By Charles Cohen (Baltimore City Paper, 6/16/2004)
Photo by Sam Holden
The Orioles may think they sell status with Camden Yards skyboxes, but true O’s fans know they’ve really earned their way into an exclusive club when they make it onto Fancy Clancy’s short list.
If a fan is deemed worthy, Fancy Clancy (aka Clarence Haskett), one of the greatest beer vendors to ever work the Yards, will run that customer a tab.
A tab at a baseball game? Now that’s good livin’.
Talk to some of the longtime customers in Haskett’s territory, among the box seats on the first-base side of the field, and they’ll likely gush about the honor of being handed a beer without having to dig in their pockets for a few crumpled dollars to pass down the row to the vendor.
Haskett’s regulars talk about this perk as if they made the guest list of a sold-out show or snagged a table at a booked-up trendy restaurant. For some, the only thing that could make getting the Haskett treatment any better would be if Eddie Murray or Cal Ripken handed over the beer.
“It’s like the greatest accomplishment in my life,” says Gary Hollenbeck, an O’s season ticket holder who tipped Haskett heavily for three years, hoping his favorite beer vendor would someday allow him to run a tab.
Continue reading “Judged by His Beers” at Baltimore City Paper.
