OK so I'm Not a Hoops Guru

Well, if you read the post below this one, you"ll see I picked the Butler Bulldogs to win the NCAA tournament. OK, I was wrong, sue me. I sure hope you didn't bet any of your hard earned money on either of those teams. The game was uh, how should I put it....UGLY to say the least. As a friend of mine put it "if that game were a girl, I would have had to have really thick beer goggles to take her home". I thought Butler would shoot better from three point land than what it did. I did not think UConn would play defense as well as it did. So, the bottom line is congratulations to the Connecticut Huskies. I still think the Big East is a bunch of thugs.

NCAA Tournament Goes to the Dogs

The match up is between Huskies and Bulldogs. The Connecticut Huskies and the Butler Bulldogs. Personally I will be cheering for Butler. I think they will win the game. They have a better defense, and championship game experience that UConn doesn't. And if Butler is able to hit their threes, Connecticut will have a long night. The so called experts have installed Connecticut as a three point favorite. And the CBS talking heads are unanimously picking UConn. I disagree. Butler will win by three. Let the game begin.

Reporting Fact and Reporting Gossip

In the past month, the Missouri Tigers played poorly and exited both the Big 12 and NCAA tournaments early. It didn't come as a surprise, because for the last three weeks of the season they played selfishly and out of control. I am not sure why or how that happened, but the head coach of the Tigers, Mike Anderson left town and took the head job at Arkansas. So, the Tigers are looking for a new coach. I have no idea who will get the job, but I hope it is filled quickly so the recruiting process can continue. If you use Twitter or other social media, some of the so called experts blew it this week when they told their followers that it was going to be Purdue coach Matt Painter. Obviously that did not happen. The Columbia Tribune has an excellent article on how several outlets proclaimed Painter the new head coach earlier this week. To read the story CLICK HERE to get to the Columbia Daily Tribune's website.

Happy April!

Beer, baseball and bad media are some of my favorite topics on which to write. Too bad I've been so busy. But, hopefully as it warms up I will have more time to blog. So stay tuned.

Brew Pubs and Breweries in STL

In the past several weeks I've had the chance to re-visit a few of the micro-breweries around St. Louis and some are doing a great job and others may not be around too much longer. I will write more about the various locations as time permits. (Gee what is free time)?

Urban Chestnut Brewing is the latest member of the St. Louis brewing family. I visited them on a recent Friday night and was not impressed. I know it is early and the brew team is still working out the bugs in their production. From a beer drinker's point of view, the service was outstanding. The bartenders know their stuff and were willing to share their knowledge of the product.

I was able to sample all of their new offerings that evening and settled on a Pilsner. The Pilsner was nice, but it was not by any means the best I have had. Apparently, the philosophy of the brewery is to serve styles that are popular in Germany. There are many fine German brews. But, this is St. Louis and many craft beer drinkers want bigger beers despite what they tell you. I sampled the half IPA Urban offers and found it disappointing. In fairness to the brewer I am a hop head, so I am biased. But, why bother making the half IPA, when there are so many other styles on which he could have focused?

I wish Urban Chestnut well but this brewery may be too sophisticated for the average micro-brewery customer. The night I visited, Urban Chestnut was crowded and I didn't hear too many complaints. So, I really hope I am wrong in my assessment and this venture is around for quite some time.