during their game at Yankee Stadium on October 1, 2015 in New York City.

When New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman spoke with media about CC Sabathia’s decision to leave the team for immediate alcohol rehabilitation, he treated the moment with the severity and concern it warrants. Joe Girardi, the Yankee skipper, did the same. This is a serious moment in a man’s life, and the Yankees brass treated it that way.

So why were there Budweiser logos behind their heads when they addressed the press?

MLB constantly works to brand their events, going so far as to make a press conference banner with its own customized logo for one game, the American League Wild Card contest between the Yankees and Houston Astros. And while the ESPN logo is much bigger than the presenting sponsor Budweiser, the beer manufacturer’s mark is way too noticeable to have held a press conference about Sabathia heading to rehab in that setting.

The Yankees should have known better. MLB should have known better. Hell, Cashman should have seen the backdrop as he was walking to the table and asked “who thought this was a good idea?”

The oversight isn’t major and the offense is hardly a fireable one, but it does bring up an issue that Major League Baseball has had for years: the league is absolutely tone deaf when it comes to alcohol.

It’s almost impossible to calculate how much money the beer industry, mainly Budweiser, has spent on MLB advertising over the years, but the relationship has become so lucrative for both parties that it’s become impossible to separate victory in one without a celebratory shower in the other.

The official MLB Twitter feed actually sent a tweet last year with the text “What’s left to say? Madison Bumgarner is a stone-cold champ” that included a since-deleted gif image referencing Stone Cold Steve Austin’s famous beer chug. You recall the beer chug, yes?

https://vine.co/v/OK0ilhtdL2B

That chug not only became a regular occurrence in the Giants’ clubhouse last post season, it was openly promoted while media were there to film it. This tweet was sent out by the Giants social media staff.

Would we feel differently about the beer chugging today if it were Bumgarner entering rehab, not Sabathia? Would MLB?

Major League Baseball created this environment, turning a once spontaneous celebration by victorious teams into a pre-ordained televised moment, sponsored round after round by Big Beer.

The team that wins the World Series could have as many as five clubhouse parties this year, each more raucous and alcohol-filled than the next. That is, unless Texas wins the title, then they’ll have twice as many parties, one each round with ginger ale so Josh Hamilton can partake, and one without him because alcohol is just that important to baseball celebrations that they can’t go without it even though they have a recovering addict on their team.

About Dan Levy

Dan Levy has written a lot of words in a lot of places, most recently as the National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. He was host of The Morning B/Reakaway on Sirius XM's Bleacher Report Radio for the past year, and previously worked at Sporting News and Rutgers University, with a concentration on sports, media and public relations.

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