Our friends at the Stogie Guys send word that the Washington Nationals baseball team has officially rejected a proposal they came up with to designate a number of seats in the upper level of RFK Stadium for an upcoming home game as “cigar friendly.”

For now.

Empty seats for Washington Nationals baseball games at RFK stadium in Washington, DC

The light at the end of the tunnel is that Carleen Martin, director of marketing and promotions for the Washington Nationals, said that the franchise would reconsider the proposal next year. Perhaps Martin also should consider how successful other major league baseball teams have been with cigar promotions at their stadiums.

I’m not sure how much of a light the statement about “reconsidering the proposal” is, coming as it does in a town where being “sent back to committee” usually means that nothing is ever done. However, it is better than a complete rejection and maybe there is something Cigar Envy readers can do to help the Nats make a different decision.

More on that — and the freebies the Nats passed up to promote the cigar event — below the fold.

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Related Link: Washington Car Insurance Quote free quotes

You may have heard the story of President John F. Kennedy sending his press secretary, Pierre Salinger, out to buy a stockpile of Cuban cigars the night before he signed the Cuban embargo into law. You might have wondered if the story was true, or simply an urban legend.

Well, it is true.

Here, courtesy of Janson media, is some archival footage in which the late Pierre Salinger recounts the incident in his own words Just click on the player (you might have to click twice if you are using Internet Explorer) and you’ll learn some things not only about that incident, but about some cigars smuggled into the White House after the embargo became law:

More about the Cuban Petit Upmann and President Kennedy’s favorite cigar below the fold.

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Although that sounds like the punch-line of the world’s strangest dirty joke, today’s headline is no laughing matter in Oakland, California. This report comes by way of Hal McCoy of Cox News Service and Scott Miller of CBS Sportsline

For the last five years, a humidor at Coors Field has kept baseballs in a 70-degree and 50 percent humidity environment, which didn’t help Oakland’s visit to Coors last week.

The Athletics were shut out twice in a row, prompting catcher Jason Kendall to say, “I feel there should be an investigation of the humidor.”

Does he think the Rockies are storing contraband Cuban cigars in it?

Well, humidors to store baseballs may soon come to a ballpark near you.

Major League Baseball is considering the use of humidors in more parks, according to Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball operations and humidor guru. “This is the wave of the future. We will talk about putting humidors in other major-league parks at our operations meetings. The Rockies are ahead of the times.”

Rawlings stores its manufactured baseballs in Missouri at 70 degrees and 50 percent humidity, along with a few boxes of executive cigars.

Why a humidor?

To combat a problem that once plagued George Costanza, in an entirely different way.

The problem is shrinkage. And this is a “rest of the story” that you’re not likely to hear from Paul Harvey.

More after the jump.

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Recreation and Park Department officials in San Francisco are wondering if anyone is going to be able to see the park’s trees in the forest of signs they’ve been forced to put up.

So many restrictive laws and regulations have been passed in the California city, ironically noted for its free spirit in the counterculture heyday of the 1960’s, that they failed to add more than 1,000 “No Smoking” signs to the burden already marring the view of nature in hundreds of locations throughout the parks.

I wonder what would happen if some San Francisco residents brought suit against the County for visual pollution of the parks? What about all the energy wasted to make all of those signs, transport them, and put them up?

Heck, the signs might even be cutting down on available sunlight getting to the trees and plants, doing them serious injury. Or perhaps they are destroying the habit of some priceless insect or bird, and hurrying yet another species along the road to extinction.

More on the San Francisco outdoor smoking ban that is even being ignored by parts of San Francisco’s govenment as excessive is below the fold.

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Another modification to the site makes each article available in Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portugese, Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Japanese in addition to English.

It is machine-translation, done on demand, but you can bookmark pages in your language of choice and come back to them later.

In order to translate the site, just click on the appropriate flag in the far right column at the top (above the calendar and well past the picture of Jennifer Tilly smoking a cigar on this page, and Jennifer Aniston smoking on the next page - click More), and the page you are on will magically transform. Another upgrade is in the works that will make every page on the site appear in your chosen language from then on — that should be ready in a week or so.

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Patrick at The Stogie Guys has a short review of the Partagas Black Label Clasico up. The Black Label is a cigar that I like. Indeed, I like virtually all Partagas cigars. Patrick seems to agree on this one, giving it a four out of five on their rating system.

Here’s an excerpt of what Patrick had to say,

“while the cigar’s appearance makes it stand out in the humidor, this stogie can only fully be appreciated after enjoying its distinctive flavors, which are so unique they are difficult to properly describe.

The Clasico is a 5.25×54 large Robusto made at General Cigar’s Dominicana factory. I would characterize it as a medium-to-full bodied smoke with a full flavor that is spicy or peppery and yet very smooth at the same time. A lot of the special character of the cigar comes from the care that went into its development.

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