Take him out
to the brewpub

Forget the crackerjacks, Philadelphia baseball announcer Andy Musser will have a fresh hand-crafted beer.

by Stan Hieronymus and Daria Labinsky

Legend has it that Babe Ruth occasionally left baseball games between the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox, headed to a Chicago bar called McCuddy's and drank beer between innings.

Beer and baseball have always been intimate, and recently, flavorful beer and baseball have gotten to know each other better. In fact, baseball announcer Andy Musser confesses, "I have been known to slip down the right field line at Coors Field" in Denver, where Coors Brewing Co. operates its SandLot Brewery.

Because Musser is usually at work when he's in the ballpark, he's not particularly well qualified to comment on how beer choices have improved dramatically in both major and minor league parks. However, he's spent more than 20 years mixing the day-to-day travel of a sports announcer with his love for craft beer.

Musser has been announcing Philadelphia Phillies games on radio and television for 22 years and Villanova basketball games for nine years. While he's like a growing number of beer consumers who have devoted themselves to sampling America's brewpubs, he's not exactly typical.

At 59, he's older than the average hophead-and if you look at his list of favorite beers, it's apparent that that's what he is. He also has been at it longer than most-he visited his first brewpub in September 1985, and by mid-January 1997 had been to 235 (while talking, he was also making notes about where to visit next, so that number was higher within a matter of days). He dates his devotion to microbrewery beer to 1974 and certainly doesn't limit himself to beer found in major league baseball cities.

Musser was announcing San Diego Chargers and USC Trojans football games in the mid-1970s when he stopped at a place in Newport Beach called the Rusty Pelican. "I said, 'Bring me a beer.' I hate it now when I hear people say that, but that's what I said. They said they had this new beer from San Francisco," he said. It was, of course, Anchor Steam. By pure chance, he had stopped in the first bar outside the Bay Area to serve Anchor on tap.

"My eyes lit up," he said. "I had never tasted anything like that. ... That's when I had my taste buds awakened." His quest had begun. "I thought, 'Now, let's see if we can top that.' I never have, but it's been fun," he said.

He and Anchor Brewing president Fritz Maytag have since become friends, and last year when the Phillies played in San Francisco, Maytag joined Musser in the press box. Musser has even dipped his toe into the brewery business, investing in Dock Street Brewing Co. in Philadelphia. The short version of that story goes, "I was looking for a place to have dinner, and I ended up investing."

"When I first started going to these places, I thought they were the greatest thing on earth," Musser said. But he soon discovered not every brewpub makes great beer. "I'm starting to find that I like all the multi-taps, because there are so many great regional beers popping up."

A place doesn't have to have 60 taps -- "I can't believe that the 58th and 59th beers are that fresh," Musser said. In his hometown of Philadelphia, he particularly likes the London Grill. The food is solid, the selection from 12 taps varies, and the beer is treated well. "You can tell something right off about a place based on what temperature they serve the beer," he said.

When his stomach was younger, Musser made restaurants a hobby. "I've flipped that around," he said. "Now, I go for the beer first. But I like to have a place that doesn't just throw bar food at you." He still appreciates an outstanding menu, such as at Typhoon Brewery in Manhattan or the Denver ChopHouse in Denver, but he's more likely to make a place like Wynkoop Brewing Co. "headquarters" when he is in Denver.

When the National League expanded into Denver, Musser had dozens of reasons to be excited. "It's great to stumble out of the hotel and have four or five places you can go to," he said. Inter-league play will send him to more new cities, although this year the Phils visit Baltimore, Boston and Detroit. He has been to the first two many times, and the new brewpubs in the Detroit area are in the suburbs.

"We don't get a car, and it's not like we have a lot of free time," he said. After all, most baseball games are played at night, and the players and announcers arrive at the park well before happy hour. That's why Chicago has always been a favorite stop. "They play all those day games," Musser said. He frequents Shaw's Crab House, a fine restaurant where the quality beer includes regional choices. "I really like the atmosphere of (Shaw's) Blue Crab Lounge," he said. McCuddy's, the bar Ruth frequented, was torn down to make way for the new Comiskey Park in 1991.

San Francisco may still be his favorite stop, however. "There are a lot of reasons, certainly not the least of which is Anchor," he said. "Mostly, I enjoy the beer culture."

"I've tried most of the brewpubs. There, I don't necessarily have a hangout. I've been to all of them," he said, reciting the names of excellent beer bars: "Toronado, Jacks, the Bierhaus, great places."

On the other hand, he has never particularly enjoyed Houston, and spring training is not especially fun. "I have yet to have a good beer brewed in Florida," he said, candidly. But he'll keep looking.

Then there's St. Louis, home of the brewery that makes the beer you can find in many ballparks and near all of them. "I used to just go to Dierdorf & Hart (a restaurant), they had Anchor on draft," he said. Then the St. Louis Brewery Taproom opened. Suddenly, St. Louis became a favorite stop. "I've become friends with all the people there," Musser said.

Babe Ruth would understand.

This story originally appeared in All About Beer Magazine in May 1997.