Thank you for not smoking - anywhere

Citizens Bank Park is a great place to watch a ballgame. With its terrific sightlines and outstanding amenities, the ballpark and its employees try to please everyone.

Well, almost everyone. During my most recent visit to the park, buoyed by an eight-run Phillies lead and the understanding that no beer would be served after the seventh inning, my companions decided to leave their seats to take advantage of last call and smoke a cigarette. Not wanting to sit alone, I followed along. Having once been a smoker, I sympathize with the urge to light up, even though I know it's a dangerous habit.

Smoking inside public buildings is now illegal, even in an open-air structure such as "The Bank." So we all walked down to the smoking corral. I call it a corral because it sounds nicer than prison yard, which is about as accurate.

The people held within the area's makeshift fencing mill about aimlessly, watching the cloud of smoke rise above them and the world revolve around them. The segregated little section is just beyond the entrance to Harry the K's restaurant, which seemed noteworthy given the late Mr. Kalas' fondness for cigarettes and cigars. Patrons hustling for the exits barely noticed the group of about 50 puffing away.

"They cannot be serious," I said to my friends from the relative comfort outside the fencing. They just lit up and shrugged. They have become resigned to this sort of treatment, which is now the lot of the American smoker. Their fate was sealed not in a quick way, but as a byproduct of the slow, deliberate process that vilified the tobacco industry.

No one is denying that the vilification is well-earned. This is, after all, the industry that once countered the surgeon general's warning with the testimonials of smoking doctors. Then the companies equated smoking with fun, hooking a new generation of smokers. Their advertisements touted low-tar products but failed to mention the added addictive nicotine.

It's easy to argue that the tobacco companies got what they deserved. But what about smokers? Have they gotten what they deserve? Or has a campaign to improve America's health made them an unfairly despised minority?

The campaign against tobacco and smoking ultimately grew to encompass secondhand smoke. But a case could be made that, particularly in an open-air stadium - or the New Jersey beaches that are starting to prohibit smoking - this is really about annoyance more than health. Indoor smoking sections disappeared long ago, as have ashtrays from many nightclubs and bars. Now smokers are being huddled into specific areas outside office buildings or within stadiums, like cultural pariahs.

It is important to note that smoking is still legal. Are smokers weak because they haven't been able to quit? It doesn't really matter, because they aren't doing anything wrong.

Cigarettes are dangerous, but the same could be said of the hot dogs, pretzels, and beer sold in the ballpark. Yet I was able to buy them and walk back to my seat to enjoy my doughy, salty, fatty, alcoholic treats.

If we really care about health risks, why don't we demand a blood-pressure test before serving salty foods, or count beers before allowing people to toddle along to their cars? The obvious dangers of drinking weren't policed well enough to stop the killing of a young man in the stadium parking lot earlier this summer, apparently over a spilled beer.

The game ended and the cigarettes were snuffed out. As I walked away, I noticed the blue cloud of smoke drifting into the stadium. Would it have annoyed me as much as the guy screaming at the leftfielder or the couple debating which beer to order while obstructing my view? I doubt it.