I think a great deal of my animosity towards hockey has to do with the media in this country. TSN and TSNalt (our two major sports channels) might as well rename themselves "The Hockey Network." They operate under the guise of being sports networks, but really all they exist for is to talk about hockey. They will interrupt live NASCAR races to bring you news about the latest draft pick in the off season. During the ACTUAL season? Foggedaboudit. They don't even make a pretense that they give a shit about any other sport. It's annoying.
That's funny. I don't like watching the game in person as much as I like watching it on TV. I'm a stats girl. I love listening to the announcers and the play-by-play.
That must be why you love baseball. I have a good friend who insists that the only reason they play baseball is to generate more baseball statistics. Guaranteed at some point in EVERY MLB basball game, the announcer will cough up the most obscure statistic you can dream of. "Terry, did you know that this is only the fourth time in the last eighty-six years that a first baseman has grounded out in the third inning while playing with a broken thumb?" Srsly.
You've obviously never listened to Tripp Tracey stutter and stammer his way through a Hurricanes game. John Forslund, on the other hand, is a fantastic play-by-play guy.
I'm reading Moneyball right now. Such a great book. I started reading it mostly from a Marketing perspective because making sense of numbers is a big deal in our industry. But from just a regular sports perspective, it's pretty fucking awesome.
I like baseball and stats. It's interesting sort of following what's happened, although it's kind of annoying when people smugly weave narratives out of stats they don't understand.
I'm only recently finding my love for hockey again. I played and coached for many years, and the politics really fucked up the game for me. I quit watching and playing really abruptly. Only last year started following the game again.
So I'm sitting in my German bar tonight. Two old fellas plop down next to me and my pal. One orders the Pilsner Urquell like I'm drinking, the other orders the Franziskaner Dunkel my friend is drinking. Then they end up ordering the exact goddamn dinner we did. Schnitzel. Note they had no idea what we were drinking. Just spontaneously ordered the same. They start talking trash to each other and busting balls. They're at least 70. We all end up talking about religion, politics, shitty jobs, and how to get laid for at least 3 hours. One of them pipes up about his mail order bride and how she took him for a ride to get her family over from Peru. He's so bitter about gals (they call girls gals like I do, shit) I mistook him for a poster here. Fucking BIZARRE. This was one of the happiest moments of my life. When I get that old I pray to Allah I'm still that feisty. Instead of a handshake, they insisted we bump fists. Bar owner gave me a 64 oz Paulaner boot for Halloween. In the years I've been going there she hasn't given me so much as a free shot or topped my drink off gratis. Just my night, I guess.
My local got sold by the owners about a year ago. The owners, Pat & Tom, were brothers and awesome. Sit there and watch rugby with you, buying drinks and shit. Went down there for one new years and it was pretty quiet. Pat ended up buying us drinks for the whole night. I miss my Tavern.
I'm very particular about the establishments I frequent. One got invaded by too many college students, another by hipsters. This one was almost invaded by hipsters and bad music, but they seem to have stopped accepting shitty bands. A good bar is hard to find. There's a certain magic in a proper one. Good bartender that will fuck around with you, good clientele that know enough to leave you alone most of the time, and dim lighting. I can't stress dim lighting enough. Live music drives me batty in these places too. It's almost something indescribable. It's like the bar knows it needs to be crowded on a Saturday and have 4 old drunks talking shit on a Tuesday, so it makes that happen perfectly for you. All for you. I'm still floored about the old guys. I want to be like that at 70+. It made me both incredibly happy and sad at the same time. One of the most beautiful things ever. HALLOWEEN MUSIC TIME!
Yeah I hear what you're saying. This tavern was awesome and then when the owners changed the majority of the staff left and the place just rubs me the wrong way now. I didn't even bother getting to know any of the new barmaids. I used to just get rides home with the girls whenever they knocked off. There is another place just down the road that I've been going to lately, management is heaps cooler and doing ok with one of the girls there so for now this is my local.
I'm drinking a pretty good Texas beer tonight: http://www.rahrbrewing.com/our-beers/year-round-beers/blonde-lager.html How many other beer companies have you seen that put a cheese pairing on their website? That has to be a classy beer right?
Does anybody want to come over and make me a sandwich? I have all the stuff here, and I'm willing to make it worth your while.
Only if you have lips like your avatar. Beer and peach cobbler...I'm going to chip procelain tomorrow but I just don't care.