The Summer of Beer and Whiskey ($20) is about Chris von der Ahe who knew so little about baseball it could be written on a postage stamp, yet his risked his life savings in order to found a franchise that would grow into the St Louis Cardinals. Despite this, the German born proprietor of a beer garden became one of the funniest and most important figures in the history of the game. Von der Ahe bought the team for one reason only; in order to sell more beer. He then played a part in gathering together a bunch of ragtag professional clubs in order to create a new, maverick league to mount a challenge to the haughty National League, this reinventing big league baseball that would appeal to and attract all classes of Americans.
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.
