Mattazuma's Revenge

Summer Vacation - Help needed

For the first time in 4 years, I'm going to miss the summer Vegas trip. I know I'm going in the fall with a group of friends and will definitely be going to the winter WPBT gathering.  So twice in one year is enough.

Instead, we are going on a road trip.  We are going to spend around a week and a half, including the 4th of July in Texas and the deep south.  Currently our plans are to see the rangers play the Rays on July 3 in Arlington and to be in Austin for the 4th.  Their little celebration sounds like fun.

The next week our only plans are to go to the Lampasas Spring Ho festival on July 6 or 7, an Astros game, and probably the Tabasco factory in Louisiana.  Hopefully, we can go to a few places in the deep south Alton Brown visited during his 'Feasting on Asphalt 2" show on our way back to Chicago.

So, between July 5 and July 10 or so, we need some more stuff to do in Texas and/or Louisiana. 

Any suggestions?  We are planning of being in Austin for most of that time, but driving a few hundred miles to see or do something cool is not a problem :)

All My Ballparks

So, now that all is right with the world and baseball season has returned I'm trying to figure out which ballpark to take a road trip to this summer.

Here's where I've been so far:

1. Montreal, Olympic Stadium - Went here three or four times when I was in college.  Yes, I went to school somewhere way too far north.

2. Boston, Fenway Park - I went here on my 8th grade trip.  I went around 6 weeks after I had moved from northern Virginia to Long Island.  Kid got in trouble for drinking beer at the game.

3. New York, Shea Stadium - Went a dozen times during high school, and maybe twice afterwards.  It was a shithole.  My high school marching band played our halftime show at Shea for a Jets game.  It was not improved when they painted it blue after the 1986 World Series win.  I once saw Ed Lynch get thrown out at first by the right fielder on what should have been a single.

4. New York, Yankee Stadium - I am a Mets fan but I have to admit that Yankee Stadium was always nicer than Shea. I got a kick out of the four man security guard teams who ran around the stadium breaking up fights.

5. Baltimore, Memorial Stadium - My first major league game was in Baltimore when I was around 12.  Went back a few times in its final year.

6. Baltimore, Camden Yards - Went a couple times after my friend Paul moved to DC in the mid 90s. It's a modern classic.

7. Atlanta, Turner Field - We went on a big road trip back around 2003 or so and went to a game.  Like most modern parks, it was very nice.

8. Toronto, Sky Dome - I met a friend in Toronto to see a U2 concert and we also wanted to see a game at the Sky Dome.  This was back when it was packed every night.  We went to a bunch of scaplers to find tickets cheap enough for us to afford.  They had girls come out and actually stretch during the 7th inning stretch.

9. Detroit, Tiger Stadium - Went up once to visit a friend in Detroit and we caught a game.  Tiger Stadium was really dilapidated in the late 90s.  We ended up in the bleachers. It was Bud umbrella day and the very large extended family behind us did not understand why their 6 kids under the age of 8 couldn't have beer-sponsored unbrellas.  I ended up using that umbrella for at least five years.

10. Minneapolis, Metrodome - Went with my sisters, brother-in law and nieces a few years ago to see the Cubs play the Twins. The stadium is awful, but they sell incredible deep fried cheese curds outside the park.

11. Milwaukee, County Stadium - Went when I was 'between jobs' back in 1994.  Don't remember much from the game, only that I liked the secret sauce on the brats.

12. Milwaukee, Miller Park - I really like this newer park.  Although I went on a 95 degree day and I wish they would have sprung for air conditioning.  And if you go, root for the Chorizo in the sausage race :)

13. Chicago, Wrigley Field - I have been to over 250 games here in the last fifteen years.  I love the place, I just wish the food in the upper deck was better.  I hope the new owners don't ruin the place or force all of the season ticket holders to pay $$$$ in PSLs to keep our tickets.

14. Chicago, US Cell Park - This was the last of the mediocre ballparks when it opened.  They spent a bunch of money fixing it up over the years and now it's pretty nice.  The bleacher tickets are a great deal here.

15. St. Louis, Busch Stadium (old) - I went the last year it was open.  In August.  The weather was oppressive. It was in the 90s with high humidity.  On the plus side, the sold 24 oz. beers.

16. St. Louis, Busch Studium (new) - We went last summer when I really was between jobs.  It's a great park.  We were up in the club level, I highly recommend it.  It was funny, they had a stir fry station that was really busy all night.  Love to go back to see the Cubs or Mets play there.

17. Seattle, Safeco Field - We went with friends on a Cubs road trip 5 or 6 years ago.  Loved the trains blowing their horns as they went behind the park.  First place I saw sushi at the ballpark and signs in Japanese.

18. Oakland, Alemeda County Stadium - I went a few times when I lived South of Oakland back in 1991.  Loved the 'Clorox Bleachers' and the Anchor Steam on tap.

19. San Francisco, Candlestick Park - Also went when I lived out there in 1991.  Went to an early season game with a Dodger fan.  Had to wear all of my east coast cold weather clothes to the game.  Only park I've been to which sold soup in a sourdough bread bowl.

20. San Francisco, Pac Bell Park - It will always be Pac Bell to me.  It's a great park, loved the garlic fries and (once again) the Anchor Steam on tap.  Still have the foam finger handed out at the game.

21. Los Angeles, Dodger Stadium - First time we went was also a Cubs trip with friends.  We were there on celebrity softball game night, which was a riot.

22. Anaheim, Angels Stadium - We went to the 2nd game of the year last year.  I liked what they did to 'fix' what used to be a multi-purpose stadium to make it baseball only.  First park where they offered to salt the rim of my plastic cup before pouring in the big beer.  I declined.

23. San Diego, Petco Park - Went forthe WBC back in 2006.  The fish tacos were great, but kind of expensive.  Also liked the sand in the outfield bleacher seats.

I've also been to Vet's Stadium in Philly, RFK in CD and Dolphins Field in Miami, but they were for NFL games so they don't count.

This summer I think I want to go to either Ohio or Texas.  I plotted out a course to hit both parks in Texas in June as part of a big road trip but I may have to blow off my summer Vegas trip to pull this off.

Beer Wars Movie - My Review

So, I went and saw the Beer Wars movie last Thursday.  I'm a little late with my review compared to a bunch of other people probably, but I wanted a few days to think about it.

The movie was shown across the country via a HD satellite transmission and there was a round table discussion afterwards.

The marketing of the movie was aimed at fans of craft brewing.  The outtakes shown on the movie's site were all interviews with craft brewers.  Then, one of the two subjects of the movie really wasn't a craft brewer.  She was selling a caffeine infused beer.  I guess it is a more beer-like version of Sparks.  But the movie did not spend one minute showing where her beer was brewed.  She previously was one of the founders of the Boston Beer Co. (aka Sam Adams) and their lead marketer.  I guess she also had parallels with the director/writer/interviewer who was a big part of the success of Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Conversely, the other subject is the founder of Dogfish Head Brewery, which is very much a craft brewery.  The parts of the movie with him in it are all about his employees and his beers and the ongoing expansion of the brewery.

There seemed to be a lot of footage of the founder of Stone Brewing that didn't make its way into the movie.  It is a shame, because he was great in the round table and I enjoyed his outtakes shown on the movie's site.

One odd thing is practially everyone in the movie was from the east coast.  There was one scene with a founder of New Belgium (aka Fat Tire) who are in Colorado but that really was it west of Pennsylvania.

This movie should have focused on the craft brewers.  The story of the woman trying to sell the caffeine beer was somewhat compelling, but a movie about beer should be more about the people making the beer vs the people trying to sell it.  Playing up the large brewers and distributors as the bad guys was somewhat misplaced as well.  Yeah, Bud and Miller/Coors want to own all of the beer market, but that ship has sailed and well made beers can succeed in the market now and into the future.

There are also real benefits to the large brewers making "good", or at least better, beer.  A friend of mine was just diagnosed with Celiac disease.  As a result of this disease, she can no longer consume gluten, which is in most beer.  This depressed her a great deal, because, she, like most of us, likes to have a few beers when we go to Wrigley.  She made a great discovery when we were at the game on Friday, they sell a gluten-free beer at Wrigley.  Who makes the beer?  An Anheiser Busch sub brand called Red Bridge. A-B is donating a part of the revenues of the beer to Celiac Disease research. Not so evil if you ask me.

Also, if A-B gets people drinking their American Ale, which is pretty good, maybe they'll graduate to something great from a craft brewer down the road.

I'm guessing the movie will be available on DVD at some point, and I'll probably buy it just for the brewer interviews that didn't make the movie.

In the end, the movie was entertaining, but not what I thought it was going to be going in, which in this case wasn't a good thing.  This movie leaves the door open for someone else to make a more "historical" doumentary about craft brewing, especially if they focus on the west coast brewing scene.

First Night at the Horseshoe

I was looking for somewhere to gamble last Friday and of the choices I Twittered about, Gadzooks recommended hitting the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond.  It is a huge boat or barge or something.  All I know is it isn't 'land based'.  But it is huge for something that floats, including 3000 slot machines, 8 craps tables, and a 34 table poker room.  I arrived around 8PM.  The parking garage was packed.

The Horseshoe looks like a 3/4 scale Las Vegas casino.  The poker room is in the far back of the casino and seems to be very well run.  I put my name on the list for 1/2NL and 3/6 limit and they gave me a pager.  I spent the next hour and a half playing a little video poker and then some craps.  They had 5 $10 min. tables and 3 $15 tables at 8:30 on a Friday night.  One thing I noticed while playing video poker is most of the $0.25 machines had a 10 coin 'max bet' instead of the normal 5 coins.  So it didn't pay out the royal flush bonus unless you played ten coins. I liked their craps tables, I'd go back just for them.

Eventually I was seated at a 1/2 NL table.  Normally I am a little uneasy playing live NL, but I didn't get that feeling.  I think all of the passive play helped.  I think I saw one preflop re-raise all night. Lots of preflop limping as well.  I only had one really good hand all night, was dealt JTs under the gun and raised to $8 guy on the button was the only caller. Flop was A8Q 3 suited and I tossed out $25 as a semi-bluff and the other guy called. The turn was a K and I opened for $50.  The other guy pushed and I quickly called with my straight.  He flipped over KK.  The river was a blank & I made around $150.  It was a very nice feeling.

One crazy thing happened at the table.  The Horseshoe has a royal flush bonus, and around the time I was thinking about leaving, someone at the table got a royal flush. He got a $500 bonus and the rest of us were in line for $100 bonuses.  All we had to do was give the room manager our player cards.  The thing was the guy to my right didn't want to.  He was a little odd, he was hoarding water bottles under the table and seemed a little paranoid.  When the room manager got around to him, the guy refused the money.  This floored everyone at the table and we started asking him why he was giving up the money.  He grumbled something about 'nothing is free' and within 5 minutes the guy took off.  The only disappointing thing is I lost around $100 waiting for the free $100.

I ended up winning $190, so I have to go back this weekend :).