Friday, October 22, 2004
Alcohol & sports
Catholic Packer Fan blogged about this tragedy: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6300879. Coming from a family that had its share of alcoholics, I know the damage that can come from the quiet and sinister decay of addiction. I remember my two years in East Lansing when townsfolk (mostly students) would just go bananas over a football, basketball, or hockey event. My pastor witnessed a couch dragged out and set ablze in front of the rectory after the football team won.
I'm rather sympathetic to the idea of Boston's mayor banning alcohol sales in bars during the World Series games. At least, I'd like to see bars given a choice: televise the game or sell booze, but not both. A college friend of mine once suggested that people under age 25 should be given a choice between a driver's license and a drinking license. I suppose there'd be some entertainment value in watching young people mull over that quandry.
The common practice of turning off the brew tap after the seventh inning is not totally effective, in my opinion. Serious drinkers are probably heading for the bar after the game anyway, and are probably tapped out by paying inflated stadium prices. Even an alcoholic can nurse a beer through three innings, even if the wallet has no sense. I'll never see the day, but I wouldn't cry if pro teams stopped selling alcohol at events.
Somehow I don't think the mayor of Boston is going to come through with a pinch hit for sensibility at this at-bat either.
