Vintage Ravens
With the Ravens on a bye, the hot stove season not yet underway, and the baseball playoffs dragging on in the rain, things have been slow. A bit of an autumn lull, if you will. The Loss Column recommends getting outside sometime soon to see the foliage. Also: whiskey + apple cider, dusted with cinnamon. Jack Daniel’s works fine. The fresher and more local the cider the better.
Now then. As you ponder the implications of the Steelers-Vikings match today, take a moment to enjoy this nugget from the SI vault about the Ravens’ first game in Baltimore. I like this part in particular:
A few minutes later receiver Michael Jackson, who scored the first touchdown in Ravens history, explained why he had then handed the ball to a fan sitting behind the end zone. “It’s the least I could do,” said Jackson. “They’ve waited 12 years for this.”
What’s on your mind this week?
no one needed a bye more than me.
okay, maybe a few players.
seriously though, i can’t remember a season that beat me up emotionally after six games more than this one.
nothing like 3 wins followed by three of the most brutal, last minute losses in ravens’ history.
for real if i made a list of the top ten painful losses since 1996 at least two of those three would qualify, including playoffs.
gotta go get ‘em next sunday i suppose.
i’ve had too much football fatigue lately to post about why this season so far is killing me but i will someday.
I dig the drink mix. Earlier in the summer Alton Brown did a punch episode of Good Eats where he talked about the five ingredients of good drink mix:
“One part sour, two parts sweet, three of strong, and four of weak…and spice makes five”
This doesn’t quite fit that (but boy howdy did his version of a Long Island Iced Tea* kill), but it reminded me of it a lot. I’d put in nutmeg instead of cinnamon though (freshly grated, of course). In fact, I did. It was great.
*16 ounces of freshly squeezed lime juice plus 20 lime shells, 32 ounces of raw sugar, a bottle of Batavia Arrack (a rum-esque liquor from Java), 64 ounces of black tea, and freshly grated nutmeg served in a big bowl with a large frozen water balloon’s worth of ice. Terrific.
@Andrew – Nutmeg’s a good idea. I’ll give that a shot. I also forgot to mention that on colder days/nights the mixture works great hot. I recommend putting the cider and the spice in a saucepan and heating it short of a boil, then pouring it into a glass and adding the whiskey. Drink it like you would a tea.
Meanwhile, the Angels are toast. Not that it comes as a surprise. As of right now there’s still hope of a ninth-inning comeback, but it’s not happening.
It’s pretty interesting to think about awful losses, but the most poignant one I can remember was the Patriots in 2007.
The Vikings loss last week was painful, but not really any more painful than losing to the Steelers by a FG in OT in 08. They really just stand out as bad losses but nothing to really dwell upon going forward.