@katiesisneros We are destined to be mighty frenemies. We read together Friday, but THE BILL PAXTONS inspired our trivia team, THE KEVIN BACONS!!!
Filed under Cribbage
Cribbage at the Curling Club
Curling Stones
This weekend, my curling team returns to the ice in our last bonspiel of the year. Curling and cribbage go great together, so I’ve re-posted this blog from last year. Have a great weekend!
“Good curling!” curlers say as they greet one another before and after the match. Besides my first year in the ACC, this is my first year throwing stones across the ice of a curling sheet at the St. Paul Curling Club as a member of the Luther College Curling Team. Imagine my delight when I learned the Mike Rugg Bonspiel (the curling world’s word for tournament) also featured a cribbage tournament. “Sign me up!” I said. Curling and cribbage have much in common: both are social sports; both involve moving objects in hand across the venue of competition; both are accompanied well by beer. Curling has the hog line, cribbage the skunk line. In cribbage terms, we got skunked this weekend on the ice.
Big time. Continue reading
Filed under ACC, Boards, Cribbage, Interviews, Skunks, Tournaments
Tale of Two Tournaments, Part II
The clamoring cribbage hoards of St. Paul.
After the relative success of the previous night, I wake up hopeful. It’s St. Patrick’s day, March 17, and the luck of the non-Irish (Swede and Italian) is with me. Nonetheless, I don a cheap green t-shirt I’ve had since college that reads “Shamrock Campground – Miles and Miles of Irish Smiles,” and hit the road.
I arrive in Woodbury just a few minutes before the tournament starts. I grab my scorecard from Todd and Ginger, and Todd stands up and takes out an envelope. “I owe you money, sir,” he says, and lays $100 on me. I see Jerry, and he hands me another $80. Friday night, my 13 points and +94 spread was good enough for 6th, and I scored both in the general pool and Jerry’s side-pool of $10. If I had beat Ed–if I hadn’t lost in the stinkhole–it would have been worth at least $30 more. Continue reading
Tale of Two Tournaments, Part 1
It’s Friday, March 16, one day before St. Patrick’s Day, and the Twin Cities are absolutely gorgeous tonight. It’s 80 degrees outside, the birds are chirping, and there’s not a drop of snow to be found. I’m on my way to the Woodbury Country Inn & Suites for the Capital City Classic cribbage tournament. Driving east on I-94 into a beautiful waning sunset, I’ve got the windows down, music loud, an arm danging out the window, and I remind myself once again what I’m losing this beautiful night to. A game. Cards. Part of me just wants to keep driving into the dusk. Continue reading
Filed under ACC, Cribbage, League, Skunks, Tournaments
Back in the Ring
This weekend marks my return to the competitive cribbage circus circuit.
Work and school have kept me away for quite some time. About 6 weeks ago I emailed Dan Taylor, the ACC rep for my club (the Twin City Peggers), and told him “say hey to everyone, I’ll see you when I see you,” as my Wednesday nights are booked solid with grad school this semester, and I’ve been unable to join the club I’ve come to know over the past year. I couldn’t make it to Reno; I couldn’t even make it to the January St. Paul snowball.
This weekend, though, the Capital City tournament is just a few miles down the highway, and I’m all-in. Friday night tournament: 9 games. Main Saturday event: 22 games. Saturday night tournament: 9 games. Sunday: unknown. 40 games minimum–that’s a lot of time hunched over a board in another no-trump hotel conference room, a weekend lost counting to 15, to 31, lost to moving pegs, lost to small-talk, no-talk, trash-talk, bravado and humility in equal measure. That’s a lot of time lost to playing a game.
But I’m not the only one, thankfully. Though I qualified for the bracket rounds (top 25%) in my first tournament ever, I’ve been unable to re-create that success everywhere else, and I go to Woodbury with a deplorable tournament record. To win, or at least do well, would be great. To come one step closer to figuring out why we do it would be even better. Stay tuned.
Filed under Cribbage, League, Tournaments
Estate Sale Confidential
Early Estate Sale Confidential Gold
After a holiday hiatus, we’re back on track here at Cribbageland; interviews are again underway, as well as drafting, drafting, drafting.
For most of us, writing and blogging is a lonely business. That’s why on Saturday I’m joining fellow writer, blogger, and baseball fanatic Peter Schilling, Jr., for one of his favorite activities: estate sale-ing (hey, we both blog about activities that people really want to know about). Come Saturday morning, we venture in search of pre-owned booty! He’s going to bring me up to speed on the four types of estate sales (the Digger, the Shoeless, the In-Between, and the Poser) and show me first-hand the competitive world of second-hand goods. We’ll be on the lookout for the bold and bizarre, the overlooked and under-cherished. From old books (WPA Guide to Minnesota) to tarot cards, incandescent crosses to bullshit grinders, you never know what you’ll find.
Mike and the Mt. Holly Cribbage Board, won by Peter soon after.
We might even be joined by Cribbageland celebrity Mr. Mike Haeg, the Mayor of Mt. Holly, Minnesota, and world record holder for the largest cribbage board. Mike contributed a Mt. Holly cribbage board to last summer’s Cribbage in the Field event at the Walker Art Center, and it was none other than Peter who won that crimson beauty.
I’m looking forward to a morning of estate sale-ing. What’s your favorite estate sale find?
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Peter Schilling, Jr. is a freelance writer, Minnesota Twins blogger, and author of The End of Baseball, which the New York Post deemed “required reading” for baseball nuts everywhere. Be sure to also check out The Bug Blog for more Estate Sale Confidential.
Mike Haeg is Mayor and Chief Creative Badass of Mt. Holly, Minnesota.
A Minnesota Mystery
United States National Cribbage Doubles Champions, 1941
A few weeks ago I made a trip to the Minnesota Historical Society for an evening of 15-2 research. I had no idea what I’d find, except I anticipated that somewhere in the past 100 years of history in the land of 10,000 lakes cribbage would be mentioned/highlighted/featured in local newspapers and other media. I wasn’t disappointed. Continue reading
