Something New At The Old Ballpark

In a recent blogpost we related how we learned very expensively that you should not downshift a manual transmission.  Last night we went to see the Las Vegas 51’s play baseball and we learned something new very inexpensively.

We had a Ticketmaster gift card so the game cost us nothing out of pocket.  When we got there we found out that it was Budweiser $1 beer night.  We would rarely ever drink a Budweiser over a craft beer, but at $1 for a Bud versus $6.50 for a “craft beer” – Blue Moon, we easily decided on the Bud.  Besides, we needed a glass of water anyway.  And it was at the Budweiser serving line that we learned our something new – how they can “pour” a beer from the bottom of the cup.  Was it a tube off the tap to the bottom of the cup?  Nope.  They had these specially made cups as shown below.

The cup bottom has this thin metal ring in it and on top of the metal ring is a thin magnet.  They press the cup down on to special nozzle, the beer rapidly pushes up from the bottom with almost no foaming, and they have it preset to shutoff at the exact amount of the size of the cup.  And if you care to see a video of this amazing marvel of modern science, we found one on YouTube  

After a $2,600 lesson on clutches, our two beer pouring lesson at a free baseball game was a real bargain.

The baseball game itself was a good one.  The ballpark was a fairly easy walk from our campground on a very warm Spring night.  The temperature hit at least 90 in Las Vegas yesterday and is at record levels for this time of the year.  The Air Force barely admits the existence of the Area 51 Base, but yet the home team here is the 51’s.  They are the AAA affiliates of the New York Mets.  Most Triple A clubs are now located fairly close to the parent team.  We are not sure how these two got hooked up.

It is a nice park and as is popular with the ballparks in the west it has its view of the nearby mountains.  The biggest name on the 51’s is Bobby Abreu trying to earn a spot back on the big league roster at the age of 40.  The 51’s starting pitcher came out in the first inning throwing at up to 95 miles per hour.  But balls that are pitched fast can then get hammered back fast and the 51’s found themselves behind 5 to 1.  Fans were streaming out particularly after the seventh inning stretch, but in the bottom of the 8th, the 51’s scored 5 runs and held in the top of the ninth for 6 to 5 victory.  It was a cheap and fun night at the old ballpark with a technological display to boot.