Chicago Area Local News

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Bars and restaurants around Wrigley Field will be asked to stop serving alcohol after the 7th-inning stretch -- just as they do inside the ballpark -- to prevent Cubs playoff celebrations from turning ugly.

Ray Orozco, executive director of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said the proposed seventh-inning cutoff -- discussed at a playoff security meeting Monday -- would occur "only if it's a clinch game." Liquor sales could resume once the game is over, he said.

The voluntary moratorium would be effective on Sheffield between Newport and Irving; on Clark from Irving Park to Newport; and on Addison from Wilton to Racine.

"We're asking bar owners in the area to participate in the interest of public safety so we celebrate in the most responsible manner possible," Orozco said.

"It stops people from drinking for probably at least an hour. If they choose to, they can pick it up again. You're assuming everyone is going to start drinking again [after the final out]. I don't know if that's necessarily so. But if you stop drinking at 3:26 p.m., you won't be as physically impaired at 4:26 p.m."

Mayor Daley seems to support the idea.

"If you've been drinking for five hours, you're laying on the floor don't give the person another beer please. I mean, give me a break, this is all common sense," Mayor Daley said.

Bar owners -- who hadn't been briefed on the city's plan -- reacted angrily to the idea of a temporary pause in liquor sales. They argued that customers who don't get served will get up and leave and never come back.

"It'll be one hour, maybe more, without offering service," said Sam Sanchez, owners of John Barleycorn, 3524 N. Clark. "Customers will be unhappy. We'll lose business. There's no reason for them to come back. We're sending a bad message to the world that Chicago cannot host a large event at a time when we're hoping to bring the Olympics to Chicago."

CBS 2's Vince Gerasole reports a good portion of the successful bars that dominate the area around the field are family operated, and some owners say the cutoff stands to hit them in the pocketbook for no good reason.

"It could have dramatic effects on your bottom line at the end of the day," said Sluggers' owner David Strauss.

"When people know they have five minutes left to order a drink they order as much as they can," said bartender Jill Hammer.

Fans have poured into Wrigleyville for post-season action three times since 2003, but some in the neighborhood are concerned possibly going all the way to the World Series this year could spark too much revelry.

"There's a reason why you stop liquor sales in the ballpark in the seventh inning," community activist Charlotte Newfeld said.

"What we are asking is common sense," Daley said. "You can drink as much as you want for seven innings."

"Being a business owner you like to see fewer drunken idiots around and fewer problems," said JustGreatTickets.com broker Mark Savidge.

You would think then that Savidge agrees with the mayor. He does not, saying the move is unfair to bar owners.

"It seems like a utopian fantasy to me --- it's never going to happen," he said.

James Murphy, manager and part-owner of Murphy's Bleachers, 3655 N. Sheffield, said he sees no need for the seventh-inning cutoff. He argued that a playoff game is "no different than opening day or a busy mid-summer weekend against the Cardinals."

Orozco said the proposed booze cutoff would be duplicated in the less congested area around U.S. Cellular Field. If crowds thin out a little earlier, so be it, he said.

"Maybe they're going to leave and go home so they don't drink and drive," Orozco said. "I leave because I may have had too much to drink and I need to get a cab. Is that a bad thing if they leave?"

But John Oppenheimer, owner of Halsted's near the ballpark, wonders what would stop patrons from stockpiling booze before the 7th inning.

"You know the 7th inning stretch is coming up so you're going to order your four beers and probably not pace yourself," Oppenheimer said.

CBS 2's Jim Williams and Vince Gerasole contributed to this report.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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