association--Baseballs Renegade Major League |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1592281885 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781592281886 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 260 |
| Publication | : | First published November 1, 1994 |
In 1882, baseball was controlled by the owners of the six teams in the National League. In keeping with the morals of the day, Sunday games were forbidden, liquor wasn't sold at parks, and admission was kept high to keep out the "common element." Baseball was a gentleman's game.
Then came the American Association, the "Beer and Whisky League." Baseball would never be the same.
True to its nickname, the league ushered in the most freewheeling years of baseball, challenging the National League's hold on the nation's pastime, cutting admission in half, playing Sundays, selling liquor in its ballparks, and fielding exceptional players.
This is the first comprehensive look at the American Association. Meticulously researched, this lively history is complemented by over 200 rare photographs, most never before published. For the many fans of baseball, THE BEER AND WHISKY LEAGUE will be as essential as a well-oiled mitt.
The Beer and Whiskey League: The Illustrated History of the American Association--Baseballs Renegade Major League Reviews
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A very fun to read account of the 1883 American Association season. The book focuses on the St. Louis Browns and their colorful owner Chris von der Ahe, a German immigrant who bought the team, established the American Association and refurbished a ballpark at least in part as a way to sell more beer and whisky for the saloon he owned. In many ways the 1883 American Association season helped make baseball America's pastime. Until then, at least according to the author, baseball had an extremely checkered history with the American public because the perception that only the dregs of society (gamblers, drunkards, fighters and womanizers)played and attended baseball games. Not certain of how the 1883 American Association league changed any of that because there seemed to be more than enough of all those activities related in the book, but the important thing is that the American public became transfixed by the season and the wire to wire race for the title between the Philadelphia Athletics and St Louis browns that was not decided until the end of the season. Many great ancedotes related in the book regarding how the game has changed and maybe not changed: How the Philadelphia owner, during the close pennant race, offered to pay an opposing team $300 to agree to change a Philadelphia away game to a home game to give the Athletics an advantage (the team agreed); how the Philadlephia owner asked a team during the last homestand to let the Athletics win because that team hated the Browns (the team refused);how pitchers would regularly hit batters with pitches to intimidate/injure them (in those days the batter was not awarded first base); and maybe best of all, when a Philly crowd was razzing an umpire unmercifully about ball strike calls, the umpire took a bat and threw it wildly into the stands. And best of all, for a fan who recently watched a manager remove a starting pitcher with two outs in the ninth in a playoff game after the pitcher isued his first walk after retiring 16 straight batters, was pitching a shutout, and had pitched a no-hitter in his prior start, in 1883 the starrting pitchers pitched until maximum pain and then pitched well after maximum pain. Pitchers would throw 40 complete games in a season even where they were giving up double digit runs. Most unusual, when the climatic season was over, and a memorable victory parade was thrown in the city of the winning team, two umpires were invited and indeed attended the victory parade. Thise were different times.
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The main text of the book consists of league business transactions and game and season summaries. It's probably useful for future historians to have all that information, but it is not very exciting.
The best parts of the book are the little sidebars - blurbs a sentence or two long giving the nickname of a player (for example, Pete "Pietro Redlight District Distillery Interests" Browning) or sharing a piece of trivia. Those make the book worth reading. The photos are also great. -
A masterful labor of love from Nemec, whose year by year summaries eschew game recaps and focus on the unusual personalities and financial wranglings that characterized the turbulent nine-year run of the American Association. Anyone who reads this work and finds himself not wanting to start his Out of the Park Baseball 16 season in 1883 or 1884 is a stronger man than I am! Names like Pete Browning, Dave Orr, Matt Kilroy, Juice Box Chamberlain, and Toad Ramsey aren't up there with the likes of Highpockets Kelly and Goose Goslin (lawlz), but maybe they should be.
