the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

DESPERATION IS THE CRADLE OF BAD IDEAS 141
the editorial material as well, including a full-page photo of Boston’s Da-
vid Ortiz swinging for Fenway’s right-field fence, beyond which a gargan-
tuan Budweiser sign glowed like a neon sunrise above the upper deck.
But those are just modern examples of baseball’s beery culture.
How intertwined are baseball and beer sales in the history of the sport?
Go back, way back. When Christopher Von der Ahe, owner of the St.
Louis Browns, bought the city’s Sportsman’s Park in 1880, he objected to
a plan to cover the grandstands to protect the crowd from the hot sun.
“Chris kicked like a mule about that project,” recalled one sportswriter.
“He argued that the fans wouldn’t get as thirsty in the covered stands. But
he finally compromised . . . with the understanding that there would be
sizeable bleachers where the sun could get in its thirst-producing licks.”
In 1881, a group of renegade team owners started their own league
after getting fed up with the National League’s efforts to screen out the
“common element” by forbidding Sunday games, keeping prices high,
and banning alcohol in the grandstands. The renegade owners started the
American Association, though detractors (and some proponents) referred
to it as “the Beer and Whiskey League” because of the owners’ willingness
to mix baseball and alcohol. The new league, which lasted from 1882
until 1891, ushered in what baseball historian David Nemec called “the
most vibrant and freewheeling time in baseball history,” and it’s no wonder.
The league had more than its share of teams fielded by beer makers,
including brewers Henry von der Horts of Baltimore, Frank Fehr of Louisville,
and John Hauck of Cincinnati. The American Association’s motto
might well have been “Don’t hit the stands without a lager in your
hand.”
“The formula was simple, borrowed from an 1870s Burke’s Beer ad
featuring ballplayers Cap Anson and Buck Ewing,” wrote Patrick Hruby
in a 2003 story in the Washington Times. “Men like baseball. Men like
beer. Wouldn’t they stand to enjoy—and pay for—some combination of
the two?”
The new league lasted only a decade, but its popularity was not lost