Budweiser Boycott Signs Strike Out at the Stadium

Beer, free speech and the national pastime.

Teamster truck drivers are in the third week of a bitter strike against Coast Distributing Co. of San Diego, which distributes Budweiser and other Anheuser-Busch potables countywide.

The unionists have taken their case via sidewalk-leafleting to wherever consumers are known to congregate: including outside the Price Club, (Anheuser Busch-owned) Sea World and San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

There have even been reports of strikers hopping from bar to bar aggressively suggesting that patrons not order Bud: “Don’t drink that sour stuff.”

On the Fourth of July, a group of strikers decided, for the first time, to venture inside the local stadium for the Padres-Dodgers contest. Where better to proselytize beer drinkers than a crowded ballpark on Independence Day?

For several innings they sat fan-like in outfield seats near the scoreboard and a giant Budweiser sign.

Then they arose in unison and held up huge cards that spelled out: BOYCOTT BUDWEISER.

Faster than a Bruce Hurst fastball, stadium security guards surrounded the strikers, confiscated their signs and ordered the two ringleaders to leave the stadium. The others left in solidarity.

Bill Adams, the Padres’ vice president for business operations, says the strikers had violated the team’s sign rules.

To wit: Signs have to be in place before the game begins, must be in a fixed position (no waving in the crowd) and must be in “good taste.”

Adams says the fact that Coast Distributing owner Leon Parma is also a part-owner of the Padres is irrelevant: “We’d have taken the signs down just as quickly if they’d said BOYCOTT COORS.”

Richard Silva, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 683, says it just shows how difficult it is for the working class to fight the big-money boys.

“Budweiser is very powerful, it buys a lot of advertising,” Silva said. “Nobody wants to offend Anheuser-Busch or Leon Parma by letting us express our views.

“It’s just not right.”

Sounds Like a Wise Decision

Pachyderms, nudes and other things.

* A bridge too far.

Plans have been vetoed for an elephant polo game on the beach at the Hotel del Coronado as part of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which opens Wednesday at the Sports Arena.

The circus decided that it would have been too difficult to walk the elephants across the Coronado bridge from the San Diego train depot.

Instead, a squad of clowns will play volleyball Wednesday morning against a team of Southern California’s top women volleyball stars.

The clowns aren’t as impressive as the elephants, but they’re easier to transport.

* Don’t look for a proposal at the San Diego City Council to ban nude dancing.

There was stirring in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision, but the idea has been quietly dropped.

* North County bumper sticker: “My Other Car Is Remote Controlled.”

* Only in Ocean Beach.

The new Ocean Beach Mental Health Clinic advertises that the head doctor bakes bread each day for his patients.

Will Groom Get to First Base?

Take me out to the wedding.

Aaron Barish and Sondra Bowers will be married at 1 p.m. today at home plate at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. It’s a natural.

Barish, 23, of La Mesa, has been a peanut and Crackerjack vendor at the stadium for nine years (he also works for Imperial Bank).

He proposed to Bowers, 22, via Diamond Vision during a Padres-Cubs game last year.

With the Padres out of town, the stadium should be ideal for the couple’s 300 friends and family members. Lots of room for the ceremony and reception.

One more thing convinced the couple that the site is ideal: The stadium is neutral ground, religiously-speaking, so neither family feels slighted.

Barish is Jewish. Bowers is a born-again Christian.