Club Owners Raise the Bar on Beer Sales

It seems one unexpected consequence of speeding up the game was to reduce the sale of beer at stadiums.  It makes sense, since quicker games mean your fan base is obviously in the ballpark for a shorter period of time.  Bottom line, this has hurt sales of alcohol and most notably beer, which is the most American of beverages to consume at a baseball game.  Traditionally, teams have halted sales of beer and other alcoholic beverages by the seventh inning.  Not any more though, since five teams have already decided to extend sales of alcohol past the seventh inning to counteract the shorter game time.  In addition, other teams have also not ruled out extending the sale of alcohol at their ball parks.

Fortunately, Matt Strahm, a pitcher with the Philadelphia Phillies, called out the lunacy of clubs to extend the beer sales by stating, “The reason we stopped it in the seventh before was to give our fans time to sober up and drive home safe, correct? “So now with a faster pace game, and me just being a man of common sense, if the game is going to finish quicker, would we not move the beer sales back to the sixth inning to give our fans time to sober up and drive home?”

Yes, common sense Matt Strahm.  Something sorely lacking from the baseball hierarchy.  You think you will receive common sense from club owners, the same ones that took a hatchet to the game’s integrity by instituting these onerous rules?  That is a rhetorical question.  The answer is NO.

Strahm is spot on when he identifies the real reason for moving the alcohol sales beyond the seventh inning by stating, “”When you mess with billionaires’ dollars, [they] find a way to make their dollars back”.  Enough said.

This beer sales issue is just another example of the owners’ greed.  Do they look to ensure the safety of their fans by stopping sales earlier since the games are faster?  No, they do the opposite since profits are the bottom line.

This story about beer sales highlights baseball’s real problem and it isn’t the length of games or the lack of action, but instead the sheer greed of owners and sadly players to squeeze out every dollar they can from the game.  Rip up the rules to get more eyeballs watching on television and butts in the seats.  That is the goal.  Forgot the integrity of the game and the principles upon which it was founded.  None of that matters as long as revenue rises.  In summary the owners are all about Money, Money and MORE MONEY!