There will be self-serve beer machines at the All-Star Game - MLB

I’m going to the All-Star Game in Minneapolis next week. When I’m there, my company expenses will be limited to flight, hotel and a modest but sufficient per diem for meals and the like. However — and while I have never really tested this because I don’t do in-depth, shoeleather reporting — I presume that NBC also has to pay for various costs associated with the production of journalistic content, right?

In other news:

Self-serve beer stations are up and running in Target Field, so Minnesota Twins fans and those who attend the Major League Baseball All-Star festivities next week can decide what they want and even how much they want of it.

Gleeman was at Target Field over the weekend and said that they basically looked like the fancy Coke dispensers you’re starting to see at various fast food restaurants. I would hope that it won’t let you mix up beers like you’d mix Fanta and Sprite because, eww, but so far, so good!

The mechanics have a lot of safeguards in it such as requiring you show ID to a real person first and get a pre-paid card with which to fill up your cup at the machines. But the bottom line:

The machine allows a customer to use the card to pour up to 48 ounces of beer every 15 minutes.

I think I could make that work. Any more details?

Bud and Bud Light will cost 38 cents an ounce, while Shock Top Lemon Shandy and Goose Island 312 Urban Pale Ale will cost 40 cents an ounce.

Welp, OK, maybe I’ll just watch other people use it while I’m on my way to some of the other beer options on-site.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins needs surgery for a torn ACL after injuring his left knee Thursday fielding a grounder in a spring training game and is expected to miss a significant amount of time.

The Phillies did not say when Hoskins would have the surgery or exactly how long the slugging first baseman might be sidelined.

Hoskins hit 30 homers with 79 RBIs last season for the reigning National League champions.

He was backing up to play a chopper on Thursday when the ball popped out of his glove. Sooner after, he fell to the ground and began clutching his left knee. Teammates gathered around him before he was taken off of the field.

Hoskins, a free agent at the end of the season who turned 30 last week, hit six homers in Philadelphia’s playoff run last season. The Phillies lost to the Houston Astros in the World Series.

The injury was another blow for the Phillies, who will be without top pitching prospect Andrew Painter for another few weeks because of a sprained ligament in his right elbow. And slugger Bryce Harper isn’t expected back until around the All-Star break after undergoing Tommy John surgery in November.