Edward Achorn - The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball Americas Game

T HIS BOOK WAS STRENGTHENED IMMEASURABLY BY GENEROUS men and women who love the history of this great game. Jeffrey Kittell, curator of the richly detailed website This Game of Games (http://thisgameofgames.blogspot.com/), was extraordinarily helpful, reading the manuscript through, making dozens of wise suggestions, and answering incessant questions. Jeff and Steve Pona of the St. Louis Baseball Historical Society drove me around their beautiful city, helped me visit the key sites related to Chris Von der Ahe and the Browns, and shared with me, a lifelong Red Sox fan, the magic of a hard-fought Cardinals game at Busch Stadium. John Thorn, the official historian for Major League Baseball, was unfailingly gracious and helpful. Eric Miklich, the man behind the illuminating website www.19cbaseball.com, read through the manuscript and made many helpful corrections and suggestions. He and his fellow early-baseball enthusiasts at the Vintage Base Ball Association also enriched my understanding of how baseball of this era plays. Peter Mancuso, chairman of the Nineteenth Century Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), jumped to my aid whenever asked, as did the participants in SABRs nineteenth-century listserv.

David Nemec, author of scores of baseball books, including The Beer & Whiskey League, was helpful both personally and through his work. Mark Fimoff put his brilliant analytical skills to work in helping to identify long-forgotten faces in old photos. Thomas Wright graciously provided help tracking down genealogical material. The great nineteenth-century baseball scholar Frederick Ivor-Campbell, though sadly no longer with us, was a continuing inspiration, and his widow, Alma Ivor-Campbell, intrepidly dug through his papers searching for information for me. Candy Adriance read through the manuscript, made countless helpful suggestions, and assisted me in obtaining documents. Historian Maury Klein, who read through an early version of this book, kindly shared his thoughts and knowledge of the craft with me. Robert Lifson and his colleagues at Robert Edward Auctions generously tracked down and shared wonderful vintage images.

David Miller and Lisa Adams at the Garamond Agency believed from the start in this tale of beer, Sunday baseball, and some of the most delightful characters in the games history; I fondly recall David laughing over lunch about the Philadelphia crowds initial reaction to Jumping Jack Jones. Stanley M. Aronson, MD, dean emeritus of medicine at Brown University, answered my many questions about nineteenth-century medical diagnoses. Howard Sutton, publisher, president, and CEO of the Providence Journal, was always supportive. Mike Tamburro, president of the Pawtucket Red Sox and an illustrious member of the International League Hall of Fame, was greatly encouraging, as was the late owner Ben Mondor, also a Hall of Famer, who opened the PawSox clubhouse on his eighty-fourth birthday to host an unforgettable launch party for my previous book. J. Thomas Hetrick, author of Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns, kindly shared some of his expertise on the topic. Lauri Burke of the Barrington (Rhode Island) Public Library graciously tracked down books and documents for me through interlibrary loan. The Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University provided me with useful information about Jumping Jack Jones and Al Hubbard. Numerous other institutions supplied invaluable help, including the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, the Library of Congress, the Chicago Historical Society, the Boston Public Library, and the St. Louis Mercantile Library. Thanks also to Ranger Elaine Brasher of the US National Park Service, for showing me around St. Louis historical sites and sharing her insights on the citys history, and to Phil Swann, for urging me to never give up.

Many thanks to Lisa Kaufman, Brandon Proia, and their superb team at PublicAffairs for improving the book in a hundred ways.

Thanks go to my beloved children, Jean, Matt, and Josh, to whom the book is dedicated. Special thanks, of course, to my wife, Valerie, for her love and supportand her faith that the story of baseballs rebirth through German immigrants was one eminently worth telling.

Final Standings

Batting Leaders/Batting Average

Home Runs

Runs Batted In

Slugging Percentage

On-Base Plus Slugging

Runs Scored

Pitching Leaders/Wins

Earned Run Average

Win-Loss Percentage