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.

 

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.