National Guy's Month

the bottle: 2010 Fish Tale Organic Amber Ale
the movie: Bull Durham, 1988
the meal: Grilled McKenzie Beef Dogs with Hot Mustard and Pickle Relish, Napa Cabbage Slaw, Baked Black Beans with Harrington's Bacon, Molasses and Brown Sugar
In all fairness, I assign this week’s post to honor National Guy’s History Month. In finding my orientation this week—towards baseball, basketball and fishing—it felt like an appropriate theme. And in light of last week’s post and some reflection on the inherent ghettoization that occurs with the establishment and commemoration of a month devoted to just one gender’s entire history (or, one race’s, for that matter), I felt like an appropriate follow-up might be to even the score a little.

So back to baseball, basketball and fishing. But lest I imply that this grouping quintessentially sums up the essence of men (hey, I left out golf, even though it’s Masters week), it’s simply the way the cards happened to fall this week with the opening of baseball season, the finals of the NCAA basketball tournament, and the opening of trout season.

The start of baseball season is much more than just a feast of competitive male role-playing, it’s a rite of spring. And an altogether different kind of feast. For some, the onset of spring is opening daffodils. For others, it’s Opening Day. But the intermingling anticipatory smells of hot dogs and hyacinth, lilac and leather, blooming bulbs and beer are enough to send any red, white, or blue-blooded American to the ballpark for some cracks and whiffs, some roars and scoffs, some rants and cheers.

To honor this annual passage, we picked the movie Bull Durham for a few reasons. First, it’s less of a vaunted, baseball-as-ivory tower fastball, and more of a rough-around-the-edges knuckler. Kevin Costner as hapless, aging catcher Crash Davis is far from the dreamy-eyed, Spielburgesque Ray Kinsella in Field of Dreams, and his thoroughly minor league status with its grouchy humility makes this movie more than watchable. It’s a behind-the-scenes view at the second-tier game and Crash must summon all of his will to step in with the Minor League Durham Bulls to coach an up and coming rookie pitcher with a golden arm, but no brains. There’s a credible tension between the two as Crash and 'Nuke' LaLoosh, played by Tim Robbins, vie for the heart of Susan Sarandon and the dream of "The Show." And from the clip here, we see how "The Show" serves as the perfect emblem for National Guy's Month.

In college basketball, the equivalent of "The Show" is "the promised land," and for those unfamiliar with the jargon, it refers to the 4 finalists in the Division One NCAA college basketball tournament (aka The Final Four) which begins with a field of 64 teams. The promised land is perhaps an even more vaunted and awe-inspiring place to find oneself (although Crash might argue this) because it requires surviving four challenging tests of a team’s mettle and skill amidst a nervy, media-spotlit tournament milieu.

And on Monday night, the winner of the 2010 NCAA Tournament was crowned in Indianapolis.

Which gets us to our second reason for this week’s movie pick: the grand vanquisher, the royal subjugator, the conqueror and last man standing in the promised land was our beloved Duke Blue Devils, from aforementioned Durham, NC. A stretch? Perhaps. But we couldn’t resist. After all, it’s all about winning. It’s about being the best you can be. It’s about coaching and humility. And it’s all about guys.

For the feast, we passed over popcorn, curly fries and big gulps, and settled on hot dogs and beers. Nothing else seemed quite right. And it was a fine call. Charred and popped McKenzie dogs on toasted buns with relish, mustard and slaw christened our 2010 “yardnic” season at the outdoor fire pit. We whipped up some scrumptious baked black beans with Harrington’s bacon, brown sugar and molasses to warm our gullets amidst the blowy and brisk afternoon. Mmmm, wow! It was as good as any bottlemoviemeal meal yet.

And finally, our bottle selection taps into the third component of the sports-themed mix this week which is the opening of trout season. To best honor this occasion and complement our Opening Day meal, we selected the fine Fish Tale Organic Amber Ale from Olympia, Washington. This award-winning brew is very smooth going down in an icy mug, with a nice malty medium-body and a slightly sweet character. It’s truly a delicious ale that salutes organic farmers, basketball coaches and down-on-their luck ball players.

Don’t worry, next week we can all look forward to a return to balanced levels of testosterone.

Recipe for baked black beans: http://bit.ly/bxiDXN
Substitute navy beans for black beans