Fun_People Archive
9 Jul
Just in case you missed this 25 years ago...

Date: Fri,  9 Jul 93 09:43:15 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: Just in case you missed this 25 years ago...

 From: "Robert C. McWilliams" <RADIOBOB@DELPHI.COM>

Speaking of the Beer that made Milwaukee famous, I recall when our town ball
club was playing for the league championship in the old North West Mo. 
league.  We didn't think we had a chance, because we were playing the
Clarksdale 9, and they had an ace pitcher.  He was a big old farm kid, about
6 foot four inches, with long gangly arms.  And could he ever bring the old
pill... it would be by you in a flash.  And a nice curve too.  He was a farm
kid, the scouts had never seen him, and he wasn't exactly college material,
so he just threw for his small town team in between the farm work.  His
name, as I recall, was Mel Famey.

Ayway, we didn't think we had a chance against Mel Famey and the Clarksdale
9, "the Cubs" I think they were called.  But then, we got a break.  It turns
out that Mel Famey's brother was getting married, the night before the game.
Now the bride to be, the future sister in law, was a big city gal, from St.
Joe.  And she was Catholic.

Mel, like most of the folks from Clarksdale, were good Baptists.  Mel had
never even tasted a sip of alcoholic beverage.  But at this wedding
reception, this good Catholic German gal's families had beer -- barrels and
barrels of Goetz, the local beer from St. Joe at that time.

Now Mel's folks weren't happy about this, but being as they weren't throwing
the reception they couldn't say much... but they did leave early.  Mel
stayed.  He was just drinking water, but there was this cute bridesmaid who
finally got Mel to taste the Goetz.  Well, Mel found out he liked that Goetz
beer, and being a big fella, he could, and did, drink quite a bit of it. 
Course, we didn't know about that at the time.

All we knew was, we had to go up and face Mel Famey in the championship
game.  And boy, we were figuring we had no chance.  But we soon found out
that Mel wasn't himself.  His first pitch was in the dirt; the second over
the catcher's head.  Before long, he had hit a batter, walked six, and
finally lobbed a few across, which we plastered.  He walked a couple of more
before the Clarksdale manager finally threw in the towel on his ace.

So we won the chamnpionship.  But it wasn't really anything WE did...
It Was the Beer that Made Mel Famey Walk Us!

© 1993 Peter Langston