WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — It was a common sight for Nationals fans in the early 2010s — relief pitchers Tyler Clippard and Drew Storen, working in tandem as a one-two punch, retiring batters in the final few innings of a game.
“I feel like in the back of my mind me and Drew would have found an excuse to do something together,” Clippard said. “But you know this is just such a home run the way it all worked out.”
About a decade later, Clippard and Storen, who are close friends to this day, now are running a successful line of bourbon whiskey.
“This entire thing started when when Clip and I were there in DC,” Storen told DC News Now. “we lived together and obviously became close friends and never lost touch.”
Clippard and Storen’s drink isn’t your run of the mill bourbon whiskey, it channels the lore of baseball.
“In 2018 we we had the idea to actually take the corn from the Field of Dreams movies,” Storen said.
And they did just that. Using corn from the actual Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa, the duo began to make and sell their own bourbon whiskey – Field of Dreams Whiskey.
They started with batch no. 1 and have now come out with a 2024 player series bourbon, which features images of former players under the cap.
“Former guys that are either hall of famers or hall of fame stories,” Storen said. “Put them hidden under the cap. Pops right off and you see who you get. So it’s like a pack of Topps [baseball cards].”
For the former Nationals fan favorites, it’s a special venture.
“We established our careers together,” Clippard said. “It was really nice to just have each other to kind of lean on… Whether you know he was getting the saves or I was getting the saves, it didn’t matter. That was kind of a beautiful synergy that we kind of had throughout our whole career.”
Now the two use that “synergy” to connect with bourbon and whiskey drinkers, Nationals fans and the baseball community.
“We don’t want to just sell out and be like, ‘hey look, we got Tyler Clippard selling bourbon from the Field of Dreams.’ That could work but that’s not the experience,” Storen said. “We’re trying to take the movie site to your glass and you can share that with your dad or whoever, instead of having a catch, you have a drink.”
