Alcohol in the clubhouse?

I saw where some MLB clubs provide beer in the clubhouse after a game?
WTF?!
There was a good AP article on this over the weekend.
I realize most the players probably aren't going to be driving home, but I can't imagine a organization exposing itself to a possible lawsuit for providing beer to players.
I love beer after work. But I'd be batshit crazy to expect my employers to provide beer for me after a shift.

I know athletes get all sorts of free snacks and tobacco but damn ... alcohol too?

I'm not that worried for the Pirates. The Nuttings recently installed play toilets for the Pirates at PNC. They have a ($1) vending machine that serves the finest Wal-Mart brand colas.

 

Re: Alcohol is the clubhouse?

Alcohol is the clubhouse and Soylent Green is people!

 

Re: Alcohol is the clubhouse?

No offense, but this is new to you?

 

Re: Alcohol is the clubhouse?

Yeah, I guess it is.

I've seen the post-game celebrations, but I never really gave any thought to the notion the organization would be springing for the alcohol.
I thought maybe Seagrams or Coors would provide it to the players for marketing.
I never really considered the idea of an organazation (in today's world anyway) providing spirits to employees at the end of a work day.

 

Re: Alcohol is the clubhouse?

One of the biggest knee-jerk non-stories I've seen in years. No one's getting wasted in home clubhouses after games anyway. Hancock had a drinking problem. I know he's not the only guy. I can see why teams are taking booze out of home clubhouses though.

Though without clubhouse beers, how could Grudzielanek get the courage to smash Sosa's boombox to smithereens after the 04 season ended?

 

Re: Alcohol is the clubhouse?

Stop selling beer in the stands. Why penalize every player for the actions of one person. Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote a recent column about it that was an excellent read. Check it out.

 

Re: Alcohol is the clubhouse?

I understand with home teams, buy how many visiting players at a place like Shea or Yankee Stadium get behind the wheel of a car? They take a bus back to midtown and grab cabs when they are going out.

 

Re: Alcohol is the clubhouse?

Um, what's a "play" toilet?

 

Re: Alcohol is the clubhouse?

It definitely is a knee-jerk overreaction to Hancock's death, but providing beer in the clubhouse is one of those long-time practices that doesn't make any sense when you think about it. Why would a team do anything to actually encourage its athletes to do something as unhealthy as drinking alcohol? Organizations have multi-million dollar investments in these guys' bodies, and they're going to help pollute them? If you're gonna do that, why not just go all the way and put cigarette machines in the clubhouse?

 

Re: Alcohol is the clubhouse?

Oh, to be a professional athlete.

They make incredible salaries and, on top of that, they get a per diem each day when they're on the road to help them pay for meals. And, on some teams, they get free beer?

It's incredible that we poor saps in newspapers get none of this stuff, but people making the big bucks do.

 

Re: Alcohol is the clubhouse?

And why stop there. Let's stop the alcohol advertising. Let's put that industry through the same hell that the tobacco industry has endured.
You'll never see that happen.