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One of the great things I love about tailgating is that you can avoid paying for overpriced food and drink inside the stadium or concert venue. Another benefit of tailgating is that you choose what you want to eat. Deciding to eat at the stadium you are forced to consume whatever brand of beer the stadium has contracted with. Same goes for the types of food they will serve. Add to the mix that a six-pack of your favorite beer from the supermarket will run you about the same as buying one 16 oz. cup of beer inside. Recently I discovered another great reason to tailgate. The Sioux Falls Canaries, a minor league baseball franchise, and their concessions partners are now offering “Fowl Balls”. Yup, you guessed it right. The Sioux Falls Canaries concession stands will now serve turkey testicles to baseball fans.

(That sound you just heard was me throwing up in my mouth.)

Bill Sedelmeier, director of food and beverage for the independent minor league team located in South Dakota, said that fans can dip their breaded and fried “fowl balls” in a variety of sauces including ranch, barbecue and bleu cheese. Sounds delightful. I wonder if the family size serving comes with its own barf bag?

Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll stick to filling up in the parking lot on Swedish meatballs rather than turkey balls.

Has anyone tailgated a papal mass? Odds are probably not. But why not? That would be the ultimate feather in any tailgater’s cap.

Back in February I put together my Bucket List for Tailgaters. It listed the Top 9 places you need to go tailgating before you “kick the bucket”. Upon further review I realized a “once in a lifetime” tailgate party was left off the list (Sorry LSU fans, despite your whining and complaining I am still not amending the original list.) That once in a lifetime tailgate party? Tailgating prior Pope Benedict XVI’s mass at Yankee Stadium.

Gates will open at 9 a.m. ET, with pre-mass festivities beginning at noon and the formal mass beginning at 2:30 p.m. Tickets have already been distributed through the Archdiocese of New York and its many parishes for the approximately 2 1/2 hour ceremony. There are no tickets available at Yankee Stadium for the mass. Even if you have a ticket to go inside for mass or not, tailgating Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to the United States has to rank up there with any other tailgate party in history. Tailgating a papal mass would be the yardstick by which other tailgaters could measure themselves.

Do you think you might catch some flack for tailgating a papal mass? Probably. Anyone who thinks tailgating the pontiff’s visit is blasphemous or in bad taste needs stop taking themselves so seriously. If they are going to be serving wine and crackers inside the stadium, why can’t you toss back a few beers and grill some brats outside the stadium?

Because Pope Benedict XVI will visit Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan before arriving at Yankee Stadium at 2:15 p.m., the likelihood of him making it out to the parking lot to share a few cold ones is pretty slim. It’s too bad because as a tailgater, that would be the ultimate to have the Pope bless your keg. That would truly be “holy water”.

If anyone out there takes my advice to tailgate the Pope’s visit, please send us the photos. Even better, make a video and send us the YouTube link. Make sure to include a Pope bobblehead doll or make you own Pope hat to wear in the photos to commemorate being one of a handful to tailgate the pontiff’s visit.

California Assemblyman Jim Beall you have got to be kidding!

The Democratic freshman lawmaker is proposing to raise the California beer tax by $1.80 per six-pack, or 30 cents per can or bottle. That’s a 1,500 percent increase above the 2 cents currently in place per can or bottle. The proposed tax targets only beer and not wine or liquor. Beall’s research showed that California undertaxes beer compared to other states so therefor beer should receive a hefty tax increase in his misguided opinion. Since beer is the No. 1 preferred beverage in tailgating parking lots this could be very bad news for California tailgaters if this bill passes.

You may be thinking, “I don’t tailgate in California so this does not really affect me.” That short sighted mentality may be true now but we all know that laws and the making of laws is all set on precedence. If you keep your mouth shut on this particular issue because you do not live in California don’t be surprised when your state’s legislators gouge you for the same type of tax increase next year.

First of all, this proposed tax is not a tax on the consumer but a proposed tax on the manufacturers of beer. Do you really think the beer manufacturers will shoulder a 1,500 percent tax increase and NOT pass it along to the consumer? Yeah, right. The proposed tax, if passed by a two-thirds vote in the California Assembly and Senate and also needs the approval of voters, would generate an estimated $2 billion a year to fund health care services, crime prevention and programs to prevent underage drinking and addiction. Gasoline prices are on the verge of $4 per gallon and the answer to a budget crisis is to raise taxes on beer? That makes a lot of sense.Just because the legislature spends like drunken sailors doesn’t mean the drunken sailors should have to pay for all their spending. (Sorry for that analogy. It was an insult to drunken sailors everywhere.)

Hey, Jim Beall and other jackass lawmakers in Sacramento. Here’s a novel concept. Try cutting the funding of superfluous governmental programs instead of looking for the tailgating public to bail you out of your budget crisis. How about a tougher stance on illegal immigration that fleeces the State of our tax dollars every day? You guys are the ones who created this mess with your overspending. It is not the job of beer drinkers to bail you out. And by the way Assemblyman Beall, I couldn’t help but notice you are a first-term legislator. You must not enjoy your job and don’t want it anymore. Placing a huge tax on beer is the best way to ensure you won’t get reelected next term.

Feel free to visit Assemblyman Jim Beall’s website and contact page. Call his office (916) 319-2024 or (408) 282-8920 and tell him how you feel about his proposed tax on beer. Send his office a fax (916) 319-2124 or (408) 282-8927 and tell him your true feelings about his proposed beer tax. These lawmakers are so out of touch with reality that maybe a phone call, fax or email from a real person potentially affected by this proposed tax can talk some sense into him. Then again, he decided to go into politics so it is probably too late for that.

Lastly, anyone else take a look at the calendar and notice the irony in all of this? Nothing like bringing a proposed beer tax close to April 15th when everyone is pissed off already about paying taxes. Way to think that one through too.

I know what you are thinking. This is another April Fools joke where I claim that the big, bad NFL is killing off tailgating. You are half right. April Fools has come and gone but the disregard for tailgaters by the NFL continues. By scheduling two Buffalo Bills 2008 “home games” in Toronto (one pre-season and one regular season game) the NFL has essentially bitch slapped the loyal Buffalo Bills tailgaters.

As they have done in years past, the National Football League releases portions of the upcoming season’s schedule in waves before announcing the finalized schedule for the entire season. A portion of that schedule was announced recently with the announcement that two Bills games will be played north of the border in 2008. Continue reading →

Well, they did it. They finally did it. The NFL finally has gone too far in it’s effort to squeeze out the regular fan.

In a press release issued just after midnight, April 1, 2008, the National Football League announced that it has banned all forms of tailgating prior to all games during the 2008 season. The decision was made during the NFL’s owners meetings held in Palm Beach, Fla. The tailgating ban was passed by an almost unanimous vote of 30-2. San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones submitted the two dissenting votes. Continue reading →

What if you learned that a popular musical venue’s policy included a ban on pre-concert tailgating at shows that attracted a predominantly Black audience? Now then, what if you substituted the word “Black” for the word “young” in that statement? Would the policy invoke the same outrage and public outcry? Apparently not because the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which owns the PNC Bank Arts Center, is getting a pass for its tailgating policy for the upcoming 2008 concert season. Adding to the absurdity of this policy, tailgating will be allowed at concerts that attract a more mature audience. No matter how you slice it, the tailgating ban at some shows but not at others is discriminatory, ageist and highly hypocritical. Continue reading →