Monday, March 27, 2006
A Milestone is reached.
This weekend I had 3 new beers but today I going to devote to just one. On Saturday I had beer number 105 for the year and it was also the 300th overall beer I have had.
Saturday was Fantasy Baseball Draft Day. In our league we are allowed to keep 3 players from our previous year's roster and then we hold a live in-person draft to fill out the rest of the teams. Our league is hosted by Yahoo. If you are in a year-to-year league on the internet with your friends I highly suggest you go the live draft route rather than an online draft or auto draft. It is much more fun and will give your league a yearly "event" to look forward to.
My keepers this year were Albert Pujols of the Cardinals (a no-brainer really - he'll be on my team for many years to come), Carl Crawford of the Devil Rays (has potential to contribute in all categories), and Barry Bonds of the Giants (a controversial and very risky pick). Bonds could make or break my whole season. If he is healthy I can expect a high OBP (we use this category instead of Avg), 40 HRs, and 100 RBIs. If he misses significant time I am pretty much screwed.
My other keeper option would have been Jake Peavy of the Padres, who I wound up grabbing in the first draft round with the 2nd pick anyways.
I didn't really pay attention to many of the player notes this year and didn't really prepare before the draft so I made some questionable picks. Also I was drinking and that influenced me as well. I drafted Grazy Sizemore of the Indians to cockblock my friend who had been talking about drafting him. Then I drafted my arch-nemesis the D-Train simply to get a reaction out of his previous owner. I predict this one will burn me when he only wins 11 games behind a shitty offense but if he wins 15 or more or gets traded to a winning team I will rip into those who mocked me.
Ironically the best draft was had by a manager who did not even attend the draft in person (he is in CA) and used the official Yahoo rankings. He wound up with a decent staff and a powerhouse offense. However as all fantasy baseball managers know, the league is never won at the draft but in the day to day management of your club and the use of the waiver wire.
After the draft we went for our traditional group dinner, and this year was probably the best choice yet. We are now in our 5th year of doing the league, and this year we went to Taka, a small Japanese restaurant on Long Island. They have only been open a short time but have already been getting rave reviews. Their sushi is some of the best in the area and their dishes are great as well. Take it from me, as a half-Japanese, I highly recommended it.
Onto the beer. One of the other managers has gotten into the hobby of homebrewing, and his latest creation was served up at the draft, and I expressly blame him for clouding my judgment that day.
105) Miyagi Memorial Date Rape Oktoberfest - I had 3 22 oz. bombers of the stuff. Pours a deep cloudy orange color with a huge long-lasting head. Bonus points for the layer of sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Very foamy stuff that took a while to settle. Taste wise I was very impressed with this homebrew. Honestly, it was better than most of the Oktoberfest beers I have had. Similar in depth and flavor to the Brooklyn Oktoberfest. I can't wait for the next D.R. production.
105 down for the year and 260 remaining. I had two other new beers on Sunday but I will wait until tomorrow to blog about those. Tonight I think I will restart my gym routine as the weather is getting a bit nicer now. So, expect to see my drinking slow down a bit in the coming months.
Saturday was Fantasy Baseball Draft Day. In our league we are allowed to keep 3 players from our previous year's roster and then we hold a live in-person draft to fill out the rest of the teams. Our league is hosted by Yahoo. If you are in a year-to-year league on the internet with your friends I highly suggest you go the live draft route rather than an online draft or auto draft. It is much more fun and will give your league a yearly "event" to look forward to.
My keepers this year were Albert Pujols of the Cardinals (a no-brainer really - he'll be on my team for many years to come), Carl Crawford of the Devil Rays (has potential to contribute in all categories), and Barry Bonds of the Giants (a controversial and very risky pick). Bonds could make or break my whole season. If he is healthy I can expect a high OBP (we use this category instead of Avg), 40 HRs, and 100 RBIs. If he misses significant time I am pretty much screwed.
My other keeper option would have been Jake Peavy of the Padres, who I wound up grabbing in the first draft round with the 2nd pick anyways.
I didn't really pay attention to many of the player notes this year and didn't really prepare before the draft so I made some questionable picks. Also I was drinking and that influenced me as well. I drafted Grazy Sizemore of the Indians to cockblock my friend who had been talking about drafting him. Then I drafted my arch-nemesis the D-Train simply to get a reaction out of his previous owner. I predict this one will burn me when he only wins 11 games behind a shitty offense but if he wins 15 or more or gets traded to a winning team I will rip into those who mocked me.
Ironically the best draft was had by a manager who did not even attend the draft in person (he is in CA) and used the official Yahoo rankings. He wound up with a decent staff and a powerhouse offense. However as all fantasy baseball managers know, the league is never won at the draft but in the day to day management of your club and the use of the waiver wire.
After the draft we went for our traditional group dinner, and this year was probably the best choice yet. We are now in our 5th year of doing the league, and this year we went to Taka, a small Japanese restaurant on Long Island. They have only been open a short time but have already been getting rave reviews. Their sushi is some of the best in the area and their dishes are great as well. Take it from me, as a half-Japanese, I highly recommended it.
Onto the beer. One of the other managers has gotten into the hobby of homebrewing, and his latest creation was served up at the draft, and I expressly blame him for clouding my judgment that day.
105) Miyagi Memorial Date Rape Oktoberfest - I had 3 22 oz. bombers of the stuff. Pours a deep cloudy orange color with a huge long-lasting head. Bonus points for the layer of sediment at the bottom of the bottle. Very foamy stuff that took a while to settle. Taste wise I was very impressed with this homebrew. Honestly, it was better than most of the Oktoberfest beers I have had. Similar in depth and flavor to the Brooklyn Oktoberfest. I can't wait for the next D.R. production.
105 down for the year and 260 remaining. I had two other new beers on Sunday but I will wait until tomorrow to blog about those. Tonight I think I will restart my gym routine as the weather is getting a bit nicer now. So, expect to see my drinking slow down a bit in the coming months.
# posted by Nick @ 10:03 AM 
