It’s about time. I don’t mean to say I wanted MLB teams to cut back on champagne celebrations, but I was starting to wonder when baseball big wigs would start looking at them as a negative reflection on the league. Looks like that time has come.
Maybe it was brought to light by Josh Hamilton’s ginger ale bath, but according to Hardball Talk MLB sent teams a memo prior to the World Series that provides them with some guidelines for celebrating. Teams are supposed to “limit” the amount of champagne available for the players to celebrate with — whatever that means — as well as provide an alternative to spraying champagne everywhere, such as non-alcoholic champagne. There will also be no beer or other types of alcoholic drinks allowed as part of the showers and players can’t bring alcohol onto the field during the celebration.
As much as people are going to hate it, this kind of makes sense. Telling MLB teams to cut back on the boozing isn’t anywhere near as ridiculous as telling NBA players to turn their headbands right side up. The showers are a tradition and they definitely make for some memorable moments for the fans, but there’s no arguing it sets a bad example for kids.
We all know how it works: little kids look up to the players and want to be just like them when they grow up. When they see their idols pounding dozens of Bud Lights every time they clinch a series, you can likely see how that could become a problem. When they’re dousing little kids in beer to include them in the celebration, you can definitely see how that could become a problem. But let the backlash begin…
