Wednesday night was glorious. Smack-dab in the middle of a week that sees me struggling to move out of my house, Wednesday brought an evening of frivolous bliss. The mighty Walker Texas Rangers were in the spring softball championship game, which gave me an excuse to get out of packing/boxing/cleaning for the evening. We, of course, whupped the competition, securing the title that had been rightly ours since the 1st week of the season. Winning, as should be expected, leads to celebration, which found me at the local excuse for a "sports bar." Surprisingly enough, Avery's Maharajah was on tap.
In retrospect, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that Avery's "great king" of Imperial IPA's was on tap; the brewery is just down the street after all. Never-the-less, flushed with post-championship adrenalin, I could barely contain my excitement as I ordered (along with the requisite wings and chili-cheese-fries). I have always enjoyed Maharaja. It's wonderful IIPA, especially because of the balance between the large amounts of hops and malt. Typically, you can only find Maharaja in 22oz bottles, so finding it, at a sports bar no less, on tap was a delightful find.
The first thing I notice when tasting the "great-king" is the light fruity/citrus flavors of the hops. Compared with other IPA offerings from Avery, specifically the impactfull Dugana, the hop flavors are allowed to "sing," rather than "punch." Don't get me wrong, there is bitterness, and acids floating around in there, it's just that the high malt content covers them up so that the higher fruity and floral notes can shine through (I tasted lots of musk-melon along with the typical citrus). The same effect can be said of the high (can be 10%+, depending on year) alcohol content. The balance between the hops and malt is such that you don't notice the alcohol. On the same vein I had Oskar Blues "Gubna" (another Imperial IPA) last night, and the high alcohol content, along with the strong bitter hop flavors was almost too much. Through this, you can really see where balance and craftsmanship comes into play (Although I believe that absurdity was what OB was going for with Gubna, so take that with a grain of salt).
Maharaja made for a great cap to my evening. On tap it is very drinkable, and the pint-sized pour is perfect for session consumption (22oz is almost too much for one go, even over the course of a full evening). In addition, I find that the sharper hop flavors are muted slightly when tapped, making it more enjoyable. If you find it on tap, get it and thank me later.
Thank God the Bulls lost last night. The season's over, and the real focus of the year can begin. Simply stated, the team, as currently constituted, isn't capable of competing for a championship. So, as I alluded to on Monday, the focus of the season needed to have been positioning the team for a vital off season. The Reindorf-ian mandate to always compete meant that a Bill Simmons-esque tanking for a lottery pick was never an option, but big time Free Agency acquisitions are definitely possible. Along those lines, here is a list of 3 things the Bulls need to do in order to better position themselves for the future:
#1) Fire Vinny Del Negro: This essentially can go without saying. He needs to go. After being the only thing between the team and an awesome 1st round upset of the Celtics last year, Vinny only compounded his coaching inadequacies this year. To quote Trib writer Steve Rosenbloom "Now the only question is whether the Bulls let Vinny Del Negro on the team plane." Everyone, including Vinny, knows this is going down, so now all the Bulls have to do is avoid firing him in an unprofessional manner. (Which, apparently, is tough for the organization to do)
#2) Find that illusive interior scoring option: The story of the Bulls big-man search is a long and storied one. Not since the days of Elton Brand has there been a truly NBA-level offensive force residing in the "man-in-the-middle" post at the UC. Years of trying to acquire the likes of Kevin Garnett and Amare Stoudemire have achieved nothing. (Don't be confused: the new-age Bill Laimbeer, is awesome and all, but his scoring is on the Rodman-ish level.) Obviously big-man scoring is always at a premium, but at some point the Bulls have to actually have something to show for effort in the category, right?
#3) Sign massive free agent: I'll say this now, LeBron isn't coming (The chants of "King James sucks!" at the UC this past week couldn't have helped). Chris Bosh would help with category 2 as well as satisfying this category, but I think it's time to bring native son Dwyane Wade home. The good thing is that GM Paxson has put the Bulls in the position to go after a star-quality scoring option through proper cap-space management. As long as it's not Joe Johnson, I'll probably be satisfied.
When I was watching the NFL draft coverage Saturday afternoon (The Sox and Hawks games were over... nothing else was on) Herm Edwards relayed an interesting tidbit regarding the Myron Rolle situation. Apparently one team had asked Rolle (The former Florida St. linebacker who put the NFL off for a year to take advantage of his Rhodes Scholarship in England) in interviews how he "felt after abandoning his team" to take advantage of the scholarship. (After having completed his degree in only 2.5 years, Rolle applied for, received, and accepted the scholarship. To accept he waived his final year of eligibility) It's a crap question from a shallow human being, whoever he may be. But it got me thinking about the circumstances that lead players to leave their teammates behind. (Be proud, Myron. You made the right choice. From: this place)
The gears were furthered along last evening when I read about the impending transfer of Buffs reserve forward Keegan Hornbuckle. CU sports, and especially the basketball team, have been hard hit by transfers and drop-outs over the past few years. The basketball list is particularly offensive to the eye. Since the day Jeff Bzdelik was hired (April 4th, 2007), the following players have left the program: Kal Bay, James Inge, Sean Kowal, Marc Van Burck, Xavier Silas, Jeremy Williams, Caleb Patterson, Kyle Wright, Andrew Zehnder, Toby Veal, Ryan Kelley and Keegan Hornbuckle. That's damn close to an entire team! Considering the seemingly desperate search for a big man to eat up the low block, how good would Caleb Patterson, Jeremy Williams, Sean Kowal or Toby Veal be looking in a Buffs uniform right now? Add to this the high profile football cases of Josh Smith, Darrell Scott and Kendrick Celestine, and maybe something in the water gives CU athletes the wanderlust (the taste of losing perhaps?). (I will not hold a grudge Keegan. From: the BDC)
I do not, in most cases, blame these kids (and at 18 or 19, that's what they are) for transferring. Be it because of a coaching change, or simply a change in attitudes/priorities, these kids are finding that, for whatever reason they no longer want to be with their team. Yes, there is a commitment made between both the University and the athlete to compensate them with a scholarship in exchange for their participation in athletics, but this isn't the military, and sometimes life gets in the way. Certainly it's hard, from a teammate perspective, to watch your friends go, but I don't think of these guys as "abandoning their teammates." Life takes precedent. If you feel you have to go home to take care of your kid (like Kendrick Celestine), then that's what you need to do. If you feel the situation has changed because of a coaching switch (like the RP ex-pats), then that happens. If you need to seek out your burgeoning rap production career (like Josh Smith, lol), then that's what's got to happen (just kidding, his rationalization was lame). It's college, and these guys are not professionals (no matter how much we'd like to think of them as pros).
I wish Keegan well. Hell, I wish all of the ex-pat Buffs well.
--
Back to Rolle; he felt that a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to further his life (and potentially the life of his future progeny) and further his education by attending school at Oxford was important. Damn straight it was. You have to take care of your own self. For him to have the perspective to take advantage of all of the gifts that God bestowed upon him is impressive, not negative. If some idiot in an NFL front office doesn't understand the need to take advantage of every opportunity presented to you, then fuck him, and fuck the NFL for propagating such a culture. If I was an NFL GM, I'd draft a guy like Myron in a heartbeat. Any organization (be it in the professional or athletic world) would be foolish to pass up men, like Rolle, who bring the full package to the table.
The Cubs and Sox have announced that, come their 6 games this summer, the two teams will be playing for the BP Crosstown Cup. How frickin lame is that.
They're mid-season baseball games, and while they do hold added importance for the fans, the players couldn't give two shits about the "rivalry." (Well except for A.J. who got punched that one time, and Ozzie who has repeatedly referred to Wrigley as a rat-infested toilet.) Trophies are for champions, not mid-season inter-league series. (Michael Barrett is a jackass)
Oh look, they even got a sponsor! How completely awful.
A little late with the bag, but a lot of stuff to touch on...
The Sox always come from behind: I mentioned a few weeks ago that with the awful hitting, and awesome pitching, the Sox will be in a lot of close games this year. Thankfully, they won each of the 3 close ones they played over the weekend. After having been written off by this guy, the Sox get late homers in each game to win. Friday night, it was Andruw Jones (who hit his just as the internet radio feed cut out.... that sucked) hitting a blast in the 9th. Saturday, after a solo shot from Captain Paulie earlier in the inning, Alex Rios slammed a 2-run shot to complete the improbable 3-run 9th inning comeback. Capping it off yesterday, Captain Paulie was back to hit a solo shot in the 8th to give the Sox the lead they'd eventually head home with. 3 cardiac wins certainly makes everyonefeelbetter about themselves.... except for this guy. Yeah they still suck, but let us fans feel good for one frickin' day.... yeesh. (Andruw Jones is very happy that Alex Rios hit his blast on Saturday. That old man on the right is our "Utility Infielder,"Omar Visquel. From: SouthSide Sox)
Speaking of Captain Paulie: He's definitely hammering the un-holy heck outta the ball right now. Watching his two homers from Saturday and Sunday, I can't shake the feeling that he's getting an extra 15ish feet on his swings this year. Both of those swings would be warning tack (if not worse) outs last year. Now, they're massive confidence building bombs. Before you ask, the dude's not on HgH (While not fat, per se, the dude is definitely not caring around extra muscle). I can only figure that this is the last gasp his bat has before it peters completely out for the rest of his career. I'll take it while I can get it. (Paulie's game-winning shot from Sunday. From: The Trib)
The Blackhawks also come from behind: That game should've been over. With less than 2 minutes left in the game, and control of the series on the line, the Hawks were not only down but Marian Hossa had committed a stupidly rash 5-minute major penalty to put the Hawks against the wall with a man down. It was such a foregone conclusion, in my mind, that the Hawks would lose that I turned the TV off and went back to listening to the Sox game. Then, out of the blue, fans started cheering at a random moment at Comiskey. The announcers surmised "The Hawks must have won, because the fans in the suites are going bonkers." Nope, they hadn't won, they had just improbably scored. Short handed, the Hawks got a loose puck and raced down the ice. The puck just happened to find Patty Kane in front of the net with 13.4 seconds left. Incredible. Feeling like a dope for leaving the Hawks in such dire straits, I didn't even change the channel during the overtime intermission for fear that the hockey gods would punish me for my wandering thoughts. In overtime, Hossa redeemed himself by screaming out of the penalty box, and straight to the open weak side of the net. After a shot/pass across ice, he gleefully tapped in the easy opportunity to send the UC into pandemonium. Frickin' awesome! The Hawks regain the series lead 3-2, and I learned yet another lesson in playoff hockey. As for Hossa's hit on Predator Dan Hamhuis: while stupid, the NHL deemed it legal. (Winning is awesome. From: The Trib) The Bulls also come.... no wait, they suck: Well, at least the Del Negro era is almost over... couldn't we have at least gotten another lottery pick out of this mess? Also, this just in: LeBron James is good at basketball.
NFL Draft: Outside of the whole "Tebow" thing (giggle), the draft had some interesting surprises. Wow, Carolina got Claussen cheap. Even if he "busts," in previous years he would've gone first easy. Teams really are freaking out about the whole "character" thing. Just look at how far guys like Claussen and Dez Bryant fell... but if the whole league only values "character" and "intelligence," then why did Myron Rolle not get drafted? Because Oxford is scary, i guess... How can you question a guy's passion just because he wanted a once-in-a-lifetime chance to forward his education. That's bullshit.
Buffs draft news: There was none. Not a single Buff got even a flier 7th spent on them. Sure, some players like Pat DeVenny (Seattle), Ben Burney (Browns) and Riar Geer (Broncos) will get a UDFA shot at the NFL, but it's kind of sad to be the only Big XII team without a draft pick (Especially when the league got the first four picks of the draft). Neil Woelk has helpfully put together this list of shitty schools with draft picks to make us Buff fans feel bad. Thanks Neil! At least the Gary Barnett era is officially over, and we can get back to focusing on how terrible Dan Hawkins is.
Let me start off by saying that I am not a Broncos fan. In fact, being inundated with Bronco-fan homer-ism the past 8 years had made me rather loathe the team. But, the topic du jour in Colorado Sports today is the dude that said this:
"To the fans and everybody in Gator Nation, I’m sorry. I’m extremely sorry. We were hoping for an undefeated season, That was my goal, something Florida has never done here. I promise you one thing, a lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season. You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season. God Bless." (-link)
What a ego-maniacal douche! Those are the words of the Jesusback, Tim Tebow after he lost some random game a few years back. (Seriously, if that's how he reacts after 1 loss, what happens when he drops multiple games?) And lo! The faithful took upon themselves these words and did maketh a placard of them; for his is the word, and the word is truth. (Thank you Tim Tebow for dying for our sins..... wait what?)
--
At first, I couldn't believe that the Broncos did this. Seriously, after 2 years they have gone from the Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall combo(regardless of my feelings towards Emo Jay, that's one hell of a QB/WR combo) to the the Neckbeard/Quinn/Jesusback-trifecta and not-Dez Bryant combo. WTF?
But then I settled down. As everybody in the main-stream media tried to use some version of "leader" in their description of the circumsizer, I tried to look at it from a different perspective. If any team was going to take a chance on Tebow, the Broncos put themselves in the best position to do it. They obviously felt like grabbing a WR early in the 1st round was a waste of money, so they traded down (multiple times) to get in slot position to grab the guy they wanted. This frugality gave them the pieces to grab another 1st round pick. With this extra pick, they were given the opportunity to be bold. They already got the piece they really wanted from the 1st round (Demaryius Thomas), so this extra pick was, almost, on the house. Obviously, they should've spent that extra 1st rounder on almost anything else, Jimmy Claussen or Sergio Kindle for example, but they didn't; this is certainly a blunder.
But, you have to give Coach McDaniels a little credit; at least they didn't blow their only 1st round choice on him.
--
All kidding and Bronco skewering aside, Tim Tebow was a waste of a first round pick last night. For a team with a need for either a NFL-ready QB or no QB at all to draft a project QB is ridiculous. If you're going to pay someone 1st round QB money, then they'd better be ready to go. Almost immediately after taking Tebow, McDaniels was in front of a camera saying that Neckbeard was still the starting QB. Why spend the money then? In terms of Tebow's "flex-back" possibilities: this guy is essentially Bradlee Van Pelt with a little more size and speed (and an IQ over 25). He's not going to be able to run past defenders, and he's not going to be able to run them over. Again, why pay him 1st round money?
Many people, including Coach J-Mac, said that Tebow "has all the traits you`re looking for in terms of toughness, competitiveness, he`s intelligent, he`s won a lot of games, he`s a leader, he works hard, he`s got all the intangibles you look for in a player at that position."(-link) O.K., whatever. You draft and play talent in the NFL, not character. I know everyone is afraid of character issues right now, but practicing hard and being nice guy doesn't win games; just ask the Colorado Buffaloes.
A few bits of news and notes from around the beer world....
Last week the Brewers Association released a list of the top brewing companies in America based on 2009 statistics. You can find the list here. When taking a look at the list, I noted a few things. The vast majority (31-19) of the top 50 craft breweries are located west of the Mississippi, while the overall list shows a more even distribution with more breweries situated east of the Mississippi (26-24). Western States (California, Colorado, Oregon) typically have more lax distribution laws which make growth in the craft industry easier; In addition, they have access to large relatively local sources of hops (The cascade and surrounding regions of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho make up essentially all of the U.S. based hop crop).
On the overall list, I was surprised to see that Boston Brewing wasn't the largest American owned brewery. I had always taken for granted that with the foreign purchase of the "big 3" brewers that Jim Koch was the "big man on campus." Not only is Pabst ahead of them, but Yuengling Brewing has jumped ahead as well. Obviously, letting Pabst slip my mind is a massive historical error, but Yuengling surprised me. I guess being situated out west, my exposure to Yuengling is limited...
I was also happy to note that local canned beer specialists Oskar Blues made the top 50 craft brewing list for the first time. Their beer is not the best that you'll find on the shelf, but it's a great fall back in times of choice overload, and, as I mentioned last week, beer in can form opens up increased transportation possibilities. Certainly that new brew-pub in Longmont (which I've still not made a trip to) is paying off with higher viability and sales. (Their Longmont facility)
--
Also released last week was this list of the 2010 World Beer Cup winners. Again, I have a few things to note. In the first category, American-Style Cream Ale or Lager, I notice that Lone Star won a medal. Much like fellow medalist Old Style, Lone Star tastes so bad that after completing one you'll swear off drinking ever again. Considering that many of these beers are consumed in this country, it's impressive that our society has lasted this long. The category is crap, obviously, but I still note that these awful beers are awarded anything. Shameful. (I guess every "beer" has a category, further down the list Colt .45 and Mickey's get on the board as well)
Further down the list, I noted 3 beers that I wanted to highlight. Alaskan Brewing's Smoked Porter (which is one of my favorite all time beers) won gold in category #19 (Aged Beer). The brew punks from BrewDog took home gold for their Hardcore IPA in category #83 (Imperial IPA); I tried this the other week, and it was a spectacular beer. And finally, Festus, from the Sandlot, won bronze in category #28 (German-style Marzen); I note this because the Sandlot is the brewery inside Coors Field where the Colorado Rockies play, good on ya guys (Yes I know their by Coors, so what.... BASEBALL)! (The outside of the Sandlot Brewery on game day. From: This guy's flickr account)
