The Dodgers Are Done. Time For...Poker and Beer!

Aloha everybody,

Recently, good ol' Matt from Bob Walk the Plank wrote about a topic near and dear to my heart, my second hobby: playing poker and enjoying a good beer. Actually, Matt only wrote about beer, I tacked on the poker aspect.

I've got everything ready for first deal of the night

 Matt asked a couple of questions in his post and I was one of the first to reply in the comments. Actually, I thought I would be first, but Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown must have been writing his comment at the same time as me, because when I went to post mine, there was his comment, sitting in first place, all shiny and new.  

I stopped by Matt's blog earlier today to check if he had replied to my comment yet, as he is one of those guys who will respond to just about every comment someone leaves. I'll drop a shout out to Matt here and say THANKS for that, because I really appreciate when someone takes the time to reply. 

I was blown away when I saw the amount of comments, from all of you out there who share this love of a good, cold one. That got me to thinking there are lots of us in the card collecting community who love quality, craft beers and want to share our enjoyment of it. 

I mentioned to Matt that a lot of my craft beer tasting is done with my poker buddies, and I got to thinking some of you out there might like to see what we're tasting, and give your takes on those beers. 

I know, it's not baseball cards, but at the risk of putting off the card blogger snobs, here is a look at what we tasted last month. 

Maybe you've tried one or two of these, or you've seen them on the shelf and haven't tried them yet. So here we go....

This puppy (pun intended) was my favorite of the night. You generally can't go wrong with anything from Lagunitas Brewing. 
 

 

 The Chimays are good as well, but I find their taste a bit rich and heavy. 

This one seemed like they spent more time trying to push the ABV up to 12%, and less time on making something that tastes good. 

In Indian Wells' defense, it's not easy to make something that high in ABV and not have the alcohol overwhelm the taste. 
 

This one is aged in bourbon barrels, and it was pretty durn good. Highly recommended. 
 

There was a time that Belgian was my favorite style of beer. These days my favorite is IPA, with sours coming in at a close second. 
 

Imperial IPA, but very so-so. I got the bottle on sale for $2.99, so that was a great value and well worth trying. 
 

 Tasted like fish. Just kidding. This was another good choice. 

We'll be playing poker tomorrow night, so I'm expecting another crop of great new beers to taste. If you all out there would like me to post what we try, I'll be very happy to post and recap. 

Aloha and good night, Dodgers.

This Is Why Baseball Is The Greatest Game Ever

Aloha everybody, 
 

We're less than one hour away from Game 5 of the Dodgers vs Mets, and I'm so excited, I'm gonna tap out a quick post just to bleed off some energy. 

Today is the 27th anniversary of Kirk Gibson's legendary World Series home run. What an awesome event it was for me as a Dodger fan. 

I was at home, watching the game alone, on TV. When Gibson hit that home run, I jumped up and just about bounced off the ceiling. 

Just about everyone has seen the iconic TV broadcast with Vin Scully or Jack Buck's calls, but I wonder how many of you have ever heard the late Don Drysdale's call for the radio? 

It's just as powerful, and you don't have to be a Dodger fan to feel the electricity that was running through Chavez Ravine that night. 

Go ahead, give a listen and you'll hear why nothing can match the drama that is baseball...

Aloha and Go Dodgers!