VEB Book Club: The Year St. Louis Became a Baseball Town

First things first, this is a book seemingly designed to be read on the toilet and I mean that as a compliment. It is a brisk 181 pages, with many pictures and 19 chapters. It is a thorough exploration of the 1926 World Series, going game-by-game to share results and reactions from fans, the media and the players themselves at the time. We also get a hefty dose of context, the real reason to read this book.

Did you know for example that St. Louis in 1926 had the reputation, essentially, that Philadelphia has right now? The mayor and newspapers were very worried about how the crowd would behave during the World Series, because St. Louis was suddenly on a national stage. The Cardinals were perhaps the original perennial losers, as the Cubs, Pirates, Indians, and even the Washington Senators had all won World Series. I have to share this very funny quote from a Washington Post reporter that is in this book:

"The only remaining question to be settled is how seriously the St. Louis fans are going to take their world's series. In this town, where rabid support of the ball team is among the fundamentals, the fan takes the nearest weapon at hand to display his objections to the course of events. Pop bottle showers are the events of the first social importance in Sportman's Park. They become so much the rage, in fact, that soft drinks are now poured by attendants into paper cups. No one doubts, however, that the St. Louis partisans will come armed for any eventuality. This reporter may yet be a war correspondent seeking a s shell hole for safety."