So last week Beer Rhetoric East Lansing was canceled due to the Conference on College Compostion and Communication, or CCCC. This is the biggest conference of the year in my field. This was my first time attending and presenting at CCCCs and it was a pretty good time. Much of my time was spent preparing for my presentation and attending sessions on videogames, interwebz, and writing. But, like the maxim goes, all work and no play makes for a dull John, so I had to find the fun. Luckily, there was plenty of beer rhetoric to be had.

So every year one of the biggest publishers of text books, Bedford St. Martins, throws a swanky party somewhere near the conference. This year it was Turner Field, home of the Braves. For those that know me, baseball is one of my favorite things right up there with beer, which was also present–for free. So win, win, win. In all truth, I was pretty giddy.

What up Turner Field!

A ballpark was a really cool place to have a party, especially because I never drink at ballparks for many reasons. One, and probably the most relevant, is that beer is far too expensive. $7 for a 16 oz can of bud light? No thanks. Another reason would be that the beer that is served is often domestic beer, which comes from companies that tend to bully smaller craft beer companies. (If you are interested in that line of thought you should check out the Beer Wars movies.) Although, it was interesting to see an in-stadium advertisement for a beer hut that offered 6 different craft brews. In my opinion,  a ball park is an interesting place to see beer because it is so hyper-advertised. But anyways…

So the event had free beer, mostly domestic, but they also had Yuengling, beer from America’s oldest brewery, still family owned. So that was nice. So with a Yuengling in hand I took to exploring the ball park with friends. Another cool reason for having the event at the Turner Field was getting to play the games for the free. So I was able to do the fast pitch and batting cages.

My fastest pitch was only 57 MPH.

So after throwing and hitting some stuff, my friends and I moved up to the Delta Sky Lounge to eat some food and maybe check out some more free beer. Once we got up to the Lounge, it was a completely different experience. Lots of TVs, a full bar, and tables. In fact, to just be a member it costs $500 a year. So it was no surprise that the alcohol selection was different, with liquor and some craft beers on draft. For myself it was a pretty interesting example of how different types of people experience the same event. So, after grabbing some ball park food (hot dogs, chicken tenders, and nachos) and a mixed drink, we went to sit down and eat.

Free food and drinks plus baseball = awesome.

Anyways, all in all the party was a pretty fun time. I was able to hang out with friends and do a few things I wouldn’t normally do. After leaving Turner Field we went to another publishing party and hung out at a brew pub called Max Largers, which was also pretty nice. So, like I have tried to say all along, beer and rhetoric are a natural mix, and CCCCs was a perfect example.