"Beer needs baseball,
and baseball needs beer --
it has always been thus."
-- Peter Richmond
 |
| Beer bottle caps 4-214 |
" ... there is only one game at the heart of America and that is baseball,
and only one beverage to be found sloshing at the depth of our national soul and that is beer."
-- Peter Richmond
 |
| Beer and opener 4-21-14 |
"So what do you want?"
Terence Mann:
"I want them to stop looking to me for answers, begging me to speak again,
write again, be a leader.
write again, be a leader.
I want them to start thinking for themselves.
I want my privacy."
I want my privacy."
Ray Kinsella:
"No, I mean, what do you WANT?"
(gestures to the concession stand)
Terence Mann:
"Oh. Dog and a beer."
-- Field of Dreams
I've been seriously trying to curb my alcohol consumption. I'm doing it for a number of reasons, but primarily because alcohol seriously fucks with my sleep.
After a long, drawn-out, desperately-hard-fought battle with insomnia, trust me, a solid night's sleep is a lot more satisfying than a drink.
But what is a recovering insomniac girl to do when she's at a baseball game on a perfectly sunny day and she wants to enjoy the pure, simple pleasure of a cold beer? Every baseball fans knows beer and baseball just go together. It's a no-brainer, one of those unwritten laws of humanity, and baseball.
So you feel kind of left out when you're at the game and everyone around you is slurping a foamy, amber, cold one and you're, well, not.
We spent Easter day at the Indians vs. Blue Jays game (Tribe won 6 to 4). The beer yearning started on the drive over, and then intensified sharply as we walked to our seats (which were awesome, by the way), and past every single beer vendor on the concourse. And this is Cleveland, people. Cleveland is a beer town. So the beer choices at Progressive Field are vast and wide, including everything from from the typical big name stuff, to a huge and lovely selection of little-known craft beers and local brews, offered every which way -- in cans, in bottles, on tap. I've heard that they even tweak their beer selections throughout the year to appeal to fans of the visiting clubs. And we were playing a team from Canada, for fuck's sake.
I was a sitting duck.
But I had a strategy.
At home, I've become quite the connoisseur of non-alcoholic beers. Don't judge. Some of them are pretty damned tasty if you give them a chance, and if you aren't in it for the beer buzz. My favorites are a German one (Kaliber, by Guinness) and a Canadian one (Labatt's, by duh Labatt's). Coors is a close third. Sharp's and O'Doul's are at the bottom of the beer barrel.
Anyway, I figured that any baseball stadium offering Spotted Cow Ale had to serve at least one n/a brew.
My dear and persistent husband asked at almost every beer stand we passed. The concessionaires all shook their heads. Some referred us vaguely to a restaurant way back and up one level at the far stadium entrance that might have it, but they weren't sure.
Leo was getting a little impatient with the search.
Him: "Why don't you just get a Bud Light? It's the same thing."
Me: "I am not going off the wagon for a Bud Light."
Then we struck gold. Or amber. Or, well, watery amber, but still, it was better than nothing.
The last place we passed before our section had O'Doul's.
It took a while to get it, because the clerk couldn't find the button for it on her register, because there wasn't one. She said we were the first people to ask for it all season. She wasn't even sure how much to charge for it. My husband convinced her to charge me the soft drink price (since there's no booze in it), and he even finagled me a souvenir drink cup. (It helps to have a really cute husband in situations like this).
Clutching my hard-won prize, we made it to our seats and I took my first long sip. Yes, it was a little watery. Yes, the flavor was a little thin. But it was cold and foamy and fizzy.
Licking the foam from my lips, I didn't feel left out. I felt like part of the crowd.
It was a little thing, but a good thing.
Best of all, it was beer.
And even better than that -- I slept like a baby.
