"Hot dogs, peanuts, and of course delicious thirst quenching lager beer all help make baseball more enjoy." Curt Gowdy said it best during broadcasts in the 1950s. Today, Fenway Park turns 100. Since Narragansett was the official sponsor of Red Sox Baseball from 1944-1975, let's all toast a Gansett to 100 years of baseball history. So we dug through the archives to find some old Gansett and baseball memorabilia to share. Here's some of the cool heritage we found:
1175 = # of Red Sox home games at Fenway Park where Curt Gowdy started the broadcast by saying: "Hi Neighbor Have a Gansett" 15 = # of seasons Curt Gowdy was the voice of the Red Sox & Narragansett Beer (1951-1965) 31 = # of seasons that Narragansett Beer was the "Official TV & Radio Host of the Red Sox" (1945 - 1975) 1 = The Boston Red Sox & Boston Braves were the 1st two professional sports teams to have a beer sponsor in 1945...today beer & sports go hand-in-hand
$0 = cost of the Narragansett Beer TV sponsorship in 1945 (they just had to build the set). Here’s a quote from BeerHistory.com: Surprisingly, it was not the nation's largest beer makers who led the brewing industry's charge into television. Rather, most of TV's pioneer beer advertisers were regional brewers. In 1945, New England's Narragansett Beer sponsored the first telecasts of Boston Red Sox games, though neither the brewery nor the baseball team seemed overly confident about the then-infant medium. In fact, Sox management granted Narragansett the sponsorship rights free of charge, telling brewery officials, "We don't know what we're doing, and neither do you."
65% = Narragansett Beer’s market share at Fenway Park in 1960 (Ted Williams’ last year) $.25 = cost of a Narragansett Beer at Fenway Park in 1952 (60 years ago) $.50 = cost of a Narragansett Beer at Fenway Park in 1962 (50 years ago) $7.25 = cost of a Narragansett Beer at Fenway Park in 2012 6 million = estimated number of Narragansett Beers sold at Fenway Park from 1945 - 1975 48,000 = estimated number of Narragansett Beers sold at Fenway Park since the brand’s return to the park in 2009
And visit the MLB's website here to see more on Fenway's anniversary.
