OT: Smoking and Stadiums

[frikativ54]

Hello All,

I thought I would share my interesting pick-up with the forum. For my Anthropology degree, I have been writing a thesis about smoking and American culture. The following collectible, from the mezzanine of old Shea stadium, fits the theme perfectly. For $25, I couldn't beat the price.



One of the things I'm looking at are contested spaces, places where smoking and the idea of healthfulness come into conflict. Of course, one of the solutions to the conflict between smokers' rights and the rights of non-smokers to breathe clean air is to create designated smoking areas.

What are the policies toward smoking at MLB stadiums? Growing up, I remember that the occasional person would smoke in his/her seat, much to the chagrin of non-smokers. I'm not sure that you can do that anymore in either an indoor or an outdoor stadium.

I would be curious to read your stories about cigarettes and American baseball stadiums.

[earlywynnfan]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

Being a lifetime non-smoker, I don't really have any baseball/smoking stories, but here in Cleveland we built a new stadium in the mid-90's with a "sin tax," which was a tax in the county on cigs and alcohol. As soon as the stadium went up, they announced that you would only be able to smoke on an outside platform sticking off the upper deck, facing the street where you couldn't see any of the action.

To this day, the irony of it all cracks me up.

Ken
earlywynnfan5@hotmail.com

[mariner_gamers]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

1997 playoff at the Kingdome. My brother rushes out to the exit ramps ahead of all of us to see if he can bum a smoke. A couple minutes later we make our way out and find my brother BS'ing with Soundgarden sans Chris Cornell. As we all make our way down the exit I ask my brother if he bummed a cig off one of those guys. "Yeah they were really cool guys" I said, "You know that is Soundgarden" His reply "Nah your crazy...." We argue to the bottom of the ramps at which point 2 teenage girls run up with Soundgarden T-shirts on and get the band to sign them. There is a crazy brotherhood among smokers regardless of status, money, etc........

[metsbats]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

Back in the 80's you can smoke just about anywhere in the stadium

[metsbats]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

Back in the 80's you can smoke just about anywhere in the stadium

Just ask Keith!

[otismalibu]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

[karamaxjoe]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

Some of my earliest memories of night games at old Comiskey Park included a haze of smoke hovering over the diamond.

[mariner_gamers]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

This picture is awesome!! I would love to have it in poster size!!!

[Manram]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

Cool pictures

[Fnazxc0114]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

at rangers ST a couple years ago i saw ron washington smoking in the dugout. At the ballpark in arlington they have areas around the perimeter where people can smoke.

[sox83cubs84]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

Wrigley Field's old Family Section used to have a very nice, but much too accommodating usher named Ray for a number of years. Ray used to repeatedly ignore the rules to help his buddies. Among the things he did was to let friends (including me) up into the Family Section without proper ticketing (it was a section restricted to ticketholders only). He'd also pick up an occasional stray baseball in the section just before the gates opened and give it to a pal he knew (occasionally me). The one bad accommodation he made, though, was to allow bleacher fans who wanted to smoke to go to the ramp of the Family Section (connected the section to the bleachers) to light up. Problems were that the section was of a smoke and alcohol prohibited nature. Plus, the ramp he let smokers use was the same ramp I stood on to play home runs!. Eventually, though, his bending of the rules caught up with him, as a c.2001 favor rendered was caught by a supervisor, who lit into him so vehemently in public that Ray quit. He came back the following season, but was not allowed to work anywhere near the outfield seats, being reassigned to the box seats near home plate.

Dave M.
Chicago area

[Vintagedeputy]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

Someone here, I think has a Cal Ripken Sr jersey with a sewn in cigarette pack pocket....thats good stuff for your paper.

[frikativ54]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

Someone here, I think has a Cal Ripken Sr jersey with a sewn in cigarette pack pocket....thats good stuff for your paper.

I would love to see pics. Were cigarette pack pockets commonplace at one time for MLB uniforms?

[bscott]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

What follows is merely a personal note.

As a spectator at a major league baseball game, there's nothing I'd rather do than smoke a crooked cigarette -especially at a day game with mostly sunny skies and a temperature hovering around 78 degrees or so.

But I can't legally do that. Yet.

I'm not much of a drinker. I'm sort of a little guy- about 5'6", and I just can't handle the sauce. Never could. If I have a few stadium-size beers (basically the only way they are served nowadays), I get drowsy and end up pissing way too often to enjoy the game. By the time the ninth inning rolls around, I end up with a slight headache and question whether it's safe for me to drive home. Not a fun buzz for me. However, three or four hours after a "smoke", and I'm ok to drive. For me, any residual fuzziness is nothing a coffee won't fix.

Just sayin'.

Ever since I was a child, the connection between beer and baseball has been thoroughly instilled in me. Beer and baseball. Baseball and beer. Try to name a stadium without a few dozen Budweiser billboards and signs (except Miller Park in Milwaukee, of course). Try to watch a ballgame on TV without seeing a beer commercial pop up between innings. Try not to remember how much fun Miller Lite's "less filling, tastes great" TV commercials were. Try to remember Haray Caray without thinking of how much he loved Bud. Haray was a Bud Man and a Cub fan.

Beer was and is the only socially acceptable intoxicant for baseball fans.

My point is: what is freedom worth if that freedom doesn't allow for an adult to choose how he/she might want to get a gentle, safe, and virtually harmless buzz.

So I guess I have to side with the smokers (although I do not smoke cigars or cigarettes). Give the smokers a place to smoke somewhere in the ballpark (just not near my seat- that shit stinks!) and let's move on.



We're all built differently I guess.

-bscott.

[Sincityson]

Re: OT: Smoking and Stadiums

I always thought this was one of the better known pics: