Drink, Drank, Drunk, Kerplunk

My brother coming back from a pee run during a Bears-Dolphins game at Joe Robbe Stadium

I was watching the news last night and they had a story about a guy at an Atlanta Braves game who fell out of the upper deck. Sadly the man died. Now I don't know if the guy was drinking or just a clumsy oaf like me, but beyond that I think the ballpark should be held responsible.

This incident brought back some memories of drunks and visits to different stadiums, most especially Joe Robbe Stadium in Miami. It was May, 1993 and the Florida Marlins were playing the Chicago Cubs for the first time in history. So my brother, his wife, and I got tickets for this historic event. Despite the fact that our seats were in the upper deck, they were very good seats. We were only a couple of rows in, and first base was right there in front of us, albeit sixty feet down, but in front of us. The problem was the row directly between us and the rail meant to keep people from falling over. It was full of what we called the "roofers from hell". They had come to South Florida to help rebuild roofs ripped off during Hurricane Andrew, and they decided it was time to see a baseball game. Now I realize that roofers aren't afraid of height and they should be very sure footed, which these guys were. As the game wore on beer was drunk by the roofers, lots of beer. With each inning the roofers would come back from the beer stand with fists full of beer. By the third inning they were swimming in beer. The result of all this beer is that they turned into monkeys, swinging from the railings between sections and finally from the railing that is supposed to keep you from falling to your death below. It was terrifying watching the one monkey roofer walk on the railing like a high wire performer, sixty feet above the crowd below. And what did the stadium people do about all this? They sold them more beer. Plenty of beer until the fifth inning, because the fifth inning is when they cut off beer sales. That was when the folks at Joe Robbe Stadium finally came down and told them to stop monkeying around. After all, they weren't making any more money from them at the beer stand.