Time To Unwind

It took me awhile, but I am finally recovered from Notre Dame’s, who came so-tantalizingly-close, but fell short yet again, deflating loss to the hated Trojans. Two things helped me to heal: a Notre Dame victory over BC (their first over the Eagles in 7 years) and a visit to Bar None.

Bar None isn’t your normal sports bar. Not only does it have TV’s to watch the latest sports, but it’s set up to let you put the competitive juices that start flowing after watching your team win to good use. Just choose your arena: pool, darts or Beirut. Then dominate!

For Greg and I there really is no choice. Sure every now and then we get the itch to throw some darts at the board. But usually, the only things we want to be throwing are ping-pong balls.

It starts with just a game. The only problem is, once you win other teams want to challenge you. And since they have to supply the beer, how can you say no? So for us, once we begin playing we don’t stop for a very, very long time. I mean one time we started our Beirut domination at around 9:30. We didn’t get off the table till around 12 that night. And that was only because by our last game...um the cups on the other side of the table had started to get a bit hazy. But hey, what do you expect? I was a two-time winner of my College Dorm's Beirut tournament ;)

Not every night is a Bar None night. It’s a very college-aged crowd and has the environment of a frat on a Friday night. So don’t go there if you aren’t in the mood to party a little harder than you usually do. And expect the unexpected when you go. One night, I decided to bring my barely-turned 21-year-old sister to the bar. That night ended up being a bar crawl with Bar None as the piece de resistance. Costumes, Karaoke, and Make-Out sessions abounded throughout the night. She was a little shocked...but after our first sister-themed win at the Beirut table she got into the spirit.

So do I recommend Bar None? Yes, but only when you are in the mood to revisit your college days. It’s more of a party bar then a sports bar. My advice is when you decide to go to Bar None, make a night of it. The bar is located in the Marina, which is a really cute little area with lots of nice shops and restaurants. We always go out to dinner beforehand. This serves two purposes: we get some really nice food, and we carbo-load prior to a big night of drinking. The place we most frequent is the Mexican restaurant, “Left at Alburquerqe,” which has the best margaritas ever!

We hope to see you at Bar None soon. We’ll be the ones in the corner, dominating every single Beirut team that dares to challenge us ☺

This Is The Year...I Can Feel It!

YES! It’s finally here! My favorite day of the whole year: USC vs. ND. And this year, you can bet your Blue Moons that Notre Dame is going to win!

I know this has nothing to do with San Francisco sports, but spare me. It’s been 7 long years of trial and tribulations for the Notre Dame faithful. But this year will be the year where the Bush Push becomes history. Horrifying Images of Leinart stretching his hands barely past the end zone line will finally be replaced by euphoria-producing images of multiple Clausen-to-Tate Touchdowns.

Overdramatic you say? Well just picture this:

The date is October 15th and a young naive Megan is sitting in her new dorm at Harvard sophomore year. Knowing a total of about 5 people, Megan is completely overwhelmed by the many hot, older and mature seniors in Currier. But thankfully, Notre Dame was there to make her feel a bit better. She has prime seats in front of the projector screen to watch ND finally break the streak of losses to their hated rival. And it’s all going so beautifully! Not only is ND hanging in there, but also there are about 50 Currierites all sitting in the Fishbowl who are having fun jawing with her! Sure, they are all rooting for USC to annoy her, but with ND up by 3 it doesn’t faze Megan at all. But, as Megan should have known, it was all too good to be true. With Bush’s miraculous 4th down catch, the good will that ND has built up throughout the game begins to crumble. So, with only 1:30 left in the game, Megan plasters a strained smile onto her face, and JT (a new “friend” who decided to sit next to her in order to partake from her chips and salsa) removes his arm from her vise like grip to prevent any more nail-clawing injuries (fyi, he never sat next to me ever again, lol).

But then a miracle happens! Mays knocks the ball out of pretty-bow Leinart’s hands and it’s a fumble to end the game!! Megan begins jumping up and down, hugging Matt Friendly (her arch nemesis throughout the game), and throwing smug smiles to the T-5 guys behind her. But then, AGAIN cruel fate plucks happiness away from her. The ball is knocked out of bounds! No recovery! USC ball! AWWWW!! Just picture Megan’s heart-broken face! Not only did the ball miraculously bounce USC’s way (which um, under Touchdown Jesus’s watch should never happen), but also the refs spotted the ball WAY to close. So what does Megan do? She puts her game face on and prepares herself for one more play...4th down...for all the marbles..

And LEINART IS STOPPED...YESSS...WAIT...NOOOO!! Bush literally pushes Leinart over the end zone after the ND defense had stuffed him. Megan collapses onto her chair, head in hands crying. No joking. Real tears roll down her face as victory was so cruelly snatched from her grasp. Everyone in the Fishbowl, aware that she really is hurt, tries to comfort her, but to no avail. Notre Dame has lost.

So no...I am not being over dramatic. But don’t worry about me. As I said, this is the year. Saturday at 12:30 ND is going to come through for me! At least you better hope so...or you'll be treated to a very bitter post come Saturday night ;P

GO IRISH!!!

Ghost Town

Quiet and Empty. Two words I’d never thought I would use to describe Giants Stadium. But then again, I’d never been around it when there wasn’t a game going on.

Game day at Momo’s means people packed back-to-back on the patio downing 5 dollar Coors in preparation for a Giants victory. Last Saturday night, I saw that Momo’s had left it’s party past behind. Instead of rowdy teens in beer stained Giants Jerseys and Panda Masks, there were people in power suits sipping wine (apparently Momo's moonlights as a fancy eatery...who knew?). The Cal flag hung limply on the flag post where once the Giants flag waved proudly. Apparently Cal football just doesn’t bring the crowd in like the Giants do.

This wasn’t how I imagined this Saturday would be. I always thought I’d be down at the Stadium on Saturday. But I thought that it would be me and 1000’s of strangers/friends, not just Greg and I.

San Francisco is ready for October Magic. I mean, just imagine if we had made it into the playoffs? Game 3 wouldn’t have been postponed till Sunday due to snow. Zito would have gone pitch for pitch with Pedro Martinez. Momo’s and 21st Amendment’s patios would have been filled to the brim. And the stadium would have been raucous and packed...instead of quiet and empty.

But, unfortunately it just wasn’t meant to be. So take my advice and don’t go down to the Stadium until the Playoffs are done. It's depressing. Wait till spring and see it in all its glory.

See you next year Giants. I can’t wait.

A Real Homecoming

Wow...so that’s what it feels like to go to a real homecoming game.

Don’t worry I’ve been to other homecomings. I went to every one of my lame high school games. But that was more about dressing up and being seen than it was about the actual football being played. I mean, when your team is so bad that they choose the local deaf school (I’m not even joking...I wish I was, but I’m not) in order to make sure that they walk away with a victory, you know that the football game isn’t why the stands are full. And then, there were my college homecoming games; um not going to lie, I actually didn’t go to a single one of those. In fact, I can honestly say that I have no idea if we actually had a homecoming game.

So yes, I was a bit homecoming-deprived going into last Saturday. But Berkeley was kind enough to let me be a part of their homecoming experience to see what it means to actually go to a sports-crazed school. And let me tell you, it was a blast! Sure, the actual game could have been better, but the atmosphere was an A plus!

My first real homecoming ever started with a BBQ at a park by Walnut Street. Disaster almost struck as a group of early bird tailgaters beat us to the park, but we found a second BBQ pit and all was good with the world again. After tons of beers, brats, and burgers, it was time to head down to the “Bears Den”. Others at the party tried to convince me to go to “Tightwad Hill” (apparently there is a huge hill that overlooks the stadium), but I just couldn’t get past the name. I mean, could you?

Unfortunately, my lack of experience in attending big games showed in my naive belief that 20 minutes to game time, we would be able to find a place to watch the game at the Campus Bar. As you can imagine, no such luck. A crowd of 100 packed into a place that probably holds about 30 comfortably just didn’t make for a great viewing arena, as the TV was always covered by some USC fan’s big head. But, though the game was almost unwatchable, the people watching opportunities more than made up for it!

At one point when we were walking to the bar, Elisa, Greg and I almost died of suppressed giggles when a group of 10 USC fans watched past us. It was like the Hills come to life! There was the natural blond girl in USC beads and a red USC shirt dress; there was the fake blond girl with shorts and uggs; there was the “cool surfer dude” with longish streaked hair and a backwards cap; and, of course, the guy with a blazer over a USC jersey with a diamond earring that could be seen across the street (so cool right? Lol). I think you guys get the picture ;P

The game ended up being completely dominated by USC. As a result, the already bigheads of the USC fans swelled to a disturbing size. I’m not joking; their overly teased out hair somehow managed to gain even more volume by the end of the night. Quite impressive actually, lol. So we eventually decided we had had enough and went back to watch the rest of the game in peace at Elisa's apartment.

Overall, my Saturday was amazing! Sure the USC fans sucked, but that was to be expected. So I would definitely recommend going to a game if you can manage it. Just make sure to get to the game early...and try to avoid Tightwad Hill at all costs!

Thanks For The Memories

Dear Panda, Timmy, Cain, and Wilson:

Colorado finally whittled down their Magic Number to 0 so the “We’re In This Thing” commercials will have to be canceled. Is a Rockies Champagne Shower a sad end to an otherwise amazing season? Sure, but it isn’t all bad, so perk up guys!

Sure there’s disappointment: I’m disappointed, the talk shows are disappointed, and you’re obviously disappointed. Still...think of how far we’ve come! Remember back to the opening month of the season where the only thing that got the crowd excited was the free giveaways? Where instead of fighting the other teams fans, Giants fans were fighting each other for the chance at an absolutely horrendous PG&E “Solar Cap”. And where even Sunday afternoon games were only half full?

Now think about the end of the year…where every game was sold out, the local bars were hopping, and Giants fans were kicking the butts out of any Dodger fan that dared to enter AT&T Park. Plus, how cool were those Panda Masks?

Don’t think of the hated Dodgers winning the division. Hold onto these images instead:

5) Panda-Mania: A superstar was born this year. I mean, who doesn't love the slightly rotund, but remarkably fast and always smiling Sandoval?

4) Randy Johnson’s 300th win: True, it didn’t happen at home. But who can forget waiting through hours of rain delay to see if the game was ever going to happen. Plus...the experts always say that he will be the last 300th game winner. Then again, that’s probably because their East Coast Baseball Watching Bias hasn’t properly allowed them to get to know a certain Giants Pitcher called Tim Lincecum, aka the Franchise!

3) Best Pitching Staff in the Majors: Every game, I felt I was going to witness a shutout. And not going to lie, whenever Cain or Lincecum did let up a run, I was a little surprised/upset. Spoiled much?

2) Lincecum and Cain making the All-Star Team: I mean come on. How funny was it when Uribe was walking around the dugout wearing a “CAIN” All-Star Jersey? Talk about team unity!

1) Sanchez’s No Hitter: We got to see the first Giants pitcher throw a no-hitter since 1976. I’ll always remember being in a Giants bar, with the bar tenders giving free shots all around for luck in the 9th inning. True, the jello shots were possibly the worst things I’ve ever had in my life (word to the wise…all the alcohol is on the bottom of that shot so be prepared when you take that last bit)…but the stomach ache was well worth it to see my first ever No Hitter.

So thanks for a great season guys. Thanks to you, I can finally listen to my sports radio without them begging for the Sabean to bring back Barry (I’m like, it’s been 2 years guys…get over it already!). So though a little disappointed, the ultimate feeling for me is happiness, and it should be for you as well.

Now...if we can just get some power hitting... ;P