(I apologize if I don’t do this right. I didn’t pay attention when Al wrote the post about diary posts, or fan shots, or rim shots or whatever the hell they’re called.)
Old Style beer and the Chicago Cubs have been intertwined as long as I can remember. When I was a kid listening to Vinny and Lou call the games on WGN radio, it was fully krausened Old Style sponsoring the Cubs. When I would go to Wrigley Field it was the beer my father and uncles would share while they laughed at how bad Dave Kingman was in LF. Later on it was the beer I lined up on the backwall of the bleachers to avoid the end of beer sales for that game.
It seemed like most things Cub, the relationship between the Cubs and Old Style just felt right (maybe because both were charmingly lousy).
Well, today the news came down that Old Style will no longer be served at Wrigley Field following the season. Coors Light will replace Old Style as the alternative to the evil beer from St. Louis. It’s probably time, and honestly a relationship with Chicago based MillerCoors is probably going to be much more lucrative for the Cubs than a relationship with Pabst, who owns Old Style. From that perspective this all makes very logical sense. Still if you have an ounce of nostalgia and have watched this team for any amount of time you see a sixty+ year sponsorship arrangement ending. Those things don’t happen much any more, so for some reason it seems strange to imagine Cubs games, in Mesa or Chicago, withoutOld Style Beer.
An article on the new Pabst owners in the Tribune a month ago outlined the plan to leave Wrigley Field:
In an internal memo to top staff one month after purchasing the company, C. Dean Metropoulos outlined a plan to see PBR sales grow 30 percent per year, Lone Star’s sales to double and for the company to create a “Four Loko”-like version of Colt 45, backed by an African-American star and jingle.
“I also want to try to exit the ‘Cubs’ deal and divert this money behind Old Style ‘Light,'” C. Dean Metropoulos wrote. The relationship between Old Style and the Chicago Cubs baseball team has existed for 61 years.
B.R. Zoom, the ad agency, was fired per order of Metropoulos. And former Pabst employees said the Metropoulos brothers, in almost daily phone calls, demanded that a host of ideas be implemented, such as Pabst brands being sold in Madison Square Garden, comic actor Will Ferrell sponsoring Old Milwaukee, PBR gift bags being given away at the Country Music awards in Las Vegas sponsored by the Academy of Country Music.
Now Old Style goes the way of Smokie Links and 81 day games at Wrigley Field. It becomes a fond memory. It’s a shame, but it is progress. Still it won’t seem right ordering a Coors product at Wrigley Field.
All good things must come to an end.
Comments
That seems about right to me. Nice article, ccd.
mb21Quote Reply
It always seemed weird to me that the two major beers served at Wrigley were brewed in Milwaukee and St. Louis. I actually had my first Old Style last game. It was lousily delicious.
binkyQuote Reply
One more reason to want to cock punch Tommy Boy.
Mercurial OutfielderQuote Reply
Sounds like the new owners of Pabst didn’t want their product in Wrigley. I wonder why. Maybe they don’t want their product to be associated with, “It’s a way of [L]ife.”
melissaQuote Reply
Nice to see you around, ccd
BerseliusQuote Reply
NIce article, ccd. Glad you decided to write it.
I figure within a couple of years, the only tradition the Cubs will have left is the losing.
Aisle424Quote Reply
Nice article and great to see you around these parts CCD. As for the beer, I don’t have any attachment to Old Style, but I despise Coors.
UrkQuote Reply
[quote name=Urk]Nice article and great to see you around these parts CCD. As for the beer, I don’t have any attachment to Old Style, but I despise Coors.[/quote]I quit drinking many years ago so I don’t care, but I know how much Old Style meant to GM and CCD.
mb21Quote Reply
[quote name=mb21]I quit drinking many years ago so I don’t care, but I know how much Old Style meant to GM and CCD.[/quote]
Yeah. Me too. 1060 West was pretty much responsible for all the time I’ve wasted* on cubs blogs in the past 4 years. Thanks guys!
*(and fun i’ve had)
UrkQuote Reply
No! No! Not my Old Style! You bastards, are you trying to get me to stop visiting forever?!
NWNelsonQuote Reply
[quote name=Urk]Yeah. Me too. 1060 West was pretty much responsible for all the time I’ve wasted* on cubs blogs in the past 4 years. Thanks guys!
*(and fun i’ve had)[/quote]
i apologize for that.
wpbcQuote Reply