Baseball season is upon us, so naturally our thoughts turn to beer. Yes beer, the social lubricant that transforms even the most taciturn fans into long-lost brothers and sistersâ??when it isnâ??t serving as the catalyst for countless post-game brawls in countless parking lots and bars.
"Ruth responded to the writerâ??s hyperbole by swatting a three-run homer.â?
We all have our beer-and-baseball stories, whether itâ??s the salving effects of a couple of cold ones after your team was literally beat up during an intramural softball game (only one member of our squad was hospitalized, so it could have been worse) or that suds-soaked junket to Arizona to catch a few games of spring training (what happens in Phoenix stays in Phoenix).
One of the best beer-and-baseball stories, though, comes from the dry years of Prohibition, 1920-1933, when the New York Yankees made it to seven World Series and won four. Their rise began in 1915, when the team was purchased for $1.25 million. The new owners were Tillinghast Hustonâ??a civil engineer, who served in the Spanish-American War and World War I and left with the rank of Lt. Colonelâ??and Jacob Ruppert, Jr.â??a wealthy New York City brewer, who served a couple of terms in Congress and enjoyed being addressed by his honorary title, also Colonel. The Yankees had never won a pennant until the Colonels, as they were known, got a hold of them. Their masterstroke was to add a Boston Red Sox pitcher to the roster in 1920. That playerâ??s name was Babe Ruth.
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