Pitchers of Beer

by Raley, Dan

• ISBN13: 9780803228474
• ISBN10: 0803228473
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

In 1937, when local beer baron Emil Sick stepped in, the Seattle Indians were a struggling minor-league baseball team teetering on collapse. Moved to mix baseball and beer by his good friend and fellow brewer, New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert, Sick built a new stadium and turned the team into a civic treasure. The Rainiers (newly named after the beer) set attendance records and won Pacific Coast League titles in 1939, '40, '41, '51, and '55. The story of the Rainiers spans the end of the Great Depression, World War II, the rise of the airline industry, and the incursion of Major League Baseball into the West Coast (which ultimately spelled doom for the club). It features well-known personalities such as Babe Ruth, who made an unsuccessful bid to manage the team; Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, who did manage the Rainiers; and Ron Santo, a batboy who went on to a storied career with the Chicago Cubs. Mixing traditional baseball lore with tales of mischief,Pitchers of Beerrelates the twenty-seven-year history of the Rainiers, a history that captures the timeless appeal of baseball, along with the local moments and minutiae that bring the game home to each and every one of us.Pitchers of Beershowcases fifty-two photographs of players and memorabilia from noted Northwest baseball collector David Eskenazi.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Civic Duty	p. 1
Sick and the Needy	p. 15
Hutch, a Teen Idol	p. 34
Turning Tigers Loose	p. 58
The Babe	p. 78
Balls and (Air) Strikes	p. 90
Kewpie Dick	p. 120
TV, Rajah, and Jungle Jim	p. 135
Hutch Returns	p. 167
The Secret Stairs	p. 190
Man behind the Microphone	p. 204
Major Intrusion	p. 219
Joltin' Joe	p. 245
Last At-Bat	p. 270
Acknowledgments	p. 293
Appendix: All-Time Roster	p. 295
Bibliographical Essay	p. 321
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