Today in History: March 28
A Baseball Brew
Beer Bottles,
Alfred Harrell, photographer, August 1980.
Buckaroos in Paradise, 1945-1982
Brewing magnate August Anheuser Busch Jr. was born March 28, 1899, in St. Louis, Missouri. Scion of the famous brewing family, Busch served as chairman of the Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. from 1946-1975. During his tenure, the company that his grandfather Adolphus Busch established, emerged as the largest brewery in the world.
Adolphus Busch came to America from Germany in 1857, settling in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1864, he began working with his father-in-law Eberhard Anheuser at the latter’s brewery, E. Anheuser & Co. In 1873 the company’s brewing technicians discovered a way to pasteurize beer, resulting in the national distribution of their product. That same year, Busch became a full partner with his father-in-law; they renamed the company the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association in 1879. By 1900, Anheuser-Busch was the world's largest brewery. The company also developed a beer that was lighter than those commonly sold at the time. This beer, named Budweiser, ultimately became the world's best-selling beer.
In February 1953, August Anheuser Busch Jr. convinced his company’s board of directors to purchase the St. Louis Cardinals, halting the team’s impending move to another city. Busch's action was a relief to local baseball fans. He became a familiar figure at Cardinal games, entering Busch Memorial Stadium behind a team of his company's famous Clydesdale horses.
Among the baseball greats associated with the Cardinals are legendary pitcher Cy Young, who played for the team from 1899-1901, and Branch Rickey.
- Search on brewery in any of the following collections to find material related to the manufacture of malt beverages.
- Examine early baseball cards in Baseball Cards, 1887-1914. Search on Cardinals to view over 60 cards featuring players from that team. Or, search by Player, Team, League, City, or Card Set.
Louis Evans, right fielder, St. Louis Cardinals, 1911.
Baseball Cards, 1887-1914
Harry Steinfeldt, St. Louis Cardinals, 1912.
Baseball Cards, 1887-1914 - Review a Bibliography of Published Baseball Music and Songs posted by the Library's Performing Arts Reading Room.
- Learn more about Rickey in Breaking the Color Line: 1940-1946.
- Search on Busch or brewing industry in Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955 to see a series of architectural photographs of commercial buildings owned by the Busch family in New York and Massachusetts.
- Rickey's scouting report on Don Drysdale is featured in Words and Deeds in American History.
- Search on the keyword baseball in Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920 to find a variety of interesting items. See, for example, colorful images of William "Bill" Gleason and Curtis "Curt" Welch, two nineteenth-century St. Louis Browns players, who were included in the scrapbook of Annie Grace Clarke. Click on each scrapbook image for an enlargement.
- A search on baseball in Spalding Base Ball Guides, 1889-1939 yields both the official base ball guides and the official indoor base ball guides as well as their constitutions for the above years.
