Thursday, July 9, 2009

Two Birds, One Post


I found this completely by accident:

Mr. Adolphus Busch, of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company, has bought the interest originally held by Mr. Ellis Wainwright in the St. Louis Athletic Association. Mr. Wainwright is therefore no longer in any way connected with the Union Club.
-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 11, 1884

There I was, minding my own business and researching something totally unrelated, when my eyes caught the words "Adolphus Busch" and I stopped to read. Lo and behold, I found something that killed two birds with one stone. We can now say that Wainwright, while an original investor in the Maroons, was bought out in April of 1884. We can also say that Adolphus Busch (pictured above) was an investor in the Maroons and that the brewing family has a history in St. Louis baseball that began eighty years before August Busch, Jr. bought the Cardinals in 1953.

5 comments:

james e. brunson said...

Jeff,

You weren't "minding your own business." Once you open your mind up to the baseball universe, the road to its history becomes paved and open to to you, however slowly its construction.

james

Jeffrey Kittel said...

Very true. But it was a complete accident that I found that article. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Btw, did you know that copies of your new book are going for almost $300 on Amazon. I hope you're getting a piece of that.

james e. brunson said...

Well, rest assured that I won't be getting a "cut." Anyone that buys what is obviously a bootleg copy is insane. It's available on McFarland's website.

Jeffrey Kittel said...

I was going to preorder a copy when I first saw it up at Amazon but never got around to doing so. As much as I want to read the book, the $300 price was ridiculous. I think there was actually two copies going at that price a couple of days ago and now there's only one so somebody values your work a great deal (or has money to burn) and purchased it at that price.

I was at the McFarland website the other day (looking for something unrelated) and found your book at a reasonable (for McFarland) price. Looking forward to reading it.

james e. brunson said...

Good enough...