Since the World Series begins Friday night between the Yankees and the Dodgers, I offer this memory of a time in 1977 when the two teams also met in the Series.
I was a senior at Virginia Tech, and along with several friends, we heard almost nonstop that this was the first time the two teams played in the World Series since 1963. All of us were sports fans, but not necessarily die-hard baseball fans.
To us, 1963 was back when we were kids, and our knowledge of baseball came from watching games on television with our Dads. Turns out for all of us, we didn’t so much remember balls, strikes and home runs from back in the day.
What we did remember, however, were the beer commercials.
We were far from experts concerning the infield fly rule, but we knew Schaefer was the one beer to have when you’re having more than one. Didn’t dawn on any of us until years later that this particular beer must really be awful because they’re even telling you in their commercials to wait until you’re drunk enough that you can’t taste the stuff. Then drink ours.
National Bohemian had a catchy little jingle that had you humming “National Bo, National Bo” around the house, but aside from that, you only knew it came “from the land of pleasant living,” which was somewhere near Baltimore. We knew Rolling Rock came from mountain springs, although I’ve yet to see a Mountain Spring spewing out beer.
Other names like Carling Black Label, Fallstaff, Ballantine, Rheingold and Old Milwaukee were beer brands you knew, but all you knew was when you grew up you were suppose to drink them, because they told you to on the baseball games.
So as we’re talking about this, the idea was suggested that we pool our money, check the local stores and see if we could buy any of these brands. Turns out more than half on our list were available, so we decided to get a cooler, fill it with these brands, pour a bag of ice on top of it all, and watch Game 6 of the Series like we were our Dads.
I will say, the game that night was pretty legendary as Reggie Jackson hit three home runs and the Yankees won the series.
The experiment with vintage beers, however, was not.
Keep in mind that for a 21-year-old college student, the standards for beer were not high. If it was cold and it was cheap, it got a thumbs up.
These beers did not reach that standard.
“Man, no wonder the old man was grumpy all the time,” was a popular refrain as we started with Schaefer, moved on to Fallstaff and then went down the list of what proved to be a Hall of Shame when it came to brewed beverages.
We had thought we’d try a new beer every inning, but by the fourth inning nobody wanted any more. The memories, the jingles, the commercials of these ancient products were good.
The actual products were not, no matter how cold or how cheap.
So Friday night, I’ll be back watching the Dodgers and Yankees in a World Series again, and undoubtedly fondly remembering that night in October Reggie Jackson hit three home runs and became “Mr. October.”
All while also remembering how me and a bunch of knuckleheads got together in an apartment and discovered our Dads had no taste whatsoever when it came to beer 😊
I told the story the other day when I was in Blacksburg for the BC game that the cheapest beer I ever purchased was in Blacksburg; $0.94 for a 6 pack of Red, White and Blue, which I believe was a knockoff of PBR.
Am glad you posted this because I have told many a younger person that I remember Pabst on sale for 99 cents for a six pack back when a student in Blacksburg. Maybe I’m confusing the two, but at least I’m not the only one remembering red, white and blue for under a buck.
I was in B’burg in the mid 80’s. Milwaukee’s Best $6.25 a case. That was the cheapest in town.
RWB was a lower level beer by Pabst, I believe. When I was at VT starting in 1978, I routinely got a six of Schaefer, Wiedemann, Icky, Natty Bo, and RWB for around $1.29-$1.49. The cheapest I ever got was A&P Tudor Ale for $0.89. The other two I purchased from time to time under $1 were “BEER” in a white can with black block lettering and Kroger’s “Cost Cutter BEER” in a yellow can with black lettering. My two favorite cheap bears were Black Label and Rheingold.