The lone steed.
The end of the line greeted me Friday morning as I planned my strategy for the that night’s game for my New York Mets. The Subway Series, the New York Yankees, the Four Train from CitiField in Flushing to the Bronx with a team-tying-record 11-game winning streak lied ahead with great promise. On my wide screen for my dear wife Karen and I in the living room of our Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, of course.
And yet there was one lonely bottle of Dark Horse Cabernet Sauvignon in my stash.
Choices abound.
Case solved. Literally. After my trip to Syracuse’s mega shopping, dining and entertaining complex Destiny USA to see “The Age of Adaline” for Monday’s Syracuse New Times Film Review blog, I turned my Chevy Cruz into the parking lot of Harbor View Liquors to restock, replenish, resolve the issue, if you will.
If you buy a box, these folks take 20 percent off the price of a bottle. My current favorite, Dark Horse, gets whittled to $6.30 each in its carton of a dozen.
Good for a long stretch.
And they tell me a glass of red wine is good for my health, too. Thank you, they.
Now the result of that baseball game, not so much. The Yankees jumped all over pitcher Jacob DeGrom, last year’s rookie-of-the-year, and easily took a 6-1 decision in their home park. The hearty cheers of “Let’s Go Mets” were quieted quickly. When I heard the stadium sounding surprisingly Mets-friendly, I told my wife that the Big Apple was always ready to love my Mets, waiting for them to be good again. Soon enough, though, Karen and I agreed that the Mets looked quite flat. The stupendous streak is over.
I had my little whine. We have our big stock of wine. Life went on and so did the Mets, to beat the Yankees 8-2 Saturday as the Dark Knight, franchise pitcher Matt Harvey, continued his comeback from Tommy John surgery with a dominating effort that fell one out short of a complete game, and Lucas Duda started a three-homer barrage against CC Sabathia. The Mets fans sounded loud in the Yankees’ house again, too, and I even spotted some Bronx Bombers’ fans cheering Harvey when he left the game in the bottom of the ninth.
Do you buy beverages by the bulk to save money, and if so, what’s your best deal ever? What’s your go-to baseball game beverage? What’s your favorite baseball series to watch, and which team do you root for and how did that get started?
Mark Bialczak 
Dark Horse – Dark Knight; wine; whine; “Thank you, they.” …. Mark, you are one of the most clever men I know! Even though this was sports-related, I love this post! 🙂 Cheers to you!
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😉 to you, Rachel. You hang in through my sports-veiled posts. ❤
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Gotta buy the wine in bulk, Chum. Red is so much better for the heart. I wish I liked it more. My go to baseball beverage is a cold one. Cardinal fans only drink Budweiser.
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Yes, August and the family, Red, I understand. Red is good for the heart, yes, and you don’t like it much. Unfortunate.
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I have a question….if I don’t watch baseball, and I don’t ‘have’ a team, do I have to have a go to baseball beverage?
And by the way, “they” are probably appreciated world wide by wine lovers. 😉
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You don’t have to have anything you don’t want to have, Judy! 🙂 They told me that. 😉
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There you go MBM…..calling me by another name again. 😉 This is starting to be fun. 😀
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Good grief, MBC. I’m losing it. Judy is missing my comment on her comment somewhere, too. Now I gotta track that down.
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🙂 Copy and paste MBM 🙂
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Yeah, I’ve heard of that, MBC. 🙂 😉 ❤
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Comes in handy! 🙂 ❤
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My brothers like brews in the Indians stadium, in plastic big cups, while I like a coke or iced tea. I am one that doesn’t drink beer unless out to eat at a German restaurant or spending the night somewhere that they are eating something off the grill.
I enjoy wine but have found myself drifting into slumber within half hour of drinking it, unless up and busy dancing or making the rounds of a graduation or wedding party. Mark, thanks for the okay on red wine, which I will say I am so glad ‘they’ are saying it is okay! It is always too bad when the teams we wish would win, don’t. (Hence, the Browns… smiles!)
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Hence, the Browns. You are a funny one, Robin. We will make sure you are busy sociaizing after that red wine so you don’t get dozy, doozie! 😉
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Go Yankees!
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Let’s Go Mets!
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I will not “like” that comment.
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I still like you anyway.
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“lol” I love red wine! I have bought a box, but mostly I buy assorted bottles, as I can never make up my mind.
Although I’ve always liked baseball in general, THE BLUE JAYS RULE!!!!!!
This started for me the year they won the pennant for the first time. I’ve been on board full time since.
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For a long time, the Blue Jays were the parent team of our Syracuse Chiefs, so I saw a lot of their great players come through our ballpark in those days, including those pennant years, Resa. Tony Fernandez, Tom Henke. Mike Sharperson was my favorite because he always hustled so much. 🙂
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Well, looks like I’ll be thinking of you mid June, when The Jays play the Mets!
Top of the season to you, Mark!
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Yes, we meet this season, Resa. Let’s take it up again in mid-June, beforehand. 😉 Top of the season to you, too!
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This should be good!
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Well, look at the bright side… the Mets still have an active 11 game winning streak against NL teams.
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That’s a good way to look at it for sure, Bill. 🙂
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Here in Ontario most spirits are retailed by either a government store or by a monopoly of beer companies (The Beer Store). There are a few small wine stores about and the gov’t is toying with allowing beer to be retailed through private stores, but most selling is gov’t controlled. They don’t give deals to anyone. They consider it a big deal if they give a $1 off a $40 bottle of whiskey. They do have an excellent offering – not being limited to wines that are popular. I live in a part Ottawa called Sandy Hill. It is basically a university area (the university is only two blocks from my apartment)and there are 42,000 students at this school. It is also only about 10 blocks from our Capitol buildings and there are oodles of embassies and diplomats and politicians offices. So, in honor of this population there is a liquor and wine store about 5 blocks away that is the largest in the city. It has two floors of products for offer and has everything from the cheapest grape to the most expensive (some hundreds of dollars per bottle). I buy the cheapest (about $9.00 per bottle)- occasionally – but I like to look at the offering. The main floor at street level has all the usual and popular brands and then there is a complete other floor that has an amazing offering of wines and liquor from all over the world. It is so cool.
Anyway, my condolences on your team’s loss Mark – I hope the wine made up for it. 😀
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That sounds like a great wine store to window-shop, Paul, metaphorically. I’d love to look at the wines of the world and dream away. Then I’d stick to my low-end price range, just as I do here. The brand I am currently favoring is quite tasty for the price. 🙂 And if my Mets win this evening in game three of the series, I will be quite happy, indeed.
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Yes. Thank you, THEY.
I recently bought a bottle of Austrailian Sharaz called Screw It, Mark. It’s yummy!
Meanwhile, back in Calgary, the Calgary Flames win game 6 against the Vancouver Canucks and move into the 2nd round of the playoffs! I’m not a sports fan, as you know Mark, but I’m getting FRIGGIN EXCITED ABOUT THE STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS!!! ❤
Diana xo
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I noted that the Flames have advanced, Diana, and was happy for you! My Islanders won yesterday as well, are tied 3-3 in the series with Washington. Game 7 will see if we have a chance still for our squads to match up down the line! That would be really Friggin Exciting. ❤
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It sure would Mark. Although you should know that even though I consider myself a Calgarian now, I’m also still a closet fan of the HABS as well. I have many a childhood memory of seeing the Canadiens playing at the old Montreal forum. 🙂
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That makes sense, Diana. Les Habitats!
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baseball bev of choice, while watching at home is beer or wine, at the ballpark, beer all the way. love the tigs and yankees and tigs vs cubs too. tigs vs most anyone, really )
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Tigs are fun to watch vs. anyone for me, because I am old school, as you know, Beth! 🙂 Beer in the stadium is a natural choice. So easy.
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I just told the owner of a local fancy-pants wine/beer shop that he should offer craft brews from the hometowns of all 30 MLB teams and then post the day’s AL/NL standings with the beers on a shelf. He thought I was insane. But, one of my clients recently brought me a lovely craft brew from Kansas City (Boulevard Brewing) which surprised me … as it was quite tasty. Not enough to make me root for the Royals, though … but it did make me want to try a brew from every MLB city.
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Your Fancy Pants owner is missing out on an opportunity of grabbing the baseball crowd by the jersey front, BB. That’s a great idea. If you live in a market big enough to have fans of all teams, all he would need is the right social media promotion. Perhaps a blog from BB!
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Wine and baseball? My two favorite things!! I am a Royals fan, and that team is still so new to actually being good. They had an interesting brawl with the white sox this week!
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Interesting is a wonderful downplay on your part, Hollie. Keep saying that around Owen. 😮 I read all the suspensions on the ESPN crawl yesterday. Yikes! Baseball brawls are supposed to be grab-and-waltz to get the aggressions out without injuring anybody. I loved the Royals being good again last season, my friend. I hope it continues. 🙂
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I hope it does, too! We are going to watch them take on the Red Sox for my birthday in June 🙂
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Great birthday trip, Hollie! This week I bought tickets for MDW Karen and I to go see the Mets play the Reds in June with a good friend and his wife. We can’t wait.
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Your dear wife Karen sounds like a fun lady! She’s clearly a keeper, as are any women who love baseball. Diamonds are a girl’s best friend!
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You’ve got that right, Hollie. We sit in the living room of the Little Bitty and root for our Mets. Three years ago we took a bus tour trip to Citi Field and saw the Mets win in person. But the bus broke down and we had to spend two hours in the parking lot afterward waiting for the driver to figure out how to start it! This time we’re driving, which should give us even more freedom. 🙂
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Do you really want me to whine about the Red Sox, Mark? You know what happens when you get a Bostonian going on that topic, with or without wine.
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You can if you choose, Ann. Or post another photo of the Yaz statue!
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I’m sure I will, Mark, without much whining.
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When the Yanks and the Mets play, I will ALWAYS root for the Mets. Of course, I tend to always root for any team playing the Yankees. 😀 If I’m at a game, I drink a Miller Lite. If I’m watching from a sports bar, I drink wine. Right now I am in love with sauvignon blancs.
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Yes, of course, Kate, the Orioles and anybody playing the Yankees makes plenty of sense for you! 🙂 Sav Blanc is from a good grape, but whites appeal less to my palate, still. And at a game, a Miller Lite is such an appealing and convenient choice!
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