Must Have....For Baseball Fans

With baseball season officially kicking off in two weeks I wanted to share a must have for baseball fans. A lot of you may have the MLB Network (@MLBNetwork), and luckily I just got it back this week, but here are two other apps worth trying. MLB.tv and MLB at-Bat 11. MLB.tv is great for those who don't have access to the all the channels, travel a lot for work or just want to watch a lot of baseball at the same time. It would definitely come in handy for business man specials when you are at work and want to watch the game. They have made it even better this year by extended the possibilities to watch, from computer, iPhone, iTouch, android, PS3, Apple tv, etc. Also, you are not limited to watching it on one dedicated system, you can watch on your home computer one day, your work computer the next and your PS3 that night. Here is the website to check out the pricing and options, and it is in HD where available. Click on "View Demo" button in the top left side of the screen to watch a quick video on the app.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/subscriptions/index.jsp?product=mlbtv&affiliateId=MLBTVREDIRECT

I am giving it a shot for month to see if it is something I would use to invest the money for the annual subscription.

Once you get into the app on your pc you have all kinds of options: select home or away broadcasts, add other games (up to 4) into one screen, view the boxscore, DVR controls, fantasy player tracker, listen to the radio broadcast over the top, in-game highlights. One of the best features may be having the full season available to go back and watch, and you can jump straight to an inning as well.

The other app for your phone is MLB At-Bat 11, it is available for an iPhone, iTouch, Blackberry, Android and iPad. I had this last year, it was $15 for the year and well worth it. I had access to the radio broadcast whenever I needed it and had video highlights up and running quickly. You can select your favorite team and your home page will go straight to them everytime you sign-in. Right now the app has the Spring Training games available too. The site below will give you more details.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mobile/atbat/index.jsp?c_id=mlb

Who doesn't like a good burger....

Don't know about you guys, but there are few things better than a good burger, there are so many different types of burger places these days, that at times I wonder if they get away from the simple burger, cheese, veggies, etc. Especially when I go to a new bar or hole in the wall, I always get the burger, if there burger is good it is worth another visit.

The other thing is people making burgers with all sorts of different things to stay ahead of the healthy trend. At home we have cooked turkey burgers for a while, but definitely not better than a good old fashioned beef burger. The other item we have made a handful of times and they were incredible were Bison Burgers. Here is the recipe we use, be easy on the horseradish or it will kick your arse. The other bit of advice would be to handle with care, the meat is fragile and it is crucial that you mix and mash the patties well after your ingredients are mixed together.

A perfect website for burger lovers is Burger Business. The site is a menu and marketing news with plenty of napkins. The home page has burger news as it relates to restaurants, new menu items (including an archive), burger recipes, etc. They also have a 2011 bracket just in time for the NCAA tournament. You can access it from their home page. They can be followed on twitter @BurgerBusiness.

The next taste tour of the ATL will be looking for the best burger, including a few burger reviews in cities outside of ATL that are visited. The list below are a few of the ATL burger joints that will be visited:

YEAH! Burger twitter @yeahburger
Googie Burger twitter @googieburgerATL
Flip Burger Boutique
Grindhouse Killer Burgers twitter @GrindhouseATL
Fuze Burger
The Vortex
Burger Joe's

To be continued.....

St. Paddy's Day

Erin go Bragh!! Happy Birthday Jimmie!!

So who is Saint Patrick, why do we wear green....

Saint Patrick was born in Roman Britain and was told by God to go to Ireland to Christianise them. He is credited as the principal champion of Christianity in Ireland.

The original color associated with Saint Patrick was blue, but he used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. Green ribbons and shamrocks have been worn as far back as the 17th century.

Nothing like a little history to get your ready to drink some Guinness. So get your green on, go out and celebrate and for today be an Irishman!!

NCAA Basketball...needs some juice

With the tournament started, NCAA basketball is back where it should be in the forefront.

The one and done rule for men's basketball has ruined the sports entirely. There are too many players that leave early after one season and the basketball product has suffered. The rules between college football, basketball and baseball are so different which has an effect on each sport. They need to make the rules all the same or at least bring the same rule from football to basketball.

My solution is this: if a high school player is good enough to go to the NBA, let him go. However, if you enroll and start college you must stay on campus for 3 years (like football). After three years you can leave to the NBA. This would help college basketball have more name players and players that people will know who they are. This would also provide some stability to basketball programs and level the playing field even more. Come on NCAA stop letting the pro sports use the NCAA as a minor league for their sports, set your own standards with no influence and support your product.

twitter @NCAA

March Madness

Every year March Madness seems to finish further on into April, but nonetheless it is that time of year. The play-in games start today, but the official start for most of us takes place on Thursday and lasts all day through Sunday. This is truly one of the best four days in sports and unlike a lot of other big sporting events takes place annually (World Cup, Olympics, etc).

So hopefully your bracket is filled out and you have a way to be out of work or a way to follow it while at work. A new way to get out of work is being done by radio shows, here is the story. Probably a lot better than the excuses that are thrown out each year.

http://www.examiner.com/sports-in-national/media-help-fans-of-ncaa-tournament-take-day-off-from-work

This year it is even better as St. Patrick's Day falls on Thursday, so double the craziness!!

NCAA...time to save face

With the recent news that Jim Tressel pulled a Bruce Pearl, the NCAA has a chance to step up and be consistent with the punishments. It seems that when a player does something like this they are held to a higher standard, why not the coaches. Coaches are paid loads of cash to coach, mentor young student-athletes and keep their programs within the NCAA rules. While I realize there are a lot of rules, it is in the contract to uphold the integrity of your program. Tressel is one to preach on how to do things the right way, I would say this taints his legacy whether you like it or not. Also, the OSU Director of Athletics and President should be ashamed for that laughable news conference, you came out looking worse.

While I applaud Ohio State for self-imposing penalties against the Senator, it was a little weak and needless to say the first two games are against Toledo and Akron, which I could coach OSU and win those games. Oh, by the way, their 3rd game is against Miami.

The players at Ohio State that are part of this violation are suspended for the first 5 games of this coming season, yet the coach who knew about this and lied to everyone that he knew nothing gets only 2!! There is a debate as to whether the entire season last year should be forfeited, including the Sugar Bowl victory over Arkansas. Shocker, that OSU finally beats an SEC team and did it with players that might have been ineligible.

The NCAA must hand down further penalties, not only to the football program, but also to Coach Tressel. A good minimum penalty to start with would be what was handed down to USC last year with loss of scholarships and banned from the post-season. 

Bruce Pearl, John Calipari, Dez Bryant....make room for Tressel at the table. Oh yeah, OSU fans stop pointing fingers at others or making excuses for your boy, the facts are he lied and got caught, deal with it and suck it up!! If this was Nick Saban you would be up in arms about how the SEC cheats all the time!! Last thing, ESPN you should be ashamed that the Heats' crying story was bigger than this, not once did you show the emails or push this issue like you normally do, not sure why, but a shame nonetheless!!

Click link below for the emails that brought this out. Tressel didn't think this was worthly of bringing up to the compliance office......really.

http://sportsbybrooks.com/documents-read-the-actual-jim-tressel-emails-29547

Past Due

Although it may be done by the time this blog post hits, Paul Hewitt's time at Georgia Tech must come to an end. Being a Georgia fan I would love to see him stay around, as Mark Fox is doing a great job and UGA is becoming nationally relevant in basketball again. Looking back at it, Hewitt might have wished he left to go to St. John's, but he stayed to continue to try to improve the Tech program. I am sure it had nothing to do with the buyout or his large annual salary. Tech has looked at times this season to quit on themselves and Hewitt, the ACC tourney game the other night against VaTech was another example of that. I turned the game on with 5 or 6 minutes left and Tech had 35 points, 15 fg and 14 turnovers. It is time for some new blood at Tech and I believe Tech will do what it must do this time, regardless of the hefty buyout, and release Hewitt.

It must be done by this Wednesday to avoid the contract rolling over, so that date will be closely watched by all Tech fans for sure.

Travel Guide: Freshcraft (Denver, CO) {B. Wiltin}

Here is the first of hopefully many travel guides I can bring to you, this one courtesy of Brian Wiltin (with an i n). So if you are out in Denver be sure to hit up Freshcraft.

Jason Forgy had a unique hobby and self described beer geek, who worked at the ground floor of several startups and wanted to take his passion of food and beer to another level. This is where his brother, Lucas Forgy comes in. Lucas worked in the kitchen since he was 15 years old and ended up in culinary school which moved him to Florida, Chicago, Milwaukee and then to Colorado. It was on a beach in Mexico that Jason pitched the idea of bringing together food and beer and the resulting project was what became Freshcraft that opened in Denver in August 2010.


On a cool March night in downtown, I and two friends decided to meet at happy hour to give our stamp of approval to Freshcraft. This is not like any other bar in Denver; they combine comfort food with over 120 microbrews to choose from. You get local Colorado brews competing against European micros, Belgians against Pilsners, Pilsners against IPAs. The 5-page list of beers was more than plenty to satisfy the wetting of the whistle. Combine that with unique comfort foods and you get one hell of night.

As I looked at the 120 beers to choose from, it was a little overwhelming. The menu had one page devoted to craft beers that were on tap, flip the page and this is where the golden tickets of options are. The bottle and cans are subdivided in to categories: Ambers/wheats/white, Pale Ales and IPAs, English Style Ales/Bitters/ESB, Brown Ales, Scotch/Scottish Ales, Saisons/Sours/Belgian Style Ales, Porters/Stouts, Everything else – barley wines, ancient ales, malt beers and gluten free, Seasonals and then the Ciders and Meads. Turn another page and then they had the large bottles ranging in size from 22oz to 750ml and ranging in price from $10 all the way to the Odell Mountain Standard 2010, Black IPA with 9.5% ABV from Colorado for $22.

What Freshcraft does to make the beer decision easier is to pair their beers with the food menu items. With so many choices, that was the route I chose to take to start Round 1. My friends and I decided to try their Southern Fried Pickles, which they dyed the pickles red and added serrano peppers for a very light kick, dusted them with corn meal and served them with a side of smoky Cajun aioli . The pairing recommended a sweet stout or American wheat. I went with the Left Hand Milk Stout -sweet stout, ABV= 5.3% from Colorado and my friend ordered the Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat – American wheat, ABV=4.4% from Missouri. The pickles were great, they had a light kick to them and were cut fairly thin. The aioli was very good and the stout that I ordered paired rather nicely with the pickles. I could have eaten the aioli with a spoon, but then again I love condiments to begin with.

One thing that I noticed, the stout was made with nitrogen vs. the standard CO2. Nitrogen is typically used in stouts and British Ales due to the smaller bubbles it produces, which makes it “creamier” and smoother and headier. If you want the scientific reason for nitrogenated beer, click here.


For Round 2, I still had no idea what to order.  I told Matt, the server to suggest something. He recommended the Boulevard Smokestack Series Tank 7 Farmhouse Ales from Kansas City, MO. It was a Belgian Style Ale with ABV=8.0%

It has fruity aroma and grapefruit hoppy notes and tapers off to a peppery, dry finish. That was from the website and I am not sure if I could tell all that, but I definitely could feel the fruity aroma and finish. It was a pretty good Belgian beer and I tend to stay away from Belgian beers…

Another beer that was ordered for Round 2 and was HIGHLY recommended by Matt, the waiter was Left Hand’s Fade to Black Whisky Barrel Aged Stout ABV=11%. It was definitely a unique beer and had a very good taste to it. It must be a special beer because it is not listed on the website and it is pretty hard to find online anywhere. It has a very slight whiskey type flavoring at the end which made you wanting more.

Round 3 for me consisted of Highway 78 Scotch Ale ABV=8.8%, which was another recommendation from Matt. This was a very good beer. It was a collaboration between Green Flash Brewing Company, Pizza Port of Carlsbad, CA and Stone Brewing Co., all based out of California.

On the back of the bottle it read, “What do you expect, a nuclear hopped bottle of insanity? How about malt driven, barley hopped ale with incredible depth with rich bold flavors?” Well, that was exactly what I was thinking, so I took a sip and it was a very good beer. It had a hint of being a little sweet (maybe some sort of choc flavor) and had a slight spice to it. It was very smooth and if you notice the picture there was really no head that formed in the glass. I would definitely order this one again. This is the one that I ate with my Reuben sandwich that Frashcraft put a little twist to. They had the typical Reuben sandwich corned beef with Bavarian sauerkraut that was sautéed with bacon and put caramelized apple Russian dressing with melted Swiss cheese on it. The options for sides were a salad, coleslaw, fries and something they call spudpuppies. Imagine a ball of mashed potatoes deep fried in hushpuppy batter. They were ridiculous and should have ordered a plateful. Maybe one more 8%+ ABV beer and I would have. The side pickle was even delicious. The pickle had a pungent vinegar taste to it sort of like those pickles you get at Jewish delis, but a little more potent. It was actually better than a normal pickled pickle. It was like putting vinegar on fish and chips, but on a cucumber and that was the vinegar taste of the pickle. It was really refreshing.

Overall, this place is worth checking out, the waiter was very knowledgeable with all the beers they had on tap and most that were in the bottle. His recommendations were spot on and the beers that I tasted, I liked them all. The only downside is not really a downside at all, they had tons of beers to choose from and it could get a little overwhelming if you have no clue what kind of beer you like. With the help of one of the employees it is a pretty painless process and the food is pretty legit. The overall cost for one medium entre and three beers was reasonable. I will definitely return soon.

Wiltin Rating: 5 out of 5 beers.

We Know How This Ends

It seems the steroids stories will never end, and we always know how these things end. Recently more allegations came out about Lance Armstrong and of course within hours he had a denial. Do not know which denial he took from (Roger Clemens, Marion Jones, Mark McGwire, etc.), but they always sound the same. It is a shame that this has become the government's duty to address now, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are both up on indictment with the Feds. The down side is that if you are linked to this you will always have the shadow of doubt hanging over you. If you did it, learn from Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi and admit it up front. We are tired of hearing about it.Do not let it drag out, admit it, this is a forgiving country and likes those that step up!

Experience...Not a Double Standard

In Atlanta there has been a lot of talk about whether Herman Cain is qualified to run for President in the next election. Immediately he has been attacked by the Democratic side asking if he has enough experience to be President. Funny how that was the same argument for Sarah Palin too.

How about you take a look in the mirror, Obama is not exactly a long-term politician with a lot of experience. Maybe this is why politics are so frustrating, but it seems like the American voting public should be start enough to learn about all parties before jumping to a conclusion. At least some of the other people have had to run something, Governor, etc.

I will say that after reading Herman Cain's homepage, it is refreshing to hear someone talk about how to get us back to American values, etc. Seems like we have gotten away in the past few years of talking about what is good for America and how to establish us back as a postiive World leader.

http://www.hermancain.com/index.asp

iPolice

It is one thing to restrict phone use, putting on make-up or other distractions while driving, but this is ridiculous. Some folks in New York are proposing a bill to ban the use of cell phones, iPods, or other electronic devices while crossing streets, including those walking or running. Similar bills are up for debate California, Oregon and Virginia. What about the land of the free, damn!

At what point is it not the government's job to ban all of this stuff and let people be responsible for their own stupidity. Do not know that I have heard about a lot of people listening to a-Ha and getting hit by a car.

The folks at the "The Toilet Paper" had it right, what is next banning chewing gum.

A brief lesson in finance...

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you would have $49.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you would have $33.00 today. If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you would have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you would have received $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg. A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon! Makes you damned proud to be an American!!

"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."James Dean