Sports writers and drinking

Ha. Not really. I, like IJAG, just know it's not true. After covering NASCAR off and on for 20 years and knowing others who cover it more regularly than I do, I've never seen a writer leave the box with a case under his-her arm or heard about it.

Smokes? When RJR was the sponsor they were everywhere. But not booze, at least openly or in great quantity (or any quantity that I remember).

For some of the races a cold 6- or 12-pack would have helped, though. Or a hammer to the head.

 

The cigarette incident was NASCAR. The beer incident may have been drag racing (NHRA?) I've seen both happen more than once... If you don't believe me, that's your right...

But IJAG was right, the last time I covered a racing event was 2002. I thought it was more recently than that, but I guess time flies when you don't have to cover that sport... ;D

It's a good thing I still have almost every credential I've ever gotten...

 

After three or four days of drag racing qualifying, burnouts, waiting between events and races, I could see needing a case of beer.

 

As recently as the 1980's, beer in the press box was the rule, not the exception.
Some of us look back fondly at the mahogany paneled saloon that used to be the press dining room at Fenway.

 

As recently as 1994, I knew a copy editor who would open his desk drawer several times a shift and drink out of a coffee cup. The entire staff knew he was drinking, but nobody ever said anything. From what I observed as an intern, it didn't seem to hurt his work... One of the other workers there described him as an "incredibly fuctional drunk"

 

I've known a couple to do the very same thing as well, Mizzougrad96.

 

Beer is the press box hasn't completely disappeared. There was beer available in the Super Bowl media room this year on the press box level after the game. It wasn't free, but it was there.

I fondly remember having a gratis tall boy or two covering a certain NBA team. This was within the last decade. I only did it once or twice, but others hit it after every game.

You could drink in the old Kentucky Derby press box, there was a full bar right behind the press seats (not to mention a four-person betting window, Lord I miss that place).

You had to get soda from the bar if you wanted it, but I'm pretty certain liquor was available too. You could definitely drink at the after-race dinner they had.

 

In the 90s while covering a certainl MLB team, beer flowed freely throughout its pressobx. And two of the nation's best writers drank often, one of them --- perhaps the nation's best columnist at the time --- consumed far more than innings played. No names or teams mentioned but those of you who know much should be able to figure it out.

 

Ryan Sonner?

 

That sounds like my college paper. I was never an editor, but I know the EIC and ME usually had a bottle of some hard alcohol and some beers in the fridge for late nights. There were a few nights were I went into the office to check on friends and had a few beers before going out to a bar.

 

At college, I always finished the late-night editing sessions with a beer ... or six. Every single one of them for my last two years ended with at least one beer. Once, during the afternoon, I stopped over at a friend's house for an hour and drank a six-pack, then walked to the office and began doling out story assignments.

Then I went out for wings and beer.

I miss college.

 

Beer is readily available in many media rooms after college FB games I've covered.

There was also a beer-stocked soda machine in the press box of an American Legion stadium that I remember quite fondly, back in the day.

We used to go out after work often and hammer it. Now, hardly ever, my beer consumption has been reduced by 80 percent in the past 15 years or so. Unless I'm on the road, on assignment, with a designated driver. Then I make up for lost time.