Till Next Time

And the Mug is back on the move.

Congrats go out to Margaret for claiming her first solo championship, and I have zero doubts she will continue bringing great beers to the Mug. It remains to be seen if she will be able to experience 177 different brews like your former champion, but at least she’ll have her hands on the stein before tax season. Which is more than we’re able to say for our 2011 champion.

Probably not the worst time for the Mug to be going mobile anyhow. I don’t know how many more Dad/Mug tag team nights would have had Everyone’s Mom’s seal of approval – especially with our forthcoming summer arrival. A couple of those late-night, west coast games from Pullman got a little boisterous in the Sammons household…

Clearly Lily was Margaret’s secret weapon in 2012, so we can only hope our own ittle one brings the same good fortune. Judging by the way he/she was kicking away on the monitor this morning, it’s safe to say we have a contender for the second RB spot on the squad next year.

Indeed though, it was a fabulous year of beers with El Mug. Many trips were made to the Mac (see below), as many swear words were directed at Dan Uggla, and the Mug brought home a win for Georgia over Florida and an Apple Cup victory for the ages.

The juice was certainly worth the squeeze.

Until we meet again, Mug. Be well.

The Finals

If you detect a twinge of bias in the following words, that’s because it’s completely intentional. Matter of fact, let’s just take the notion of remaining impartial and throw that right out the window.

Crane, I hope you win the Mug.

Ignoring the most glaring reason – “The Mug has already racked up enough time in the Hohensee household” – let’s examine the upshot as to why it’s so easy to get behind Matt this weekend. What would really be good about it, you might ask? For me, it’s simple.

THINGS THAT WILL HAPPEN IF CRANE WINS THE LEAGUE

1) I’ll send the Mug out first thing Monday morning.

2) Super Bowl with the Mug

This would have been cool to experience last season, but you know, Matt was too busy thumbing through his LL Bean catalog to get the Mug to the engraver. Super Bowl just wasn’t the same with beer out of the plastic Solo cups. All on you, Crane.

3) The Mug at Spring Training

Drinking $7 canned beer in the Sunshine State. The Mug missed out last year on Duane shouting at Bryce Harper on the on-deck circle about his GED degree.

4) Green Beer in the Mug

St. Patty’s Day in the middle of March. After an epic night of beer and green food coloring, odds are I find it within myself to stuff the Mug inside a box and drop it off at the post office. Probably a pretty decent shot it doesn’t get washed, disinfected or even rinsed out, but hey, at least it would be in transit by this point.

And Margaret, should you stake claim to your first-ever Priest Holmes unassisted championship, I’ll have it in the mail faster than you can say, “Beast Mode.”

Matt, should you roll the dice and stick Fitzgerald in your lineup and he actually produce? That could be the final stake in the heart for Konig. I, for one, am still upset about him falling short last week.

Was looking forward to the Mug smelling like Crown in the years ahead.

So good they named a day after him

How did your Fantasyland champion celebrate his day?  So happy you asked.

Dad Day was quite the shindig, as it is every year.  Your heralded champ relished his greatness by tossing back a few cold ones from his favorite drinking container – El Mug.  Guinness was up first.  After a handful of those, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale followed and was then anchored by Bud Light.  Not the best way to finish off the night, but hey, at least it was cold.

As your champ flipped between the U.S. Open and NBA Finals, he noticed a familiar face.  It was the one Durant was sporting in the closing seconds of the fourth.  It was the one Jim Furyk couldn’t hide after his tee shot on #16.  It was the one that said, “I’m finished.”

It was the one LeSean McCoy and Hakeem Nicks showed in the Fantasyland finals.

Long story short, Webb Simpson won the Open.  The Heat won Game 3 of the Finals.  So up steps LeBron front and center, soaking up the atmosphere.  And he had a look across his face your champ also recognized.  It’s the immaculate one he sees in the mirror each Georgia morning.  The one that says, “It’s good to be King.”

So the next morning, lo and behold, what comes pouring into Dad’s inbox?  An invitation to return to Fantasyland for the 2012 season.

And upon reading it, the first question that came to mind?

Didn’t y’all get enough the last time?

My QB is cooler than yours.

The Arrival

The first word that comes to mind?  Finally.

No, not finally in the sense that I won the heralded Mug for the second time.  But that Crane finally got off his duff and got the wheels turning on getting the prize to its rightful owner.  Clearly the league will have to be careful about allowing Matt to win in the years ahead since we know now what we’d have ahead of us.

Now before the celebration commences, there are those that deserve some recognition:

Tom – the soon-to-be Pa Hohesee v2.0 you’re up first.  Thanks for tossing Jordy Nelson in as the third player in the Brady deal.  I had decided I would do the deal for just Rivers and Gates, but getting Nelson and his subsequent redonk level of production was a big difference.  Kudos.

Greg Jennings – thanks for getting hurt and saving it for the playoffs.  Thanks to you, Jordy and Jermichael got nasty when it mattered most.

Myself – for not cutting Reggie Bush despite the fact I was a click away a few different times.

Ren – I would say for picking up where Matt left off in getting the Mug in transit, but that wouldn’t exactly be accurate.  So I’ll say for picking up where Matt never started.  Good looking out.

Hakeem Nicks’ hamstring – The whey protein payment is in the mail, dog.

Ryan’s entire team for playing dead in the semis – clearly intimidation played a role here.

I invite everyone to stop by and see which beers your champ has already consumed in the Mug.  By next year, the list should have a better count than Ryan’s team did in that semifinal game.  The first beer the Champ had in the Mug?  Thought long and hard about what to go with.  But really, like the team who fell victim to the Dad in two championship games now, we had to take it old school.  Original school, really.

Pa Ho – the innovator, the original – thanks for showing us the way.  With Super Mario on board, the Bills are on their way as well, and it will be a proud day when Grandpa Ho finally has his name on the Mug.  After all, as the newest Hohensee member will quickly learn, a Hohensee always wins.

Just not this year.

The first of many.

 

And we (finally) have progress!

According to Ren:

The mug is in the hands of the engraver and should b done by the end of wk:-)

You Can Find Me…

50 and the boys caught wind of the Mug allegedly being in transit.  Wanted to let all y’all know where we’re takin’ it.

—–

“And you should love it way more than you hate it
Old School, you mad?  I thought you’d be happy I made it
I’m that cat by the bar toastin’ to the good life
You that tear-in-you-beer Nancy tryin’ to pull me back, right?”

Mug On The Move

Best weekend of my life.

Still not in the right person’s hands, mind you, but it’s news nonetheless.

Here the Great One is resting comfortably in the snow behind a slab of cement.  You can tell by the gleam on the Mug’s side how much happier it is in this location than being subjected to the array of Zimas and Smirnoff Ices Crane clearly threw the Mug’s way over the course of the last year.

The new owner has too much respect for the Mug to introduce it to such demeaning [scoff] “beverages.”

On the contrary, just wait till the Mug meets my good friends Sammy Adams, Sammy Smith and St. Pauli Girl.

Someday, hopefully.