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.

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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."

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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