[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Originally Posted by WilliamTheIrish

A little St.Louis WTI history. Some of this I may have told previously, so forgive me for the repetition.

My mom as teenager, worked at Sportsman’s Park, where the Cardinals and the STL Browns played. This was in the early to mid 30’s. She grew up in some difficult circumstances (but who didn’t after crash in 29?), and managed to work her summers at the park.

In those days it was not uncommon to play doubleheaders. In the afternoon. In the heat. The team used giant round horse/livestock troughs full of ice to keep beer cold. They sold Budweiser, Schlitz PBR and some “other shit beers”.

Bud was 10c, all the others were a nickel. So, as the sun would beat down on the trough and turn the ice into water, my mom, a young girl of minimal means, would reach into the trough and carefully slide the label off a bottle of Bud. Then, she would slip the label off the the “off brand” and switch the labels. Then she would sell the off brand as Budweiser, charge a dime and get to pocket a whole nickel. On good days it was worth 35/40c. But that helped give her a little spending money.

She was casual acquaintances with legendary Cardinals of the Gas House Gang. The Dean brothers, or Pepper Martin would amble by to purchase a soft drink on occasion.

It seemed glorious, but on the way home she would walk the railroad tracks and pick up any coal that might fallen from a coal car to use in the winter to fire the furnace. Anything to help the family.

There’s a great deal more to her life story than that, but today, being able to reflect on it in a baseball related way helps me understand why I love this game so much.