Author: J T. Ramsay

Ain’t No Cure for the Summertime Brews

As I watch the Phils wrap up a come from behind win against the hap­less Astros, I can’t help but think about what I’ll be drink­ing this sum­mer. It ain’t easy being a Pennsylvanian!

Sum­mer beers I like include:

  • Troegs Sun­shine Pils
  • Vic­to­ry Pri­ma Pils
  • Philadel­phia Brew­ing Co. Row­house Red (or Fleur de Lehigh)
  • Sly Fox Pike­land Pils
  • Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale

It’s nigh impos­si­ble to choose one as my favorite sum­mer ses­sion ale. I know what you’re think­ing: first world prob­lems, dude. But it’s one of those things where you like to have a depend­able go-to when you reach for a beer in your fridge or cool­er, you know? I’ve been par­tial to Sly Fox, since I love the cans, but now Oskar Blues has Dale’s Pale in our mar­ket. I also love the refresh­ing taste of the Troegs and Vic­to­ry selec­tions. I must admit a wan­ing appre­ci­a­tion for PBC beers; I just don’t think they live up to the qual­i­ty of com­pa­ra­ble craft beers. What’s your favorite? Feel free to sound off in the comments.

An aside: was the ses­sion beer move­ment just a fig­ment of Lew’s imag­i­na­tion? Friends of mine who home­brew said they’d heard that every­one was going big — very big — just as the econ­o­my start­ed tank­ing. Made sense to me, but as some­one who’s try­ing to wean him­self off of those humun­go beers, I’d like to think some brew­ers haven’t aban­doned it altogether.

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The Presidential Pitch



Phillies Open­er, orig­i­nal­ly uploaded by hhan­ni­gan.

This was just my sec­ond Open­ing Day game, and, boy, was it a doozy.

See that guy stand­ing alone on the mound? Yeah, that’s Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma! I snapped it from our seats along the third base line, cour­tesy of for­mer Nation­als right field­er Eli­jah Dukes!

I nev­er thought I’d attend anoth­er Open­ing Day game after my expe­ri­ence back in ’06. The game was ter­ri­ble. The weath­er was worse. Want to know how to fix that? Play against the Nation­als instead of the Cards!

Yes, the low­ly Nation­als were the per­fect match for the Phils, sur­rend­ing 11 runs, includ­ing a grand slam to our new mint­ed third base­man Placido Polan­co. Wel­come back! Hal­la­day did­n’t dis­ap­point either, turn­ing in a sol­id start after a shaky first inning. 

It was a real­ly spe­cial day for me and my fam­i­ly. I’m thrilled that we got the chance to see a bonafide Open­ing Day game.

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Opening Day 2010

Is there any­thing more excit­ing than Open­ing Day? Depends, I guess. Last time I went, the Phils were shelled by a Car­di­nals assault led by Albert Pujols. Pujols bounced a ball off the score­board in left on a drea­ry, cold after­noon at Cit­i­zen’s Bank Park. Pret­ty sure he broke a light or two.

Things quick­ly got out of hand. We sat in the 200 lev­el in right, where a group of drunk­en stu­dents start­ed fights and were puk­ing all over each oth­er. It got so bad they shut down the con­ces­sions. It sucked. We suf­fered through a few more innings and head­ed home. 

We caught their last home game that year, a dis­ap­point­ing loss in a make­up game to the Astros. How things have changed since.

I’m thrilled to be joined on this Open­ing Day by my fam­i­ly to see the Pres­i­dent throw out the first pitch and watch Roy Hal­la­day’s Phillies debut. Here’s to a great 2010 season!

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Get Ready for the 2010 Phillies

As my two favorite Phillies blogs, Beer­lea­guer and the Fight­ins,  vie for the title of best Phillies blog over at the Phield, I look for­ward to Mon­day’s Open­ing Day game against the Nation­als, with tick­ets cour­tesy of for­mer Nation­als right field­er Eli­jah Dukes. (Thanks, dude! I hope you find a team soon!)

This is our third year as sea­son tick­et hold­ers and the first that I’m gen­uine­ly ner­vous about how the sea­son will end. Maybe it’s the feel­ing any­one has when their team gets that close to win­ning back-to-back cham­pi­onships and los­es. Fear creeps in. Doubt, too. Some­how, despite the fact the Phillies trad­ed for a pitch­er who’s arguably the best in base­ball last Decem­ber, I can’t help but won­der how Roy Hal­la­day will be able to fix the Phillies when he can only take the field every fifth day.

With our thin pitch­ing staff already being test­ed by injuries, I can’t help but won­der if this is the year our fan­tas­tic Phils final­ly fall apart. Part of that is a life­time of Phillies pes­simism talk­ing, but it’s also the real­iza­tion that it’s very dif­fi­cult to field a team as con­sis­tent­ly great as the Phillies have these past two years with­out set­backs like this. On the oth­er hand, it’s April, and the Phillies tend to start slow­ly and gain momen­tum as the sea­son pro­gress­es. After all, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. There’s plen­ty of time to beat up on the NL East to secure a play­off berth.

I also feel like this is the first year that the end is in sight. Werth a Yan­kee? Per­ish the thought, but it might hap­pen. Trade Howard? After years of threat­en­ing, this could become a real­i­ty if the Phils aren’t will­ing to pick up his con­tract. The end of Jim­my Rollins’ reign as Phillies short­stop looms. Will the lega­cy of the ’08 Phillies be like that of the ’80 Phils, with Chase Utley as the new Mike Schmidt, the last man stand­ing from the team’s glo­ry days, a Hall of Famer sur­round­ed by also-rans and unproven rookies?

It’s famil­iar to me as some­one who was only 3 when the Phils won in ’80. I spent the bulk of my child­hood hat­ing the loath­some Phillies, even going so far as to resent their rag­tag run in ’93. The Phillies were so bad I chose to fol­low a team that was even worse: the Cleve­land Indi­ans! By ’95, I’d giv­en up on the Tribe and found myself root­ing for a Phillies team led by guys like Kevins Sef­cik and Stock­er. I vivid­ly remem­ber pars­ing the Schilling trade, hop­ing that some­how a guy like Omar Daal might be the answer to the Phils pitch­ing woes. (He was­n’t.) Must my infant son endure the hard­ship of being a Phillies fan just as I had before him? Seems likely.

My wish for the 2010 Phillies is that they win the World Series and enter the pan­theon of great teams. They’re prob­a­bly already there, but to win a third con­sec­u­tive Nation­al League pen­nant would be a thing of beau­ty. To be men­tioned in the same breath as the Big Red Machine is already dizzy­ing, but to sur­pass them would be magical.

So while I’m over­come with nos­tal­gia for the past two won­der­ful sea­sons, my hope is that the Phils enjoy con­tin­ued suc­cess and stay com­pet­i­tive. We won’t always be there in Octo­ber. It could be worse, much worse. We could be Mets fans!

Let’s go Phillies!

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