THE BEER BEAT: Cincinnati area lagers during Reds baseball on Thursday, June 8. I hear they serve Bud Light at Louisville Bats games.

On Thursday, the Cincinnati Reds hosted the St. Louis Cardinals at Great American Ball Park.

For me, day baseball is the bee's knees, and I gratefully accepted Mark's invitation to join him and Graham for a 12:35 p.m. "getaway game" (afterwards the Reds were to fly to Los Angeles to begin a road trip). The Reds won, completing a rare home sweep of the Cardinals.

We parked in Newport on the Kentucky side, just a block away from the Hofbrauhaus. After a delicious Schwarzbier and pretzels in the Biergarten, it was a 25-minute walk across the Purple People Bridge to the stadium.

Thursday was a humidity-free afternoon, with temperatures in the mid-70s, variable cloudiness and a breeze here and there. Just glorious for baseball.

Admittedly I didn't undertake a meticulous examination of the beer selections at Great American Ball Park. Therein lies a digression.

Honestly, 15 years or more spent highlighting the myriad deficiencies of Louisville Bats management with respect to generally truncated local "craft" beer prospects has worn me to a nub. It's been at least three years since I bothered attending a Bats game for precisely this reason, and I can't be bothered to so much as complain.

Philistines then, now and forever, but look -- new for 2017!

Craft Beer Friday

New for 2017! Enjoy your choice of a variety of regional, local and national craft beers located at the Craft Beer Friday portable on the main concourse behind section 127. Each month will feature a new craft beer.

How very avant-garde of them. Next thing you know, Bats management will admit to the existence of iPhone selfies and have a special commemorative event -- or maybe it's finally time for a Mike Calise Bobblehead Night.

At the same time, periodic visits to major league parks in recent years have convinced me that in the big leagues, they're getting it. In Minneapolis in 2014 and Cleveland last year, local "craft" choices were many and varied, if predictably pricey.

On Thursday in Cincinnati, with exemplary seats down the line behind first base, there actually was an entertaining game to watch on a beautiful afternoon. At the risk of heresy, beer almost was secondary.

Still, I did some foraging.

Just behind us on the concourse was evidence of what happens when AB InBev hoovers the "craft" options and runs them through the Grand Trojan Zombie Filter. At first glance, it's a decent enough selection, but with all the profits going to the wrong shareholders.

Sorry, but AB InBev has enough money. They don't need any of mine.

Acknowledging that most of the cash spent on a $14 stadium beer is going to concessionaires and wholesalers -- in fact, I believe one of those ten commandments on display at the nearby Ark Encounter reads to this hallowed effect -- I'd rather it go for a local beer.

Blessedly, there were options. Obviously, Bud Light isn't local, though the others are.

It's called the Brewery District, located on the main concourse, situated behind home plate. The layout is logical, with Cincinnati-brewed beers on one side and national/international choices on the other.

For the record, I had only a couple of beers. Both were good, and I was satisfied.

1. Listermann Brewing Company's Losantiville (or Losantaville, or Losantville) Pre-Prohibition Lager, with as many as three alternate spellings and almost no on-line information (grr), although it was tasty.
2. Christian Moerlein Helles Lager, which I found exceptional and would seek again.

Next up: Cubs versus Rays in Chicago on July 5. My last time in Wrigley Field was during the Reagan Administration. Is there anything better than Old Style there now?

There may be a mole in the Louisville Bats twitter agency.

I'm not sure what to make of the Louisville Bats favoriting my tweet as to the team's better beer failures, but the propaganda value is priceless.

It gets even worse for better beer at Louisville Slugger Field.

More baseball: "Propriety was downplayed, tickets were inexpensive, and alcohol was freely available."

The approaching vintage baseball event in New Albany got me to thinking about beer.

The most recent incarnation of baseball's American Association came to an end in 1997, with teams from the disbanded league moving west to the Pacific Coast League, or east to the International League. Among the latter was Louisville's AAA team, then the Redbirds, now the Bats.

In 2010, I contributed a column to LEO on the topic of baseball and beer. At the time, Browning's Brewery (now Against the Grain) was up and running, and there was an optimistic "Prague Spring" feeling afoot that the Bats and Centerplate might finally see the light with regard to craft beer. So much for that, but as excerpts from the LEO article illustrate, baseball and beer go together like Bob Caesar and political ineptitude.

---

 ... It is with the American Association, albeit an older version, that beer comes back into the picture.

The original American Association was a major league. It came into being in 1882, and lasted for a decade before folding. During its brief time of operation, the Association was widely known as the Beer and Whiskey League, in part because its founders numbered more than a few brewing and distilling magnates eager to move product, but more so owing to their brilliant marketing plan.

Their aim was to upend the staid, hidebound conservatism of organized professional baseball by making the experience of attending games affordable and fun for spectators. Propriety was downplayed, tickets were inexpensive, and alcohol was freely available.

Verily, it was the sort of “AA” that a thinking drinker like me can enthusiastically support.

Louisville’s existing team, the Eclipse, became a charter member of the Association, and changed its name to the Colonels. Its finest player was a native Louisvillian, Pete Browning, who was an outstanding hitter, a famously incompetent fielder, but a genuine larger-than-life personality. Browning was afflicted with lifelong pain from mastoiditis, which compelled self-medication through inebriation. He is reputed to have said that he could not be expected to hit the ball without first hitting the bottle.

Browning later competed in the National League, and he died in 1905 at the age of 44. As a player, his early patronage of a small, artisanal baseball bat maker led to the very name of Louisville Slugger, Hillerich & Bradsby’s iconic brand, which now adorns Louisville’s ballpark, where his namesake Browning’s Brewery & Restaurant is located. It remains the ideal choice for local beer and food before, during and after Louisville Bats games.

Of course, most fans will have progressed through the turnstiles by the time the National Anthem is sung, and last season, Centerplate (the ballpark concessionaire) had a rotating Browning’s beer available during most home games. A source tells me that again this year, aficionados of fresh, locally brewed beer will be able to drink a Browning’s brew while watching the Bats – and, intriguingly, that other local micros might be available in the park, too, pending negotiations on terms.

Ah, those terms. Baseball as sport, and beer as art, share a timelessness of social cohesion, substantial existential beauty, and a chronology that runs through the nation’s long history. Both reward diligence, deliberation and patience. Alas, both baseball and beer often have been given over to the harsh realities of modern capitalism, and these imperatives of profit sometimes obscure the simple perfection of a surprise drag bunt to the right side, or a firm, piney India Pale Ale joyfully washing down a mustard-laden ballpark brat.

From Pete Browning’s slugging in the 1880’s, to the craftsmanship of Brian Reymiller at Browning’s today, baseball and beer in Louisville should be inseparable in locality and spirit. It cannot be unassisted, but it is the perfect double play: Beer brewed here, and baseball played here. Let’s hope for the best at the ballpark this summer.

A .143 craft beer winning percentage for the Bats.

The Louisville Bats are in the midst of a homestand before packing off to Toledo on Friday. Over at Potable Curmudgeon, I've been using the home fields of the club's opponents to illustrate Louisville's lamentable record in support for craft beer. Just the other day, a team employee wrote me to suggest that my oratory isn't reaching the proper targets within the hierarchy, which presumably might express solidarity. Toward this end, I was told to contact the Centerplate official primarily responsible for craft beer's current degraded plight.

Maybe some day.

Possibility ... what?

---

Probably no craft beer options for Gwinnett Braves games at Coolray Field, so the Bats finally win one.

The Louisville Bats recently concluded a slate of games in Georgia, where the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves plays its games in the outer suburbs of the city -- a novel arrangement, to be sure.

The Gwinnett Braves also appear to be the initial exception that proves the rule, seeing as there seems to be little in the way of craft beer available at Coolray Field.

Gwinnett Braves: A great experiment or failed endeavor?

I'll leave it at that. The Louisville Bats have two craft beers on tap, albeit well hidden, so we'll give Centerplate the win this time.

Season record: Opponents 6, Bats/Centerplate 1.

Previously:

If you can find where the Charlotte Knights play, there's craft beer there.

Craft beer at Lehigh Valley IronPigs baseball games.

Buffalo Bisons, Coca Cola Field, and local craft beer access.

Indianapolis Indians, Victory Field and a merciful end to "don't ask, don't tell" in local craft beer access.

Columbus Clippers: Locally brewed craft beer is a positive enticement. Imagine that.

Toledo Mud Hens view locally brewed craft beer as positive enticement. Imagine that.

At LouisvilleBeer.com: "The Sahara of Slugger Field."

In the days since I filed this column, Against the Grain's Sam Cruz was asked by Eater Louisville to elaborate on the tweets I mention herein. Here's the link. Sam's also been discussing the same topic at the Louisville Restaurants Forum. Nothing has been heard from the team or concessionaire; no surprise there.

Coincidentally, Against the Grain's also about to garner some great publicity in Europe: Against the Grain road trip: "The Euro market is no stranger to Against the Grain beers."

Back to baseball: I've also recently taken a cursory look at the scene in Toledo and Columbus, Ohio cities where Triple-A ballparks seem to have a tighter grip on the modern world. As time permits, I'll continue to review choices in other places when the Bats travel elsewhere.

The Sahara of Slugger Field by Roger Baylor

It's not even the best of AB-InBev

The Triple-A Louisville Bats began play earlier this month amid the usual hot stove and cold fridge speculation as to whether Louisville Slugger Field finally would join the craft (beer) (food) (bourbon) (dining) (localism) (choose one) revolution currently underway in Louisville, as well as in most other baseball outposts scattered through the remainder of the United States.

If you’ve lived in these parts for any amount of time and possess the patience to read this far, you’ve already guessed the answer.

In the early innings, craft beer is losing at Slugger Field.

At the Potable Curmudgeon, a report on the craft vs. crafty situation at Louisville Slugger Field for 2013. Hint: Craft is losing, and badly.

The Louisville Bats really must hate craft beer to marginalize it this way.

... It's just as sad a situation as during the last couple of years, with craft beer restricted to the virtual ghetto of the roasted peanut stand on the main concourse near section 115, with signage limited to table tents so as not to offend the behemoths who grease the wheels.

NABC Bomber Blonde -- a League Stadium exclusive for 2012 Dubois County Bombers games.

At Potable Curmudgeon: Craft beer at the ballpark in 2012: Dubois County Bombers and NABC.

NABC's one-man graphics department, otherwise known as Tony Beard, adapted our familiar 15-B "Vargas Girl" by dressing her in a slightly more family-friendly (not to mention baseball-centric) way for use as the mascot of Bomber Blonde. This newly formulated ale, which is representative of the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) category 6B, is intended to offer a small-batch, craft-brewed alternative to mainstream lagers.

Bomber Blonde will be available only at League Stadium in Huntingburg for roughly 30 Bombers home games: From May 30 through playoffs in early August. Bomber Blonde is a fun experiment for NABC, and we think beer-drinking Bombers fans will like it. Also, the beer is something we can play with, available for purpose-brewing for similarly exclusive venues, i.e., the 2013 RiverRoots music festival in Madison, Indiana.