Published in March of 2023 by the University of Missouri Press, Suds Series: Baseball, Beer Wars, and the Summer of ‘82 takes a deep dive into the 1982 major league baseball season with occasional references to cultural phenomenons loosely related to baseball, such as how the video game Pac-Man led to at least two Milwaukee Brewer player injuries.
The book mostly reads like a two-hundred page newspaper sports-page recap of the 82 season.
Typically books published with academic presses employ a strong thesis or throughline that offers new knowledge on a given topic. This book does not.
However, if someone is interested in the 1982 season, it’s a wonderful journey down memory lane, not unlike breaking out one’s complete set of 1983 Topps baseball card.
The 1982 fall classic featured two teams from cities known for their beer, the Milwaukee Brewers, then still an American League team, and the St. Louis Cardinals. While the seven game series was certainly a good one, showcasing several players, such as Ted Simmons and Pete Vuckovich, who just the year before had played for the Cardinals, Suds Series fails to serve up anything new.