Some quick analysis from my day job regarding teams who are starting to ban alcohol from the clubhouse. Personally, I'm really surprised at it. Click here to view.
Basically, we analyzed response to teams starting to ban the booze in clubhouses and from a representative sample of sports blogs, most bloggers think that it's ridiculous to ban alcohol. I'm honestly really surprised. A lot of bloggers are talking about how these are grown men and how it wouldn't stop them from going to a bar to drink and it does nothing to solve the problem of alcoholism.
Apparently, I'm in the minority again, but I have no idea why anybody would care if ballplayers were able to drink booze the instant that they step away from their lockers. These people are at work. The second I step away from the computer at the end of the day, I don't have free booze waiting for me before my commute home.
And the argument that it doesn't solve anything cause they could just go to a bar is ridiculous. Let them go to the bar. That's where everybody else drinks. Go drink at a bar or in the safety of your own homes. At the very least, at a bar, there are people who are used to dealing with unruly drunks and hopefully in a position to cut somebody off who's had too much or to make sure that a cab gets called. In the clubhouse, all you have are attendants who receive $100 tips to do exactly whatever these guys want them to do. Clubhouse attendants are the last people who are going to tell a ballplayer that he's too drunk to drive home.
Granted, there should have been somebody to do that for Josh Hancock, but for all I know, Hancock was a perfectly sober looking drunk, which is really dangerous. We all know plenty of people who appear pretty coherent even though they're crazy hammered. The only way to tell that they're drunk is when they very seriously start telling you that the problem with the world today is that chipmunks have too much political power in India. I know people like that.
Maybe it's the fact that they use the word "ban", but obviously, too many people are used to lawyer-speak. What I envision is just like any reasonable workplace. If there's something to celebrate, then sure... We'll make an exception and cut loose a little. However, that's the exception and not the norm. Also, people take their "constitutional freedoms" a little too far. Just because it's legal for me to drink doesn't mean I should be able to drink at any given moment. Just because we have free speech doesn't make it OK to curse out my boss. Just because we live in America doesn't mean you can do whatever the hell you want.
The moral of the story: Get f_cked up on your own time and dime, boozer.
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