One of the singular joys in this life, from the perspective of a casual imbiber of multiple styles of intoxicants, is drinking outside. This is especially true in places like the northeast where outdoor conviviality has a strict meteorological limit. That is to say, you have three –maybe four – months to get your backyard and porch drink on with the grass underfoot and the stench of Citronella in the air.

For sports fans, the most romanticized link between booze, athletics, and the outdoors is baseball. This is not to bash hockey or basketball fans, and their pre-game rituals in places like L.A. or Houston – they might grab a beer outside, but the actual games take place indoors.

Sure, football is outside, too, but it’s always a little bit colder, the specter of back-to-school concerns hang in the air. Plus, there’s a corporate mentality inside football stadiums. It’s an all-day affair where peak fun is often achieved at the tailgate.

Baseball seems almost anachronistic. Things slow down and when we spin our tales of going to Fenway or Wrigley or Dodger Stadium, the connotation is a warm day in July when the beers were going down smoothly. Baseball, a sometimes-plodding, thinking-man’s game, allows time for conversation and enjoyment of the views. The ultimate relaxation of an outdoor drink only extinguished by a towering home run to center or a soul-crushing six-run rally by the visiting team. Good thing there’s beer.

And while there is the old-timey association with baseball and the macro lagers of the past, craft beer and baseball are becoming more intertwined. At every stadium, there are local, craft options from which to choose. So if you want to eschew a light lager for, say, a west coast IPA to enjoy your views of Chris Sale fastball or Mike Trout’s swing or Brandon Belt’s, umm, whatever he does, you can.