Ron’s Reviews > The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game > Status Update

Chapter 15 was mostly about the victors' parade; the main takeaway is that it was huge, about as big as the parades marking the end of the Civil War. There's also a 15-page Epilogue describing the men's lives after baseball. Not surprisingly for such a rowdy and hard-living crew, many met an early end.

I had the ending prematurely revealed when Whispersync sent me to the end of chapter 14 instead of the beginning. Still, it was fun to see the pennant race play out and how all those little decisions could have made the difference.

I had the ending prematurely revealed when Whispersync sent me to the end of chapter 14 instead of the beginning. Still, it was fun to see the pennant race play out and how all those little decisions could have made the difference.

Chapter 10 is the story of baseball's color line, focusing on Moses Fleetwood Walker, one of a few black major leaguers in 1883. The author's take is that some black players were good enough that many white players feared for their jobs (though that interpretation is probably as much a product of our time as theirs). Enough players threw a fit that the leagues banned black players, a ban that would last 60 years.

In terms of actual plot advancement, there's not much to say here. Chapters 5-9 are basically stories about curious characters or incidents from the 1883 season.