Great Minds and All

When Clare was a teenager, if I said, “Great minds think alike,” she was sure to respond with, “No, great minds think for themselves.” With that as background, I give you Phillies’ reliever Matt Strahm, great not so much because he agrees with me (OK, a little) but because he’s willing to speak up. Appearing on the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast, Strahm criticized the move by some teams—Diamondbacks, Rangers, Twins and Brewers—to extend alcohol sales at their ballparks to the eighth inning. As Strahm puts it, “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?" You’d think so, wouldn’t you? But we’re talking owners’ pockets here, having your cake (or beer) and eating (or selling) it, too. Like I said earlier, don’t be surprised if concession costs are built into ticket prices before long. Drink the beer(s) or not, you’ll already have paid for it the moment you step into the park.