Class is in Session: Baseball & the Brewers

Where did baseball originate? How did youth activist Rufus King, the Civil War and meat-packing millionaire John Plankinton help promote baseball? How did a bankrupt streetcar line contribute to the building of Milwaukee’s first professional baseball field?

Join local historian and history professor Stephen Hauser at the on Tuesday at 7 p.m. to unravel the questions and debates about Milwaukee’s favorite sport: baseball.

The event is organized by the Friends of the Pauline Haass Public Library, a volunteer organization eager to let Hauser share his story.

Hauser's love affair with local history is inspired by his own family's story. His maternal great-great-grandfather owned one of the first blacksmith shops in Milwaukee. His father's uncle was the secretary to Milwaukee's second Socialist mayor, Daniel Hoen.

As a fifth-generation, lifelong Wisconsinite, Hauser has taught local history and Wisconsin history for over 30 years. He teaches half-time at Marquette University and MATC and gives talks on local history.  

"I tell my students that the last word in history is 'story.' And if you tell it as a story, you can't go wrong," he said.