Back by no demand.  As always skip to the ingredients photo to ignore over my ramblings.

This first cocktail will have the stench of being thrown together.  I started last year to relieve some COVID boredom.  Now that the season is upon us, I am woefully unprepared.  Also, much like most of the fanbase, my excitement is an all time low.  I haven’t even read the whole HTTV preview magazine yet.  I’d usually plow through it in a couple days

Maybe it is a function of getting older.  Having a 3  and 5 year old will not only reset your priorities but they act as energy vampires.  

I really have two sports loves that would 1A and 1b:  Michigan and the Tigers.  I would always trade the World Series for the National Title, so Michigan is the priority.  I always think of Tigers as what I love and Michigan as my passion.  If you graphed the times I swore at the TV at the  Tigers vs the times I swore at Michigan football, basketball and hockey games, it would look something like this.

 
It’s a function of baseball in itself.  There’s 162 games in a season and every team will lose 60 and win 60, so its tough to get upset over a loss, no matter how unlucky or infuriating.  Meanwhile, in college football, one loss can mean being kicked out of Big Ten or National Title contention.

Both the teams have provided little joy the last six years.  Tigers are in a major “rebuild.”  Michigan unable to beat OSU or even have a marquee win on the road.  Last year, after MSU and certainly after Indiana, I was only watching in obligation, much like I have been watching the Tigers for 5 years.  It was a relief that the games unfortunately got canceled due to COVID.

 

I’ve continued to be a Tigers season ticket holder since I’ve moved back to Michigan in 2012.  I have a 27 game package and I’ll go to about 15 games a year.  It’s a nice night out with the wife or with the kids, or an excuse to have a few beers with a friend.  It’s certainly silly, when tickets can be probably be bought for the price of 2 cokes.

I was sitting at a Tigers game in late May vs the Yankees with the wife.  It was unseasonably cold for the season.  My wife and I sat down and watched the game not really paying attention.  It was nice to get out due to Covid.  Unfortunately, the game went extra innings.  With the stupid extra inning rule now In place,  I was able to convince her to sit in the cold for 1 more inning.  She had been giving me the “let’s go” look for a solid two innings.

Yankees score in the top of the 10th.  With two out, and the free or ghost runner on 3rd.  Robbie Grossman hit the 2 run HR to walkoff the Yankees. 

In the grand scheme of things, it’s not a big deal.  Tigers will finish below 500.  Grossman will be gone by the time  the Tigers are ready to contend.  MLB averages 56 walk off Home Runs per year so it’s not a rare occurrence.

It was a big deal to me.  Because I jumped out my seat and started screaming when he made contact.  It proved that I could still care and be excited about the Tigers.  It felt so foreign after 5 years or more.  

So that’s the reason to watch or go to the game.  You never know what play will reignite the passion you have for the team.  Hill, Hutchinson, Higdon, Bell or Unknown player: you’re on deck. I want that passion back.

Cherry Caiprihina

They say the worse the Cachaca the better the Caiprihina.   The Caiprihana is the official drink of Brazil.  At its heart is really just Cachaca, which has rum like properties, made into an Old Fashioned variant, with limes and sugar.

So in honor of the West Side of the state and their cherry festivals, we will make a Cherry Caiprihana.  I’m always trying to hold onto the last weeks of summer with all my strength and this is still tasty on the usual hot days of the first game of the season.

Ingredients

 2 oz  Cachaca

Ice

3/4 oz Simple syrup

4 pitted cherries preferred fresh or brandied.  ( I went to 3 stores looking for fresh.. I gave up)

1/2 lime / quartered

Fill a rocks glass with ice.  Take a mixing glass or cocktail shaker and place the limes and cherries with the simple syrup.  Muddle releasing the lime and cherry juices. 

The Muddle Mess

Add the Cachaca to the mixing glass.  Dump the ice from the rocks glass into the mixing glass.  Shake for 30 seconds.  Dump the entire contents without straining back to the rocks glass.  Garnish with a lime. 

Salut!