- assorted snacks
- beef brisket
- baked beans
- potato salad
- missing green salad
- chips
- buckeye bars for dessert
- beer, wine, cosmos, & mannies
Archive Page 18
04
Sep
10
the first tailgate menu.
03
Sep
10
game one.
We’ll talk later about the parking situation (kind of a mess) and the game itself (hooboy Ohio State looked good), but here’s a quick look at our day on Thursday which, despite some obstacles, was a great start to the 2010 season:
I arrived in Columbus to find that there would be little chance of forgetting the damn seat cushions.
We didn't think we'd be parking here, but the South Lincoln lot turned out to be a good home.
You know who these belong to, right?
Brisket. Yum.
And we're underway...
01
Sep
10
a slight distraction.
We’ll find out at 7 p.m. tonight what the 12-member Big Ten will look like, when the conference announces the division lineups that will be in place starting with the 2011 season. We’re apparently also going to get the answer about the future of the Michigan game, as we’ll get a glimpse of the conference schedules for 2011 and 2012.
Rumor: Ohio State and Michigan will be in different divisions but will continue playing The Game at the end of the regular season.
If that’s true, that’s pretty much all I need to hear.
01
Sep
10
prediction.
Chicago Sun-Times writer Herb Gould makes his prediction for the season (via an email from Bud):
The Buckeyes will defeat Iowa, Alabama, the New England Patriots, Manchester United, the Taliban and the Klingons and reach their goal of being dominant in the universe.
We like this. With Pryor as goalkeeper and Boom Herron taking direct snaps to run the offense, Ohio State will beat Man U 37-2.
31
Aug
10
nikeland.
A couple weeks ago, we talked about the fact that Nike wasn’t content to make my head explode with throwback uniforms for the Michigan game once. No, they had to go and do it a second time.
The pic that Eleven Warriors had up was actually close. Here’s what we get for this year’s Michigan game instead:
Thanks, Eleven Warriors.
Yeah. OK. This time we’re paying tribute to the 1942 national championship team, and the Nike version seems pretty faithful to the originals:
I just showed the picture of the new ones to Mrs. Crappy. She said, “Eh. The red helmets make them look like Alabama.”
Yep.
31
Aug
10
new beginning.
This is Ethel, reporting in from Fred’s Facebook status:
“[Fred] knows that for a few hours this Thursday, life will seem less complicated…neither January nor spring is the beginning. I always have felt like everything starts with fall.”
30
Aug
10
down to business.
This is a tailgating blog. So let’s talk about some tailgating.
We’re a couple days away from the first party of the season, and this one will be a little different:
- Night game. Not terribly unusual, but a number of other factors make the Marshall game unique.
- Weeknight game. This doesn’t happen very often. As in, this has happened only once before, when Ohio State hosted Wyoming in a Thursday night game — also a season opener — a few years back.
- Weeknight traffic. Football parking doesn’t open until 3 p.m., so we can only hope that the folks who actually have to work at the university heed the warnings to head out early or work from home. OSU has said that some of the parking pass lots — one of which we’ve used for 10 years — could still have cars of university employees in them, which would limit the spaces available for us football types.
- Parking, Part II. This has less to do with the weeknight thing, although it will help make Thursday’s tailgate interesting. We’ve been hearing stuff about our lot being unavailable for football parking this year, and apparently, that’s going to be an issue. Bud and Pat have been scouting for a while — and hadn’t noticed anything different — but Ethel sent this message today:
I have been looking and looking at the football parking info trying to figure out the situation in our lot. I just came across this: “Due to construction, there will be no parking in the South Lincoln and Parks Hall lots.” Parks Hall – that is us. I don’t know if they bothered to inform you. Have you given thought to another location? I don’t know how those season passes work – ie if they mandate where you park based on the type of pass you get.
Ouch. That doesn’t sound good. I did notice that the map run in the Dispatch over the weekend still listed one of the lots directly south of our regular spot as a permit lot, so I’m hopeful we’ll still find something close. There’s little use in worrying about it on Thursday, because that’s a whole different situation, but we’ll see what happens for the rest of the season.
And then we have food. We occasionally try to come up with main dishes that involve eating the other team’s mascot; this was especially easy when we played a home-and-home against Texas a few years ago. Of course, Marshall’s official mascot is the Thundering Herd, and I have no idea what that means in terms of food. But if you take a look at the logo, you’ll notice a prominent bison head — which, to me, is pretty much the tastiest beef you’ll ever put in your mouth.
We generally pride ourselves on cooking for these things, but in this case — time limitations, potential parking issues and a relatively short time in the lot — we’re going to buy instead. Here’s what Bud suggested:
Hey KNTGers: Cocktails /appetizers are from 3:30 until dinner (about 5:30 or so) Here’s what everyone can bring…us: beef brisket/sauce; Fred and Ethel: baked beans (ok cold); Mary K: appetizers; Coochie Doctor/Matlock: green salad; Uncle Crappy: lotsa beer; Juan: HB buns (probably need 18 to be safe) and potato chips (couple of bags); JB/Suz; dessert (and maybe some beer if you want). I’ll also be bringing some manhattans and cosmos. LETS GO BUCKS!
I should specify: the meat — brisket, in this case — will come from City Barbeque, the excellent local chain in Columbus. We seem to settle on something from City about once a season, and it doesn’t feel much like we’re settling for anything.
That’s the plan, boys and girls. Once we figure out the parking thing, we’re going to eat and drink well, and then head inside for the first game of the year. I’ll let you know how the preparations are going on Thursday morning, and I think you can expect an update from the lot before we wrap it up. See yinz in Columbus.
29
Aug
10
save the game.
While Mrs. Crappy and I were lounging through our island vacation, the discussion over what would happen to Ohio State’s annual game against Michigan once the conference is split into divisions apparently bubbled over, with Gene Smith, Ohio State’s AD, and Gordon Gee, the university’s president, getting buried with emailed demands that we preserve not only the annual game but also its spot as the final game of the regular season.
When my friend Kelly and I wrote about conference realignment back in June, Kelly said she assumed that keeping the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry intact would be a priority of mine, and I said she was correct. I think I assumed at that point that we wouldn’t be talking about playing the game in, say, mid-October. Different divisions? Sure, as long as we’re still playing every season — on the final weekend of the year.
The detractors are saying they don’t like the possibility of Ohio State playing Michigan on consecutive weekends, in their regular-season game and then the championship game the following week. But that makes one very large assumption, that both teams are going to win their divisions with enough regularity that their title-game appearances would become monotonous — and I think Penn State, Wisconsin, Iowa or Nebraska might have something to say about that. And I seem to recall an awful lot of people suggesting that Ohio State and the Team Up North should have played a second time for the national championship after the No. 1 Bucks narrowly defeated the No. 2 Wolverines in 2006.
I can’t get through this post without writing cheesy-sounding stuff about “tradition,” but that’s what’s important here. It’s not just that we play every year, in a game that almost always has an impact on the Big Ten title; it’s that you can mark your calendar for the same time every year. It’s something that the players and the fans and the schools and both states gear up for — peaking in late November, for what is and, since the mid-1930s, when the game permanently took its season-ending spot, what always has been the biggest and most important game of the year.
Past players and coaches don’t want the date to change. The Dispatch’s Bob Hunter comes up with a good summation of what Woody and Bo would have thought of the proposal. And I don’t want it to change either.
Yes, change is coming. A new team. Two divisions. A championship game. Fine. But some things — and especially this one thing — is too big and too important to change.
29
Aug
10
they’re ready.
While Mrs. Crappy and I spent last week on Kelleys Island, we couldn’t help but notice that the locals seemed to have something on their minds:
They’re ready. And so are we.
23
Aug
10
the final approach.
WOOOOOOOOOOO!
The Crappys are going to be out of town — and largely away from technology — for a few days, which means there won’t be a lot of activity here. But rest assured, we’re still going to be thinking about and discussing the Marshall game while we’re gone — and we’re going to bury you with football and tailgating posts once we return.
Killer Nuts Tailgating 