FlaSoxxJim

Note: This was moved from the pinned thread initiating this dubious venture. Flaxx Phillies at Sox 6/8 - 6/10 OK, I’m taking liberties here. Technically I should be talking about Chicago beer opportunities here at the start of a homestand. But we aren’t going to be playing in the City of Brother-on-Brotherly Love (good add campaign) anytime soon, so I have to take this opportunity to talk about America’s first city of beer. Philadelphia was an important US brewing center from the earliest colonial times. Gov. William Penn (as in –'sylvania') opened the first brewery here, the 'Pioneer Brew House' (1683), and ran it out of his house. They brewed British style ales, including the newly emerging dark porter style that history tells us was the favorite of George Washington. The ales were probably the best in the country and ostensibly as good as any produced in England at the time. Lofty beginnings, to be sure. By the start of the 20th Century there were more than 50 breweries operating within the city, and a good many more throughout the state. German immigration and the worldwide Lager Revolution of the 1840s-1550s had changed the styles that were being produced, but brewing was alive and well and it certainly looked like that trend would continue… Then came 1920 and the beginning of the friggin’ “Noble Experiment”.... *Shudder* Looking at that bunch, is their sign a threat or a promise? As in most US brewing cities, 13 years of Prohibition spelled the demise of nearly 100% of the small artisinal breweries, and more than 3/4 of the large regionals. Even the big boys like AB and Pabst and Miller came close to going under - hard to make money as a brewer when you can’t brew. The big boys got into the bread and malt and dairy industries to survive, gobbling up the failed little guys where they could. Lost to Prohibition were several large breweries including nationally distributed Baltz, Hohenadel, Esslinger, Continental, and Philadelphia Old Stock. When the dust cleared in 1933, only two of the large Philly breweries were left standing: Ortlieb's and C. Schmidt’s of Philadelphia (No, Schmidt of Philadelphia the brewery, not the HOF third baseman). OK, then, next time we're all in Philly, let's make sure to enjoy some locally crafted Ortlieb's Lager, Schmidt’s Lager, or Schmidt's Prior Double Dark, right? Wrong. Ortlieb's and Schmidt's both closed their doors in the 1980s, with the Ortlieb's name being sold to Stroh and Schmidt's to Heileman. Schmidt's stopped producing in Philly in 1987 (and the brewery was finally torn down in 2002), and Heilman made it here and there for a while it its breweries. But not in Philly, which was without any breweries to call its own (excluding Prohibition) since Penn's Pioneer days 300 years earlier. Sob. Happily, things have gotten better in the last 15 years or so. There's not much chance of getting Philadelphia products unless you are local or at least in-state, but there is once again good beer to be had if you find yourself in town – dressed perhaps in colonial-era clothing waiting for your love to meet you at Independence Hall. Beers from the Stoudt Brewery (opened 1987) in nearby Adamstown are probably the ones you might actually find with some wide distribution in bottles. They make mostly very good all-malt German styles, with their marzen/Oktoberfest beers being most often available (down here anyway). I've also had and very much enjoyed some nice beers from Yards Brewing Company. Unlike the other current players, Yards focuses on English ales instead of German lagers. Their ESB, served from casks and beer engines' (hand pumps) on site and at a couple other local beer bars, is particularly good. They have been past participants in the annual Real Ale festival held in Chicago and co-hosted by Goose Island. Dock Street opened as a brewpub in Philly proper in 1990. It has been through ownership changes and has closed and reopened at least once that I know of. Their bottled products made it to within a few states of me (striking distance!) until the mid-90s, but I don't know how widely they are distributed now. I've not had a chance to try anything from the Independence Brewing Company (opened 1995), but their flagship lager has won a few medals at the Great American Beer Festival. Red Bell and Poor Henry's are the other new Philly breweries I know to be in operation. I've not made it to either brewery yet. I know "Poor Henry" is Henry Ortlieb of the Ortlieb brewing family, so there is a historical tie-in. When the brewery opened in 1997, Stroh still controlled the Ortlieb name so he couldn't use it. Now that Stroh is gone he has regained control of the family name (and also the aforementioned Dock Street pub). If you can't make it to Philadelphia, and you can't find Stoudt's locally, you have to punt. This can be done in a good way (relatively speaking) or in a bad way. The good way is to find something from Youngling's (Pottstown PA), THE oldest brewery in America. The Bad way is to have to suck it up ad drink Rolling Rock (Latrobe PA). I'll share my thoughts on these two breweries and their offerings a little later in the series. Go White Sox. Have a Beer SoxTalkers.

Really, really good job. Clicking between Cubs (*grumble*) and Twins (*GRUMBLE*) at the commercials yesterday (love that Extra Innings package) I missed it during the game.

Well... you can't exactly speed up the arrival of a 15th anniversary can you? Wow, I never caught the right-handed Joe Jackson. Good call.

Unless Ozzie has to guess every night who's got it together and who doesn't. I'd have expected that phenomenal a meltdown out of Politte before Jackson.

Way Joe Joe - 1 gone.

Politte has left me cold all year, Jackson I have been ok with for the most part (tonight excluded).

You'd think so any way. This is what they call 'closer by situation' in the Sox org?

Kochesque indeed. C'mon Cliff!

Really solid season - I didn't evem mind the dream episode, I just didn't get it. As much as they tried to bring the Malfi office visits back, that just didn't integrate as well as I would have hoped. For being the driving vehicle of the first couple of seasons, it seems forced and a little superfluous now. That's my only negative comment an otherwise really strong season.

Is Century21 sponsoring this game?

PK!!!

Ramirez in for relief duty already !

They finally un-juiced that ball for the last two innings, huh? Man, s*** was just flying outta that place for a while.

You said it. Our loans are structured in a real slimy way where you can't really pay down the capital - anything extra you just pay is applied toward your next payment due. I'm not bright enough to really get all that money stuff, but a couple of people have told me it does indeed blow nut. My wife and I strated out with $45K debt between us, and several years later we still seem to be in pretty much the same hole.

I've herd some of his playing on Lou Reed album and on some Matthew Sweet - not bad. Sad to hear something like this.

That was a short tenure. You weren't caught putting nair in the jockstraps were you?

LaRussa $$$ >> Guillen $ We could afford Tony 20 years ago and that's why he was our manager then and not now. Oh, and Hawk did screw that up in his horrid single year as GM, didn't he?

Did you mean to say "Don't make nothing into something"? If so, I agree,

Maybe he would only be effective the first time around the league, but that is one time around more than Koch had been effective. Plus, there is no second time around with the pending Interleague matchups, so why not throw him out there then if the setups call for it?

The move needed to be made, but I'd ragtehr see Zero get the promotion as well. It will probebly be more of a situational thing anyway, depending on who's due up against us in the 9th.

Are you off your meds or something? You are the one that is lucky that so far it has only been your THREAD that has removed. Nobody should have to be derided for supporting a team or its players regardless of how they perform. It's our right to be upset with player performance. Utterly classless as it may be, it would also be within our rights to boo one of our own when they take the field (I'll refrain and quietly hope Oz does the right thing and keeps the ball far away from our non-closer). None of us have the right to direct insulting, hateful and inflamatory language at another poster because they wanted someone to do what we all hoped he could. My apologies to Anthony (a great poster who doesn't buckle to perceived bulls*** board pressure) on behalf of the rest of us, because you still don't get it.

No, no sex stuff I'm sure. But the violence - even as comic-bookey as it is in something like that - is not something I'm in a hurry to turn my kids onto. W're that 'odball' family that doesn't have any gun toys in the house. No cap guns, no pellet guns, no squirt guns... My little boy's pre-K schoolmates tell him how awesome Power Rangers etc. is, but for now I'm ok with him just getting it secondhand through them rather than him needing to see all the movies.

Do we have a future Onion staff writer on our hands? Well done. And the over-the-top quotes by JR are good, they're the absurd extreme to let readers (the really slow ones) know they've been had.

Somebody here already said this gem should rightly be filed in the "who ya crappin?" category. Billy, don'tcha think the better plan might have been striking out any of the FOUR batters you faced before Edgar? My blood pressure has still not come back down.

I love me some Big E, but yeah In the Ghetto was the nadir of 70s cheese ala King. You still got em and little Tommy, together we'll find a brand new mommy In the Ghetto.... In the Ghetto. Hunka Hunka Burning Dung, that one. On the ride home from work I heard perhaps the crowning bad song from 1985. Let's see if I can remember all te words... Amadeus Amadeus! Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus!! Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus!!! Oh, oh, oh, Amadeus!... da da da Rock me Amadeus... Amadeus Amadeus! Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus!! Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus!!! Oh, oh, oh, Amadeus!... da da da Rock me Amadeus... Amadeus Amadeus! Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus!! Amadeus Amadeus Amadeus!!! Oh, oh, oh, Amadeus!... da da da Rock me Amadeus... Yeah, I think I got 'em all.