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Home > What's New > Lou Piniella Saves Cigar Bar
Lou Piniella Saves Cigar Bar
Posted: Wednesday, June 18, 2003
By Michael Moretti
Out beyond the center field fence at Tropicana Field, up over the bullpen into the upper-level, you'll find the welcoming sight of plush leather chairs, a humidor stocked with cigars and baseball fans happily puffing. It is there today thanks to Lou Piniella and, in a roundabout way, his whole family.
The Cuesta-Rey cigar bar is a rarity in Major League Baseball, the only cigar bar located inside a Major League ballpark. Appropriate, given the tobacco heritage of the team's hometown. But after five losing seasons for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, J.C. Newman, owner of the Cuesta-Rey brand, headquartered in Tampa Bay, was debating whether or not to renew its sponsorship of the cigar bar for another five years.
"The decision to renew our sponsorship of the Cuesta-Rey cigar bar was drawing near and it wasn't an easy one," said Eric Newman, president of the J.C Newman Cigar Company in a press statement. "But once we heard Lou Piniella was coming to Tampa, we knew it would be a great fit for the Devil Rays."
"The fact that Lou created a lot of credibility, interest and excitement for the team, plus he loves cigars, he's a Tampa boy and the fact that he has connections to Cuesta-Rey cigars, made it all seem natural," said Newman in an interview.
Vince Naimoli, left, joins Stanford, Eric and Bobby Newman in congratulating Lou Pieniella, center, with a box of Cuesta-Rey cigars.
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Before playing Major League Baseball and posting 11 winning seasons out of 15 as a manager, Piniella grew up in Florida with the cigar industry. His grandfather, a Spanish immigrant, began working for Cuesta-Rey cigars as a tobacco buyer in the 1920s when the company was owned by E. Regensburg & Sons. In 1953, J.C. Newman acquired the company and moved to Florida from Cleveland, Ohio. Piniella's father was a well-known cigar distributor in Ybor, Florida and West Tampa throughout 50s and 60s, and Piniella's two uncles worked as J.C. Newman accountants for over twenty years.
This isn't a room with a card table, some folding chairs and an ashtray either -- it's the real deal. The cigar bar is made up of a full bar, lounge area with big screen televisions and a smoke shop. For a bite to eat and a live view of the game, you can go across Centerfield Street, on the upper level, to The Batter's Eye Restaurant -- the only restaurant in MLB with a bird's eye view in straightaway Center Field.
The cigar bar is also exclusive to cigar smokers. "When we first opened up, the smoking area looked like an airport lounge," said Newman. When the smoking lounge was made into the Cuesta-Rey cigar bar, a sign was nailed up, which reads, "Cigar Smokers Only." "It's kind of our revenge on places that won't allow cigars and pipes but allow cigarettes."
Photos Courtesy of J.C. Newman Cigar Co. Also in Cigar News:
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