Suds Series: Baseball, Beer Wars, and the Summer of '82

by J. Daniel

Overview

In Suds Series, J. Daniel takes readers back forty years, telling a story that is part baseball history, part urban history, and part U.S. cultural history, the narrative weaving together the develop­ment of the Midwest cities of St. Louis and Milwaukee through their engagement with beer and baseball. As the National and American League champions squared off for the 1982 Fall Classic, the St. Louis Cardinals, owned by Anheuser-Busch, took on the Milwaukee Brewers, so named by owner Bud Selig in homage to the city’s baseball and brewing past.

Even nominal baseball fans will enjoy reading about legend­ary players, teams, and personalities that emerged in the 1982 season: the year Ricky Henderson stole 130 bases; Reggie Jackson led the league in home runs; and Cal Ripken Jr. began his remark­able playing streak. Readers will also enjoy the cultural references, including the Pac-Man craze, a chart-topping album by Rush, and the “Light Beer Wars” waged by Anheuser-Busch and the Miller Brewing Company through a series of humorous TV commercials featuring well-loved professional sports figures.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826274854
Publisher:	University of Missouri Press
Publication date:	03/15/2023
Series:	Sports and American Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	753,185
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Jonathan “J.” Daniel spent twenty years working in sports, both in front of and behind the camera, producing five seasons of Rays Magazine, a weekly television show about the Tampa Bay Rays, and working as a sports producer at Fox affiliates in Tampa and Chicago. He currently works in communications for Indiana University. He is the author of Phinally!: The Phillies, the Royals, and the 1980 Baseball Season That Almost Wasn’t and blogs at www.80sbaseball.com.
 

Table of Contents

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Off-Season: Am I Gonna Get to First Base? 2. Spring Training: Danger is My Business 3. April: This Could Be the Best Year of My Life 4. May: The Ultimate Set of Tools 5. June: Whatever Happens, Your Toes Are Still Tappin’ 6. July: I’m Really Kinda Busy 7. August: Awesome! Totally Awesome! 8. September: A Lot’s Happened, and I Really Need You This Year 9. The Playoffs: How Much for Something in the First Ten Rows? 10. The World Series: This Could Be the Best Year of My Life Conclusion Notes Index

Editorial Reviews

This is a fun, fast ride through one of baseball’s most enjoyable seasons.”—Nathan Michael Corzine, author of Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball
 

“In Suds Series, J. Daniel takes readers on a totally awesome trip to 1982, the age of E.T., Pac-Man, Spicoli—and some of the most fascinating characters in baseball history. With meticulous research and an infectious passion for the subject, J. Daniel delivers a compelling time capsule of the wheeling and dealing that helped the Cardinals and Brewers upend the established powers of the late ’70s. Like a frosty mug overflowing with your favorite brew, Suds Series is satisfying to the last sip.”—Tyler Kepner, national baseball columnist for the New York Times
 

“Books chronicling complete baseball seasons are enjoyable—and necessary. Memoirs capture a player’s spirit in time; biographies explore an individual’s great achievement, often in the context of his team’s success. Suds Series depicts the nuances of 162 games that are often lost to history when not alongside championship triumphs—Hal McRae’s amazing 133 RBIs at age 36; Steve Carlton’s last Cy Young Award-winning season; fans across the country watching a nationally-televised Sunday game in October instead of NFL Football; Joe Morgan’s final-day heroics for a 3rd-place team. J. Daniel offers an engrossing and vital deep dive encapsulating facts, figures, and player quotes from the days and nights of 1982 Major League Baseball.” —Dave Jordan, coauthor of Cobra: A Life of Baseball & Brotherhood 
 

From the Publisher