Today we are taking a trip back to the days of Vintage Baseball! Join TC and his guest Edward Achorn as they set the clocks in the DeLorean for the 80’s! No not the 1980’s the 1880’s when Old Hoss Radbourn was on the pitchers mound and baseball was already part of the transformation of America. Listen now…
Vintage Baseball in the Summer of Beer and Whiskey
- Who was Old Hoss Radborn?
- What made the Beer and Whiskey League different from the National League?
- How was the game different?
- Listen in to find out more!
TC and Edward have a great time talking about how baseball used to be. Not that either of these gentlemen are old enough to have been alive back in the 19th century when the Beer and Whisky league formed. The fact remains that even back in the 1800’s baseball was already being called America’s pastime. The problem with this was that the National League had banned play on Sunday in addition to banning the sale of alcohol and was charging an astronomical $.50 for admission. This new league which would come to be known as the American Association aimed to change all that and be more for the working man. This league started small, but by reaching out to other regions that were unrepresented they grew. Teams such as the LA Dodgers and the Pittsburgh Pirates started out from the Beer and Whiskey league!
These games were fierce, there was no players union back then. So if you were injured you played hurt or you didn’t play. If you didn’t play, you didn’t get a paycheck. There were no baseball gloves used in these games, and the ball has a rubber core. The games moved so much faster back then as well! There were no breaks in the game for television stations to air commercials, batters were not stepping out of the box, and if you were hit by a pitch, it was a ball! Aside from all of that, you better keep an eye on that ball, because you only get one! That’s right one ball per game as opposed to the 104 or so that is the average that gets used in a typical MLB game these days.
I don’t know about you but I would certainly like to go back and watch one of these games, but even with the Vintage Baseball leagues they don’t follow the 1883 rules because they are deemed too dangerous! Games where the cheating was right out in the open. Tripping and violence happened and they weren’t underhanded or sneaky about it. The game was played start to finish by the same guys. Old Hoss Radborn for example pitched 73 out of 73 games start to finish… When was the last time you saw one of the guys in the Major Leagues do that? Join TC and Edward to find out even more about baseball in the 1880’s and for a quick look at his prediction for his favorite team the Red Sox this year!
Vintage Baseball in the Summer of Beer and Whiskey
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Oh and if you are waiting for the clip TC was referencing of Lose Yourself it is from the movie The Break Up. Check out the clip below!
Photo:Edward Achorn- Author of the Book- The Summer of Beer and Whiskey