Jews & Brews: New Baseball Anthology Highlights a Forgotten Beer Giant

By: David Krell

Once upon a century, Jewish immigrants from Germany transplanted to New York and founded breweries that grew to be Goliaths in the beer industry. Brooklyn was still a city in the mid-19th century when Samuel Liebmann started his brewery that later became responsible for the first beer sponsorship of the New York Mets.

I have the privilege of being the editor of the new anthology The New York Mets in Popular Culture. Topics include Bob Murphy’s broadcasting career and the art philanthropy of original Mets owner Joan Payson. We were blessed to have Debra Schmidt Bach, a curator at the New-York Historical Society, contribute an incredibly researched essay about the Liebmann family’s Rheingold brand becoming a beer icon synonymous with the Mets. “Of Great Renown” reveals the highly significant impact of the Liebmanns, not only on the beer industry but also baseball.

Their signature beer was Rheingold, famed for the “Miss Rheingold” beauty contests that became a national sensation. These competitions to crown a shayna maidel between 1941 and 1964 relied on votes from the public. To entice participation, Rheingold advertised the contests in outlets that sold the brand; billboards were also used in the promotion.

When the Mets debuted in 1962, Rheingold became the team’s beer sponsor. But it was not an easy battle. As Bach points out, Schaefer also wanted a deal with the National League’s new ball club in New York. But Rheingold negotiated a five-year deal costing $6 million. Casey Stengel and the current Miss Rheingold, Kathy Kersh, appeared in print advertisements to create a new fan base; Kersh’s sex appeal and Stengel’s crusty but lovable persona created a strong allure for fans to adopt the Mets as their new team. Walter O’Malley had moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles after the 1957 season, and Horace Stoneham joined in the exodus by moving the New York Giants to San Francisco.

Although the Mets deal was a jewel, other parts of the Liebmann crown were fading. “Liebmann’s highly visible Mets sponsorship masked the reality that the brewery was entering its twilight years,” writes Bach. “Sadly, this was part of a larger industry-wide trend that began during the 1930s.” Bach also illustrates the Darwinian effect of Prohibition plus the formidable capital enjoyed by bigger operations: “As the large breweries pushed to become national by moving into new regional markets, smaller breweries were forced to compete against the well-funded enterprises.”

Rheingold closed operations in 1976. By that time, Schaefer had escalated to the sponsorship that it had sought during the Mets’ infancy. Fans will remember the brand’s tag line: “Schaefer is the one beer to have when you’re having more than one.” A 1974 TV commercial features 1969 World Series champion alumni Tommie Agee, Gary Gentry, Ron Swoboda, Ed Charles, and Art Shamsky relaxing in a bar as Shamsky declares that Agee will buy the next round of beer. Swoboda can’t find the words to finish the sentence “The Amazing Mets are still…” Shamsky then offers, “Amazing.”

When baseball discussions regard Jews, the story of Sandy Koufax and the 1965 World Series inevitably arises. Koufax sat out the first game against the Minnesota Twins because it took place on Yom Kippur; Dodgers skipper Walter Alston selected fireballer Don Drysdale to start the game. He gave up one run in the second inning and six runs in the third. When Alston sent him to the bench, Dodgers lore says that Drysdale remarked, “I bet you wish I was Jewish, too.” Final score: Dodgers 8, Twins 2.

Conspiracy theorists mourn the lost opportunity of Hank Greenberg in 1938. As this son of Orthodox Jews approached Babe Ruth’s single-season record of 60 home runs, he did not get good pitches that would have allowed him to put the ball over the fence. In some quarters, it’s believed that antisemitism caused this strategy; baseball’s conventional wisdom simply didn’t want a Jew to own the record. Or so goes the theory. Greenberg finished the season with 58 homers. In the classic oral history The Glory of Their Times, “The Hebrew Hammer” debunked the conjecture.

And then, there’s Jackie Robinson. Brooklyn’s diversity has always been its strength, but demographics were united in their love for the Dodgers. They welcomed Major League Baseball’s first black player in the 20th century without regard to race and Jewish kids revered him as vital in the Dodgers’ post-World War II National League dynasty.

Robinson biographer Arnold Rampersad pointed out in his 1997 book Jackie Robinson that the slugger emphasized the evils of antisemitism in a 1962 newspaper column. The former Dodgers slugger was inspired to write about the protests against Sol Singer, a Jewish restaurateur looking to open a new Harlem restaurant “at a site leased from the owner of the Apollo Theater, Frank Schiffman.” Jewish lineage became a point of protest by blacks even when Singer offered to sell his lease without making money; there were no takers among black businessmen. That’s when Robinson penned his thoughts in the Amsterdam News.

The most prominent connection between Judaism and baseball in an increasingly conscious culture is a ballpark celebration labeled Jewish Heritage Night or Jewish Heritage Day, depending on the time of the game. Sometimes, Israel Heritage is the descriptor. The Brooklyn Cyclones have honored the chosen people with fans dancing the Horah on the field before the game and players wearing jerseys with Hebrew lettering on the front indicating the team’s name. In 2019, the Cyclones gave away a Mensch on a Bench bobblehead wearing a hat with the team’s logo. That same year, the Miami Marlins hosted the Mets for its version, which included the singing of Hatikvah in addition to The Star-Spangled Banner.

It was a brewery begun by a Jewish beer visionary that contributed to the development of the Mets. I hope that Debra Schmidt Bach’s essay in The New York Mets in Popular Culture (now available on Amazon.com) ignites a new wave of scholarship concerning other areas where Jews have greatly contributed to the American experience.

L’chaim!