Download The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game AudioBook Free
Chris Von der Ahe knew next to nothing about football when he risked his life's savings to found the St. Louis Browns, the franchise that would become the St. Louis Cardinals. The German-born beverage garden proprietor would become one of the most crucial - and funniest - characters in the game's record. Von der Ahe picked up the team for one reason - to market more beverage. Then he helped gather several ragtag clubs into a maverick new category that would deal with the haughty Country wide Group. Sneered at as The Beverage and Whiskey Circuit," their American Connection ended up revitalizing the activity, bringing Americans of all classes back again to the ballpark. Their recipe: Sunday game titles, booze, 25-cent-tickets, with teams comprised of exciting, renegade, and often drunk, players. Edward Achorn re-creates this wondrous and hilarious world and illuminates a long-forgotten turning point in American football history.
