No Booze at Baum

The crackdown on booze at Baum Stadium for this season’s Razorback baseball schedule has been announced. Apparently – and you won’t believe this, we know – but there are some people who sneak alcohol into the “Hog Pen” area of the stadium and have a few drinks while watching games.

This year, the school intends to enforce the rules – really.

Travis Pence, a reporter for the The Arkansas Traveler, the UA’s official student newspaper, writes this morning of  the efforts to curb drinking at baseball games:

The stadium will now conduct searches on all bags and coolers that are entering the stadium, using the same procedure that is used at Bud Walton Arena and the football stadium, Trainor said.

This policy reflects the UA’s ongoing commitment to recommendations from the Department of Homeland Security. Bags are not permitted except those bags required for child care or medical conditions, and purses no larger than 14 inches long, 10 inches wide and 10 inches deep. All purses allowed into the stadium will be searched.

Here is what Chris Bahn warned of a couple of years ago:

Heckling at the ballpark isn’t a bad thing. It’s tradition. It can be done with class and in a way that’s fun for the hecklers and hecklees. Check the crew on the third base side at Baum. The only thing they’re drunk on is their enthusiasm for baseball. And their insults are clean, but typically get the job done.

Beer at the ballpark doesn’t have to be a bad thing either. It also seems to be a tradition for folks at baseball games.

Combine the two and occasionally you get what happened Sunday. Hopefully, this is an incident everybody can learn from.

So put your fingers in the air — and cross them — that this ends here. Nobody wants a few insults and a couple of “knee-jerk” reactions to spoil the fun for everybody.

Good luck and be safe. And Free the Coolers? (Imagine thanks to the effort of @mattyteaks

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