Month: April 2007

We want the A’s back!!!

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With the Phillies all but mathematically eliminated from this year’s playoffs with perhaps the worst bullpen in the history of baseball, one has to wonder, “Why don’t we still have the A’s, dammit? Why did Oakland get the good Philly baseball team and we got a team that is 39 losses away from becoming the 2nd team in sports history to lose 10,000 games? (The first team, the Washington Generals, lost to the Globetrotters every single day for 30 years.) After all, the Philadelphia A’s won 5 World Series in 50 years while the Phillies have won 1 in 123. And I bet the A’s have never had as bad of a bullpen as we do this year. Well, here’s the story from the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society.
Lack of sufficient funds, absence of a full minor league system, the age of Connie Mack and the growing popularity of the Phillies in 1950 all contributed to empty seats at Shibe Park (re-named Connie Mack Stadium officially in 1953) Eventually, sons Roy and Earl Mack would buy controlling shares of the club from remaining Shibe family members and their half brother, Connie Mack Jr. To do so, they assumed a large mortgage. The debt load, coupled with the unfortunate decision to sell the concessions ( a major income source ) led to the sale of the club in 1954 to Arnold Johnson who moved the team to Kansas City despite several local efforts to buy the club which were not accepted by the American League.

Screw you, Arnold Johnson! Screw you!
There’s more info on how the team moved after the jump

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Where’s the best Pizza in Philly?

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It’s that time again, people! Last year we reviewed 25 different pizza joints in the area, and had a blast doing so. So let’s do it again. But before we get started, I need to know where to go. I’m gonna go back to my top three from last year (Tony’s, Tacconelli’s, and Mama Palma’s) to see if they are still up to snuff, but I need more spots. Please post below where we should go for pie. And it doesn’t just have to be downtown. The suburbs, Trenton, Camden, anything nearby will work. In fact, I recently read that a small town near Scranton calls itself the pizza capital of the world. Seriously. So there will definitely be a road trip involved here. Gonna kick it off tonight with my folks at Tony’s. Please post any below that you know that I should try. Oh, and if you wanna grab a slice and help me grade ’em, just shoot me an email. Let’s get it on!

A Dash of Ginger

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I had an interesting week of eats. Most recently I tried out that new pizza place at 10th and federal again, called Slice. Both previous times led to a bit of regret. But since it was pouring yesterday and I was working from home, the concept of delivery was all too enticing. Their San Romano Tomato sauce has this “olivey” aftertaste which doesn’t agree with me. Their BBQ chicken pizza had potential. But when I hear the word Barbecue, I get excited. I love bbq pulled pork, bbq wings, I even ate Bbq’d lamb during a Mummer’s picnic this year. Slice’s “bbq” was a mere drizzling. Slightly lackluster. And the crust was spongy but not in a good way.

That was lunch. Dinner was pulled pork at the Good Dog. When I am not organizing beer club, you can find me most Wednesdays there. They feature all their cans for half off (sly fox is $1.50.) I may have mentioned this before. I get very excited about $1.50 beer because I am losing about one wallet per month on average.

Once I get a little financial cushion and have sweet dreams of finally getting a new computer that doesn’t operate off of Linux, I lose my wallet. This time was in utter sobriety at 12 noon.

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Out on the town

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Went out to eat quite a bit over the weekend. My full breakdown: The Yellow Bar on Grey’s Ferry, which just opened on Friday, has a really good crab quesadilla, but I’m not sure I really like the space all that much. And I’m not crazy about the way they colored the walls. It looks like wallpaper in a grandma’s house. But it’s worth checking out.

Saturday, got dinner at the Hibachi Grill. Rather disappointing. The place is weird. You walk into the lobby, which consists of a table covered with an aqua tablecloth. That’s it. That’s your first impression of the place. Just a room with a tablecloth. Then you sit and wait in a room that has bird cages, which are always depressing. Then, my chef was impressive with his tricks, but never said a word the entire time. Seemed like he was going through the motions. It was still kind of fun, but I wanted a goofier chef who puts on a show.

Finally, my mom and dad came into town yesterday, and we went to eat at Continental (Original). Definitely the best place I went to this weekend. The drinks were delicious and so was the food. The Lobster spring rolls and Shrimp curry were off the chain, as was the red pepper dip. And, unlike Continental Midtown and Pod, the music wasn’t so loud that you couldn’t talk. I’m gonna take ’em to Fogo de Chao for lunch either today or tomorrow.

Pictures of the winners

Alright, I’m gonna post pics of this weeks winners. This week’s questions will be posted under the pics. The topic this week is pizza, in honor of the 2nd Annual JGT Pizza Hunt, which kicks off on Monday. One guess per person, and no cheating.