1982 World Series

In this episode, we talk about some baseball history. Author J. Daniel joins us to chat about his latest book, Suds Series, which focuses on the cities of Milwaukee and St. Louis, their connection to baseball and the beer business, and the meeting of the Cardinals and the Brewers in the 1982 World Series.

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

The book's promotional guide states:

"Just in time for MLB Season, 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 Leagues champions squared off for the 1982 Fall Classic, the St Louis Cardinals, still owned by the Busch family, took on the Milwaukee Brewers, so named by owner Bud Selig in homage to the city’s baseball and brewing past."

It could not ring truer. Mr. Daniels and his publisher, the University of Missouri Press kindly gave me a copy of the book to prepare for the interview with the author, and what a treat it was to read this modern story of baseball history.

J. Daniel is the author of the terrific baseball book, Suds Series “Baseball, Beer Wars, and the Summer of ‘82!”, as well as the website 80sBaseball.com. Mr. Daniel spent over two decades working in the arena of professional sports, both in front os and behind the camera. He was the producer of five seasons of Tampa Bay Rays weekly TV show, Rays Magazine and worked as a sports producer at Fox Network affiliates in Chicago and Tampa. Besides Suds Series, J. has also written the books: Phinally! The Phillies, the Royals, and the 1980 Baseball Season That Almost Wasn't; as well as many blogs post on 80sBaseball.com.

We can gather by the book's title that this is much about the 1982 MLB season and the World Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals. The author even says that it would be worthless to just write about that, as anyone could simply look up the box score on Baseball-Reference.com. He is right, but J. Daniel wrote this work using the philosophy of writing a book he would want to read himself.

The backstory of the beer empires such as the Kentucky Malting Company of J. H. Pank and A. J. Reach(Sporting Goods Magnate) representing teams of the American Association of Baseball to brilliant foresight of immigrant business owner Christopher Von der Ahe (St Louis Browns (Cardinals) owner) are also included to kick off the beer theme.

With the context of the beer theme, Daniel carefully constructs the history of the 1982 season and its culmination in the World Series between the two clubs, which went seven games.  Within the fabric, the reader gets glimpses of Americana setting the tone for much of the transitions in the story of St Louis and Milwaukee baseball. The pop culture references brought back fond memories and ushered in the setting of time of the baseball story with the likes of Metallica to John Belushi, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, to the Rush.

The story of Whitey Herzog and his eventual hiring by St Louis was quite revealing. Building the Cards to suit the expansive Busch Stadium, the critical trade with the Brewers, and his prediction of where it would lead each team wowed me. I particularly enjoyed the nostalgic and timely quotes from TV color commentary coverage, newspaper, magazines, and books that were cleverly accomplished to add depth of moment to the events. It made me feel as if I were back in 1982 as a teenager watching the broadcast for the first time.

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The Milwaukee Brewers were one of the best power hitting teams in the MLB in 1982. Here is there players and how they batted.

The St. Louis Cardinals of 1982 were the MLB team with the least amount of Home Runs, but that did not mean they were not productive. Check out these numbers:

We highly recommend this book if you enjoy some accurate nostaligic sports history that will entertain you in mulltiple ways. Special thanks to J. Daniel for chatting with us and the publisher, the University of Missouri Press, for bringing us the book and information to share.

The banner photo is a copy of yours tryuly reading away at Suds Series. Other information is courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.