As the Boston Red Sox prepare for their April 8 home opener at Fenway Park, the team is moving to expand the sale of mixed alcoholic beverages throughout the historic ballpark, drawing concerns from Boston police and Mayor Thomas M. Menino.
Representatives of the Red Sox told the Boston Licensing Board last week that the team wants the right to sell mixed drinks, in addition to beer, “at a limited number of stations’’ throughout the 37,000-seat stadium and on Yawkey Way. Currently, hard liquor is available mainly at refreshment stands serving fans with upper-level premium seats.
Doesn’t seem fair that the richies have it already but the unwashed masses can’t. At the same time, everywhere I’ve ever seen liquor at sports venues -- at least outside of the club level -- it’s been in the form of sugar-laden froofy frozen drinks and other obnoxious concoctions, more often mixed by machines than man.
Boston drinkers I have known are a fairly discerning bunch. When it comes to liquor, they prefer it simple and close to straight, and it’s not as if the Sox are going to set up a conventional bar with Jameson’s bottles on the shelf. As such, I doubt this will turn into a big problem or, for that matter, a particularly desirable product. For the most part you’re still going to hear “Hey! Beeah guy! We’re wicked thirsty heah!”
