The Cigar Lounge: Cigar Bars and Baseball

What's also exciting, at least from a cigar smoker's standpoint, is the recent influx of cigar bars into Major League ballparks. OK, so it's only been two, but isn't that a start?

In April, PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and host of this year's All-Star Game, opened the Montecristo Club. Then in June, Christian Eiroa and Camacho Cigars struck a deal with the Detroit Tigers to open the Camacho Cigar Bar at Comerica Park. They join the Cuesta-Rey Cigar Bar at Tropicana Field, which has been accommodating cigar-smoking Devil Rays fans since 1998, as the only full-blown cigar bars in the majors. Could this be a trend? If so, what a trend it would be.

There are few nights when I don't sit on my porch, light up a cigar and tune into the Mets, but to be able to go to Shea Stadium (or the new park scheduled to open in a few years) and enjoy a cigar with other Mets fans? It's too good to be true in this dead-ball era of public cigar smoking.

Inside the Montecristo Club at PNC Park.

...cigar bars and baseball. what an ideal mix...