Baseball team faces craft beer pressure

A petition has been launched to get Major League Baseball team, the Toronto Blue Jays, to offer craft beer at its stadium.

Blue Jays pitcher Brandon Morrow

Last season the Blue Jays, the only Canadian team in MLB, had a partnership with local brewery Steamwhistle, which is within sight of the Rogers Centre Stadium where the franchise plays.

That partnership ended last month however with the team’s organisation citing “objections” to the beer company’s use of Twitter.

Toronto paper The Star said the brewery had merely tweeted fans to say where in the stadium its beers were being sold.

From now on only AB-InBev beers – including Canadian brews AB-InBev-owned Labatt – and the Japanese-owned Canadian brewer Sleeman will be sold at the Rogers Centre.

When the news broke, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Phil Cacace the owner of Tallboys Craft Beer House launched a petition to get the Blue Jays to offer a local craft beer to fans.

“The Toronto Blue Jays can’t afford to be ignorant to the evolving tastes of their loyal fans,” says the petition.

It begins by claiming that the Blue Jays is now the only MLB franchise not to offer fans a local craft beer at its games, a situation it claims is “unacceptable”.

The Jays play their first home game today (4 April) against their American League East divisional rivals the New York Yankees.