Baseball teams at all levels always try to find ways to make their team unique to the rest of the league. The Yankees had an idea to put the faces of some of their players in beer but that isn’t going to fly with Major League Baseball.
At an event where members of the media got to sample various menu items, the Yankees unveiled a way to put various player pictures and logos in the foam of their beer. Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton and Aroldis Chapman had their likenesses within the beer and that’s causing problems with MLB.
This is pretty incredible. @BluePointBrewer at @yankeestadium is printing players’ faces on beer this season (also coffee and some food). @TheJudge44, @ElGarySanchez, @Giancarlo818 and @AChapman_105 are loaded into the system already with more to come. #Yankees pic.twitter.com/FlybIy6bTj
— Jeff Eisenband (@JeffEisenband) March 26, 2018
It is against MLB rules to have active players be “involved in the advertising or promotion of alcohol-related products” and according to Newsday, Major League Baseball quickly put an end to it. It’s a bit of a gray area because the players aren’t exactly promoting the beer and are likely not being compensated for this but MLB supposedly put a stop to it to avoid future instances.
“We were unaware,’’ of the images, a spokesman for MLB said Tuesday. “We spoke to the club, the club wasn’t aware, either. To the best of our knowledge, they have told them it’s not authorized, to cease doing it.’’
As Blue Point Brewery shows, they can put in multiple logos as long as it’s preprogrammed. In addition to players, they were able to imprint the Yankees logo and a logo of Yankee Stadium.
We demand that all beer be served this way. @Yankees pic.twitter.com/6K9wOfcjTt
— Blue Point Brewing (@BluePointBrewer) March 26, 2018
In a metaphorical game of Hot Potato, no one really wants to say this was their idea. Blue Point, apart from promoting the concept on social media, didn’t claim responsibility.
“Blue Point doesn’t actually do anything with that, we just brew the beer, we sell it at the Stadium,’’ a spokesman for Praytell Agency in Brooklyn said. “At certain stations at Yankee Stadium they have a machine that will allow you to put the Yankees players’ faces on the beer. If MLB and the Yankees have killed it, it’s done.’’
A company called Beer Ripples has the technology to do that but while they are working on partnerships with the company who makes food at Yankee Stadium, they denied being involved with this idea.
“Ripples is the company behind Beer Ripples, the device that can print any image, picture or message onto beer,’’ a spokesman said. “We are currently working with Legends, the company that runs the food and concessions stands at Yankee Stadium, who are in the process of testing a number of Beer Ripples machines. Ripples, however, was not involved with this particular activation.’’
[Newsday/Photo: @JeffEisenband]
