If you listen intently, you might hear a familiar offer for a "cold beer here!" on your way to a Twins game this summer.
Wally "The Beer Man" McNeil won't be working at Target Field this season - but he'll almost be within shouting distance, three blocks down at Sneaky Pete's, both before and after every Twins game.
McNeil will be working as a celebrity bartender for the entire season - and if he likes it, perhaps longer. McNeil said he worked at Sneaky Pete's during playoff games last fall. Of the bar's owner, McNeil said, "he knows a lot of my friends."
As for his old job at Target Field, "The union talked, said they thought I could get my job back, I told them I wasn't interested. It's time to move on to something new," McNeil said. "I'm not 36 anymore. You gotta try something new once in a while."
McNeil, 76, of Plymouth, was acquitted last month of the misdemeanor charge of selling alcohol to a minor. A Hennepin County jury determined that Minneapolis police entrapped McNeil during a September sting operation at Target Field.
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"There was a whole group of people I knew. I asked everybody if they were 21. Everybody said yes," McNeil told reporters after the March 22 verdict. Still, he testified that he violated stadium policy by not demanding identification from a 19-year-old decoy in the group who ordered a $7 bottle of Michelob Golden Draft.
McNeil had sold beer at Twins games since 1982. Since the verdict, the Twins have not responded to questions pertaining to McNeil's future employment.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
