Tag: Sports & A Beer

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Sports & A Beer – Tanking

To be a commissioner for a major sports league probably requires spending an inordinate amount of time to stop teams from tanking.

Tanking being that decision to either trade away or not play your best players in order to get a high draft pick after the season. The poster child of tanking were the Philadelphia 76ers about six years ago who re-imagined tanking as “the process”.

My beloved but hard to watch Portland Trailblazers have pressed the tank button the last two years and the Dallas Mavericks head coach came out and said they were not going for a win, were actively trying to avoid the playoffs which they mathematically could have reached.

To properly tank you have to avoid that Mavericks path. You cannot publicly acknowledge the tank. You just silently do it. Otherwise, karma will more than likely come for you. By karma, I mean the league office with fines.

You can debate the morality of tanking but until you have a real negative consequence such as relegation to a lower league, there is no stick nor enough of a carrot in expanded playoffs to not do it.

For beer to pair with this not so savory part of sports, see if you can find one of two beers, both related to consensus NBA pick #1 this year, Victor Wembanyama…

  1. Something from the R&D brewer from Figueroa Mountain – Victor Novak.
  2. A French Saison to match Wembanyama’s nationality.

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In the Tap Lines for March 2023

March, where the national holidays are sparse but a big ol’ beer drinking holiday is smack dab in the middle of the month. Also smack dab is the California Craft Brewers Conference. I will be in Sacramento covering CA Craft from my point of view.

~ e-visits to (3) breweries from around the Golden State

~ special featured reviews of Sacramento brewery beers

~Heads-Up on Los Angeles Beer Events

~ Three suggested beers to buy this month. One light, one medium and one dark

~ A Book & A Beer reads How To Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann

~ A Podcast & A Beer listens to Let’s Make a RomCom

~ Sports & A Beer returns for month three with

~ New Beer Releases and Best Beers of the Month

~ I will tap the Firkin and give my no holds barred opinion on the craft beer world.

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Sports & A Beer – All Star Games

All-Star games in the U.S. have morphed quite a bit in the last few years alone. Who would have thought that there would be flag football played with NFL players or that the NBA would have playground style captains picking teams.

Overall an All-Star game has turned into a weekend of entertainment and not a true celebration of the best players and it has suffered along with awards shows like the Oscars and Grammys with what is the best anyway.

Injuries and just being worn down also play a role. NBA players with a third of their season still in front of them just don’t want to aggravate anything and thus no read defense is played and the NBA finally had to change the rules to a first to this point total rule. The NFL plays after a long season, that is now even longer right after the Super Bowl so no Chiefs or Eagles are going to play.

My idea is to put the game at the start of the season. Have the sportswriters choose the starting line-ups and give the fans and coaches input on reserves. Make it a shortened game and have each team play for a charity with the winning team donating a larger amount. Add in three point shooting or field goal kicking contests to round it out.

This would hype up the coming season and add a little competition back into the event.

On the beer side, choose your beer rating app of choice and find a starting five of the best ranked beers. Saison Dupont. Pliny the Elder. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Those would be on my list.