The scene was a familiar one: A team wins a championship and celebrates in the clubhouse afterward. And that’s just what the Cincinnati Reds did at Great American Ballpark on Tuesday night after beating the Houston Astros to clinch their first division crown in 15 years. With players drenched in champagne, Reds owner Bob Castellini broke out cigars, distributing them to all and sundry.
That’s when the troubles began. Ohio state law, as it turns out, bans indoor smoking in such facilities. And at least five concerned citizens called in to Cincinnati’s health department to report the dangerous breach of law. The Reds are now under investigation.
That’s right: The Cincinnati Reds, having bested the Cardinals, Brewers, Cubs, Astros, and Pirates, now have to face the Nanny Staters.
No one is in danger of going to jail. In fact, the health department can’t take any action unless an inspector actually witnessed the violation. (Presumably, none were watching the game.) But according to state law, the department must follow up with an unannounced visit to the site within 30 days. That probably means sending an inspector to a Reds playoff game in the name of protecting the public health and welfare, of course.
You can’t make this stuff up. And it could get worse—rumor has it there was alcohol in that champagne that was being poured. It’s enough to give red tape a whole new meaning.
What? No "reds" joke?
I've added my own tag to the media's "Nanny State". I call it "Tobacco Gestapo" because the entire motivation of the radical and moderate anti's in actuality has nothing to do with health issues and the dangers of smoking! The alarmist propaganda is designed by social engineers as a smoke screen (pardon the pun), to hide their true aims of generating enormous excise tax revenues which funds every conceivable left wing socialist movement program. For special interest groups to create artificial public crisis to funnel resources to totally unrelated efforts is nothing new in the world. It amazes me how gullible human nature really is and how stupid we are to not learn from history and realize when we are being deceived again.
Today's society are intolerable tattle-tails. Looking for trouble just for attention. Then we're forced to witness unproductive government make-work in action.
I have a few pieces of advice to the do-gooders who "blew the whistle" on the Reds. First- "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Second- "Judge not that ye be not judged." And finally- "Get thine own house in order." I realize these quotes are all from the Bible so someone will protest because I made religious references. If you're going to be that small I pity you.
People, people, people…Really!?! It's called a "victory celebration" for crying out loud!