With the New York Mets having dropped 8 of their last 9 and suffering the indignity of being swept at home in a 4 game series with Colorado, you might think there are bigger things to worry about than the beer selection at Citi Field.  However, since manager Terry Collins continues to insist these Amazins could just as easily be 11-2 instead of 4-9 (ok, I’m misquoting him slightly), let’s instead turn our attention to the aforementioned First World Problem, as caught by Mr. Jeffrey Jensen. “Even though there are four breweries in New York City – the city that the Mets and Yankees call home – no beer from New York City is available on tap at either of their ballparks,” reports Brew York,  New York.  Or to amend a phrase used far too often in this space, the next time Fred & Jeff Wilpon piss in your mouth, they won’t even attempt to call it Rheingold.

For the first two years, Citi Field offered four beers from Brooklyn Brewery on tap. All of them were found in the center field food court: Sabroso Ale at El Verano Taqueria, Blue Smoke Ale at Blue Smoke, Shackmeister Ale at Shake Shack, and Blanche de Queens at Box Frites.

Those beers are no more. Rather than embrace the trend of the rapidly-expanding craft beer market, Citi Field has chosen to replace those beers with Anheuser-Busch/InBev-owned beers, and Brooklyn’s Twitter stream says they were “kicked to the curb” because the Mets were simply asking too much money to keep them in Danny Meyer’s center field concession stands.

And yes, this is how absurd the beer industry is. Rather than the Mets paying for beer that their fans might actually enjoy, these small breweries have to bargain their way into a ballpark that is dominated by Anheuser-Busch products in nearly every corner. And now, at both Citi Field and Yankee Stadium, they’re almost entirely pushed out. You’ll notice that the faux-craft beer stand in center field at Citi Field – Big Apple Brews – sells almost exclusively Anheuser-Busch/InBev-owned domestics and imports, including Hoegaarden, Beck’s, Shock Top, and Goose Island.