I went to a Spring Training Facility and a Beer Festival Broke Out!

The Big Pour, featuring the new Budweiser American Ale. Woo-hoo!

I like beer! I even heart beer! As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

On Saturday, November 22nd, 2008, Draft Magazine sponsored the first annual "Big Pour" Beer Festival. What does this have to do with the Cubs you ask? Well, I'll tell you. The festival was held at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa. Yep, the same place the Cubs play their spring training games.

The festival was actually held on the field as well. I got to stand where D-Lee fields those double plays when not hitting into them. I graced the mound where Mark Pryor threw 13 consecutive perfect simulated games. I stood in the box where Todd Hundley prepared himself for the 2002 season. I sat in dugout, although couldn't remember if the Cubs usually sat in the traditional 1st base dugout or the 3rd base dugout, so I sat in both of them.

The festival was all-in-all a success. A little better planning would have made it much better though. First off, there were hardly 100 breweries as advertised. Most of the beers I had already had, and who hasn't tasted Corona, Guinness or "ugh" Budweiser American Ale. There were a handful of breweries with beers I hadn't tasted before, and these were usually the ones that were looser with the "4 ounce pour" rule.

Lazy Steve does not like you!

Secondly, being to a couple different beer festivals and hating to stand in line, we chose to buy the VIP tickets, which among other things gave us entry into the festival 45 minutes before general admission. Unfortunately, no one mentioned that they wouldn't be able to serve beer till noon, or the time when general admission was allowed in. A total waste of an extra $15.

Another benefit of the VIP was a larger cup. We were given an 8 ounce plastic (yeah, hi-class all the way) cup while general admission was given a 5 ounce cup. This worked to our disadvantage though, as most vendors kept to the 4 ounce pour rule. But since there was no distinguishing line on our cups, unlike the smaller cups, we found out the vendors were actually giving us less beer because they were worried about over-pouring.

Despite these few missteps, the day was still fun. We still got drunk, had a bunch of beer and frolicked in the 75 degree sunshine at the home of the Chicago Cubs spring training.

So to everyone back home in Chicago, freezing yours nuts off (or your tits, cubbiejulie), keep looking forward to spring training and while us Arizonians don't get to go to as many Cubs games at Wrigley, we also never have to scrape the sunshine off our windshields.

See in March everyone! COI will be out in full effect for anyone wanting to tailgate with the best of them, eat some damn good food, throw some washer-toss or the rock and get drunk on Old Style and Firestone Walker. Hit us up on the email: collegeofidiots@gmail.com.

Go Cubs!
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