While some people are cheering after a handful Major League Baseball teams decided to experiment with extending alcohol sales into the eighth inning, not everyone likes the idea. During a recent podcast interview, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Matt Strahm said he thinks drinking late in the game could put fans in danger.
"The reason we stopped [selling alcohol in] the seventh before was to give our fans time to sober up and drive home safe, correct?" Strahm said on the "Baseball Isn't Boring" podcast. "So now with a faster-pace game -- and me just being a man of common sense -- if the game is going to finish quicker, would we not move the beer sales back to the sixth inning to give our fans time to sober up and drive home?
"Instead, we're going to the eighth, and now you're putting our fans and our family at risk driving home with people who have just drank beers 22 minutes ago."
Not every team has extended their alcohol sales. The Phillies are one of the teams that still have the traditional cut off at the end of the seventh inning. The organizations that have extended it include the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles.
This extensions have come after rule changes for the 2023 MLB season, particularly the pitch clock, helped shorten games considerably. Average game times are down about 27 minutes from last season in the early going this year. Shorter games mean less time to make a profit by selling food and beverages to fans, but Strahm doesn't agree with focusing on the money.
"I'm not surprised," Strahm said on the podcast. "When you mess with billionaires' dollars, [they] find a way to make their dollars back. My thing is, when you're looking at the safety of your fans, that's probably not the smartest decision to extend it into the eighth."
Brewers' president of business operations Rick Schlesinger told MLB.com that so far they haven't had any issues with fan safety and conduct, but he admitted that it might be too early to tell because it has only been a small sample size.
