Baseball's Champagne Celebration

Tonight, 3 major league baseball teams clinched playoff spots.  One of those 3 teams was the Texas Rangers- my favorite team.  They clinched their second consecutive division title.  Needless to say I was excited.  And, after six months of hard work, these three teams were understandably excited.  And, how did they celebrate?  By spraying each other with champagne in their locker rooms.  Yep.  Sure, a few beers came into the picture after a bit, but the French bubbly was the star of the show in multiple clubhouses tonight.  America’s national pastime has a French flair when it comes to celebration.  Why?

Because Champagne means celebration.  It meant celebration for 3 teams tonight and has meant celebration for many teams for countless years.  It has also meant celebration for millions (if not billions) of people every new year, at every wedding, and at almost every other occasion for celebration imaginable.  Something about those bubbles means celebration.

Champagne has been the drink of kings since its inception.  Kings of the 14^th century used to drink it.  Perhaps even the Romans drank early forms of Champagne.  In the old days, Champagne was a signal of wealth.  How then did it make its way into celebration with sports?

Well, in 1967 Moet et Chandon gave the winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans race a bottle of Champagne and the driver sprayed the crowd in his jubilation.  Since then, Champagne has meant celebration in the sports world as more and more sports pop the bubbly to celebrate their achievements after months of hard work.  And, because of Champagne’s links to royalty, wealth, and celebration, fans in Milwaukee are trading in their beer for bubbly as the “Brew Crew” celebrates tonight.  Fans in Phoenix are toasting with bubbly as they celebrate their team’s achievement.  And, most certainly, fans in Texas (and California…) are popping the bubbly to celebrate the Rangers’ division title.

Champagne means celebration.  Especially so tonight for Diamondback, Brewer, and Rangers fans.

Back from the dead...

It’s been a long time since I’ve written about wine.  A bunch of factors have contributed to my lack of posts in the last six weeks or so, but for the most part, the reason I haven’t written about wine is that I just haven’t been drinking wine recently.  I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had wine in the last six weeks. 

The reason I haven’t been drinking wine is two-fold.  First of all, it’s been so freaking hot recently that red wine hasn’t sounded refreshing at all and I’m not enough of a white wine enthusiast to frequently choose to drink it over beer or soft drinks.  Secondly, I’ve been a little upset with wine since the heat ruined some of my nice bottles of wine before I could drink them.  That bitter taste in my mouth has taken a long time to wear off, but as cooler weather approaches (hopefully), my interest in wine is returning.

So, in the coming days, I’m going to write about my two interesting experiences with wine in the past six weeks.  The first of which was in Idaho where I tried local Idaho wine and got to enjoy several wonderful meals with great friends.  My second adventure was a tasting day in Temecula.  I know I’ll come off sounding like a snob in this post, but it was a good day and there were some good stories from the trip.

So, now that I’m officially back, look for me to post with regularity for the next few months.