Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Monday, February 18, 2013
Three of the more interesting cases:
Philadelphia: I really don’t know. All sports, to be sure. But it may very well be a baseball town more. There are no shortage of Philly people here, so you tell me. Gun to my head I say the Phillies and Eagels are close, but I don’t know if that’s been the case for all that long a time.
...
Minneapolis: I assume the Vikings. Gleeman should weigh in, though. Youth hockey may trump it all.
Milwaukee: It’s over 100 miles to Green Bay, but I bet it’s still more Packers than Brewers. If you disqualify the Packers for distance it’s the Brewers by default. Still a great baseball town, though. It’s not the Brewers fault that people go Packers crazy.
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Two weeks ago, for the first time since 2007, I had my favorite meal in the world: chili cheese halfsmoke, chili cheese fries and a banana milkshake.
By comparison, there's several hockey teams that could win 3-4 Cups in a row and never be more than an afterthought in their local area, or basketball teams that are two losing seasons away from thousands of empty seats in their arena.
And basebal is the only sport that doesn't have a single market to itself. Every other sport has at least two cities it doesn't share with another member of the Big 4.
I'm blanking on the NFL. Jacksonville and.....? I don't think I'd count Green Bay.
Apart from Loria, another big problem is that South Florida isn't a great place to spend lots of time outdoors during the summer, unless perhaps you're right next to the ocean.
Charlotte? They sort of have a basketball team, but no one cares about them.
If you don't count Green Bay, it's one. But is there any definition of market that would place Green Bay in Milwaukee's?
Style and flare from the order? Is there anything structurally special about a NYC bagel? Not really. Just the idea that NYC does bagels better than elsewhere.
All of Wisconsin looks the same to us.
The Packers played three or four regular season games a year in Milwaukee for years and those fans are still season ticket holders through the Packers Gold package.
I'd guess that Green Bay people are inclined to root for the Brewers and maybe the Bucks if they care about hoops. Milwaukee's definitely inclined to root for the Packers - IMO they function as the de facto Milwaukee market team. I'm not sure the Packers are still in Green Bay if they had to compete with a Milwaukee Barons NFL team.
They're enormous. Much bigger than Montreal or London bagels. Take that for what you will.
I wouldn't deny any of that. But the same can be said of poeple from Portland, Maine about the Red Sox or Salt Lake City and the Broncos. Just because a particular area identifies with a sports team doesn't place that city in that market.
But if it helps, how about this: Baseball is the only sport that doesn't have a Metropolitan Statistical Area all to itself. All the other leagues have at least two teams that fit that profile.
Nevermind. It was just an observation that every MLB team actually shares a city with another major pro sports franchise (something that isn't true of the other three leagues), not the absurd idea that Milwaukee didn't have an NFL team to root for.
Take it to the McCready/Celebrity Rehab thread.
Coffee is a beverage, though, not a food. If you want a local food for Seattle, it would probably be salmon, although if you live in Seattle, you'd be hard pressed not to name teriyaki.
You know, the Varsity chili dog isn't even all that good.
As for Taqueria del Sol, that's a chain, albeit one started in Atlanta... one opened not that far from me (that I plan on trying soon - I hear it's okay, but I'm spoiled by pretty good Mexican options). What, is LA's food In N' Out Burger?
All the food stories I've heard about Oakland seem to involve bean pies, but I doubt that's representative. Locavorism as an East Bay thing works, I guess (says the guy who has never been there).
its weird, its like every asian that came over to L.A. thought a doughnut shop would be a good idea, and then they all hang on. some of them serve other food, which can get interesting.
gotcha and I think it has been that way for some time.
Varsity itself isn't all that good. What popped in my head was my memory of Ed Debevic's (Chicago) and wondering out loud how the place was still in business. When the draw is the shtick of the employees, its a sign the place has got nothin'.
Nashville? Don't ask about the NBA/NHL sole-source teams; I can't (or don't care enough to) keep up with franchise moves in those leagues.
Not really, no. But then again, Philly cheesesteaks and that shaved beef thing from Chicago aren't that good either.
Nashville has an NHL team, the Predators.
Beverage associated with each MLB city:
New York - Manhattan
Boston - Samuel Adams
Chicago - Goose Island?
St. Louis - Budweiser
Milwuakee - Old Milwaukee
Minnesota - Leinenkugel
Denver - Coors
Seattle - Starbucks coffee
Washington - lobbyist-paid martinis
Miami - mojito
Atlanta - Coca Cola
Kansas City - Boulevard Beer
San Francisco - Fernet
Los Angeles - Soju
San Diego - tequila
Detroit - Faygo
Toronto - Labatt's
Cleveland - Great Lakes Beer
Pittsburgh - Rolling Rock
Philadelphia - Yuengling
Jacksonville and Green Bay in the NFL
NBA has: Memphis, Oklahoma City, Portland, Orlando, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, and San Antonio
NHL has: Raleigh, San Jose, Columbus, and then the Canadian teams (Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Montreal).
Baltimore, from the time of the Colts exodus through the Ravens arrival, is the only exception that comes to mind.
I love my Fernet, but...dude, Anchor Steam?
Also Iron City for Pittsburgh and Old Style for Chicago.
I believe that would be one of the Miller products before Ol' Mil.
The best cheesesteak I've ever had was at The White House in Atlantic City. I suppose it's pretty close to Philly, though.
I eat more crappy food now that I live in Manhattan than ever before. There are so many places to try and a good number of them are terrible, but there's always the chance that you find a real gem. I don't even have a consistently great pizza place in my neighborhood. I mean, it's NYC pizza so compared to most other places, the "crappy" pizza is still really good, but it seems like the really great stuff is in Brooklyn and Queens.
Yeah, I was going to say...especially considering this:
http://www.sfgate.com/business/bottomline/article/Anchor-Brewing-plant-on-S-F-waterfront-4288394.php
Oakland has to be PBR.
no doubt, Old Mud was even owned for a period by Stroh in Detroit. PBR would be a better ID beer for Milwaukee, if not High Life.
and for Minneapolis, I'd say Grain Belt, by a mile. Leine's distribution is controlled by Miller and they are based in WI.
they win.
I think the lap of overlap helps tremendously.
The NFL only has 10 home dates a year. You could put a team in Terre Haute, IN (or say Green Bay, WI) and it would sell out.
Um, the beverage for San Francisco and/or Oakland is wine.
If you dont understand or aren't knowledgable about food, that doesn't mean you should loudly proclaim the brilliance of your local cuisine. It means you should be happy you haven't noticed the shadows in the cave and step aside.
I'm sorry, I'll make sure to ask and only eat with an outstretched pinky finger from now own, sir.
Oh yeah, because italian beef and cincinatti chili and milwaukee fish fry, thats the food of the elites.
That's what I don't get about the people complaining that there is no good Italian beef outside of Chicago. My first thought was "Who cares?" That's something most people eat once every two or three months at the most.
That's what I don't get about the people complaining that there is no good Italian beef outside of Chicago. My first thought was "Who cares?" That's something most people eat once every two or three months at the most.
Miller owns them, even if you wouldn't know it from the brewery tour.
As for Milwaukee, I'd say Miller High Life or Miller Lite. Pabst brands (including Old Milwaukee) aren't even brewed there anymore.
This is The Varsity in a nutshell. It's a tourist trap. The food is very greasy and fatty, and nothing special taste-wise. The reason to go there is because it's famous (and maybe to experience the rudeness of the staff). Once you've been there, there's no reason to go back.
I am by no means a foodie, but I can't come up with an iconic "Atlanta food." Certainly nothing like oysters or shrimp & grits are to Charleston.
Such people have no souls... I probably have a good dipped beef from either portillos, murphy's, Al's, Nemos, or about a dozen other places once a week.
Well it continues to try like the Dickens to overcompensate -- I would say that ever since Goose Island got bought out (Annheiser Busch, I think?) -- it's really been more 'marketing driven' to call them a Chicago beer.... I just toured the brewery a few months back and while they do still brew and do creations locally - I really do get the sense that an awful lot of what you can find now is more a 'branding' operation, i.e., "312" or "Green Line" is sort of 'Chicago' in the sense that hey, we slapped a clever Chicago name on it.
The local craft beer of choice nowadays is probably coming out of Half Acre....
312 was introduced in (IIRC) 2004 and so long predates the Anheuser-Busch takeover. That said, it's now produced in upstate New York.
I won't claim it's on par with what you'd find in Philly proper -- but Philly's Best in Chicago is pretty good... I know they get their meat from the same place that either Pats or Genos in Philly proper does and they do use Amoroso rolls.
Sorry, I wasn't intending to be a snob. I lived in Chicago for eight years and once I moved I just never once found myself wanting some sort of Italian sausage or meat specialized to the area. It tastes great but it was always like junk food to me. Though I do miss torta's with ground beef, which apparently don't exist on the West coast.
Yes, if you buy them from a kosher outlet. They are made the right way, by boiling the dough. In other cities, bagels are just round rolls with holes in them.
FWIW, almost none of the extant bagel joints in NYC are kosher, but all but the worst still boil their bagels.
Needs more Old Bay seasoning to properly represent Maryland. Even if you've already added the Old Bay seasoning.
Really? If it's as good as it sounds, I would probably eat something like that pretty regularly.
Well, 1) It's really, really unhealthy to eat regularly, and 2) it's one of those things that become less appealing the more you indulge, for me anyway. It tastes GREAT, just like pasta, but that doesn't mean I want to eat it more than once or twice a month.
Is that significantly more Charleston than Savannah? It's all the low country, right?
Part of this is that "identity" is not what Atlanta does. Atlanta does dispersion of identity. Atlanta is the city in the center of the Old South that was "too busy to hate." That probably doesn't lend itself to ethnic identity food choices.
Perhaps so. I live in Charleston, so that's my frame of reference, but I'd let someone more familiar with Savannah or Myrtle Beach or wherever make that call. (Though for Myrtle Beach, I think you'd want a food that properly captured the aura of tackiness.)
At the same brewery that does most of the Brooklyn Brewery beers, F.X. Matt's in Utica? That would be awesome, but I can't find where it confirms that.
Is there anything structurally special about a NYC bagel? Not really. Just the idea that NYC does bagels better than elsewhere.
I normally agree with stuff like this, but a large large percentage of the places in NYC that make bagels just care more about the quality, I think. I've had bagels elsewhere, all over, and they really just are a better quality in New York. IMO.
No way. Unless Sonoma/Napa is suddenly part of San Francisco. San Francisco and Oakland are both beer obsessed. The wine bars are probably in a close race with the kombucha bars and both are outnumbered by Belgian ale houses.
Although, I'm not sure whether we're talking about what people in these cities actually eat and drink, or what people from other places think is the food and drink associated with that city. If the latter, then wine is probably right.
Perhaps, but (a) a lot of wine is made in Oakland, with grapes trucked in from the surrounding wine country and (b) the Bay Area isn't any more beer obsessed than half a dozen other US cities, but it is a stone's throw from one of the top 5 places to grow wine grapes in the world.
For Philly people, roast pork with broccoli rabe and sharp provolone is just as much the sandwich as the cheese steak. John's is terrific.
I got this far and you can guess what I made for dinner tonight.
There are two places that my stomach misses since I left San Francisco moved to Florida. Original Joe's and Lucca's Delicatessen. If either ever opened a franchise in Orlando I'd make them wealthy.
Their Belgians are world class, but their barrel aged stuff is otherworldly. BCBS is the best beer in its class on the planet.
Nothing, however, beats the shrimp wrapped in cheese and bacon that I can get at La Neuva Posada on Foothill in Pasadena, which I always hit multiple times when back in California. The owner has become a good family friend. Terrific margaritas and outstanding service.
The baddest part of town?
Then shouldn't it be renamed "315"?
-applause-
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