Brewing and Baseball, a History: Part 1 - The Chicago Cubs

I would like to begin a journey through the the annals of baseball history to discover the origins of beer and America's national past-time. There is hope for this to be a series chronicling every MLB team and their history of beer and brewery sponsorships.  While information can be scarce, I will try and cobble together history as well as important events or anecdotes relating to each teams relationship to everyone's favorite alcoholic beverage.  It seems ever so fitting to choose my home team, the Chicago Cubs, to being our journey.

The Chicago Cubs were founded in 1870 as the White Stockings, whilst adopting the names Orphans and Colts before becoming the Cubs in 1903.  Wrigley Field was built in 1916, right before prohibition.  I will admit, I was unable to find anything about Cubs sponsorships until 1948 (I even sent an email to the wonderful Cubs Ambassadors, which did some research for me but were unable to find anything dating before then).  What is remarkable about 1948 is that was the first year of Old Style beer as the official sponsors of the Cubs.  And guess what, they still are today.  Old Style is considered a local Chicago beer, although it was from Wisconsin.  In my opinion, there is nothing better than a cold Old Style at a Cubs game.

While Old Style has been an official sponsor since 1948, there have been other sponsors as well. In the 1950's and 1960's, according to the Ambassadors, Hamm's brewery from Minneapolis was a sponsor.  Hamm's featured a bear and woodland creatures as their mascots, and the bear fit very well with the Cubs.

Hamms Beer

From what I can tell, Hamm's was eventually replaced with Budweiser as the main beer sponsor from the late 60's until present.  I find it ironic that Bud has been the Cubs sponsor, since A) the Cardinals are owned by Budweiser and B) Chicago is primarily a Miller town due to its proximity to Milwaukee. At the stadium currently you can find an assortment of beers including Bud, Bud Lite, Old Style and its Lite brother, PBR, Heineken, and even some Goose Island.

While Wrigley Field is known for having few advertisements or billboards, there are a few significant areas to note.  The first is the famous Bud building across the street.  Although currently it is not endorsing Budweiser, it had the logo on the roof for a very long time.

The bleachers were also renamed the Bud Light Bleachers in 2007, with the Bud Light logo visible from outside the stadium.

Wrigley Field, and specifically the bleachers, have been known as a beer drinkers paradise for years.  This notion was reinforced during the "bleacher bum" era as well as the Cubs most notorious drinker, Harry Caray.  Harry was known for his extra-circulars as much as his broadcasting.  Rumour has it that he once slept with Adolphus Busch's daughter.  He also always had a beverage during his broadcast, sometimes saluting the bleacher bums.

To sum up each part, I would like to offer recommendations of beer to buy if you are ever near the ballpark, or seeing a game. In the field you have to get an Old Style or 3, while outside the stadium stop by Goose Island for some Chicago brewed beer.  Coming soon, Part 2: Chicago White Sox.