In the late 1800s, the upstart American Association league challenged the National League for preeminence in baseball by cutting admission prices, playing on Sundays, and selling liquor at ballparks.

Intriguingly, African American players had a brief presence in the American Association--sixty years before Jackie Robinson. But that spirit didn't last long, and neither did the Beer & Whisky League.

Most A.A. players have faded into obscurity. However, the Beer & Whisky League was merely a prelude to the legacy of Charlie Comiskey, the player-manager of the A.A.'s St. Louis Browns.

After the A.A. folded in 1892, Byron Banford "Ban" Johnson and Charles Albert Comiskey founded a new league, which became the modern American league, where games were not played on Sunday and women were encouraged to attend. At first, the more powerful National League scoffed at the American League, but after top National League players moved to the American League along with large crowds of fans, the National League gave Major League status to the American League.

Comiskey's White Sox were a powerhouse of Major League Baseball in the early 20th century winning championships in 1901, 1906 and 1917, until Comiskey's tight financial control over his players combusted in the Black Sox scandal of 1919, the opening act of an 80 year tragi-comedy on Comiskey's southside.