It's NOT all about getting smashed...

***Please bear with this post... I swear, I wrote it with paragraphs originally, but when I saved it to submit, the paragraphs are gone. I do not know why or what I have not done correctly, but it just will not work! Editors: can you help me with this and let me know what I have done wrong?*** On Saturday, May 26th, my family and I went to Miller Park to watch the Brewers/Pirates game. It had a 3:10pm start time. While my wife could not care less about baseball, she was there with us to share in the family experience and enjoy a day with "her boys". That enjoyment was quickly cut short, somewhere around the bottom of the first inning, about five minutes after taking our seats. I paid about $100 for our three tickets (with all applicable taxes and "processing fees"). We sat in the second row of section 221, really great seats for watching the action on the field. The seats in the first row were empty for most of the game and there were families on either side of us in the row. Two rows behind us, there was a man who was obviously already HIGHLY intoxicated and kept yelling at the players on the field, he must have assumed that the players could hear him and that they even cared in the first place. His drunken tone was shrill at best and sounded like a cross between the seagulls in "Finding Nemo" and KITT from "Knight Rider". I don't drink, nor does my wife or my nine year-old. We weren't there to spend our life savings on over-priced beer, but I will say we spend a decent amount on souviners and food while we attended the game. As the game progressed, the man behind us became even more intoxicated, never missing grabbing another beer from the "beer guy" - sometimes two. He also became more obnoxious and began yelling obscenities that became more and more vulgar at the game went on. I wasn't interested in causing a scene while I was there with my family - my nine year-old did not have to watch me lose what little I have left of my mind on this guy because frankly he was beyond rude. So, I sent a text message to the number that they have plastered on the back wall, high up in the stadium on the right field side to report fan misconduct. Guess what happened as a result of it? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! On the second level alone, just in the concourse, there must be between 30 to 40 stations where one is able to purchase a limit of two beers per ID and they're conveniently located so you don't have to walk farther than 20 yards from your section to get another beer...or two. There are also beer vendors that walk up and down the isles of the sections every five or six minutes, making sure that the fans don't get thirsty between pitches. I am sure they don't want the fans getting dehydrated between pitches. While walking the concourse looking for a restroom, I was either bumped into or spilled beer on by no less than 10 people literally staggering around yelling and screaming at each other. I also witnessed at least three couples "fighting" for one reason or another. My favorite was the couple that was arguing because the male had apparently tipped the "fat, ugly b****" at the concession stand. Really! I have a few observations... 1. It seems that society has raised a bunch of loud-mouthed alcoholics. It is astonishing to me the sheer number of beyond-intoxicated people who were there yesterday. 2. The culture at the ballpark encourages overindulgence. While I understand that the Brewers are in the business of making money, there has to be a limit to the amount they are willing to make versus the number of people and families that are there that simply don't want to put up with it. I paid for our seats just like every other person there and to have a couple of loud mouthed drunks sitting behind us screaming obscenities and acting ridiculous did not make the $100 I spend just on tickets worth it for me. 3. You know it was poor experience when even my nine year-old finally got sick of the constant drunken rants of the people behind us and would roll his eyes and make snide comments each time the rediculious people around us would get started. As I stated above, I even sent a message to their "text number" for reporting fan misconduct and nothing was done. 4. The sheer number of people literally staggering out of the ballpark and into the driver's seat of their car only proves that the police are more concerned with checking out the drunken women rather than enforcing the DUI laws. There is no reason that a large percentage of these people should not have been stopped from driving. The police have a large presence during and after the game, but they seemed more interested in ogling the women than they were in doing ANYTHING but sitting together on their bikes in groups talking about the "chick with the tight shirt" as I heard one of them say. On the one hand, we watch the news and on a regular basis, they have "stories" about the culture of alcoholism and over-indulgence and the severity of it. They also have stories about how we need to toughen the OWI laws so that people "learn" from their "mistakes". On the other hand we live in a state that is the number one beer consuming state in the nation; one that glamorizes and promotes the use of alcohol to "have a good time". This does nothing to combat the problem. Society continues to berate those that have addiction issues, yet we glamorize the use of alcohol and seemingly allow intoxicated persons slide through when they have attended events such as Brewers games. I don't understand why this is allowable - families want to attend these games with their children and it is unacceptable to me that we spend our hard earned money to go to these games expecting to have an enjoyable experience, not put up with the "fans" who are seemingly only there to see how drunk they can get and then get behind the wheel of their car to drive home. I am not without fault. I will admit that there are certainly times in the distant past that I got behind the wheel of my car, knowing that I shouldn't have - and I am betting that there are those of you who maybe reading this who have done the same. Luckily I never hurt or killed anyone while driving under the influence - but I certainly could have. Yes, I do believe that it is the responsibilty of management of the team to ensure that EVERYONE who spends their hard-earned dollars to attend these games has an enjoyable experience, regardless of who wins or badly their team is playing. Yes, I believe it is the responsibility of the police officers to randomly stop people who are walking out of the ballpark who look as though they are obviously intoxicated and remind them that they should not get behind the wheel of their car to drive home. They are there to keep the peace and ensure the safety of others - part of that is making sure that everyone's drive home afterwards is safe as well. When the sales of alcohol is more important than the safety of the fans, there is definitely something wrong. I cannot say that I will be attending a game again at Miller Park anytime soon. I will not allow my son and my wife to be subjected to that again.