Mayor Hickenlooper, Your Tea Bet Could Have Dire Consequences

As is the case with any major sporting event in the U.S., mayors of the opposing teams have made a bet involving food. So let's see what Denver and Boston have to offer.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper announced a friendly wager Tuesday on the Boston Red Sox/Colorado Rockies World Series matchup.

The first game in the best of seven series takes place Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Fenway Park.

"There is no doubt that the infamous curse has been broken here in Boston, and the Boston Red Sox will continue their legacy of triumph with the defeat of the Colorado Rockies," Menino said. If Boston wins the World Series, Hickenlooper will send these Colorado products to Boston to be served at a charity of Menino's choice:


100 Quiznos sandwiches
100 cups of Celestial Seasonings teas
100 servings of Great Western tortilla chips
100 servings on Epic Valley salsa
100 scoops Liks Rocky Road ice cream

If the unthinkable should occur and Colorado wins, Menino will send some of Boston's finest products to Denver to be served to a charity of Hickenlooper's choice:

100 cups Legal Seafoods New England clam chowder
100 cups Dunkin’ Donuts coffee
100 Dunkin’ Donuts Boston Crème doughnuts
100 "Curse Reversed” ice cream bars from Brigham’s Ice Cream
12 pints “Boston You’re My Home” ice cream from Brigham’s Ice Cream

Alright, chips, salsa, doughnuts, coffee, Quiznos, clam chowder, lots of ice cream and tea!

Wait a second, tea? What the hell?

First, doesn't Mayor Hickenlooper realize that Celestial Seasonings teas don't portray the "strongest" of images? With flavors like "Blueberry Breeze Green Tea" and "Sleepytime Extra Wellness" how can he expect his team not to get their asses kicked?

And second, has he forgotten about Boston's historical experience with tea? You know, like the time Bostonians destroyed 45 tons of it.

As of right now, I would have to say that Boston has an early edge. Hopefully for Mayor Hickenlooper's sake his tea bet won't doom his team.

I Hate To Say It Rockies' Fans But "I Told Ya So"

Last Thursday, I wrote about how the Rockies' decision to only sell World Series tickets online might not turn out to be the best idea. In fact, what I said was:

The other problem would be if the ticket servers crashed during what will probably be a huge traffic jam of sales. It wouldn't be the first time that something like that has occured during online ticket sales for a sporting event. Just ask Pittsburgh Panthers' fans about their '03 ticket fiasco. And that was for Panthers basketball tickets. This is for tickets for the Rockies, the hottest team in baseball right now, first World Series appearance.

Good luck Rockies' fans, I have a feeling you might need it.

Guess what? The online ticketing system crashed, and sales have been suspended.

The Colorado Rockies suspended World Series ticket sales Monday after overwhelming demand crashed their computer system.

"Right now we're shutting the system down," club spokesman Jay Alves announced outside Coors Field, drawing boos from fans. "We expect to be online at some point."

"We're as frustrated and disappointed as they are," Alves said.

Alves had said last week that the Rockies were prepared for any computer problems.

On Monday, there were 8.5 million attempts to connect with the computers in the first 90 minutes after sales started, he said, and only several hundred tickets had been sold before the system had to be shut down.

The Rockies put as many as 60,000 tickets up for sale online only, and team officials said their computers were ready to handle the expected crush. But two hours after tickets went on sale, many fans reported they could not get access to the ticket-sales Web site.

Officials with the Rockies and Major League Baseball did not immediately return calls.

Irvine, Calif.-based Paciolan Inc., which is running the computers for the Rockies' World Series ticket sales, said the crash affected the company's entire North American system.

To add to it, because tickets were only available online fans without internet access had to "withstand near-freezing temperatures outside the Denver Public Library" as they waited for it to open so they could use the public access computers.

Sounds like that decision worked out great! They must have consulted with the same guy who thought that DirecTV plan wouldn't piss off anyone.