Day 67 - Final '09 Cards/Cubs Series #3

I haven't worked on a Sunday at the Stadium since the middle of May.

Since this was the finale of the Cards/Cubs series for the 2009 season, I figured I could bring in a decent amount of sales.

I had a feeling...that tonight's gonna be a good night...tonight's gonna be a good good night...ok, so maybe I have Black Eyed Peas to thank for getting that song stuck in my head when it's now been played before every game of this series during a video montage of the Cardinals clinching.

So I have the rainy morning and plenty of fog for the slow to start with beer sales on Sunday night. But the rain and fog didn't bother to slow down the drama and stories.

Story time! -

-I just finished handing a beer down a row to someone who just purchased a beer and they didn't give me anything as a tip. The lady on the end of the row kept looking back at the guy buying the beer and then back at me...she realized there wasn't any tip coming and asked me if that usually happens. I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "sometimes I do get something, sometimes I don't. I'm thankful for the times I do." She looked back at the guy who just bought the beer and then back to me and rolled her eyes in disgust.

I turned to sell a beer to someone in the next row over and then I felt a tap on my shoulder. That lady had her arm stretched out with $2 in her hand. She said, "take it. You guys work too hard for that jackass to go and not tip you." I told her that it was ok, rejecting the $2 in her hand and that she didn't need to tip for that guy. That only pissed her off more I guess cause she said, "If you knew what was good for you, you would take this money." I took it, thanked her for her generosity and got out of there.


-I made my way down a section and had two older gentlemen motion for beers. I walk up the steps to them and they needed 4 beers total for them and their wives. I give them their beers and tell them it's $31. The one gentleman who was paying handed me $24 (a $20 and 4 $1's) I looked back up to him and said, "sir it's $31. You only handed me $24" (holding the $24 up to show him I hadn't done anything to it). He handed me another $20 and told me to just give him back $10.

Now I've screwed up before. I know, I know...you're thinking, "how could the stlbeerman have a flaw?" Ha! I'm far from perfect.

I've told customers one dollar amount and would give them back the correct change (even if it didn't match up with what I said)...basically the words coming out of my mouth and what I do with my hands when giving change back haven't always matched up...but my hands hadn't been wrong before...only the dollar amounts coming out of my mouth have been wrong...

I look back up at this gentleman and give him the $4 that he originally handed me and $6 out of my 'bank' of change...totaling $10. In my head I thought I took the $10 out of the $40 which would make his payment a $1 short. I asked him to hold on a second. I still needed a $1 from him. (As I type this I am reminded of how stupid I was for thinking I was right and how he was wrong).

He tried explaining to me that I gave him $10 and that was the correct change and he gave me $44 already. I had already closed up my ears though and had it in my mind that I was right. He owed me a $1 still. I would explain numerous times over the next few minutes that I made the mistake of giving him more than I should have. After half of an inning of both of us trying to explain to the other how each of us were right...he threw a $5 at me and said don't worry about it.

I can't believe how stupid I must have sounded. I walked up to the top of the section, sat my tub down and thought the whole thing through again. It was as if someone just turned on a light switch. It hit me. A load of bricks just landed on me. I realized how I was in the wrong the whole time and he just gave me $5 extra on top of the $3 tip for 4 beers. A knot of guilt formed in my stomach that felt like a 300lb. weight. I wasn't going to walk away and keep this $5...knowing that it wasn't even mine to begin with.

I put a death-grip on that $5 bill in my hand, picked up my beer tub and took what felt like the longest row of stairs I've ever walked down. I sat my tub down on the steps, looked over towards him with a look of despair on my face and apologized. "It was my fault sir and I am sorry." I handed the $5 back to him and he had a look of forgiveness across his face. He told me to come back later on in the game. I nodded my head in acceptance of his request and went back up the steps.

I just made myself look like an ass. I know the people around him in that section saw the whole thing unfold. That isn't something that would be great for business...to have a disagreement over a $1...looking back on it, all I can think is, 'what was I thinking?!?!?!' In any situation while working in a restaurant or food/beverage service area I have always been trained that the customer is always right. So, why in the hell did I fight this guy over a single $1?

I eventually made my way back down to his section later in the game. He motioned for me to come up to him and waved up 4 fingers. I took his order and quickly apologized again while handing him the beers. He just shot a quick laugh back at it and said it was okay. What he did next, humbled me more than anything else ever has while working at Busch Stadium. He handed me $40 and motioned with his hand to keep the change.

I just screwed up. Fought with this man over a $1. Now he is giving me a $9 tip?!?!?!

I looked up at him and I told him, 'thank you!' I pray that he could see the expression of thankfulness on my face showed and how genuinely thankful I truly felt towards him.

Humble pie has never tasted so sweet.

*************************************

With 2 weeks until the last home stand of the regular season, it's really starting to sink in. I'm not wanting this job to end. I'm enjoying it way too much. Then playoffs are around the corner. I have so much I still want to share over the next two weeks before that last home stand...so be sure to check back frequently!

Totals thus far:
73 Bags of Cracker Jacks
167 Bottles of Water
279 Bags of Peanuts
4428 Bottles of Beer

Day 66 - Final '09 Cards/Cubs Series #2

*** So I forgot two stories from Friday night. here it is: ***

I was selling a beer to this guy who looked like he had been drinking all day long, but was handling himself well and just needed about 8 beers to meet his quota for the day...I handed him the beer and told him $7.75. He looked at me and handed me a $20. He said, just give me a $10 back. I said okay and started to get a $10 out of my roll of cash and then he just said, "wait." I looked back up at him. He continued, "you know what, just keep it. It's Friday night. Keep all of it." I couldn't believe it...I just made a $12.25 tip!

*********

TBS had a thing setup outside of Busch to promote the postseason. There was a 10ft bobble-head next to their display...why didn't I take a photo of this thing, I don't know...I wish I would have. It was a giant bobble-head!

*********************************

Now for Saturday's game.

If it weren't for me checking the scores of Friday's games, I would have not realized that Saturday's game was at 3:10 and not at 7:15...I would have missed the game cause I thought it was a night game....very happy I made it on time and showed up to sell some beer!

I would walk down the aisle of one section and sell an entire case of beer. Life as a beer man on this Saturday afternoon was going very very well!

I remember being at the end of one section as the game started and noticed a girl who had an ace bandage around her elbow. I thought it looked odd to see an ace bandage wrapped around there...maybe she had surgery recently or a tattoo or something....as she walked down the aisle a bit further, I noticed that her arm looked like she had half of a flesh-colored sleeve covering from her wrist to her elbow. She got a bit closer and then I realized what was going one. She had a prosthetic arm. The prosthetic arm was attached at the elbow, thus the ace bandage...it looked real from about 20 ft away!

We also had the issue of warm beer in our beer fridge. I guess they didn't realize they needed to get extra beer up to our commissary since we sold so much the night before! I wasn't about to sell warm beer to people....Fans won't remember you for a cold beer...but they won't forget you for bringing them a warm beer! So I put a case of beer on ice in the fridge each time i took out a case, so I knew I'd have cold beer each time I came back in... That's me thinking ahead, one step at a time...like a carpenter building stairs.

Total sales for the day nearly tied my all-time best for commission and # of beer sales in a day!

Tomorrow I will feature Sunday's game! (preview: I had a fight that lasted half an inning with a fan over how much change I owed him...check back to see who was right and who got the money)

Totals thus far:
73 Bags of Cracker Jacks
163 Bottles of Water
278 Bags of Peanuts
4355 Bottles of Beer

Day 65 - Final '09 Cards/Cubs Series #1

I was excited for numerous reasons for tonight's game.
-Friday night game
-Cards/Cubs series
-Sell lots of beer
-Jack Dorsey throwing out first pitch

Now, some of you probably have no idea who Jack Dorsey is...but if you have ever heard of Twitter, you can now make a connection. Jack Dorsey is responsible for Twitter.

Jack, an STL native, was in town to accept the award of "Person of the Year" from Webster University. He was also in town to cheer on the Cards and throw out the first pitch.



But let me back up a bit...something that happened before the first pitch...



Paratroopers....yes, Army Paratroopers dropped into the stadium. It was pretty cool. Not everyday you get to see people skydive into a stadium.

Honestly, nothing too exciting happened during Friday night's game. Just an average night. No crazy stories. No crazy people giving me a hard time...just a plain old night of selling beer....which kind of sucked...was expecting great stories w/ it being a Cards/Cubs series...but I still had Saturday and Sunday to go yet....


Totals thus far:
73 Bags of Cracker Jacks
159 Bottles of Water
270 Bags of Peanuts
4238 Bottles of Beer

Day 63 & 64 - A Cheerleader & A Paparazzi

Well, this is about it...only 6 more home games for the regular season, then at them absolute most...I could work another 10 games after that...IF the Cardinals have home field advantage through the NLCS and take every series to the 5th or 7th game and make it to the World Series. At the very least, I could have only 2 more games, if they don't have home field advantage and lose in the first round. This season of my job as a beer man is coming to a close. The more they keep on winning, the longer I have a job...so let's pray they get their act together and give me an extension on my job! So many stories yet to share...So many blogs I've waited to talk about till the end of the season...(*sigh*)...but for now, here are the past 2 days of work:

Tuesday's stories:

I have numerous stories of things that I overhear while changing in the locker room...but this one might just top them all.

I was changing into my uniform when this older guy walks in and says, "Hey, aren't you that cheerleader?"

I look up with a confused look on my face and ask, "what?" (even if I did hear him, I needed him to repeat the question) I just thought to myself, 'does it look like i have a skirt on? do i have pom-poms in my hands? HELL NO! what's this guy talking about?'

He looked back at me and realized I wasn't who he was talking to/about.

He said, "Oh I thought you were that cheerleader." He read the look of confusion on my face as I shook my head and replied, "no."

"Oh, are you a beer vendor?" he asked. I said "yeah." He said, "oh. wow you look young and I thought you were him at first. That high school food vendor who is a cheerleader for his high school...he comes here and does cheers while he is selling food to get people pumped up and involved with the game....but you aren't him, so nevermind."

**************************

Wednesday stories:

Another day game = business time. That's right...tons of people in their business attire at the game. Maybe I should switch the title to "retired business time"...I witnessed something I'll hopefully never see again in my life.

I saw 3 different locations that had been turned into temporary parking lots for rascal scooters...not sure what I'm talking about? www.rascalscooters.com I'm not joking...saw about 8 or 9 of them parked next to each other inside the Red Bird Club at one point during the game.

Quite possibly the funniest and scariest sight at the same time!

Retirement homes and high schools were the main crowd at the game...scattered around were the business-folk. So many elderly people throughout the crowd falling asleep by the end of the 5th inning. Tons of high schoolers in the upper upper deck...would have hated to be working up there as a beer man...it's not like any teachers/sponsors would be buying anything....

While being assigned to commissary 441 during the day game, I decided to make my way down to the area I normally work (240-255) since there wouldn't be many beer men there at all...

It was slow to start off with...people were late to get into their seats and hardly anyone wanted to drink beer till around the 3rd inning...

While selling a few beers to these guys in one section, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a lady behind them slowly bring her camera up and snapping a few pictures of me...I was caught off guard. I had a paparazzi?

At first I was thinking, 'who wouldn't want a picture of the beer man?'...then I was like...What the heck!?!? Should I have carded those guys and is this a secret shopper catching me not carding someone? they looked like they were over 30...why is she still taking pictures of me?

I quickly got out of that section not knowing if I was caught screwing up? or what was going on?

When I got up to the commissary, I asked a supervisor if their secret shoppers snap photos of us? He said no, they would just talk to us...they don't have people taking photos...

That was comforting to know. So during last call, I decided to try my luck down that section where the paparazzi was. I sold a few beers and noticed her starting to bring her camera up...the lady next to her spoke up. We are gonna blow your picture up and put it in our scrapbook as our beer-man we had during this game. I was relieved to know she wasn't some secret shopper or some news station trying to catch beer men in the act of breaking rules....not that I had broke any, just comforting to know she was just an avid photographer. She kept taking shots of me...not putting the camera down or pulling her finger off of the button....I could hear the camera clicking non-stop! I wasn't about to just leave, I was making plenty of sales in that section at the time!

The lady that had spoken up finally told the paparazzi, "ok, that's enough. put that thing down."

They just smiled to me and told me thanks for being around in their section for the day. They were definitely a different breed of cougars that I had not encountered before...I appreciated their sincerity, but it was fricken creepy to see someone taking pictures of me like that.


Totals thus far:
73 Bags of Cracker Jacks
155 Bottles of Water
270 Bags of Peanuts
4132 Bottles of Beer

Day 62 - A Realist & A Scam Artist

Monday night games usually aren't the best nights for a beer man. Fewer people come to the games and those who are there drinking stop after a few beers because they either have to drive themselves home or are working the next day and don't want to go into work with a hangover.

Well, last night was a great night for this beer man.

With Wellemeyer on the mound, I figured it would have been an easy 'W' for the Marlins...guess the Marlins decided to show up and have their pitcher allow the Cards have some batting practice too. I mean I think the first inning took nearly an hour! I wasn't going to complain.

I was able to sell nearly 4 cases on a Monday night...which is pretty good!

*******************************

Before my night even started, I was hanging out at in the commissary talking to some of the guys. One of the food vendors (usually high school kids or anyone under 21 or anyone not selling beer) walks up to me and says, "you're the only realist here in this commissary."

I tried to understand what he was trying to say, "What do you mean?"

He just looked back at me and said, "you're the only guy that's actually real in here...these other guys are just wacked out....so you're a realist...you need to teach some of these other guys how to be chill."

I just thanked him as I was somewhat laughing at his statement, remembering back a few days ago when I had a conversation with this kid about why I wasn't married yet if I have a girlfriend. He didn't quite understand my reasoning of needing/wanting to have a full-time job before thinking about taking on the responsibility of supporting someone else besides myself. He just kept going in circles in his adolescent mind thinking of how that didn't make a bit of sense to him. So young. So naive.

*******************************

During the very first part of the game, I had just made my way down a section and was selling a couple of guys some beers when something bizarre occurred.

I carded these two guys who looked like they were in their mid-20's and they were.
I handed these guys each a beer.
I remembered as I write this that they wanted a Bud Select and a Bud Light.
I turn around to the other side of the aisle to sell a beer.
As I was finishing that sale, I hear these two guys I just sold beers to yell to get my attention.

One of them said, "is there something wrong with your case of beer? I think something is wrong with your case of beer."

I just looked back at him confused cause I hadn't had any complaints or anything...

He just held up an empty Bud Select bottle and said, "I don't know how to explain it, but I sat this down and after I put my change away, I picked it up and it was empty. There isn't anywhere that I spilled the beer or anything. It's weird man, you gave me an empty beer."

I look back at him, look down into my tub of beer, back up to him holding the empty bottle...knowing that I handed him a full beer and that I would notice handing an empty bottle to someone. I looked down at his feet and there wasn't any place that looked like there was beer spilled on the ground. I didn't see a cup that he could have poured it into or anything....there was no way he could have just chugged that bottle in that short span of time that I just made another sale.

I replied to him, "I'm sorry about that. But I know I gave you a full beer and would notice handing an empty bottle to you sir."

Then the guy in front of him spoke up to say, "ya know what, I'll just buy him a beer. I heard him saying something was weird about his beer just a second ago...I'll buy him one so no one loses here."

The original guy started to say, "no, no, no, it's okay, i'll buy it."

I wasn't about to give this tool a free beer. I could see it on his face, he was trying to score himself a free beer by confusing the little young beer man...

He bought another beer from me and I decided to stay out of that section...they've taught us that if we every have conflict or problem with a fan to simply stay out of that section...I guess they figure it's best that way so that fan doesn't try to start something the next time you come around. Avoiding someone to avoid confrontation and conflict is the best solution right? HA!

I imagine that he probably had a cup that he was hiding under something or handed a cup to someone else around him...the elderly couple sitting next to them did seem to act like something odd was going on...hmmmm...yes, maybe the 80 year old woman next to him took it....ha!

After I got back to the commissary, I explained the situation and they said it definitely sounded like a scam and that I did the right thing and to just alert other beer men so they don't get scammed.

I just laugh thinking of what he said "...there is something wrong with that case of beer..." ....ha! yeah, i should have said, "so guess won't be wanting another one then will you"... damn idiot!

*******************************

...also someone caught the stlbeerman in action.



Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I saw a kid get hit by a bat. I know it was towards the 6th or 7th inning when on of the Marlin's swung at a ball and his bat went flying over the top of the visitors dugout and hit a kid. He was alright from what I could tell. He walked it off. Medical personnel were on the scene immediately.

Totals thus far:
73 Bags of Cracker Jacks
149 Bottles of Water
264 Bags of Peanuts
3969 Bottles of Beer

Day 61 - One Happy Couple

Yesterday (Saturday) was a decent day as a beer man. Nothing too special about it with sales...but the energy of the crowd was amazing.

It felt like it was a playoff game the way the crowd was getting into it so much.

It's too bad for the outcome of this past series...really Cardinals? swept by the Braves?!?!?!

Anyways...yesterday, I think it was during the 3rd inning, I walked down to the end of a section and sat my tub down as I was about to yell out my beer call when this happened:

The couple sitting on the end of the row looked over at me with surprised looks on their faces. They just looked at me, smiled (and smiled the way you smile when you see a friend you haven't seen in awhile) and the woman asked me, "where have you been? we've been waiting for you."

Now I've had people say that to me in reference to me being 'their' beer man...but this lady just said this to me as if her and her husband were waiting for me specifically...She continued, "we waited for awhile and never saw you so we had to get up and get our beer from up there."

I just looked at them, trying to hide the confused thoughts going through my head...as I tried to think if I had ever met this couple before...and then I quickly replied, 'well, i'm here now.'

After asking me how my day had been going, as if catching up with a friend, they eventually told me to come back in a few innings and they'd buy some beer off of me.

So I did just that. Throughout the game I made 4 stops back by there to the couple...each time I came back they were happy to see me and carried on a conversation for another couple of minutes...you'd think it was the alcohol getting to them? nope...they just asked random questions about working at the stadium and if I have enjoyed it...blah blah blah...

The second to last time I went back to them, I sold them some beers and I told them that I'd be back before 'last call' was over...the woman looked at me and did a whisper towards me and in a kind of school-girlish kind of way and said, 'oh i don't think we'll need anymore, we'll be drunk by then.' Her husband just looked at me and said, 'she might be, but I'll be fine...come back before the end of the 7th.'

I did make it back to them...they were both alright to have another...they tipped pretty well throughout the game...I just found it odd that they were looking specifically for me. Each time I was selling them beer, they kept on talking to me as if they had known me for several years...it was kind of weird. They weren't drunk. I didn't recognize them as season ticket holders...so it's not like I had served them beer before...I dunno, they were happy i showed up though...

******************************

I also witnessed a guy wearing a neon-road-side-worker-green/yellow-colored shirt with a matching hat at the game.

******************************

As I was walking to the parking garage from the stadium...I witnessed this guy standing on the window ledge of the passenger side door of his vehicle.




Totals thus far:
73 Bags of Cracker Jacks
142 Bottles of Water
257 Bags of Peanuts
3881 Bottles of Beer

Day 60 - Disrespectful Rat

I've worked in several restaurants and a fast food establishment over my time...and I'll share a secret...no matter how much you clean and spray for bugs/rodents...I remember working at a McDonald's throughout my high school career and how there would be mice and roaches in the building throughout the 4 years of my time there. Several of the restaurants I worked at had mice too. No matter how many traps would be set, mice would find a way in and find food.

Busch stadium is an open building...there are several parts of the stadium that are enclosed....but for the most part, a mouse could make his way throughout the stadium and feast on spilled cracker jacks and peanuts.

While in my commissary, they noticed a box that had a hole on the bottom side of it, which looked like it was created by the edge of the box being dropped on the edge of a counter. The further it was inspected, it was noticed that there were "shavings" of the box on the ground around it. Yes. A mouse made his home in a box of cracker jacks. Guess who was standing there when the box was discovered and was asked to move the box away from the wall...yeah, this guy.

After moving the box, it was opened up and come to find out, the suspect had only chewed into one bag of cracker jacks. The entire box was still thrown out and everyone had to inspect their peanuts and cracker jacks. Everything was wiped down and sanitized before leaving our commissary, so don't worry about finding a bonus prize in your cracker jacks...everything is inspected before leaving our commissary. The suspect was still at large at the time of this blog and no mice were harmed during the creation of this blog.

*****************************

After being surprised by the few amount of tv stations covering the 8th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11, I figured that there would at least be a moment of silence observed at the stadium tonight. There was a moment of silence observed and it was the quietest I've ever heard Busch Stadium. It was very eerie feeling.

*****************************

As an employee of Sports Services, we are required to stop what we are doing, remove our hats and observe the singing of 'God Bless America' and the National Anthem. Some of the guys in the commissary have vocalized how they don't think they need to sing 'God Bless America' at every game, but still follow the rules and out of respect observe the song. There is one guy who won't even go out into the stands till both songs are completed because of his feelings against them being sung.

Last night, while I was standing behind section 251, the singing of 'God Bless America' was about to start. I took my hat off and stood there. As the song started, I could hear a beer man ask people move out of the way so he could get through. For starters, he wasn't following the rules and he was being disrespectful to the fans. I made his way up the steps to the area he usually sells in and was out of site while 'God Bless America' was finishing up...never once stopping.

As the songs were completed, myself and another beer man had numerous complaints from fans in that section, saying how it was very disrespectful and weren't happy with that beer man. Not trying to be a tattle-tail, but also being very pissed at this, I reported what happened to our supervisor and decided to let the beer man be dealt with by them.

*****************************

I had a guy who was sitting in one section that seemed like he was from a part of the U.S. that didn't have running water, electricity or know what baseball was...he was about as a backwards redneck as I've ever seen. He had a few random teeth missing in his smile, smelled like a rotten egg and had a twang in his voice that had to of been made up.

During the play at the plate when Holliday was called out...this man must have thought that he was an umpire....he stood up and was screaming at the top of his lungs. He was letting the umpire know that he made a bad call and they needed to update their benefits that covered vision because he needed glasses. The group of college students in front of him were encouraging him...so it just kept going on for a bit. The man went on for about the next 5 minutes. I don't think I've really witnessed a fan at Busch go that crazy.

For the record...watched the replay on SportsCenter...he was safe.

*****************************

I was carding a guy in one section, saw he was 26, sold him the beer and then looked around to see if anyone else wanted to buy one when the guy sitting across the aisle from him got my attention. He leaned over and said in a quiet voice, "that ID you just checked was fake. You want to know how I know? Because I just sold it to him." Now usually everyone is a comedian at Busch and likes to tell me how everyone's ID is fake. This guy kept a serious look on his face and I just laughed a bit and said I checked it and it was real. He didn't laugh back...I thought, 'well, damn, i'm gonna get fired if that was a fake, but that met all of the requirements of a real ID..." Finally this tool decided to slowly smile back at me. He then went on to ask me how my night was going...but he said it in a way as if he has known me for a few years or something. He carried on a conversation for a few minutes...and then didn't buy a beer from me...bad move dude...you just wasted my time.

*****************************

Totals thus far:
73 Bags of Cracker Jacks
141 Bottles of Water
250 Bags of Peanuts
3799 Bottles of Beer

Day 59 - God bless you beer man!

Another day game. I didn't really know what to expect today. I knew that commissary 240 would probably be closed since our supervisor is a teacher during the day...so the beer men from there would be spread out through the stadium at other commissaries.

I quickly changed in the locker room and checked the list for today's game. I was in commissary 441. 441! I was always told that if you were ever punished for something, beer men were sent to commissary 441. I started to think through my strategic plan of how/where I would make my way down to sections 240-255....

I made my way up to 441, knowing that getting up to the commissary to get more beer wouldn't be a problem since there are escalators near by, but getting down to the 240 are would involve carrying that full tub of beer down a few sets of stairs.

I check in. I realize that Billy, the guy who works in the cooler for commissary 240 was working in 441 as well. Billy is deaf and partially mute. He is the President of an organization in Illinois for the deaf and mute. He is so funny though with the way he talks with his facial expressions and hand gestures (no, not sign language). He is like an old grandpa that you just want to hang out with cause he'd be full of great stories. I was glad to see him there because he works so hard and is such an awesome guy.

Side note: commissary 441 has a pretty crazy setup with their ice coolers. They are operated by a foot switch. There are these large coolers and they have a trap door at the bottom with a giant 'drill bit' looking thing with an electric motor on it. You have to press this foot pedal to turn on the motor and ice comes out through the trap door. Oh and if the ice gets clogged, you have to open the door that is at the top of this cooler and poke a metal rod in there to loosen up the ice. I've seen ice dispensers on refrigerators before, but this one was on steroids. Usually there is just a giant ice machine we get our ice for the beer tubs.

I think there was about 4 or 5 of us beer men from commissary 240 that I saw around that day that had made our way back to our home-turf. Compared the usual 12-15 beer men covering those sections, it was looking to be a great day of sales!

I often wonder if it is "nursing home day" or "senior citizen day" at the ball park during day games...about 40% of the fans I saw were very elderly people...most in wheel chairs sitting in the wheel-chair accessible areas. Maybe it's because by the time the night games start, they have already had their dinner and are in bed...but if that's how day games are..."senior citizen day"?...I wish every game was like this!

I bring this to attention for this reason: I had an elderly lady (probably in her 70's or 80's motioned her little hand in the air for me to come over to her. She asked for a beer. I was sort of shocked...It's not everyday that you have an elderly lady in her wheel chair motion for you to come over so she can purchase a beer. I mean, couldn't she a ticket for wheeling around in her chair under the influence?!?!

I sold her a beer and after she had her beer in hand she just looked up at me intently. It was like having a moment with Rose from Titanic at the part in the movie when she was old and telling a story about running around with Jack...anyways...she just looked back up at me with her eyes full of wisdom and said, "God bless you beer man." I wish I made this up, but it's so true. I'm pretty sure her and God had a connection going on at that time, because God did bless the beer man through this game.

I tied with my personal best in beer sales for the day. I honestly couldn't keep up with going back and forth from the commissary to the people with as fast as they were drinking the beer....actually it wasn't that they were drinking that fast, just being one of the few beer men around, made me a bit more wanted than usual as a beer man.

I had several people giving me a hard time because I wasn't around 5 minutes sooner because they had to get up out of their seat to go get a beer. Overall, an amazing day game!

Oh yeah, and that guy from last week's day game that bought an entire case from me through out the game for the group he was with...he was there at the game. He asked me if I was going to be around next Friday because he would have a huge group with him and he would be happy to have me around to buy beer from me. Oh yeah, I'll be there.

It feels awesome to have a job where everyone knows your name (beer man) and everyone's glad you came.

Totals thus far:
73 Bags of Cracker Jacks
141 Bottles of Water
247 Bags of Peanuts
3706 Bottles of Beer

Day 56, 57 & 58 - Territorial - Bottle Top

So I didn't have any stories worth sharing the past few games...but last night...I had a few dandy ones.

Last night I had a beer man that has been known to do very well in our commissary, come down into a section that I was already in. Now the rules set by our employer states that only 2 vendors per aisle. It has been an unspoken rule between all beer men that if another beer man is down that aisle, he's got that section...it's okay if a food vendor and a beer man are in the same aisle though...just never two beer men....(that's for the sections our commissary covers)...(down lower in the 100's sections, you almost need 2 in an aisle to cover that many people)

I just look up and he was already half way down the steps into my section. I shot him a look and he "then" realized I was down there and walked back up. He's been known to do this before and "take" sales from the top half of a section from the beer man that is already at the bottom of the steps. Not cool. Not cool.

Then, during 'last call' he follows right behind me down one section...not joking, only 4 or 5 steps behind me...Beer man foul! ...I just turn around (not wanting to make a scene) and ask 'what are you doing?' as he is asking a group of guys in the top row if they needed another one and if they were alright'. At that exact moment, the last out was caught, end of the 7th, end of sales.

*****************

Last night, during the bottom of the 6th, I was walking down a section when a guy motioned for a beer. I sold him a beer and he gave me a $8 at first...then handed me another $1. As I was about to head down towards the rest of the section, he asked me something. I couldn't hear what he said because of the roar of the crowd. He leaned in and asked in a mumbling voice, "where is the bottle top for this beer?"

I grabbed into my beer tub and showed him the bottle top. He grabbed it out of my hand and I grabbed it back saying, "I'm sorry sir, we can't give the caps out with the beer." (It's a rule we have to follow by our employer...rarely do I ever have anyone ask for the cap) He looked at me with a funny face and said, "then how about you give me that dollar back." So I gave it back to him.

I walked all of the way down to the end of that section and as I was walking up, the game went into the 7th inning...'last call'. I started to announce this and that same guy who just asked for his dollar back, wanted another beer.

I debated on just walking past him, but thought to myself, it's another sale, even if he doesn't tip me, i'll still be getting commission from that beer. I wait for people to pass by because everyone seemed to need to go to the bathroom or buy beer from the bar at the same time...I finally make it over to that guy. He asks for one beer and say, "here. here is $9 since you got all mad at me earlier." I responded, "sir there is nothing I could have done. We are not allowed to give the bottle cap out with the beer. I'm sorry." He just looked at me with a dumb look on his face...then he said, "you need to just relax man. stop taking your job so seriously." I told him, "thank you and enjoy the rest of the game."

*****************

That's it from last night. Today is another day game. Oh yeah, you know it's business time again!

Totals thus far:
73 Bags of Cracker Jacks
141 Bottles of Water
245 Bags of Peanuts
3586 Bottles of Beer