The best thing about baseball is the legends that build up around the game. There’s always a story, and it always has a whiff of the unreal, whether it’s Yogi Berra’s leaps in logic, Dock Ellis’ psychedelic-fueled no-hitter, Bo Jackson’s left-handed homer or the Curse of the Billy Goat on the Cubs (the bad vibes only being broken by a goat-eating contest at Chicago’s Taco in a Bag restaurant).
Football is a game that mimics a medieval battle, but baseball is a carnival: Players don’t blitz and drive to conquer new land like helmeted knights, they run around a while, touch base with different people and then go home – hopefully driving a few other buddies home, too.
Covering the Bases
(The Tag Experience)
Herradura Tequila and Cerveceria La Tropical are toasting the Marlins’ victories – and taking the sting out of defeats – at loanDepot Park.
Miami is a city that enjoys a good party – even if it only gets going a little late, any resemblance to the 2024 Marlins season purely coincidental. And the comparison between baseball and carnival is one that’s been embraced by the folks at loanDepot Park.
“What we’ve learned from a lot of our international baseball events is people like to come and have a party,” said David Oxfeld, vice president of partnership development and strategy, who has just overseen a revamping of the stadium’s food and drink offerings. “The more alcohol outposts that we can have, the better.”
That’s for the fans in the park, of course. Tequila enthusiasts can look forward to the Herradura Bar (and Hornitos at the Section 21 bar), Tito’s Handmade Vodka will feature the “Marlins Mule” at various locations and hometown favorite Bacardi is taking over the frozen drinks stand in Section 18, pouring its flagship rum as well as Grey Goose, Cazadores and especially Santa Teresa, a Venezuelan rum that’s proving popular with Marlins fans.
The traditional snack in the stands is a ballpark hot dog, which Marlins fans can now order with gator-meat chili, but as any connoisseur could tell you, that pairs best not with spirits but with a cold brew.
(The Tag Experience)
Cerveceria La Tropical is one of two craft breweries with a presence at Miami Marlins home games.
“I think that we do a really good job featuring craft beers that are local,” said Oxfeld, referencing the team’s partnership with two Miami brewers. “We’ve got a big deal with CLT, which is Cerveceria La Tropical. We’ve got a Biscayne Bay Brew Hall – the Marlins Lager is a product that Biscayne Bay (Brewing) makes for us.”
It’s also one that you might be seeing in another South Florida cultural touchstone.
“We’re angling to get it in Publix,” said Oxfeld.
Safe at Home
If that happens, it won’t be the only way to evoke the clay diamond back home. For the sporting Biscayne Tippler, toasting the game should be informed – at least in part – by its mythical giants. They ran around like it was a party, then they went home. And, if stories are to be believed, some of them really tied one on.
Babe Ruth, the legends say, regularly drank no less than a quart of rye whiskey with ginger ale – for breakfast – during Prohibition. Bartenders say the best proportion is 2 ounces of rye (Canadian whiskey or strong bourbon will do) over ice in a tall glass topped with 5 ounces of ginger ale, the sharper the better.
(The Tag Experience)
Herradura Tequila and Cerveceria La Tropical are toasting the Marlins’ victories – and taking the sting out of defeats – at loanDepot Park.
Ty Cobb, Ruth’s rival, preferred to face game day after a round of the drink fellow Georgian Snoop Dogg brought back into style: gin and juice. A simple shot of Old Tom in a glass of orange juice will be close enough, if you want to sip like that centerfielder.
Cobb has the distinction of having a handful of adult beverages named after him. A “Cobb Cocktail” is a shot of Southern Comfort and a tablespoon of honey mixed into a cup of hot water. Others play with his fondness for gin and juice or his nickname, “the Georgia Peach.”
Holland, Mich., distillery Coppercraft has other suggestions for game day at the bar, including an intriguing refreshment that, in a fancier context, might get away with calling itself a dill shrub.
But the most classic of baseball cocktails goes back to New York’s Waldorf-Astoria in the dead-ball era, before Prohibition. The hotel entertained sporting visitors with the Cooperstown cocktail, named for the upstate hometown of legendary baseball inventor Abner Doubleday.
David Embury’s 1948 cocktail classic, “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks,” included a Grand Slam, made with dark rum and orange liqueur.
Then, Marlins Lager aside, there’s just beer.
(Courtesy of the Miami Marlin)
Up for a weekday game? The Marlins have you covered on Taco Tuesdays.
The 2024 bullpen sips nothing stronger than Gatorade on the job, we’re told, and Giancarlo Stanton is an investor in Yerbaé, an energy drink that gets a natural kick from yerba mate. But back in the day, Jason Giambi and Roger Clemens would pass “protein shakes” between them that consisted of fermented hops and malted barley, the stories say.
It was former Marlin Mark Buehrle who truly made baseball beer history, however, once he was with the White Sox. He unexpectedly got called to pitch 14 innings into a World Series game against the Astros after consuming, at the very least, three beers (his teammates and pitching coach have implied the number might be higher and the muscles correspondingly looser). The game was already the longest the World Series had ever seen. Buehrle made his way to the mound, threw three pitches and that was it. Game over.
Cheers to a historic victory … however it was accomplished.
COPPERCRAFT TY COBB
INGREDIENTS
· 1 1/2 ounces Coppercraft Social 416 Gin
(Baseball History Daily)
Ty Cobb has the distinction of having a handful of cocktails named after him.
· 1/2 ounce Thatcher’s Organic Blood Orange Liqueur
· 1 ounce cherry syrup
· 1 ounce lime juice
· 3-4 ounces lemonade
METHOD
· Shake spirits, syrup and lime juice with ice, then strain into collins glass.
· Top with lemonade.
PATTERSON’S TY COBB
INGREDIENTS
· 1 ounce Southern Comfort
· 1 ounce peach schnapps
· 1 peach, cut into cubes and frozen
· 2-3 ounces orange juice
· White sugar
· Strawberry for garnish
· Fresh mint for garnish
METHOD
· In blender combine spirits, frozen fruit, juice and ice
· Pour into white sugar-rimmed cocktail glass and garnish with fresh strawberry and sprig of mint.
(coppercraftdistillery.com)
Pucker up for this Copercraft Distillery baseball season drink called Pickle!
PICKLE!
INGREDIENTS
· 2 ounces Coppercraft Vodka
· 2 ounces pickle juice
· 2 ounces lime juice
· 1 ounce simple syrup
· Sprig of fresh dill for garnish
(Tim Nusog for Liquor.com)
The Cooperstown
METHOD
· Shake ingredients with ice until chilled, then strain into rocks glass over fresh ice.
· Garnish with fresh dill sprig.
COOPERSTOWN
INGREDIENTS
· 1 1/2 ounces dry gin
· 3/4 ounce red vermouth
· 3/4 ounce dry vermouth
· 2 dashes orange bitters
· 2 mint leaves for garnish
(Tim Nusog for Liquor.com)
A Grand Slam
METHOD
· Stir ingredients in mixing glass with ice until chilled, then strain into cocktail glass.
· Garnish with mint leaves.
GRAND SLAM
INGREDIENTS
· 3 ounces dark rum
· 1/2 ounce triple sec or dry curaçao
· 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
· 1/4 ounce grenadine
· Orange twist for garnish
METHOD
· Shake ingredients with ice, then strain into old fashioned glass over crushed ice.
· Garnish with orange twist.
Grant Balfour is a Miami Beach native, writer, editor, traveler, musician, bon vivant and our official Biscayne Tippler
