Cheers! Yankees extending time for alcohol sales
The beer tap at a bar in centerfield is seen during a media tour of Yankee Stadium on April 4, 2017. Credit: AP/Mary Altaffer
Major League Baseball games are running about a half-hour faster on average so far this season with the advent of the pitch clock. That has obviously left less of an open window for alcohol sales.
The Yankees established a new policy when they opened their 10-game homestand Thursday night against Minnesota at Yankee Stadium. They began extending the window for the sale of alcohol.
The sale of alcohol in the Stadium's seating areas will end two and a half hours after the scheduled start of the game or at the end of the eighth inning, whichever comes first.
The Yankees aren’t the only team to make a change in policy.
The Houston Astros are permitting alcohol sales for the entire game at some locations at Minute Maid Park.
Arizona, Milwaukee, Texas and the Twins have extended the time alcohol can be sold through the eighth inning.
“There’s a responsibility on everybody [to prevent drunk driving], regardless if you’re getting served in the seventh or eighth inning,” Yankees reliever Michael King told The Associated Press.
Philadelphia pitcher Matt Strahm doesn’t think the extended sales are for the best.
“The reason we stopped [selling alcohol in] the seventh before was to give our fans time to sober up and drive home safe, correct?” Strahm told the “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast. “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?”
With The Associated Press
