Due to the introduction of the pitch clock this season, MLB games are going by a lot faster, and it is a change that seems to be welcomed by the fans.

On average, matches are finishing 30 minutes earlier than last season, but quicker games equate to a drop in refreshment sales and that hits the profits of the stadiums.

To combat the time crunch - and ensure sales remain at previous levels - a number of teams, including the Arizona Diamondbacks, Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers - have extended alcohol sales through the eighth inning, an extension of the previous cut-off of the seventh.

They have been joined, as you would expect by the Milwaukee Brewers, a team named for the city's association with the brewing industry.

Most teams have historically used the seventh inning as a cut-off, at least partly to avoid overserving customers who could then get in their cars and drive home.  

"This is [reflective] of the fact that the games are shorter," Brewers President of business operations Rick Schlesinger said. "From a time, perspective, we’re probably looking at selling beer for the same amount of time that we did last year through the seventh.

"Obviously the safety and conduct of our fans has primacy. We’ve had no issues, but it’s a small sample size and we’re going to continue to test it and see if it makes sense."

The move has been praised by the fans, but not everyone is so happy, most notably Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Matt Strahm, who has publicly warned that he believes it is putting spectators’ safety at risk.

"The reason we stopped in the seventh before was to give our fans time to sober up and drive home safe, correct?" Strahm said.

"So now, with a faster-pace game - and me just being a man of common sense - if the game is going to finish quicker, would we not move the beer sales back to the sixth inning to give our fans time to sober up and drive home?

"Instead, we're going to the eighth, and now you're putting our fans and our family at risk driving home with people who have just drank beers 22 minutes ago."

Beer has been closely associated with professional baseball since the game’s earliest days, but it was not initially a marriage welcomed by owners. In fact, the puritanical National League once expelled teams for selling beer at the ballpark. 

But over the years that relationship changed, and over time baseball became a prime marketing tool for breweries.

In fact, the original American Association - the "Beer and Whiskey League," as it was dubbed by National League officials - began in 1882 after several teams were expelled from the National League for selling beer and whiskey at the ballpark. It means that beer has been available in American ballparks for nearly 150 years - that’s a hard relationship to leave.

Now, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the company which produces Budweiser, is among the biggest sponsors of the MLB, a relationship that stretches back to 1980. "Sports play a critical role in creating meaningful connections between our consumers and our brands, and we’re proud to be there for those connections," said Matt Davis, head of sports marketing at Anheuser-Busch.

Beer has a similar relationship with football, which in Europe and South America was always the sport of the working class, while beer was the alcoholic beverage they traditionally drunk. Thus, brewery owners saw the development of professional football clubs during the period as a natural part of their business since football and beer were distinctive elements of working-class culture.

But the relationship between football and beer became a toxic one in the 1970s and 1980s when it helped fuel the hooliganism culture that made attending English football matches during that period often such a terrifying experience.

In 1985 in England, Margaret Thatcher’s Government introduced legislation that remains in place today that means, while alcohol can be sold at stadiums, it cannot be consumed within site of the pitch. Anyone familiar with modern English football, will be familiar with the attempts by many supporters to down as many pints as possible in the last few minutes before the start of the match, make a mad dash for the toilet and be in their seat by kick-off.

In some countries, notably France, Brazil and Russia, three countries where alcohol plays an important role in society, the sale of beer in stadiums is banned totally.

The strength of beer’s relationship with football was illustrated before the start of last year’s FIFA World Cup when the Muslim conservative hosts Qatar announced at the 11th hour that the sale of beer at matches would be banned inside stadiums.

In a tweet - quickly deleted - moments just before the news became official FIFA’s official beer sponsor AB InBev said: "Well, this is awkward…" For a brief period, there were talks of multi-million-dollar lawsuits, while fans travelling to Qatar wondered how they would be able to support their teams for 90 minutes without a beer.

In the end, it was perhaps all just a storm in a pint glass. 

The tournament passed off successfully and will be remembered for generations to come for how the inspirational Lionel Messi carried Argentina to another World Cup triumph, while the fact that beer was not available in stadiums - as had also been the case in Russia four years earlier - has already begun to fade in the memory.