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California Tailgate Wrap-Up:

            - Lot 1, College Park, MD

Tailgate Quote: 

“BBbblllllllllllllllaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”

            - April W. throwing up on her dad approximately 6 hours before tailgate time

“That’s Not the Point J!!!! (slamming cooler lid)”

            - As spoken by Bob W, and quoted by Tim

Overall:

I know having two quotes is pretty lame.  I should pick one and stick with it.  My kid puking all over me 4 hours before my alarm was scheduled to go off really set the tone for the day so I couldn’t leave that one out.  And the other quote was when I thought all of our beer was stolen and J said that he had beer left in his cooler.  Of course I don’t think me saying it was as entertaining as Tim imitating me saying for the next 20 minutes, making sure to correctly punctuate each sentence with the slam of the cooler lid.  As it turned out, no our beer was not stolen, it was just all consumed.  Of course that doesn’t explain the 20 Bud and Miller Lites that are now in my fridge, ah the mysteries of tailgating (that’s why I carry around the note pad). 

Anyway, this was a great tailgate.  I have always said that the harder the Tailgating conditions are, the better the result.  And though I used to look at 6:00 AM Tailgate starts with distain, I have learned to appreciate them.  It is kind of like an All Star Game.  When you start at 6:00 in the morning only the most die hard tailgaters are there.  All the fair weather tailgaters are still tucked in bed dreaming of the coming football game, while were out there in the dark downing Bloody Mary’s and Screwdrivers. 

I must also say, and I don’t think I’m speaking entirely for myself, that this was the earliest I had been drunk at a tailgate since the Edward Forty Hands Game.  But when you down two Bloody Mary’s before J even has the grilled fired up, what can you expect?  Anyway, I think the general success of this tailgate goes to the fact that we just kind of did whatever we wanted when we wanted.  We played beer pong and we played cornhole.  There was enough activities so that if you weren’t doing one thing you could be doing another.  And that in the past has been a problem.  Before if someone was playing beer pong, you would have 4 people playing and 12 watching someone take 20 minutes to finally hit that last cup.  But not this week, and I think cornhole may have been the reason. 

And as much as I’m probably mainly responsible, we have fallen into too much of a routine at the tailgates, and this was a nice change of pace.  I definitely think we can hold off on some activities until after the game, especially when we have a noon start.  The after game tailgate was just as fun as the pre-game and it was there that we finally got to play LRC and Horse Racing, or as the official D7 Treasurer, what I like to call the “Revenue Generators”.  And though we had zero dollars for the tailgate fund going into the game, we still set a record hull for the 2008 season.  So it was win win.

One thing we can’t put off until after the game however was flip cup and the Punt Pass and Kick challenge.  The PPK has to be done when there aren’t any cars in the middle of the parking lot so that will always be an early event.  And flip cup, well maybe it was just me, but I didn’t feel totally rushed to play flip cup this week.  We just sort of worked into it and could play at a more leisurely pace, not a “We have to get this done in 20 minutes” pace.

So overall I was very happy with the Tailgate.  I was also very happy with the Game.  Last Saturday was one of those days that makes the time between December and August go so slow!

Tailgate Highlights:

 Call me crazy if you like, but the highlight of my day was having ¾ of a bloody mary emptied before the sun came up.  I have spent many an hour writing in the recaps about how much I dread the noon time starts, but you know what, I’m warming up to them.  I think it’s the vodka, or the breakfast sandwiches, or maybe even the fact that it isn’t 90 degrees.  But whatever the reason, there is nothing like drinking before the sun comes up.  It makes you feel alive, or like an alcoholic, but I’m going with alive.

Tailgate Lowlights:

OK, it isn’t a total lowlight, I mean a lot of entertainment and some good stories came from it, but the Donut Eating Flip Cup game was not a good idea.  In fact I can’t even think about it without feeling a lead weight in my stomach.  At least I can say my team won, but I don’t think I’m particularly eager to defend my crown!  And for those who ever ate with me at Denton Dining Hall during the course of our college careers, I’m sure the fact that I was on a speed eating team that won, has not gone un-noticed.  I wouldn’t have believed it if I wasn’t there myself.  Anyway, I can’t close this section out without point out that Fred was the inventor of the Donut Flip Cup Game.  I don’t know whether or not that is a good thing, but just like the Titanic and Hindenburg, we can all laugh and make jokes about it now. 

Live from College Park Downs:

We had a late start for the Saturday Racing card, but the wait was well worth it.  Maybe because we all had twice as much to drink by the time the trumpet blared “The Horses are on the Track!”.  I mean heck we could have played tic tac toe and it still would have been pretty lively.  The first race was won by Jen, Jason, Justin and me.  The pay out was $3.50.  The second race was won by Jen, Justin, Mr. Leavitt, and Snively, this one paid out $6.25.   And then of course was the Double Up Derby.  The DUD was anything but, in fact Snively took home more from the DUD than most winners of LRC get.  Brian had 2 shares of the winning horse and won $9.50 times 2.  Chris and Deb were the other winners taking only one share each, but in that share winning as much as the first two races combined to give out.            

LRC:

For those of you who read the last tailgate recap you remember my story of how I stole Brian’s last chip right before the 2^nd to last person rolled the “C”.  Well you can stop feeling sorry for him.  The bad luck has been exercised from Snively.  I had no idea at the time, but Brian also won LRC and a 35$ payout.  So for those keeping score Brain won $6.25, 19$, and 35$ all in about 45 minutes.   Well round it up and say he won $60.25 in an hour.  If you stretched that over a work year, that would be like a $125,000 salary.  Though in his defense, I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing a large chunk of the D7 tailgate fund came from Brian’s pocket.  I mean who else has money to give away?

Punt, Pass, and Kick:

I think it would be irresponsible of me to not point out the boasting Bixler was doing on the ride to the Tailgate.  I believe his words were “Soon were going to be calling this the Chris Bixler Trophy, you know like Cy Young Award or the Heisman” (Apparently he didn’t think Brian and I would get the reference without additional explanation).  So it is with great glee that we crowned a new PPK Champion this week.  J takes home the PPK trophy with a grand total of 41 spaces.  This falls one short of the record Chris set at the U of D game, but it was enough to win the day.

For J this had to be especially satisfying, since before he kicked Brian, Myself, and Chris found ourselves in a three way tie for the lead, and not one of us for a second thought J would get his needed kick.  Needless to say our discussion of the overtime rules was brought to an abrupt end as J’s career long sailed effortlessly over our heads.  Congratulations, hopefully winning the trophy won’t corrupt you like it did Chris.

Flip Cup Results:

Like I said earlier, flip cup was nice this past Saturday because we didn’t have to rush it through to get it done in time for the kick off.  As a result we got 4 regular matches in and then finished up with the now infamous “Donut Game”.    

The First Series:  The first series featured the “Yow-sers” vs. the “Freise Frames”.  The Yowsers were made up of Jamie, Surin, Juanita, Justin, Jason, Jason, Me, Jen, and Tim.  The Freise Frames was made up of Fred, Melissa, Amy, Brian, Bixler, Debbie, Kristin, and J.  This one lasted about as long as it took me to type up the names.  The Yowsers rolled in this one going 4-0.  And believe me, they let the FF’s hear all about it.

The Second Series: Showing that the FF’s did indeed have some pride, the teams agreed to run it back, even though I was pretty sure it was a waste of everyone’s time.  To my surprise I was wrong.  Oh I thought the final score would again be 4-0, but I didn’t think it would be with the FF’s taking the W.  But that’s exactly what happened.  The FF’s redeemed themselves with a sweep.  I’m still not sure what happened, but regardless of my thoughts, the series was now 1 to 1, which of course meant we had to run it back again.

The Third Series: The third series again featured the same teams, and finally a decent series was had.  There were no sweeps, in fact this was as balanced as you could possibly be.  Game 1 went to the Yowsers, but the FF’s rebounded by taking the next two.  With their backs against the wall and knowing that they had lost 6 of the last 7 games, the Yowsers somehow managed to win the next 2 to take a 3-2 lead.  The FF’s were not going to go that easy and they battled back to take game 6 and force a game 7 showdown.  This crucial game 7 went the Yowsers way and the day was won! 

The Forth Series:  The teams changed up a little for this one.  On one side we had the 90210’ers on the other side was the Gossip Girls.  90210’s were made up of Justin, Me, Jason, and Tim.  The GG’s consisted of Brian, Chris, Deb, and J.  All of this is news to me because I really don’t remember any of that.  But luckily the note pad does.  And the notepad tells me that the 90210’ers swept the GG’s 3-0.  I also think that Jen, and Jamie joined the 90210’ers in game 3.  And Fred and Deb jumped in for the GG’s for the final game as well.  But it was too late to be of any help. 

The Fifth Series:  And here we are.  The infamous Donut Race.  The premise was simple.  East a donut, down your beer, and flip your cup over.  Honestly the flipping of the cup was by far the easiest.  I’m not quite sure at what point of the tailgate this became a good idea, but there was generally a positive response when the idea was first floated.  The Dunkin Throw Nuts were made up of Tim, Jen, Bob, J, Surin, and Juanita.  The Krusty Cremes were made up of Fred, Snively, Chris, Kristen, and Jamie.  What the hell?  How can it be 6 on 5.  In fact I don’t have Tim on this list actually, how could he have not been on the list??  Oh well.  The Dunking Throw Nuts flew right through the donuts and beer and claimed the first ever Donut Flip Cup Crown. 

So there you have it.  The good, the bad, and the ugly.  Below are the updated standings.   

Wow!  I’m in the lead with 6?!  How the hell did that happen.  Oh well I’d better enjoy it while it lasts. 

Weather Report Card:

Yikes, the D7 Weather Desk is staring to slip.  Hopefully I can rally back with a solid showing for the EMU game.

Odds and Ends

Just a couple things to touch on, I don’t want to make these regular segments, though I guess if they keep coming up I need to, but it already takes me 3 days to recap the tailgate, so I’m just bunching them into this one section for now.  As mentioned above, this tailgate saw the return of beer pong, as well as the addition of corn hole.  On the beer bong table we saw Bob and Jason put together a 3 game win streak on Jen and Deb, but it was soon ended by Chris and J.  Snively and Justin then beat Chris and J, and then also beat Bob and Jason.  Then Brian and Justin played Chris and Kristin to a draw.  I must admit in my notes I have something about those two being down to 1 cup to tie, but I can’t quite figure out what I was trying to say, so you’ll just have to leave that to our imagination.

On the Cornhole court (if that’s what you call it, I guess it’s a court) oh God.  I don’t have any notes from that?  What gives, I specifically asked someone to write it down, I even remember the few tense moments I had knowing the pad of paper was not in my hands, but I can’t for the life of me find any Cornhole notes. Oh wait, here it is.  The page got ripped out of the notebook but was still in my pocket.  It looks like in game one Chris and Justin beat J and Brian, but they weren’t able to hold on in game two and lost to Dr. Leavitt and Brian.  Then on the last game of the day Brian and Mr. Leavitt beat Justin and Amy. 

My Godness, the more I write this recap the more I’m thinking this was one of the greatest days in Snively’s life!!

The “Save the Terrapin (tailgaters)” Drive:

The STTT drive ended on a strong note, especially when you consider we didn’t have a dime in the tin when the game kicked off.  We raised 28$ in about an hour playing LRC and Horse Racing.  The D7 budget now stands at $39.50.  Not too shabby.  At this rate the pumpkin champion could be walking away in a new Mustang!  Ok, maybe not. 

Tailgate MVP:

It was his to lose and he successfully held on.  Bixler easily walks away with the Cal TG MVP award after flying in from Boston, renting a car, driving to Denton, picking me up, driving me to the tailgate, then driving me back home.  If that isn’t a tailgate MVP, I don’t know what is.  Of course all those things benefit only me (and perhaps Snively) but since I’m giving out the MVP Award, that is good enough for me. 

Honorable Mention (in no particular order): 

This is as easy as naming the MVP.  Everyone of us who was at the Tailgate before the sun rose.  That would be Me, Brian, J, Mr. Leavitt, Jason, Jen, and Debbie.  I think that is everyone, if I missed you, it was probably because it was 6:30 in the morning.  I didn’t mention Chris since he was already the MVP, but he also was there in the dark.  J again gets special mention by handling the grill and the breakfast sandwiches. 

Conclusion

Well that was the Cal recap.  I must again say I was very pleased with the outcome.  I thought it was a great time, but again had Cal won 49-3 I probably wouldn’t have the same memories as I do now.  But we don’t have to worry about that.  Great day all around.  Next we have Eastern Michigan coming into College Park.

So until then, don’t forget:

• J has the heat tolerance of an Eskimo.
• Donut flip cup is the fastest way to add 5 lbs to figure.
• Brian has a horseshoe stuck up his….
• 2 Hours of sleep is plenty for a Tailgate.
• And nothing beats not having to drive home!

Now let’s go beat the Eagles.