The Birth of Baseball

161 years ago today the first organized baseball game was played in Hoboken between the Knickerbockers and – how’s this for a catchy name – the New York Base Ball Club. The Knickerbockers got crushed 23-1 – in a 4 inning game!. Sounds like a New York Knick basketball game from last season.

That had to be a pretty boring game. In fact the games had to pretty boring for another 35 years – because they didn’t serve beer at the ballpark yet. Face it - the raison d’etre for regular season baseball is to give you an excuse to sit outside on a nice summer day, drink beer and eat dogs. It wasn't until 1881 that an enterprising St.Louis saloon keeper called Chris Von der Ahe bought the St. Louis Brown Stockings so he could sell beer at their game (the owners had previously refused him permission). You can read about that here. Brilliant! Lore says he was also the first to introduce hot dogs at ball games, in 1893. And further that he’d sit in a special owners box behind 3^rd base with a whistle to get players attention or signal someone to get him a beer.

I’m putting Mr. Von der Ahe on my list of departed I’d like to meet should it turn out there is an afterlife, he and I are in the same place, and they have networking events there.

We’re having folks over tonight and while it’s tempting to celebrate the birth or baseball with dogs and beer that’s not in the cards. We’re graciously helping clear out my friend Phil’s awesome wine cellar before he moves next week, and hot dogs just won’t do justice to anything we're likely to drink. More on the menu later.