Tag Archives: Philadelphia

Bring the A’s Back to Philadelphia

The Ath­let­ics are one of base­bal­l’s most nomadic fran­chis­es. After orig­i­nat­ing here in the late nine­teenth cen­tu­ry and then becom­ing a mod­ern club in 1901, the A’s have moved twice: first to Kansas City in 1954 and then on to Oak­land in 1968, as base­ball fans moved west in droves. Now the club is threat­en­ing to move away from Oak­land. They’re threat­en­ing to move to — wait for it — Sacra­men­to, of all places.

Now maybe the peo­ple of Sacra­men­to would like a pro­fes­sion­al base­ball team, but so did north­ern Vir­ginia and what did they get? The Expos. How’s that work­ing out? Have you been to a Nation­als game? The crowd they claimed was starv­ing for base­ball would appear to appre­ci­ate the diet. Even with pitch­ing phe­nom Stephen Stras­burg the Nats strug­gle to draw a crowd. I have my doubts that Sacra­men­to would be able to sup­port a major league base­ball team any bet­ter than Oak­land does. Lots of love for Tyreke Evans, but even the Kings don’t rule.

Here’s my solu­tion: let’s bring them back to Philadel­phia! I’d have to dou­ble check, but I’m pret­ty sure Philadel­phi­a’s the largest tele­vi­sion mar­ket that does­n’t have two teams. Is it an impos­si­ble pipe dream? Prob­a­bly, but I’m not ready to give up the slim hope that some wild­ly ego­tis­ti­cal entre­pre­neur could­n’t embrace the roman­tic notion of return­ing the A’s to their home­town, the birth­place of pro­fes­sion­al baseball.

I’ll grant that there are many seem­ing­ly insur­mount­able prac­ti­cal con­cerns, first and fore­most being where they’d play. Could Philadel­phia even sup­port two teams? We’re base­ball rich right now, but what about when the Phillies inevitably slide? Will base­ball fans retreat into their homes? Would peo­ple sup­port both teams? How does Chica­go manage?

If the A’s are plan­ning to move any­way, why not at least try to bring them back to Philadel­phia? Can’t the City of Broth­er­ly love make a pitch to win them back?

Have You Been to Kraftwork?

I’ve been to Kraft­work a num­ber of times now and I think I like it. I mean, it’s okay. There’s that one sand­wich that’s real­ly deli­cious, but not much else that real­ly stands out on the (recent­ly recon­sid­ered) menu. The draught list is amaz­ing, although it’s like doing surgery with a shot­gun; put enough beers on tap and you’re sure to get some­thing right, no?

But you can fix menus and curate beer lists to make it seem like you know what you’re doing, rather than not want­i­ng to get it wrong. What you can’t real­ly change is phys­i­cal plant. If you want to be clubbed over the head with con­cept, Kraft­work is the place. With­out even men­tion­ing the clunk­er of a name, you know it’s styl­ized to a fault, which real­ly dis­tracts from the things that prob­a­bly brought you there in the first place. Did I men­tion how NOISY it is? Now, I know I’m get­ting old­er, but when you have a DJ spin­ning dance music dur­ing din­ner, at a place that does­n’t have a dance floor, you’re going out of your way to seem sil­ly. I mean, at least the Abbaye had sen­si­ble brunch DJs.

Thing I hear from fans of craft beer and gas­trop­ubs in gen­er­al though is that the prices are sim­ply too high. I can get a pint of Russ­ian Riv­er Blind Pig for less than I can a tulip of the same at Kraft­work. And while the taps are more plen­ti­ful than oth­er neigh­bor­hood bars, I don’t get the sense that more thought went into select­ing what’s on them. Instead of feel­ing like you’re get­ting a deal on some­thing that’s been care­ful­ly con­sid­ered, you know you’re over­pay­ing for some­thing you can prob­a­bly get some­where else in town.

Will I keep going back? Absolute­ly. I have faith that Adam Rit­ter will get it right and, hell, who I am to say any­thing: the place is usu­al­ly full to over­flow­ing, which is a good prob­lem to have in this econ­o­my. If they can build a tasty, inex­pen­sive menu around their beer can chick­en sand­wich, then they’re already on the right track. Where else can you get a Mikkeller Break­fast Beer Geek Impe­r­i­al Stout at 10:30 on a Sun­day morning?

In Praise of Trophy Bike Garage

Want to give spe­cial thanks to my friend Lois and the rest of the crew at Tro­phy Bike Garage for fix­ing up my bike. It’s back to rid­ing like an absolute dream after giv­ing me a good scare on 17th street. Now I’m back to com­mut­ing to and from work safe­ly, which my fam­i­ly cer­tain­ly appreciates.

Drew Lazor on Philly Pizza

I’ve doc­u­ment­ed my strug­gles with piz­za here in the City of Broth­er­ly love. It ain’t easy to find a good pie in town. Philly food­ie phe­nom Drew Lazor has a great look at all the best spots to get a slice in town in the most recent issue of City Paper and it’s worth check­ing out. Read it here.

N.B. he does­n’t high­light any spots that deliv­er or even are known for take-out. For what it’s worth I’m thrilled that he did­n’t pro­file the exe­crable, over­priced Rus­ti­ca in NoLibs either. Do I even have to men­tion that I’m absolute­ly in love with Zavi­no’s Ken­nett pie?

Want more Lazor in your life? Fol­low him on Twit­ter. He’s a hoot. He also con­tributes to City Paper’s Meal Tick­et, which has swept me off my feet since Kirsten Hen­ri left for Philly Mag. Now with Adam Erace! They’re a powerhouse!

More Local Inspiration

Quick shout to Eric Smith, who is some­thing of a blog­gy wun­derkind here in Philadel­phia. We’ve nev­er met prop­er­ly, but he and I have slow­ly built what I hope is a mutu­al admi­ra­tion soci­ety as we wend our way through the dense thick­et that’s known today as con­tent cre­ation and curation.

If you’re not hip to what he’s up to, do your­self a favor and catch up. It’s worth not­ing that Geekadel­phia is one of my favorite local reads.