I want to party with these guys!
In the wake of the epic Boston Red Sox collapse that took the team from having the best record in baseball for much of the season to missing the playoffs, Jon Lester has revealed that the team’s pitchers were downing brews in the clubhouse. During the games.
Right on, I’m now a big Red Sox fan!
Whoever heard of such a thing? Until this revelation, silly me assumed that all the beer consumed in the stadium took place in the stands. By the fans, ya know. Not even the sportswriters – big beer drinkers that they are – pop tops during the game.
Yet as it turns out the starting pitchers – Lester was clear point out not the one not playing that day, and let’s give them a cheer for that, right!? – were enjoying frothy brews themselves. Professionalism be damned, full beers ahead!
“It was a ninth-inning rally beer,” he told the Boston Globe. “We probably ordered chicken from Popeye’s like once a month. That happened. But that’s not the reason we lost.
“Most of the times it was one beer, a beer. It was like having a Coke in terms of how it affected you mentally or physically. I know how it looks to people and it probably looks bad. But we weren’t up there just drinking and eating and nobody played video games. We watched the game.”
There is, of course, nothing new about ballplayers drinking beers. It’s as old a tradition as the game itself. I always remember a quote from Steve Bedrosian, a relief pitcher for the Atlanta Braves who one night gave up a game-winning homer. A sportswriter friend covered that game and “Bedrock” as he was known, didn’t seem too upset, so my friend asked him about it.
“Oh sure, I’m mad,” Bedrock said. “But right now, I’m going to pound down some Buds and worry about it tomorrow.”
But to drink during the game is just plain strange.
With this, Boston has officially become the Top Professional Athletes Party City in America. It was just back in June that members of the hockey team ran up a $156,679 bar tab celebrating winning the Stanley Cup.
Of course, that was well after the game. After all the games, in fact.
During the game, well Red Sox pitchers, leave that to us fans. But I’ll be more than happy to party with you after the game at the Clask ‘n Flagon. On you, right!?
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