Is this the year for craft beer in Louisville Slugger Field, or will it be another ignominious swill-out?

If you search the internetz for "Louisville Bats Craft Beer," you're pointed here: Promotion Schedule.

Then search for the word "craft" on the same page, and the results show: 0 of 0.

That's par for the course, although there are the usual $1 Budweiser Beer Happy Swill Hour promos throughout the campaign. A couple hours up the road in Cincinnati, home of the Reds -- major league parent club of the Bats -- comes this news:

GREAT AMERICAN BALL PARK BEER SELECTIONS FOR 2014

Louisville Bats craft-oriented fans, read it and weep.

The Bats home season starts in two weeks. Recently, when I've mentioned the impending 2014 yearly reprise of "The Sahara of Slugger Field," I've received tantalizing hints in return, to the effect that the adjacent Against the Grain brewery intends to reverse its traditional disinterest in the perimeters of the ball park lying outside its doors, and will be involved somehow in bringing better beer to the ballpark this year, perhaps in conjunction with other Kentucky breweries. This would make sense, especially if done via the Kentucky Guild of Brewers imprimatur.

I'm told nothing, and I know nothing. It's fairly simple: Since the inception of Slugger Field, the Bats and monopolist catering partner Centerplate have refused to comprehend a vastly altered beer world, and as someone who'd dearly love to spend money at games more often than I do now, a selection of craft beer reflecting the real world we live in would be quite nice.

Ultimately, the dollar-is-king-bottom-line Bats ballclub is relinquishing further windfall profits by not lifting a timid finger to the air and catering to consumer tastes in the year 2014. Maybe they're planning on doing so, and will surprise us all in two weeks. I can only hope. The city of Louisville deserves better than mass-market swill at the yard.

Here's the 2013 craft beer list for Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

The Louisville Bats are the AAA subsidiary of the major league Cincinnati Reds.

In more ways than one, unfortunately.

It's another year, and fairly soon we'll know if it will be another sad campaign of craft beer underachievement for Louisville Slugger Field and Centerplate, its concessionaire. As you contemplate the bare minimum beer options perennially offered by the Bats, read about what's available 90 minutes up the road at Great American Ballpark. Take it away, Ian at his BeerQuestABV blog.

Great American Ball Park Craft Beer List.

Last week I talked about how more craft is coming
to the baseball field in Cincinnati, and what
Sportservice, the people who manage the concessions,
are doing to make it more of a focus. This week,
I'll be giving out a list of what's available at
various sections around the park, and also shedding
a light on what influenced the list.

Rick & Jeff tours schedule: Reds - Red Sox and Indiana Microbrewers Festival.

Jeff Gesser has informed the Curmudgeon of the following upcoming charters. Note that local craft beer is included for the ride, along with lunch.

What more can I say? Jeff and Rick have been doing these excursions for years, I've gone on several, and they're always great fun.

Cincinnati Reds vs. Boston Red Sox at Great Western Ball Park in Cincinnati

Two chances: Saturday, June 14 or Sunday, June 15

Saturday June 14th (1:00 p.m.)
Includes chartered bus transportation, tickets to game, craft beer and refreshments for the ride up, pre-game tailgate party with food and drink and a great time. Cost is $95 per person.

Sunday June 15th (3:55 p.m.)
Includes chartered bus transportation, tickets to game, craft beer and refreshments for the ride up, pre-game tailgate party with food and drink, and a great time. Cost $100 per person.

Indiana Microbrewers Festival
Saturday, July 19
Chartered bus, tickets to fest, program, sample glass, and hand-crafted beers available on bus both up and back. We will also provide lunch. Cost $85 per person.

For reservations and complete information contact Rick and Jeff Tours by calling 502-807-7531 or e-mail profgesser@insightbb.com

Sports concessionaires, blatant extortion, non-competition … but a good beer, anyway.

Yesterday I accompanied good friends to Cincinnati to occupy seats in the lower left field stands at Great Western Ball Park and watch the Reds pelt the Cubs with seven homers, three by Joey Votto, who toiled last year for the Bats in the Louisville Slugger good beer ghetto.

Near our seats was a concession stand vending Bell’s Oberon Ale at a price of $7.75 for what I judged to be a 14-ounce pour. Without giving too much away, I’ll say only that it figures out to a bit more than $900 profit (before expenses) on a regular 15.5 gallon keg of beer.

No, wait: Let’s give it away. At that price and that pour, it’s more than $1,050 coming in for something that costs me about $120.

‘Nuff said on that topic. There’ll be more in next week’s LEO, assuming my Mug Shots piece isn’t too hyperbolic.

Anyway, after one Oberon, the concession stand either ran out or could no longer work the tap, so I was spent scurrying past the usual endless queues at Great Western, around the outfield, and to the place where I remembered good beer being sold last August. The beer there yesterday was called Southern Tier IPA, and after being assured by another customer that it’s a craft brewer and not the latest Anheuser-Busch mockrobrew, I bought one.

Good stuff. Not the best American-style IPA I’ve had, but just fine, with plenty of body and hops, and fully worthy of my coney cheese dogs beneath a rainy sky filled with crushed baseballs.