74 thoughts on “February 7, 2012: The Old Country”

  1. One last thing on the Super Bowl, which I haven't heard discussed (I did not listen to much Super Bowl talk yesterday).

    Remember the next-to-last play, when the Giants were flagged for 12 men on the field? I don't know that they did it on purpose, but in that situation, is there any reason you would not put twelve men on the field? You don't care about the five yards, you just want to make sure they don't complete a long pass. In fact, there's no reason not to put fourteen or fifteen guys on the field, other than it might increase the chances of getting flagged for pass interference. Whether it's twelve guys or fifteen, it's still only five yards, right?

    You can't do it on the last play, because the game can't end on a defensive penalty, but before that, why not? It seems like this is a loophole in the rules.

    1. There was a post on Deadspin about that very thing. Evidently, Buddy Ryan had a goal line stand play with 3 extra linebackers. Theory was, 1/2 the distance to the goal from the 1 yd line is no big deal, so do that a few times to kill time. As long as you keep stopping them, they will accept the replay of down and the time lost. Then finally when it's the last play, run a standard defense of 11 and hope you can stop them just the once the legal way.

    2. In this situation, if the defense gets an interception or tackles a player in bounds, it would be overturned by the penalty. I seriously doubt it was intentional.

    1. That actually is up on my list of things to hit.

      My Furious clone is 12 days bottled now, so I had a couple last night. I have to say, it turned out quite well (but so...much...alcohol). Now I'd like to taste the real thing for a comparison, since I haven't had it since the day after the last Caucus I was able to attend, and that was in October 2010.

      1. Is there a lot of alcohol, or does it just taste like there is a lot? There is a good chance you just had a fermentation temperature that was too high, which produces that alcohol-burn taste. You may want to try putting the fermentor in a tub/cooler with cool water to keep that down.

        1. See, I wish I could answer that question, but the one thing I forgot was to take a reading at the end of fermentation. I'll say that it definitely kicked my ass when I drank two last night, but it had also been a good eight hours since I'd eaten, so...now I'm wondering.

          The fermentor was in a fairly cool place, considering I'm in Arizona, but with that last bit...are you suggesting the entire two-week fermentation takes place in a tub or cooler?

          1. I'd really recommend something like this for taking readings. I love the simplicity of being able to take a reading right from the tube.

              1. Makes sense. I didn't spring for one for my first few batches and was really blown away by how much easier it made everything.

          2. When I was in Abq I would soak a towel or two and wrap them around the fermentor to cool the vessel down. This isn't a totally controllable way to regulate temperature, but will aid in keeping things cooler. It's been my experience in NM / Texas that erring on the side of a cooler / longer fermentation period has produced better results. Now, if you enjoy Belgians, and not just their beers, I would high recommend wyeast's belgian line. The higher the fermentation temperatures produce the medicinal, floral, and fruity esters that the beers are known for.

          3. What meat said.

            Yeah, I am advocating putting the bucket in water for the entire fermentation time. Its not as efficient with a plastic bucket as it is with a glass carboy, but it will help. However, if the beer is just kicking your ass but you don't notice any fusel-y, overly boozy taste, then its probably ok with the temps you had it at and you just made a high gravity brew.

  4. Mini-Caucus? I'll be out of town the 3rd through the 5th, but otherwise wouldn't mind getting together.

    1. Okay, so Skim's spring break is the week after that, so this may end up being a week later. However, if it's still as long as I think it will be, I will most certainly want one of those nights to include a Mini-Caucus.

      1. Hey, if you're going to be there for that long, you may as well drive down to the Madison area for a day. The Southern Wisconsin WGOM contingent is lonely.

        1. Speaking of meet-ups (meets-up?), The European Contingent* would like to extend a permanent invitation to anyone who makes it out here.

          *Sounds like a good band name. Gonna have to ™ that.

    2. I'd like to finally meet you, spooks. So put me down for a Minne-Caucus.
      I should probably call you first, just so I can get my voice reviewed.

  5. I'm home sick with food poisoning today. Here's some valuable advice that I can share from this experience: if you come across some dairy-based vegetable dip sitting on the counter, make sure you ask how long it's been sitting out before you eat it.

  7. Big Pek will be on KFAN at 9:55a today (Tuesday). 100.3 fm. KFAN.com for you out-of-towners.

  8. We've seen lots of brother combinations in sports, but it seems like usually one brother clearly outclasses the other, e.g. Cal and Billy Ripken or Hank and Tommie Aaron. How many other brother combinations have their been where both brothers have been as successful as Peyton and Eli Manning have been? Phil and Joe Niekro come to mind, although I'm not sure they even quite equal the Mannings. I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. Any thoughts?

      1. I should have thought of them myself, although I'm not sure they're quite the equal of the Mannings, either.

        1. The Hansen Brothers in hockey....

          or, more seriously, the Richard Brothers (Maurice and Henri), and the Esposito Brothers (Phil and Tony)

          then there are the Williams sisters in tennis, and Cheryl and Reggie Miller in hoops.

          Of somewhat lesser note: Sterling and Shannon Sharpe, Bruce and Clay Matthews, Ronde and Tiki Barber, Albert and Bernard King, Charley and John Hannah, Roberto and Sandy Alomar.

          [edit: I guess I should read the whole thread before replying, but that would kill my LTE counts]

      2. The Sedins (Henrik and Daniel for those who aren't familiar) are Swedish twins who play for the Canucks. In the '99 Draft, the Canucks traded around so they'd have consecutive picks and took the brothers at #2 and 3. They have that freaky twin-sense thing going on that at times seems unfair.

          1. In this vein, I hasten to point out that the Nets currently are starting THREE Williams brothers (Deron, Shawne, Sheldon), with a fourth (Jordan) coming off the bench. I think Serena and Venus should buy the franchise.

      3. Espositos are probably the closest parallel in hockey (one was a goaltender and the other a forward). Two HOF-level brothers, playing at the same time. (Are the Manning brothers both HOF-level? I'll defer to those who follow that sport).

    6. Aren't there two brothers that play doubles tennis? Let me go a-Googling for a bit... yup, Bob and Mike Bryan. Not as big of a stage as football, but that's a pretty impressive career for the two of them.

      1. One of them was actually pretty good at singles but gave that up to continue playing doubles. They make the Williams sisters look just okay at doubles.

        Speaking of which, the Williams sisters are a good combination in tennis. Serena has more Grand Slam titles, but Venus has more wins overall.

    7. The Alou brothers? Not HOFers, but there are three of them!

      The Alomar brothers? Ultimately, Robby was the better of the two, but Sandy was no slouch, either.

      The DiMaggios? Joe was the great one, obviously, but Dom was pretty good, too.

    8. Dizzy and Daffy Dean (Daffy was pretty good, right?).

      The Barber brothers have both had pretty good careers.

      If BJ can pick it up, the Uptons have a chance, but we're obviously too early to tell there.

    9. Tom and Dick Van Arsdale. Identical twins. Nearly identical careers. Both played twelve seasons in the NBA. Both were first team all-rookie. Both were 3-time all-stars. Dick totaled 15,079 points (16.4 ppg). Tom tallied 14,232 (15.3 ppg).

    10. Ed, Frank, Jim, Joe, and Tom Delahanty. Ed was the hall-of-famer, but Jim might have made a couple all-star games had they been a thing. The other three brothers were nothing special.

    11. Surprised nobody has mentioned either the three Boyers or the flying Molina brothers yet.

      The best example of brothers on the same team that I can think of is the Waner brothers - Paul "Big Poison" and Lloyd "Little Poison." More recently the Padres have had two sets of brothers on the roster (not all four at the same time, unfortunately): Brian and Marcus Giles, and Adrian and Edgar Gonzalez. For a while the Cards had both Alan and Andy Benes in their rotation. I can't remember if either the Cora brothers or the Hairston boys have ever been on the same major league roster.

      As far as hockey goes, don't forget Mikko Koivu and his brother, Saku.

      1. Jerry and Scott Hairston both played for the Padres in 2010 (so they've had three sets recently).

      2. Re: Molinas,
        I think Yadier may be one standard deviation above his brothers.
        Of course that may be because I missed the start of Bengie's career.

        1. Yadier's got about 50% more bWAR than Bengie in 70% of the PAs.
          Basically, they're at about at the same rate of oWAR/PA, but Yadier's got more than half his value in dWAR, while Bengie's a replacement-level defensive catcher.

          Jose's at about 25% of Yadier's bWAR in about 60% of the PAs. He's all dWAR: barely negative oWAR.

          It seems like, Yadier has all the offense of his replacement-catching oldest brother, and all of the defense of his replacement-batting older brother. If Bengie and Jose were actually identical twins (instead of being separated by 11 months), and if no one noticed that between offense and defense, Bengie-Jose always headed to the lockerroom, then Bengie-Jose could have been as great a player as Yadier. Unfortunately, Bengie and Jose were never on the same team while being managed by Bobby Valentine, because he would have totally tried that.

          As the only way for Bengie and Jose to have been as good as their younger brother was through identity-swapping hijinx, I'd say that, yes, Yadier is clearly the superior Molina brother in a way that should take them out of this conversation.

          1. In case anyone was wondering,
            Boone, bWAR, PA
            Ray, 24.0, 5294
            Bob, 26.1, 8148
            Bret, 21.4, 7433
            Aaron, 9.5, 4333

            On a WAR/PA scale, that's not as stark between Bret and Aaron as I'd expect.

    12. If you want to think outside of the box on this one a little bit--Annie Duke and Chuck Lederer.

    1. I guess Danny Brown is on Carson Daly tomorrow night. I'll probably tune in. I'm deciding if I should go to the show he's playing on 3/29 in Minneapolis.

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