About 10 years or so ago, all smoking was banned in arenas and stadiums here in Cal, even the outdoor stadiums ... is it different where you live? I know the Tampa Bay facility has a cigar-club (too bad they don't have a better ball-club), but are there any others that have one or are there any where you can smoke your own while watching the game?

Man your California laws really suck pretty soon they will pass a law banning people from living in California. LOL JonR

JonR---
buses and trucks that put out poison are ok everywhere, especially down town where a lot of people are out walking.
smoking on your front porch is still legal.
every fri night after work, (yes i do still work a little)we stop at the grocery store. toby goes in and shops while sheba and i sit on the bench. i have my coffee and a cigar. the only mentions of the cigar by people passing, are "is that a cuban", "that smells good, what is it?" i am including not only guys but the nice elderly woman that stop to pet the dog and talk to me. (i wish it were the other way, but.)
the guys and i sometimes do a little trading on the spot and exchange emails and send web sites to each other.
since i lost 3 pounds and shaved the top of my head, i think these elderly women are hitting on me because when i say "we are waiting for my wife." they leave. i wish i were 67 again.

i have not bought a cigar in cal for years. toby smokes cigarettes that are now up to $5.00 a pack, so of course when we go to vegas, we shop at the native american store where cigarettes are $12.50 a carton, and if i run out of cigars, not likely, but their prices for cigars are reasonable.

SteveS ---their are no sports venues that allow cigars, but you are allowed to chew gum if you don't crack it or blow bubbles.

Here in Chicago, you're not allowed to smoke in the seating areas of some of the venues. Comiskey Park and Wrigley Field do allow smoking in concourse areas. Comiskey Park is great because there is a huge centerfield concourse to smoke and watch the game!

Check out the XO lounge at the Ice Palace in Tampa. Very cigar friendly, and the food is great! The local team sucks because they won't spend the money, but as long as Detroit is in town...I'm there!

My brother told me last year that while watching the Packers from the 50 yd. line at Lambeau Field, he smoked a very fine Ashton. At a venue where you can usually see your breath, and everybody elses, a little smoke is no BFD.

Rick,I'll bet Bubbles was glad to hear that. X

Smoking is met with swift justice at Patriots games. Not only will you be forced to extinguish it, but they have the right to kick you out. And if you get kicked out, you could lose your season tickets privalege. Many folks still smoke, and I've yet to see the maximum penalty, but it is indeed a written rule. I still smoke in the bleachers at Fenway, but not in the box seats.

Pretty BUBBLES in the air . LOL JonR

Steve,
The only sporting event that I am aware of that allows anyone to smoke cigars is Nascar at Dover Downs. I smoke almost non-stop while watching the race and no one ever complains. Not only can I smoke cigars but they allow me and the other 1/4 million people there to bring our own beer. It's nice to pay $20 for a case of Amstel Light and bring it in with you as opposed to when I went to a Phillies game this year. We had to buy our beer there and we spent $132 for 1 case of Miller Light. But the gentleman was kind enough to give us free ice (what a guy)!

YO Guv ; How about Philadelphia Park horse racing , bring your own food and drink to picnic area and smoke cigarettes and cigars anywhere inside ( they do frown upon smoking weed however ) LOL JonR

SteveS: According to a survey in Cigar Aficionado a while back, the only Baseball Stadium that allows smoking is Tampa Bay. They have an indoor cigar lounge with large TV and well-stocked humidor. I don't remember about any other sports as I am a long-time suffering Red Sox fan... HA!

I miss the old days of sports when men smoked and the players smoked and the announcers smoked and the damn games were sponsored by cigarette and cigar companies! Then came Political Correctness...........ugh! Charlie

Jon -
I'm not much of a horse guy...but I go to the flea market up there on Friday's and I usually smoke while walking around. Also don't forget that the Flyers and 76er's have the Cigar Lounge inside of the First Union Center. But I dare not mention the name.

TedSaint, you say you're a long suffering Red Sox fan ... your statement makes me want to draw a blue line through the phrase "long-suffering" and make a handwritten note above, saying 'redundancy' ... There are no other kind.

I recently saw an interview on TV in which the interviewee spoke of waking his kids late in the last game of the '86 Series, telling them they were about to see something special tht their father, grandfather and even his father had never seen ... only to have permanently traumatized the poor kids and scar them for life when the ball went between Billy Buck's legs ...

Although my oldest son had never lived more than 800 miles east of the Pacific Ocean, he was a dedicated Sox fan before he was 10 ... I dunno how, but he was. Fittingly, he lives near B-town now and sees them often ,,, like nearly all Sox fans, he subconsciously knows that they are doomed and that the annual optimism about this being their year is no more than a false dream, but one he dreams anyway.

Steve, that's cruel!

SteveS: You have a very popular opinion, for an outsider that is. We Sox fans are the pure definition of eternal optimists, even including Buckner's play. (BTW, we were winning Game 7 early on, too. Also, even though Buckner should have been lifted for defensive replacement, Mookie should have never come up to bat. I blame Bob Stanley and Rich Gedman, personally. Ack, don't get me started...)



Regardless, I attend about 25 games every year, strike or no strike, ticket hikes and all. I am trying to convince my fiancee to add the words "or until the Red Sox win the World Series" to our vows of "until death do us part." She may not go for it... but I'm optimistic! HA

PS. If you ever do make it to Fenway, down the streeet about a block or two away is a cigar-friendly bar called "Boston Billiards". Plenty of pool tables, decent food, good-looking waitresses and a cigar lounge replete with big comfy furniture. Tell 'em Buckner sent ya!

Cruel? To be a Sox fan is to be on intimate terms with cruelty and to somehow perservere ...


This is the 84th consecutive season in which Fate has been cruel to Sox fans ... since the Series of 1918 when Babe Ruth was their ace left-handed pitcher, the Sox have appeared in the Series 3 times, losing in the decisive 7th game each time, climaxed by that most awful day in '86 ...

from the most junior to the most geriatric, lifelong Sox fans everywhere were leaping to their feet, about to begin one of the most long awaited celebrations in sports history ... to descend from such an euphoric high to such an abysmal low in only two or three ticks of the clock ... no fan of any team has had to endure more, none has ever had a worse moment than that in which "The Curse of the Bambino" struck the seemingly hapless Bill Buckner ...

The enthusiasm of every Sox fan is tempered by the memory of that moment ... however giddy a fan might become over early or mid-season success, the Curse looms higher than the Green Monster ... few fans of today ever saw the Babe play ... almost none are alive from the that September Wednesday in 1918 when Boston won its last World Series Championship ...

You're right, it is cruel