Pouring Six Beers at a Time

I think I need to pick up this book for the title alone, but as an added bonus it's written by Bill Giles, architect of all those great Phillie teams of the '70s and '80s (the 1970s and 1980s, as opposed to the 1870s and 1880s).


Here's a great excerpt from the Philadelphia Inquirer about opening day at the Vet in 1972.


The story of Kiteman.


I flew Mr. Johnson up to Philly to look at our ramp. He said that he could not do the ramp, but that if I got him some roller skates and pulled him behind a car down the street in front of the Vet, he could sail up and over the roof and glide down to home plate.




That sounded pretty cool.




I called Police Commissioner Frank Rizzo and explained the plan. He rejected it because it would "mess up traffic."




I really needed the Kiteman show to go on, so I went back to Mr. Johnson and offered him $1,500 instead of the original $1,000.




"OK, I'll give it a try."




"Great!" I responded. "Would you like to practice?"




"Mr. Giles," he said, "if I'm going to kill myself, I want someone other than just you watching me."