A much needed update

So it’s been awhile…actually it’s been too long.

I’ve worked a few games on the weekends from time-to-time when the Cardinals are in town, but it feels like I’m never there compared to working nearly every home game last season.

Life has been busy…in fact since my last blog post:
-I got married
-took an amazing honeymoon to Mexico
-nearly got fired from my job as a beerman (story explaining below)
-I received a message from a fellow beerman from Florida who stumbled across my blog. (blog entry about that in near future).

Okay, so I didn’t list out much, but the main one, “I got married” is sort of a big deal and has consumed a lot of my time, in a good way.

So I nearly got fired. How you may ask?...well let me tell you.

I was traveling to see my future wife graduate from college & received a phone call from the office at Sports Services. They asked me if I was still working for them and why I had not been showing up for my scheduled shifts. I explained how I had been showing up for the shifts I’ve been scheduled. I was told that I had been missing all weekday games. I reminded them of how I was only available to work Fri & Sat games. Somehow they never got the memo even after I took the proper steps in letting them know my availability. Anyways, I was told that this was news to them and that they needed to discuss this and get back to me.

Now this is in late-May….nearly 2 months into the season. It took them nearly 2 months to realize I hadn’t been showing up for weekday games that I was scheduled for (even though I had told them I wasn’t available to work week-day games). Kudos to them for keeping track of the hundreds of employees they do have, but seriously…it’s crazy to know that someone could go 2 months ‘missing’ before an employer wonders where they are at. While waiting to hear back from them, I was weighing the fact of if I would get fired. I mean, I don’t need to work at the stadium. Not anymore. I did last season when at times it became my only source of income…but now I have a full-time job that pays well…I concluded that I purely work at the stadium for the enjoyment of it all…and the extra cash isn’t bad at all…and the stories are amazing…and I get to witness history being made every AB Pujols has.

About an hour later I received a phone call, saying that they would allow me to continue to work there and changed my availability to only working Friday & Saturday games.

So moral of this story…over-communicate….and marriage is awesome!!!

Also, I’ll try to update more frequently…

Mobile Pole Dancers & Rick Flair

Would you believe me that the title of this blog was exactly what I saw on Friday night?

As I walked to the stadium on Friday night, I noticed something I've never seen before. Now while walking around downtown before a game, there would sometimes be a few flat-bed trucks hauling around billboards. Some of the billboards would be advertising strip clubs or erotic shows.

Guess that wasn't getting the message across to those walking around downtown STL.

Friday evening as I was walking down broadway towards the stadium, I witnessed a flat-bed truck with a large plexiglass box on the back of it. Inside of this box was a stripper pole. What better way to finish this off than to have pole dancers in this clear box... Now i'll confess, i've never been a pole dancer, but i've road in the back of a pick-up truck...and that in itself is a daunting task to not get tossed around like a rag doll....I couldn't imagine how difficult it would have been to have pole danced while a truck was making it's way through the streets of downtown. I'm sure it gave a new meaning to driving over a pot-hole.

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I usually check my twitter feed on my phone before going out to sell beer to check if anyone I know has tweeted that they are at the game. I noticed that one of the sports reporters that I follow had tweeted that Rick Flair was throwing out the first pitch. Are you kidding me?!?!?! I grew up watching the real sport of WWF wrestling...ok, so I know it's fake....but I did watch Rick Flair while I was growing up. I made sure that I got my beer tub and was out in the stadium before the first pitch.

I heard the introduction. I even heard the infamous 'wwwooooooooooooooooooooo'. I may or may not have just gotten goosebumps. I sat my beer tub down to watch The Nature Boy throw out the first pitch.

I know I'm a smaller guy, but I'm confident that I could throw a baseball from the mound to home plate. I'm not saying it would ever be a perfect pitch, but I could get the ball to home plate. Yes, I would be able to do what Rick Flair couldn't do. That's right. Rick Flair couldn't throw the ball far enough to make it to home plate.

They even let him throw two more times and he never could throw the ball far enough to get to the plate.

I wonder how embarrassed he was. I mean, he could body-slam a 300lb man but couldn't toss a 5.25oz baseball 60'6".

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Aside from seeing mobile pole dancers and Rick Flair making a fool of himself, I don't have many interesting stories.

I continue to hear the same old-same old crap of, "are you even old enough to sell a beer?"

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When I made my way to the end of one section, I had two girls, who were obviously underage, lock eyes with my beer tub. The look in their eyes looked as if they were possessed. I heard one of them lean over and say how good the beers looked and how she could really use a Michelob Ultra. They continued sipping their sodas...never looking away from my beer tub.

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For the record, no I was not working Saturday's 20-inning classic. Even if I did work (as many of you asked via text messages) I would have been done selling at the end of the 7th....so extra innings never effect me....unless I'm there watching, in which, i'll never leave a game early. Never. It's my one rule I abide by when in attendance. Never leave early, because then when they do go into extra innings, that's free baseball. I only pay for/plan to attend a 8.5 inning game when I go to a game....anything beyond that is free baseball! /rant.

2010 total sales thus far:
5 bottle of soda
11 bags of peanuts
194 bottles of beer

Opening Day 2010

The wait is finally over!

I'm back!

While already working a full-time job, I have decided to work Friday & Saturday games during the 2010 season. A little extra money won't hurt at all considering that I'll be getting married at the end of May.

I know, I know...will this mean fewer blog entries from the beerman since I'll only be working a handful of games this season? Possibly. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories from Friday & Saturday games...but I'm brainstorming a few ideas on how to keep you entertained in-betweeen the games I work...

So how/why did I work opening day? Why not?!?!? Well, I took a 1/2 day off from work. Opening Day at Busch stadium should be a holiday in the state of Missouri!

Oh...now were to begin....

Opening Day 2010 was a little different from last year. It wasn't snowing, it wasn't cold and I sold nearly 5 cases of beer compared to not even getting through a full case on opening day 2009.

Now I didn't have quite the adventure of parking in a garage as I did in the past....but I did have to park down by the Dome. Guess I underestimated how crazy parking downtown would be on opening day.

While getting checked in, I found out I was back in commissary 240! I was really hoping I would get assigned back to where I spent last season! Glad to know I would get to work the seats in front of the Redbird Club.

Aside from the regular harassment the fans would give me about if I was even old enough to sell beer...nothing too crazy happened to me during the game.

A fellow beerman from commissary 240 did get hit in the head by a foul ball during the 3rd inning. He told me how it happened after the game. He was leaning over in the process of handing a beer to someone down by 1st base when he heard people yelling, 'look out!' He brought his arm up to cover his face, but it wasn't enough. The foul ball hit him right on the top of his head. He said it knocked him out. The next thing he knew, paramedics and police were down there next to him. He said he was fine when I was talking to him...only a slight headache. He did show me his head and there was a nasty bump raised up and it was evident that he shed some blood while serving in the front line of duty. I was reminded how dangerous my job truly is. *Only 1 beer was spilled during this incident*

On my way walking the 7 block hike to my car, several groups of people were continuing their tailgating experience. They began high-fiving each other and everyone passing by. I just glanced over at them as I was about to pass them when I felt someone grab my arm. A woman, who probably weighed 100lbs if she was soaking wet (and I'll make note that she was rather druk), was grabbing my arm while yelling at me to not be a jerk and give her and everyone else a high-five. Well...no one likes a jerk. High-fives all around!

Since I'm writing this a day after Opening Day...I can't help but mention how incredibly sore my body is. I forgot for a split second how physically-intense this job is.

My body hates me but my bank account loves me after an amazing Opening Day 2010!

2010 total sales thus far:
1 bottle of soda
4 bags of peanuts
110 bottles of beer