“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”
Benjamin Franklin.

Rumor has it that Ben also proposed a national brewery! I think he would have been a great baseball fan, but would probably have been a Phillies fan, so screw him. I am kidding, of course, but the quote above got me thinking about colonials, this country’s history, and what did they do if they couldn’t play baseball during the American Revolution? Would Benhamin Franklin have been a baseball fan, would he have enjoyed the sport?

I did some research, and typed in “Benjamin Franklin baseball” on some search engines to see if their was any profound quotes or quips from this American statesman that could be linked to the greatest game ever invented. I didn’t find much, but I did find a relevance link (sort of) with those terms, and I found it in the script of one of my favorite baseball movies of all time, The Sandlot.

“There was only one night game a year. On the 4th of July… the whole sky would brighten up with fireworks, giving us just enough light for a game. We played our best then because, I guess, we all felt like the big leaguers… under the lights of some great stadium. Benny felt like that all the time.

We all knew he was gonna go on to bigger and better games, because every time we stopped to watch the sky on those nights like regular kids, he was there to call us back.

You see, for us, baseball was a game. But for Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez, baseball was life.”

The main baseball character’s name, was Benny, who would later play for the Los Angeles Dodgers in the movie and be known as “Benny the Jet,” who preached to his friends when they were kids,

“Man, this is baseball, you gotta stop thinking! Just have fun. If you were having fun , you would have caught that ball!”

But that wasn’t the only connection, I found.  I saw several names of aspiring baseball players from High School to minor leagues who shared some variation of  the name “Benjamin Franklin.”

One, Benjamin Franklin Hunt, a left handed pitcher, played for both the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals for 2 years, posting 2-4 record and 25 strikeouts. (St. Louis is  the home to a big brewery by the way)

The coolest thing I uncovered, depending on your perspective of cool,  was a $100 dollar bill on a baseball. Yup, it’s all about the Benjamin’s on a plastic baseball. I couldn’t believe it when I surfed to it, so now I can tell you that it’s yours if you click on the Franklin Insitute store and order it!

Me? I have too many baseballs already, AND, in the spirit of the quote to start this post, I’d much rather go spend that  $16.95 on a case of cold Grain Belt Premium Beer.