With the Motley Home Money Extra, I'm Chris Hill.

Time for a little sports history.

In the 1880s, the business of baseball was in trouble because the people running the

National League refused to have games on Sunday, refused to sell beer at the games, and

charged 50 cents a ticket.

Back then, that was a lot of money, but one new owner changed everything.

It's a story captured by a longtime journalist Ed A. Corn in his book The Summer of Beer and

Whiskey, How Brewers, Barkeeps, Routies, Immigrants, and a Wild Penetite made baseball

America's Game.

In it, he tells the story of that new owner, Chris Vandere.

He was a grocer.

He came over here with essentially nothing.

Classic immigrant story, worked hard, built up this grocery, had a saloon out back, and

then he noticed this strange American sport taking place down, right down the street on

Grand Avenue in St. Louis.

And several American-born people had tried to make a go of baseball and it failed.

He decided to give it a shot, and he had a great business plan.

He was going to have Sunday baseball, he was going to have beer at the ballpark.

In fact, he did it primarily to make money selling beer, and he was going to charge 25 cents

admission, which was half the national league fee.

And what he discovered very quickly is there was a hunger and a passion for baseball that

was untapped.

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