Beer snakes

It was the evening of July 1, and the St. Paul Saints had set out to break a record. The Saints -- known for eye-catching promotions such as hosting the world's largest food fight in 2018, the world's largest Twister game in 2017 and the world's largest pillow fight in 2015 -- wanted to set the North American record for the longest beer cup snake after noticing the trend pop up in baseball stadiums across the country as pandemic restrictions loosened and fans returned to their seats.

After the Saints cut off the beer taps in the seventh inning, the team brought its collected beer cups to the 10,000 Takes section and began assembling the beer cup snake, which slowly expanded toward the top of the section, over and above them, before expanding onto the concourse.

The team brought out a tape measure. It read 102 feet.

The history of the beer cup snake is hazy, at best, but The Drinks Business -- a publication covering the beer, wine and spirits industry -- stated in 2013 that the longest beer cup snake was constructed that year at the Sydney Cricket Ground, reaching 175 meters, a little over 574 feet. The Sydney Morning Herald cites the first beer cup snake ever occurring at the WACA cricket ground in Perth, Australia, in January 1997. While Mroz's family can stake an earlier claim, wherever the beer cup snake started, the popularity of the plastic animals has endured in the cricket world, also popping up at matches this summer...

"If you actually think about it, from a COVID standpoint, we were staying so far away from each other," Mroz said. "Now people are touching cups that other people's saliva is all over. We just went from 0 to 100 in a week, but it shows the resilience of human beings, and how sports really brings people together."

More information at ESPN.