'Beer Here' Wasn't Always Heard at Ballgames
PLUS: JEFFREY LORIA TAKES SWIPE AT FORMER MARLINS BOSS DEREK JETER
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
Colorado outfielder Charlie Blackmon, out nine weeks with a fractured hand, got two hits against Arizona in his first game back this week . . .
Philadelphia still has seven games left against the first-place Braves, running away with their sixth straight NL East title . . .
When he was a kid growing up in Oakland, future Cy Young Award winner Dave Stewart earned a few bucks “watching” Reggie Jackson’s car outside the stadium . . .
With a 9.45 ERA in his attempted comeback with the Minnesota Twins, Dallas Keuchel needs to follow Cole Hamels into retirement . . .
Erstwhile St. Louis ace Adam Wainwright, also over the hill, shouldn’t be far behind …
Reid Detmers, who pitched a no-hitter for the Angels, has faded into oblivion with a 2-9 record and 5.27 earned run average at last look . . .
Yankees pitcher Nestor Cortes is likely down for the season with a left rotator cuff strain.
Leading Off
Quicker Games, Fewer Beers: the Brew’s Uneven History at Ballparks
By Andrew C. Sharp
With this year’s rules changes speeding up MLB games, fans have had less time to buy beer before the seventh inning, when alcohol sales traditionally ended. As a result, at least six teams have decided to keep selling beer until the eighth inning. The Yankees decided to stop alcohol sales two-and-half hours after the game begins, which this year might well be the ninth.
A few teams have expressed reservations about such extensions. Considering what a beer costs at most major league parks, forgoing that last one is probably a sound financial decision, if not just a nod to sobriety.
Still, having a beer during baseball games, major and minor league, seems like it’s been going on forever. It hasn’t.
Beer sales were a major drawing card for the upstart American Association in the 1880s, but weren’t allowed in National League parks until 1892, and then, only at some.
Brewers such as Chris von der Ahe were heavily involved in ownership of 19th-century professional teams. Jacob Ruppert inherited the brewery his father had founded and, in 1915, bought the New York Yankees, changing that franchise’s fortunes.
Beer sales at ballparks obviously came to a halt, legally at least, during prohibition. The repeal of the 18th Amendment in December 1933 was followed quickly by the reintroduction of beer sales at most major-league venues. Beer sales returned at Yankee Stadium, for example, on Opening Day in 1934. Beer brewers became major sponsors of baseball’s radio and, later, television broadcasts.
August Busch Jr. of Anheuser-Busch bought the St. Louis Cardinals in 1953 and renamed the ballpark, although his attempt to call it Budweiser Stadium was rejected. Meanwhile, Jerold Hoffberger, owner of the National Brewing Company, bought the St. Louis Browns and moved the team to Baltimore.
Profits from beer remain a major source of team revenue, constantly increasing because of what economists call inelastic demand. Fans buy it, whatever the price.
In Pennsylvania, however, state law wasn’t changed to allow the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates to sell beer until July 1961. However, fans in Philadelphia had long been allowed, at least with a wink and a nod, to bring their own –- and, not infrequently, ending up throwing empty cans onto the field. Under the new law, beer bought in the stadiums was to be sold in paper cups –- and not at all on Sundays — until 1972.
The ban on beer sales was one of several reasons Phillies owner Robert R.M. Carpenter Jr. threatened to move his team across the Delaware River to New Jersey in the mid-1950s. Philadelphia’s mayors and the city’s newspapers campaigned to get the law changed, both to keep the team from moving and to stop the beer-can rowdiness.
Before beer sales began at Connie Mack Stadium and Forbes Field, Washington’s Griffith Stadium in August 1956 had been the last ballpark to start selling beer. Longtime owner Clark Griffith had died the previous October. He was a noted teetotaler, even though he gladly allowed huge beer signs to tower above the back walls of his stadium.
Nephew Calvin Griffith, who inherited the team, quickly applied for and was granted a beer-sale license, which served a dual purpose. A beer garden with tables was built in front of the left-field bleachers, limiting where alcohol was sold and reducing the dimensions that had made Griffith Stadium one of the toughest places to hit home runs. Right-hand hitters Roy Sievers, Jim Lemon and, later, Harmon Killebrew took full advantage.
Badly in need of revenue, Clark Griffith had agreed to allow the Browns to move 30 miles up the road in 1954 after the new Orioles owner arranged for his National Bohemian Beer to sponsor Senators’ radio and occasional TV broadcasts.
During the 1933 World Series, the last time the Senators hosted a game in the Fall Classic and the last before the end of Prohibition, fans began chanting “We want beer,” but Griffith was unmoved. President Herbert Hoover had been subjected to a similar chant when he attended Game 3 of the 1931 World Series in Philadelphia.
When the majors added the Toronto Blue Jays in 1977, Ontario law did not permit alcohol sales at Exhibition Stadium, even though Labatt Brewing Company was among the owners of the Canadian franchise. For the first five seasons, no beer was sold at Blue Jays games. The law was changed in time for the 1982 season.
Nowadays, people in the seats that cost more than a major appliance don’t have to get up to place orders for their food, beer or other alcoholic beverages. Yet the sound of a vendor moving through the stands, yelling “cold beer here,” remains part of being at a game, for better or worse, even if you don’t imbibe.
[Editor’s Note: half the teams have even eliminated vendors, forcing fans to concession stands if they want to imbibe. Most said they received complaints about vendors blocking views and spilling their product — accidentally or carelessly.]
Andrew C. Sharp remembers sitting in the bleachers behind the beer garden at Griffith Stadium in 1959. He’s a retired daily newspaper journalist who writes Biography and Games Project essays for SABR. He blogs about D.C. baseball at washingtonbaseballhistory.com
Cleaning Up
Loria-Jeter Dispute Clouds Revival Of Marlins
By Dan Schlossberg
Just in time to override the euphoria in Miami about the revival of the Marlins comes a dispute between former owner Jeffrey Loria and former CEO Derek Jeter.
Loria, who once fired Joe Girardi after the manager told him to sit down and shut up during a game, blames Jeter for desecrating Marlins Stadium, now called loanDepot Ballpark.
At the center of the dispute is the seven-story “home run spectacular” Loria paid a friend $2.5 million to design. Jeter apparently had it removed from the interior of the ballpark and re-stationed in the open air outside.
"I asked the artist about getting it back, and I told him I would help him find a new home for it," Loria said of the multi-colored edifice, which featured flying dolphins and gushing waves. "He didn’t want to get involved. Now it will rot outside where it is...condemned to neglect and outdoor decay."
It went up behind the center field wall in 2012.
"To me, it reflected the culture of Miami,” said Loria, who is busy these days promoting a new book about his double life as team owner and art dealer. “Now it’s all blue. It’s ridiculous. The amenities like the fish tanks behind home plate -- they were there for the kids -- and they got rid of them. It’s silly."
Loria, who also owned the Montreal Expos during his time in baseball, blamed Jeter for other changes around the park, saying he "was fastidious about all the color we put into the building and it was changed." Removal of a large fish tank that appealed to young fans was part of Jeter’s restructuring, Loria said.
The Marlins, who have never finished first in the National League East since their creation as a 1993 expansion team, have reached the playoffs three times, most recently during the pandemic-shortened season of 2020. The other two times, they rode a wild-card to a world championship, in 1997 and 2003.
The team could do that again this year, thanks to shrewd dealings by Kim Ng, the first female general manager in baseball history.
Although the Fish face a tough schedule over the final six weeks, with tough series against the powerful Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, they could take advantage of the expanded 12-team playoff system that allows for three wild-cards per league.
After a surprisingly strong start this season, the team has faltered but still has a 33.1 per cent chance of making the playoffs, according to MLB.com. Owner Bruce Sherman has loosened the purse-strings to allow the acquisition of productive players like Jorge Soler, Yuli Gurriel, Johnny Cueto, Jake Burger, and Josh Bell since last season. In addition, defending Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara has recovered from a dreadful first half to show signs of his former form.
Entering play Tuesday, Miami had a tenuous grip on the National League’s last wild-card spot with a 63-57 record (14 games behind the front-running Atlanta Braves). That was one game better than the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds, who are also in the postseason hunt.
That’s a lot better than last year, when the Marlins went 69-93 and finished next-to-last, 32 games behind.
Should the Fish get hot, they could catch Philadelphia, the defending NL champions, and finish second in the division. That would be as a big a surprise as the formerly-moribund Baltimore Orioles finishing first in the American League East.
But baseball is full of surprises — as Derek Jeter knows. The Hall of Famer never won an MVP award but came within one vote of unanimous election to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
He was elected as a player rather than as an executive, however. His tenure with the Marlins was a rocky one. The Marlins went 218-327 during his four seasons, including a record of 31-29 during the shortened 2020 campaign.
Former AP sportswriter Dan Schlossberg has written 40 baseball books. He covers the game for forbes.com, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, Memories & Dreams, Sports Collectors Digest, and Here’s The Pitch, among others. He’s at ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
“I faced the Rangers twice this year, Baltimore, Boston twice — all teams that are tops in baseball in offense. [The Braves] were far and (away) above and beyond those teams. I don’t know if it’s them being hot right now or kind of a combination of all of it. They just have really good approaches and really good bat-to-ball skills. They don’t give in, and they kind of feed off each other, too. Once the bottom of the order gets going, the top of it feeds off of that as well.”
— Yankees pitcher Clarke Schmidt after Atlanta knocked him out in the third inning
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
Girardi getting fired for telling Loria to shut up mirrors the plot of the film Little Big League, in which the 12-year-old baseball savant, who inherits the Twins, is told by the manager to get lost. At least Loria did not make himself the manager, which the kid did. This is a very good baseball movie, if you haven't seen it, with a dozen or so real players playing themselves and others being in the cast.