Faster Baseball Games Means Less Time To Drink (And Pour) Beer

graph courtesy New York Times Upshot

We all saw this coming, but now it's here: major league baseball games are a heck of a lot faster, with the pitch clock implementation of 2023. Spring training was a key indication, with games shortening by 26 minutes (from 3:03 average time to 2:35. And having attended a Dodgers Spring Training game in Camelback this year, I have to tell you, it's a different experience as a spectator and fan. Tim Kurkjian over at ESPN had warned me that his first time watching the game, he couldn't take his eyes off the field because he was afraid of missing something. And that's how it felt, watching Dustin May deliver pitches to the plate so quickly even with men on base.

Pitchers are probably going to have the biggest adjustment to this new rule, which turns baseball into more of a momentum game like volleyball or basketball--you can't get a sideout or take a timeout to stop a coming snowball from accumulating mass and speed. And along with the shorter game time, that same NYT Upshot piece also found that the average hits per hour had a sharp increase as well, now 6.1 hits per hour from 5.3 last year.

So what does this mean for fans?

Less time to drink beer. Yep, this is going to lead to some serious binge drinking at the ballpark, especially if they continue to cut off beer sales at the end of the seventh inning. The Dodgers-Diamondbacks game last night lasted only 2:35 and that's with 10 runs scored; we had two games go as short as 2:14 in duration on Opening Day 2023. Thankfully, Dodger Stadium recently implemented beer sales at one's seat. Those vendors are going to have to be as fleet footed as the batboys and ballboys will need to be under these new 2023 rules.

Does this mean that we'll have the travesty of foamy beer pours in the aisles, from flustered mobile beer vendors looking to increase their throughput time? Let's hope not (and I prefer to pour my own beer, anyway). But who speaks for the beer drinker, when everyone is just speaking for the casual baseball fan? Beer drinkers have rights, too!

I'll be at the Stadium Sunday afternoon to see this in action. Will report back.

NLCS Game 1 Thread: Oct 12 @ Brewers, 5p

Clayton Kershaw vs. Gio Gonzalez

The Dodgers are back in the NLCS for the third(!) year in a row. This will be a very difficult series for us here at SoSG. Is it because we still don't have 100% faith in the swing for the fences offense? Is it because the Dodgers reversed the Kershaw Game 1, Ryu Game 2 rotation that worked so well in the NLDS? Is it because the Brewers have such a formidable bullpen? Is it because the Dodgers have a chance to go back to the World Series and our hearts are still fragile from last year?

All those are things to worry about, sure, but the most important reason the Sons are concerned about this series is having to root against one of our oldest and dearest friends...BEER. OK, Miller beer specifically, but it hurts our souls to disparage any beer. (Even though "I like beer!" has become a real shitty take. THANKS, BRETT.) And beer brewers are our personal heroes.

But it's the Dodgers. And history is on the line. There are lots of other beers in the taps. (We'll need them all.) So, we officially kick Miller and all Milwaukee-adjacent beers to the curb.

GO BLUE!

Our Newest National Hero

Padres fan (their only fan) catches ball in beer and does the right thing, cementing LEGEN - wait for it - DARY status.

 

No word if she's single, but the line starts here!

Blogger Softball Tournament 4: The Reckoning

• Tournament Details
  
• Rules, Directions and Registration

Listen — we didn't totally suck last time (in 2015). Like, I think we made it to the playoffs? Someone refresh my memory here. Anyway, here's the deets:

• WHEN: Saturday, April 29, 2017
  
• WHERE: Big League Dreams in West Covina
  
• COST $42.50 per Player
  

Email us if you want to play! Will be sending out a message to past players soon.

BEERS Fest Thread: Aug. 15 vs. Sobriety, 1p

They had us at Cornhole. Come join SoSG Stubbs and Dusty if you you get the chance!

Aug. 15 Pregame Event: BEERS Fest

I'll be honest; they had us at BEERS. But if you're looking for the place to be before Saturday's game (note uncommon 6:10 p.m. start time), shoot up the 110 to BEERS Fest:

• Who: Beers Magazine, 10+ Breweries and 30+ Beer brands
  
• What: 3000 guests expected to attend 2015 Beers Summer Fest ft. Breweries, Food, Beer Pong, Cornhole & Live Music, www.BeersFest.com
  
• When: Aug. 15th from 1-6pm
  
• Where: The Reef Parking Lot 1933 S. Broadway LA CA 90007
  
• Why: B)ecause E)everything E)lse R)eally S)ucks

Participating breweries include:

• Anchor Brewing – http://www.anchorbrewing.com
  
• Wick’s Brewing Company – www.wicksbrewing.com
  
• Absolution Brewing Company – http://absolutionbrewingcompany.com
  
• The Great Beer Company – http://www.greatbeerco.com
  
• Solarc Beer Company – http://www.solarcbrewing.com
  
• Mission Brewery – http://missionbrewery.com
  
• Figueroa Mountain Brewing Company – http://www.figmtnbrew.com
  
• Fireman’s Brew – www.firemansbrew.com
  
• Escape Craft Brewery – www.escapecraftbrewery.com
  
• The Dudes’ Brewing Company – http://www.thedudesbrew.com

Will Sons be there, you ask? (shakes Magic 8-Ball) OUTLOOK GOOD

Self-Service Beer Machines at Target Field

OMG.

We need this...I need this.

Get on it, Dodgers!

Image: Deadspin

Segundo on the Barbie: Late Night w/ the Dodgers

Joining Nomo and Team Killeen, #ineedmydelino ventured over the hill and down the 110 to Time Warner, El Segundo. Let me just say I have found the new gold standard for watching baseball from 1am to 5am. Thanks to our wonderful hosts at Time Warner Sportsnet, we got to eat and drink like kings. At least, local kings at Dodgers stadium... with an open bar.

The perfect menu for watching a game during the witching hour. My personal goal was to pack on a Puig 26... but after Aussie beer three and meat product number four, I hit the wall.

Picture and boomerang provided by Sir Killeen.

We even got some face time with one of the all time greats, the (real) OREL!!!

Orel and Time Warner management. Woman not affiliated with either.

There was a game too... as the Dodgers showed the strength of a Vegemite sandwich and the dexterity of a Dingo. Actually, I'm not sure if these are accurate statements, having never tasted either. But the Dodgers won. The local Aussie fans won. And Sportsnet won... our admiration and appreciation.

Makes we want to switch to Time Warner tomorrow... but I think DirectTV has ways of dealing with those who break contract early.

Dodgers 14th In MLB Beer Value Pricing

(click to enlarge image)

Via Deadspin, Team Marketing Report analyzed and compiled each MLB team's charge for an ounce of beer. The Dodgers are smack dab in the middle of the MLB, with an average cost of $0.39 an ounce.

Boston had the highest at $0.60/ounce; the Angels were cheapest at $0.28/ounce.

The Giants were the most-expensive-per-ounce team in the NL West, at $0.42/ounce. And that's not even considering AT&T's price per ounce of chardonnay.

Frozen Beer Foamy Goodness

Video from foodbeastTV.

This demands an SoSG taste test. A frozen foam-topped beer that stays cold for 30 minutes? According to Fox Sports West:

The foam is made from Kirin beer and goes through a process called "frozen agitation" in which air is blown in the beer as it's stirred and chilled to 23 degrees Fahrenheit. A special frozen beer foam machine is used to create the foam. [...]

Frozen beer was introduced last year in Japan but is only available in the U.S. at Think Blue Bars on the loge and field level at Dodger Stadium and at the Chaya's Summer Beer Garden downtown and Katsuya at the Americana at Brand in Glendale.

Who's going to take a bullet and be the first to try one of these foamy beers? SoSG wants to know!

Baseball And Beer

Former Deadspin editor Will Leitch wrote a book review of Edward Achorn's "The Summer of Beer and Whisky" in last weekend's WSJ (link insider only). I wasn't aware of the history of how beer got inextricably linked with baseball, so I found that part pretty interesting:

If there is one constant in the world of baseball, from its invention in the 19th century to the present, it must be its inextricable link with beer. The connection is almost Pavlovian: When I watch a baseball game, my mouth tells me it wants a beer. (For someone who watches baseball professionally, this can raise quite the occupational hazard.) I'm not sure what about the game inspires such a yearning. Maybe it's the spring air, the smell of cut grass, all that Ken Burns business. Maybe it's the dirt and dust. Maybe it's the fact that half the stadiums are named after brands of beer. Now that I think about it, it's probably that.

The connection is no accident, as historian Edward Achorn makes clear in "The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America's Game." The book documents the creation of the American Association, a league of ballplayers ostensibly founded to rival the National League but in fact brought into existence almost entirely as a way to evade Puritan liquor laws in order to sell beer. That guy in the bleacher with the T-shirt that says baseball is his favorite beer delivery system? He's more right than he knows.

The essential founder of the American Association was a man named Chris Von der Ahe, a German grocer and beer-hall owner who lived in St. Louis. He didn't really understand baseball—though he did love the game—but desperately wanted a way to move product on Sunday afternoons. The National League, led by a persnickety Chicago moralist named William Hulbert, was renowned for banning Sunday baseball, limiting alcohol consumption, keeping ruffian players from its ranks and booting owners who didn't get on board, even if they owned teams in major cities like New York and Philadelphia. Von der Ahe and his fellow American Association owners (many of whom were beer barons themselves) took advantage of this. Their league would be the ribald troublemaking alternative.

Needless to say, they succeeded, and the driving narrative of Mr. Achorn's book is the season of 1883 and its pennant chase among the Cincinnati Red Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics and Von der Ahe's Browns. The game, long thought dead in cities like St. Louis and Cincinnati, exploded that summer as thirsty fans poured in to see teams of scalleywags and miscreants. The author has a grand time running down all the troublemakers the league thrived with, from Lew Simmons (a former minstrel star) to the slick-fielding Arlie Latham, whose philandering was legendary. There was also a young Charlie Comiskey, who was actually respectable compared with his fellow players. The outcasts of the National League were right at home in the American Association, and while their wild behavior led to numerous incidents, it also created a style of baseball that was compulsively watchable.

Glad they worked out that beer-at-Sunday-baseball-games thing over a century ago. That would have sucked for Sunday day games nowadays.

WDDIM Checks In from Coors Field, Part 2

Even Dodger fans have road jerseys!

Mile-high indeed.

Previously: WDDIM Checks In from Coors Field, Part 1

WDDIM Checks In from Coors Field, Part 1

We always love seeing Dodger fans represent on the road, and longtime SoSG reader (and inaugural SoSG Fest attendee) what_difference_does_it_make (prescient name, that) was kind enough to share his experience in Colorado:

It was a six hour road trip but well worth it! Coors field is pretty nice, and everyone there was friendly even though I was decked out in Dodgers gear. I was there for Saturday and Sunday's game. I had pretty good seats too!

Beer was super cheap too, the lady selling it was telling me that all the Dodger fans who come to Coors field can't believe how cheap it is for a 20 oz beer. The beer is only $7.00! It was too bad that the Dodgers couldn't get a win either day I was there. :/

On to the pics. Thanks, wddim!

Man, that $7 beer sure looks tasty.

Looks like Zack.

Part 2 coming tomorrow!

SoSG Dusty Says Hello from Camden Yards

At-Game 4 Recap: Team Killeen

They're huge Dodger fans and they know their way around a lens and keyboard. They are: Team Killeen. Thanks again for sharing! Photos and captions by Scott, writeup by BJ:

"Dodgers win"

"Beer..."

"Cruz goes high after a long ball during batting practice…he missed it"

"What Ethier got after hitting his first home run of the season...Yeah, that pat from Donnie doesn't look right to me either."

"We're going to get these seats above Vin one game and I'm going to dangle my camera over the edge and get THE shot of Scully working his magic."

"Next time anyone sees Jon SooHoo, tell him I got his back covered…Ethier's home run hit"

"The Dodgers finally quit clowning around more that HICCUPS with their bats..."

"If Justin Sellers looked like A.J. Ellis and he does according to the scoreboard. Glitches all night with the left field score board."

"Kemp's first hit of the season…all smiles everybody!"

"Maybe Dodger fans can be bought?"

My favorite [photo of Scott's] was Russell Martin hugging Steve Yeager. It was so genuine and heartfelt, it makes me cry looking at it because you can see how much Yeager means to him.

Because we complained at the Fan Fest, we got in as guests of Dodgers Fan Services, and were allowed on the field for batting practice, where Scott got those great shots. Last night was a whole bunch of firsts, and we were happy to be there to see them:

• First pitching for Greinke as a Dodger pitcher, including first shut out and first hit as a Dodger
  
• First return for Russell Martin to Dodger Stadium since leaving as a Dodger
  
• First homer for Dre this season
  
• First hit for Matt this season
  
• First fireworks night of the season
  
• First scoreboard malfunction that caused an out
  
• First save for League

On the whole, things at the stadium ran smoothly, except they ran out of hot cocoa on fireworks night. The all-beef Dodger Dog was yummy, as were the garlic fries, but you better really like garlic, because they load it on!

To top it off, I got Lopes and Yeager's autographs on my hat. How I got the Lopes autograph: I was standing behind the cordoned off area on the field, and was holding my hat and Sharpie. A nice lady walked up to me and asked whose autograph I wanted. I said Davy's, and she took the hat and pen and walked up to him and he signed it. When she returned it, I asked her name and she said Kim Walter. Later I find out she's married to Mark Walter, the CEO of Guggenheim Financial, and the controlling partner of the Dodgers!! That's going the extra mile for the fans.

We have now been twice, and have yet to pay for a game. We have two vouchers for another free game, then we have to start paying.. :-( (LOL)...

Our game plan is to get seats on the Club Level, in the Dugout Club, and at the new Box seats. We'll see what happens after that!