OT: Smoking and Stadiums

[sox83cubs84]

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]

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

[frikativ54]

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]

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]

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

[Vintagedeputy]

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.

Oh my....Am I reading this correctly? Are you advocating marijuana usage?

[tbone90]

Ken, as a life long Clevelander (and non-smoker) I too find great humor in the whole "sin tax" smoking issue with The Jake...ok, "Progressive Field"...ACK! And while The Jake had designated smoking areas inside the stadium for a number of years it is now a completely nonsmoking facility.

[bigtruck260]

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.

My favorite post so far.

I agree - if it WAS LEGAL (see Vintage? I know the law. ) Man, you have just taken me back to my youth. In the 90's (pre Mac, Pujols) the games were a little more sparsely attended. In Old Busch, one could go to the top of the stadium and blow smoke out of the decorative arches.

For 'regular' cigs, we could go to one of MANY entrances to smoke with the always large population of smokers...they seemed to be in high traffic areas too.

Nowadays, Busch still has it's areas to cheat - I don't do it, but I see it.
In the area behind centerfield, there is a wrought iron fence that I have seen folks hiding near...kinda stinks because it's usually used for family stuff. I occasionally smell a doobie burning in one of the outfield bathrooms - which is suicide, because EVERYONE who knows the smell starts giving that person unwanted attention. Cigs are smoked in there too.

The stadium has ONE smoking area, and it's usually pretty packed between innings - especially when the bottom of the lineup is batting in the next half. I usually stand in the left field outfield column, so I am very close to it...just down the stairs.

As an occasional smoker (some of the best conversations are made in the smoking area) I dislike people lighting up in places they shouldn't do it. It makes everyone who smokes look bad.

We have this term in St. Louis - and for those of you in Indiana...it's not the same meaning. It's HOOSIER. Hoosier is a term that most St. Louisans use for people that in other cities are called hillbillies.

Let's just say that there are alot of 'hoosiers' that can spoil a good time for just about anyone. They are not at the game for baseball...they are there to argue loudly about prices with people that can't do anything about it, change diapers in your section, say "They need to get back Scott Roland" (Rolen) and "loudly boo Albert Pujoltz (Think Lou Holtz), when he makes one of his few mistakes... and smoke in places they shouldn't.

When they announce "last call", they have 4 full beers in front of them. After the game, they ride the Metrolink shirtless and curse in front of families...Frik - I am not marginalizing anyone. Your query has made me think about why stadiums started banning things like smoking in the seats.

Good grief. I must be getting ready for baseball in STL again.

[sox83cubs84]

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

Frik:

I wouldn't say they were COMMON, but they did exist...especially in the 1970s and 80s. Earl Weaver's jerseys were often similarly tailored with a cigarette pack pouch. The practice was pretty much limited to managers and coaches...after all, Dick Allen may have lit up for that legendary SI photo, but he couldn't have a cigarette dangling out of his mouth while playing first base, batting, or baserunning. The dugout gave skippers and their assistants cover from what was then a comparitively smaller army of non-smoking advocates.

Dave M.
Chicago area

[suave1477]

I know the Yankee Stadium up until 2008 did not allow smoking anywhere at all. I am not sure if they have a designated area for the new stadium but I would doubt it.

Keyspan Park your allowed to smoke in the upper deck area.

You weren't allowed at Shea Stadum but it was easy to sneak a smoke on the ramps.

Not sure about Citifield.