Alcohol in the clubhouse?

Exactly. It's not free.

Perhaps back in the day, when the guys would hang around for hours after a game, talking baseball and putting back pops, it might have been an issue.

These days, guys are out of there so quick, I doubt they even have time for more than one.

And in my experience, very few even do.

It's just not really an issue.

Cutting the drinks on a flight home from a road trip, when it takes so little to get hammered on a plane, is a good idea because the players all hop into their cars.

There's still a light standard on a boulevard outside Olympic Stadium in Montreal that has a massive dent in it, thanks to Carlos Perez's Mercedes (his nose took a worse divot).

The only team that saw the light, it seems, was the Marlins. That's because the Samson/Lorias figured they could save a few bucks, even if they spin it as concern for the players and general civicmindedness

 

It's baseball. How healthy do you have to be? The guy who is arguably the greatest to ever play was a fat ass (Ruth) and one of the best to ever play was a raging alcoholic sex fiend (Mantle). Joe DiMaggio used to smoke underneath the stands in between innings. Mark Grace smoked throughout his entire big league career.

Amphetamines were rampant through much of the game's history, and though you'd think they were more unhealthy than a beer, most owners weren't exactly pushing them out of the clubhouse. Hell, half the league plays the game with half a can of dip tucked in their jaw.

 

I'm so tired of the Carrie Nation's of the world. When can adults be adults for crying out loud?

 

Here's what I don't understand about the knee-jerk yanking of beer from clubhouses. Basically the teams are saying to players: "You can't be responsible enough as adults to handle a beer or two."

A year ago, I covered a game in which the a closer had to get five outs and face Manny Ramirez twice. He was drinking a Bud Light when we talked to him. When we were done, I said 'You earned that beer tonight.' He was like, 'No shit.'"

If you ask anybody around the Red Sox, nobody was really surprised that Hancock was shitty when he crashed and died.

 

Most of this is a load of bullshit anyway. If a couple of players bring in a case of beer, the clubhouse guys will either put it in a refrigerator for them or give them a cooler with ice to stash it.

Clubs are looking to cover themselves legally, so they're making sure they don't provide the beer.

 

...So when are they going to start pulling the beer from stadium vendors?

 

North American society is turning into Nanny Nation.

 

This is not a story.

 

The St. Louis Cardinals should take the lead and ban beer in their clubhouse at Busch Stadium. Hopefully that will sway others. Perhaps the NL Central rivals, the Milwaukee Brewers, will decide to stop giving beer to their players at Miller Park. If all goes well, the Colorado Rockies will stop serving beer to their players at Coors Field. You would think they would have already decided to stop doing this, since the chairman of Coors recently was cited for a DUI.

 

It's not an issue I feel super passionately about, but 99% of hardworking Americans don't get beer served to them by their employer after every shift.

They're multimillionaires -- at least make 'em use their per diem.

For me, this falls under the category of "please stop coddling these assholes."

 

But these aren't 99% of hardworking Americans...they're the equivalent of the cast of a hit TV show. No one would question the producers of The Sopranos or Entourage bringing in dinner and beer for the cast at the end of the day after taping. Same for the top execs in a major corporation. What is the big issue here?

 

If you ask their labor union they are.

Everyday, after every taping?? I don't know about that. Wrap parties are extravagant, to be sure...

I just don't think the world's gonna end if they take away Major League ballplayers' beer.