A Weekend in OKC

With my parents still out of the country, and me being in Chicago one week and Atlanta the next (both for work) thought this was a nice random weekend to pick up and a find a place in our great country and explore. I avoided my normal spots (Denver, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Phoenix) mostly because I've already done them all this year. I thought about Nashville or Houston or just staying in Chicago, but instead settled on Oklahoma City. Why? Fair question - but it was a combination of (a) close proximity to Chicago, (b) get to add a new airport, and more improtantly, a new state and (c) I'd heard decent things.

I landed around 10:30pm Thursday Night from Chicago, in their small but lovely little airport, got into my uber in a couple minutes (a tricked out Tesla) and had a deep conversation with teh driver with a great Southern accent for ten minutes on the way to my hotel - an airport Marriott for the first night. In that time, he gave a lot of facts about Oklahoma City - it is the 3rd largest state capital by area, the food is lovely including some recommendations he threw out, and that a significant portion of the town would be gone this weekend becasue it is the Texas v Oklahoma game, the Red River Shootout itself, in Dallas. On that last part, he may be absolutely right because it was a fairly quiet week, but also given how calmly spread out Oklahoma City is, and how everyone drives, it might just be like this.

Let me start by saying that Oklahoma City is not likely to enter the rotation of the four other cities I threw out earlier. I wouldn't say this is a surprise. While those four aren't New York or something, they are generally still seen as regional tourism and life hubs. Oklahoma City is not that. I don't expect to make another trip back out here in the next couple years (pending work travel, I guess) but taht does not mean in any way I regret coming here. Seeing new places and learning their stories is fun, and in the "their stories" part, Oklahoma City has a lot to offer.

I lighter than expected workday on Friday gave me a few more hours than I was expecting to kill sightseeing on Friday, to which I went to two Art museums - teh first the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, and the other the Oklahoma Contemporary Collective. The second one is smaller, free and a bit light, but had a nice "whismy and funny" exhibit on the top floor which had some really striking paintings. The main Art Museum, however, is a nice example of what I mean about Oklahoma City. It is a lovely museum, with most rooms having a discernable theme that takes your through hundreds of years of art styles in one go. The contemporary and modern section towards the end has some great stuff. They have a couple Warhols and Renoirs and, of course, a Monet. The real star though is their large semi-permanent collection of Dale Chiluly, the world famous glass-blower artists. It is the biggest collection of his in the world and it is phenomenal. OKC did a good thing, finding one specific area to highlight where it can be world class.

The other main museums in Oklahoma City are also quite excellent as well. There are three main ones that make up the normal tourist hit list, and all have some wonderful aspects. First is the First Americans Museum (ironically, went there last) which is a lovely modern building that houses two floors on the history of the Native Americans. Unlike the Heard Museum which is more of an art museum on the topic, here the bottom floor is mostly about telling the story of the Natives slowly losing their land to the US Government in pretty painstaking detail. The museum isn't all negative - half of the bottom floor is about their culture, particularly contributions to sports and war. The top floor is more traditional museum, stuff with art, clothing, tapestries, etc., All in all, a nice museum to a graet topic.

A better museum to an even better (if more harrowing) topic is teh National Memorial Museum which is the current Memorial Fountain/Park and then Museum taht sits at the site of the Murray Building which was bombed in 1995. I knew loosely the story of it, but to be honest forgot it was in 1995 (for some reason thought it was the late 90s), forgot how quickly McVeigh was caught, forgot just how much damage the bomb immediately caused, and just didn't plain know that there were co-conspirators and what not. The museum is just hauntingly well done. The first room a run through of OKC up until 1995 and then a bit about the Murrah building itself, and then the second room which is a makeshift room of the Department of Water where there was a water-rights hearing going on at 9am. You sit there and they play the tape of the hearing until the two minute mark when there is a loud, loud explosion. That was so bone chillingly well done. The rest of the museum, from talking about teh damage, the historic recovery efforts, the manhunt around McVeigh and then the recovery, was all great. Truly, this museum was reayll well done, and is getting an expansion next year as well.

The final museum was probably my favorite. About a ten minute drive North of teh city sits the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, which is a giant museum on a giant plot that goes deep, wide, broad, and everything in between on life on teh West and the history of the Cowboy. The first few rooms are more art museum in style with incredible paintings, sculptures and what not of the Western scenery - stuff that I just love. There was also a showcase of handicrafts for sale (all like 10,000+) of custom beautiful saddled, bits, spurs and boots. Further back in the museum it becomes more about history and culture of Cowboys, of Natives, of Cowboys in Film and of so much more. They also have these large, beautiful giant sculptures littered about as well that are all so well done. As well done is "Propserity Junction" a fake mock-up of an outpost style town befit with mock schoolhouses, churches, saloons, mercantiles, stables and more - all indoors. Truly, this place was insane, in the best way. I cannot recommend the National Cowboy museum enough, In terms of Museums, OKC stacks up with my Big four from above easily.

Where OKC starts to fall off a bit is the lack of any great outdoor sights. Now, I should be clear it isn't like there are none - there are a couple nice ones. The Myriad Botanical Garden is interesting, especially the "Crystal Bridge" large glass tropical biome, which is just lovely. Also the canal winding through Bricktown is nice to walk around the banks of, and could easily be way more played up and commercialized than it is (this is to OKC's credit), but there is only so much you can do in the large expanse of middle America with its flat land everywhere. Oklahoma City surprisingly (to me, at least) is at a 1,100 foot elevation, but all of it is basically at that elevation. The exterior of OKC is just a bit staid.

The food is quite good - starting with my lunches that were at three different BBQ places, the best of which was Edgecraft, a wonderful BBQ spot serviing great crusted brisket, but also random other asides, from czech sausages to tri-tip to so much more. Their sides are also great, includ9inga  really inventive, gourmet-i-fied version of cole slaw. The other standout was King's Custom Smoke Meats, which had probably better sides (a really great Mac & Cheese) but maybe not quite as good brisket - bigger portions though. From speaking to a few locals, I was told that OKC is surprisingly less of a BBQ town than you would think given its location and how often Oklahoma BBQ is played up - apparently that is more of a Tulsa thing; speaking of which, Tulsa trip in 2027?

My dinners were all excellent. Two were local tasting menu spots - one a bit more avant garde in Nonesuch, and the other a bit more formal and played up in Grey Sweater, though oddly the meals themselves were fairly similar (in a good way). Both also had quite interesting setups, housed in what from the outside look like fairly empty urban buildings, shrouded behind black curtains and tinted windows - both places welcome you into this room of magic. Both had most diners setup on a long rectangular bar front with space in teh middle to watch the cooks and barmen operate (Grey Sweater also had normal tables). Both were 10-course meals that were all lovely. Not especially "Oklahoma" in terms of produce or whatever (like no big steaks) but both quite good.

Grey Sweater was probably the better of the two (also the more expensive, but not by much). Their duck pre-main was one of the best duck dishes I've ever had. Their pavlova dessert was so interesting in terms of the fruits they added in. The pork belly main had one of the best pork head sauces I've ever had. Overall, Grey Sweater was awesome. Nonesuch was nearly as good - their own pork main with galangal and cilantro was one of the better pork loin dishes I;ve had (they really cooked it well in teh sous vide). They also had some amazing fish dishes, and a wonderful dessert. On the whole, both of these two showcase that great food is available anywhere. I should note, I'm not some trailblazing discoverer here, as Grey Sweater is a James Beard winning place, and after going I can see why.

The nightlife and adult beverages scene in Oklahoma City is quite nice, if few standouts. The craft beer scene is plentiful - IPA and summer ale heavy, given that this was, as a few locals told me, the first week that it dropped below 90 in quite some time. For this reason, there were few stouts, other than at Prarie OKC (probably my favorite brewery I went to) which had three, all 13% or more. The other stops were all large, a nice collection of indoor and outdoor space, and all as friendly and inviting as you would expect. It is clear that craft beer is not religion here the way it is in say Minneapolis or Denver, but it still is really strong.

The cocktail scene is great, even if my first spot I tried going to - Good For a Few - was too busy. Weird, since it clsoes at midnight, but anyway, it's reviews were slightly worse than both of teh places I did go to. First was Lunar Lounge, which is very nice but also the weirdest combination of things - a speakeasy type door where you have to press a hidden button to get the door to break from teh wall, but then inside it is a semi-arcade, futuristic type spot, that also happens to have craft cocktails. The drinks were sharp, if a bit too fruity (the two I tried), but the whole experience was just interesting.

The real star, however, was Palo Santo - wihch was not a surprise. All my reddit based research on best cocktail bars in OKC kept repeating taht name time and time again, and it is a fantastic place, They had a menu of about 15 cocktails - some seasonal, some standards (aong with an extensive bar menu otherwise) and crafted the hell out of them. Many were Japanese inspired - like a Tokyo Old Fashioned or a Japanese Peppercorn laced martini, but then you had some great ones like a "Basquerac" which is a Basque fortified wine style Sazerac. On the whole, Palo Santo was great and is making my cocktail list whenever I next update it.

The one place OKC was lacking was EDM - or at teh very least a dependable spot. There is an Instagram EDM.OKC that tracks and showcases the various bar and lounge shows that happen all the time, but it seemed a bit too clubby or mellow, with no real in between (at least this weekend). There is one strange spot - an after-hours club (12am - 6am, no alcohol) called Flux, which was as described. It very much is teh place many come to after the rest of the city shuts at 2am - far busier when I left each day around 3 then when I got there. The music the first day was great, teh second a bit too mainstream, but overall a nice spot, but would've rather had a more traditional setup.

In the end, OKC probably exceeded expectations, even if it did not rise to its other flyover state favorite spots and enter into my work weekend rotation. It's still a town worth visiting, especially for someone wanting to check off all the states. There is absolutely 2-3 days worth of things to do to make it worthwhile, including as mentioned some of the better focused museums I have been to. My memories of the city will be of its cloudless blue skies, the brilliance of the National Cowboy Museum, the solemn brilliance of the Memorial, and of drinks at Palo Santo. There are definitely worse ways to spend a weekend.

Nostalgia Diaries, Pt 33: Pitching Against My Couch

This post is going to get personal and introspective and emotional, because it is something that hit me recently that I have completely left behind. Now, many will say I should have left this behind years and years before I actually did. Two things caught me offguard this week that made me remember it so fondly - first was realizing this was the first playoffs I was watching in my parents new house. Now, we had already moved out of the old house by last year's palyoffs, but it was still during this transitory period. Now they have a new house, in some ways I have a new house, but it doesn't have a basement. Why that matters? I have no place where I can setup a makeshift pitchers mound to home plate setup and repeatedly throw baseballs against. Yes, I did this often from about 2003 through I would say, realistically, 2022 or so, in my parents basement. I won't ever again. But it is the second element that really hit me - that these are the 2026 playoffs, a year away from the start of a fake dynasty that I created in my head and old notepads and then computers twenty years ago.

Both of these things sound a bit confusing and strange. They both are. So let me explain one by one - first the pitching in teh basement thing. That isn't all that weird - that is, after all, the origin story of many a pitcher - granted its usually kids no a farm pitching rocks against a barn until their old man or the town crank exclaims "By Golly, that boy's got a cannon!" or some such. I guess sometimes it was in the basement. It was for me, starting around that 2003 point when I really got into baseball, and my parents had a TV in the basement, and I was old enough to watch playoff games until late. It was a nice setup, me standing in the middle, facing the wall on the short end, with the couch in front of me. An old,, fairly useless couch for its stated purpose (comfortably seating people) but wonderful for its true purpose - eating fastballs. Now, it was probably only 20 feet away, so even if I could throw heat there wasn't enough room to reach max velo - but I threw all types of junkballs at that thing - eventually wearing out the springs (I also played tennis - teh couch height more or less the same as a net!). I did this from that 2003 or so date through around 2012, when the couch finally just gave out beyond repair.

This should've been the end of it - I turned 21 taht year anyway, so a natural point to stop. But that year we replaced the couch with a large screen TV that I bought with my sign-on bonus money from my first job. That TV is god well beyond its years - it still wroks really well in 2026. That sits where the couch did - but that just made me get more inventive. You see, if I stood where I used to when pitching at the couch (now TV), I could turn 90 degrees to my left and face the further wall - this one about 40 feet away. Now, there was nothing on that wall but a dresser. But you see, that's when i got the idea that I could atke one of the four mattresses we had in teh basement (a lot of extra sleeping space!), prop it up against the dresser and alas, a slgihtly less springy version of the couch, at alength a bit closer to actual home plate. Thus was born the second era of this game - one far less frequent as it would match up only with the few weekends in October that I was at home (so say two to max three a year), but oh so fun.

If anything, more fun - the extra space made the pitching more real, if anything. The weirdest part of all of this is I didn't play little league. Not that I would've been some star never to be discovered. But who knows? My parents weren't anti-sports - I just never asked to play baseball I guess. I played youth soccer, tennis and basketball (my main love), and even outside of organized sports, was a crack roller hockey player (honestly, if roller hockey was a school sport and not "ice" hockey, I would have been varsity), but other than this pitching against the couch thing, never really played baseball. I loved baseball though - I still do even if my "watching the games" interest has waxed and waned more than maybe any other sport. The pitching against the couch was a magical release, and as no one would be hitting the balls but I could see the movement of my curveball or 2-seamer (the change-up was always out of my grasp...), I could pretend I had the great command.

And this brings us to the second part of this - the 2027 thing. See, when I was a kid (and this is like from 10-15 at its peak) I would make up players and teams and stats and built out storylines way into the future. Since that was 2001-2006, I would often pick the late 2020s for baseball, and weirdly the 2030s-2040s for football to create these conconted leagues and worlds. Actually teh delay on football makes sense as that definitely happened a few years after I started doing this for baseball. Now, this is definitely spectrum behavior - but I'm fine with that - it was glorious and fun to go back to. In this world, I had created a San Francisco Giants ultimate dynasty that went from 2027-2033 in which they would win four World Series, including three straight from 2027-2029. It started after an epic loss in seven to the Mets in the 2026 NLCS. The dynasty Giants would peak at a 110-52 record in 2028, led in all three years by their star all-time great Center Fielder Joe Montero, and their nearly as great pitcher Jeff Freeman.

Looking back at my fake stats for these teams - it is a great time capsule of how the game has changed. The stats Montero put up would be in-line with say prime Albert Pujols when I made him up, but would be earth shattering today - his magical 2027 season was a .361 / .456 / .728 with 56 HRs, 141 RBIs. Now, that was his best year, but to take a more on-the-nose comparison - his 2026 was .325 / .415 / .626 with 46 HRs and 134 RBIs. Obviously these are comical lines, but in the mind of someone in 2010 or so, they were just "a bit better than the best player", not something out of a dream. If anything, the stats for pitching great Jeff Freeman were even crazier. His best year was 2030, where he went 24-5, pitching 257 innings of 1.89 ERA, with 339 Ks and a 0.83 WHIP. Funnily enough, the WHIP and ERA aren't crazy - players had better seasons thereafter like from DeGrom or more recently Miz, but the innings count is just not possible. This is less possible than a Montero season.

My fake stuff wasn't limited to just this dynasty Giants team, though for no other did I go that far of making up full careers. There was a close-to-dynasty that would follow from them in the name of the Portland Bogies - what's weird is I don't think I ever defined if this was an expansion team or someone relocated to Portland - but they were the Bogies, they played in a riverfront ballpark with a makeshift Evergreen forest beyond the left-center field wall. It was all a dream, but so damn fun. But it went back to that fake dynasty Giants team, where I would generally throw against the couch by pretending to be the Giants, either Freeman or their #2 John Palyout (no idea where I got taht name from....). I even had made up pitching motions for them, that of course weren't based on any real pitcher to any degree (other than Freeman had some loose correlation to Cliff Lee - but right handed). This was all weird, I admit, but all so fun the darkness of my basement.

What really hits home is we are finally at the precipice of a year where these fake years are now reality. I would mock pretend to be pitching Game 4 of the 2027 NLCS while watching Game 2 of the 2013 ALCS and we are almost there. In a way, its thrilling to see how different everything is, but also sad that the fantastically great careers I made up for Freeman and Montero are all but impossible in today's game. But in that way I am so glad their fake career existed to document what we may have lost, or what I have lost in finally growing up (way too late) from this whimsy.

**quick aside - teh football version of this is teh 2037-2046 Houston Texans dynasty, QB'd by Jake Wright - which while other not predicting the advent of a 17-game season, has numbers that would look not out of place in 2026, or in 2009 or so when I first invented him. If anything, the most ridiculous version of this is in Tennis, as I've written about previously, concocting a guy named Juan Marino Icar taht would win 16 slams - which when I made him up would be the record, but doing so by 2022 or so. I made him up in probably 2006, of course in no way thinking Nadal himself would win slams in 2022**

It's interesting since both of these phases of my life are over, mainly for the same reason - and that reason is not that I am 36. It is because I no longer have a basement. The making up fake careers and what not hasn't been a thing in probably 10 years - it is notable that when I post a pic of Joe Montero's career later, that I had him as a rookie in 2018. We are well into his career. But the throwing baseballs at a mattress continued thereafter, and gave me a reason to load up those files once a year and marvel. And also have fun, and ultimately that is what it is about. Throwing baseballs at a matress in dim light in a basement, with actual playoff baseball going on 90 degrees to my right on a large screen was a fun glow up from when it was throwing baseball at a couch with playoff baseball going on a small screen 90 degrees to my right. That's connective right there, and one of those memories that I will never not forget, and more than that, never not regret that I squeezed every ounce out of.

Jeff Freeman's Career (and yes, in my weirdness, I conconcted a weird medical story of why he had a gap between 2030-2033)

And Joe Montero's career which would probably rank him as like the best baseball player ever, or 2nd to Willie Mays.

And finally - the Giants dynasty - my stats from earlier were wrong, they would win five world series spanning from 2021-2025.

The Pope's Team

So far, the 2026 MLB Playoffs haven't been great for me. The Astros once again limped out of the AL Wild Card Round, for the second time in three years doing it by losing both of the first two games at home. We are now a staggering nine straight home losses, as I detailed in my screed a few days back about the ills of the Crane ownership. But this isn't about them. If anything, this makes me feel better about them, because what if, just what if, the team they lost to is a wagon lifted up by teh Holy Father?

Let's start with the facts - the White Sox were 60-102 in 2025. They were also 61-101 in 2023. The year in between they were 41-121, finsihing just one game up on teh famously-shit Mets of 1962 who went 40-122. The White Sox were laughably bad with seemingly no future. And then you get this year, where they go 84-78, and if anything that was an underperformance on a pythag record of 88-74. They are legitimately a decent team after being legitimately a terrible team for a number of years. This is sudden, and shocking and inexplicable - except for one small thing in that the current Pope is a Chicago White Sox fan.

I remember watching CNN when Pope Leo (Cardinal Prevost) was announced, stunned like most that they picked an American. It seemed inconceivable they would. Hell, for centuries it seemed inconceivable they would look outside Europe. That obviously ended some time back, but still to with an American was stunning given our outsized importance in the world and, while being a Christian country, a country where Cathlocism is not the top religious sect. Granted, Leo was most recently archbishop in Peru, and hadn't live in America for a long time - but he speaks English and it is very clear he is a sports fan.

That last part is just weird to think about. It hit a crescendo when the Nova Knicks won their title, with of course the three notable Villanova alums (Brunson, Hart, Bridges) where Pope Leo was an alum. But the real connection was Chicago, where he grew up. There were a lot of tweets that came out when he was elected around how strange it is that the pope "would remember the career of Mitch Trubisky" and what-not, but that is strange. The Pope is this god-like figure (literally). Now, notably recent popes have been sports fans, like Pope Francis being a big Argentina soccer fan (and his predecessor Benedict a big German soccer fan), but add to it the inclusiveness of US Sports (the national leagues taking precedence over Team USA) and it got just that much weirder.

The capper was when the video of him at Game 1 of the 2005 World Series came out. I still wonder what intern sat through re-watching the TV tape of that game seeing if he would show up on camera, and what do you know? He did, and he did for a while. That is divine stuff working literally 20 years before his papacy would begin. At that moment, I watched that clip in awe but I also had a huge weight lifted off me, as a realize that my Astros, the team that lost the 2005 World Series, were destined to lose. It was memorably the closest sweep of all time - the game he attended was the "least competitive", a fairly routine 5-3 White Sox win. 

The next three all featured some ridiculousness that went in favor of the White Sox - from Konerko's grand slam to take a 6-4 lead (after a controversial wrongly called HBP), and the Podsednik walk off HR after he memorably did not hit a homer all season, to Game 3 which the Sox won in 14 innings after coming back from a 4-0 deficit, winning on a home run by journeyman Geoff Blum, and Game 4 which they won 1-0. It was magical - that Sox team was great already (99-63, 7-1 in the playoffs heading into the World Series) but that win seemed divine.

It all came rushing back when right before the playoffs started there were two notable Pope moments. The first is when he was talking to people on a flight to Europe, a passenger asked him what he thought about the White Sox making the playoffs after having the worst record the year before, and the Pope corrected him that it was the worst record over the "past two years." Maybe more than anything this shows how still connected he is to the sport - he literally knew that they have been incredibly bad two straight years. Then, to double down, he released a statement / blessing for the White Sox. This was the capper. I can't be surprsied that they then brushed aside the Astros (who admittedly, are not good) so easily, and are now 2-0 up on Cleveland heading back to Chicago.

The White Sox are the perfect team of destiny because in this case the Vicar of Christ is literally backing them openly and publicly. How can anyone compete? I mean, so far, no one has. Also helping the case right now is I don't know if a Pope has ever been more popular in the USA than he is, at least for left-leaning Catholics like yours truly.

My worry when he was elected was that he would be somewhat too conservative and, more worryingly, give Trump someone to take credit for, and saddle up to - you could've almost hear in his head saying "I brought you a US pope!" Shockingly, he didn't and if anything Pope Leo has come out against this administration and their beliefs, to the points JD Vance (converted Catholic) literally came out saying he thought Leo should educate himself on issues, which is about as dumb as a move he could make if he wasn't already so politically un-savvy. More than that, Pope Leo has been remarkably level-headed, most recently comign out against AI at a time where that is such a frougth subject. Truthfully, Pope Leo has lived up to every expectation as a Pope. Beyond that, it is just still weird, and cool, that he is American and a sports fan. And for that reason, more than any other, I am all with the White Sox. Murukami is just the cherry on top.

The End of the Astros

It's weird that after an nine year period of success (2015-2023) that I never thought would be possible - seven straight ALCS appearances, eight times to the playoffs, four AL Pennants, two World Series Titles, multiple series wins over the Yankees (three, excluding the 2015 Wild Card game) and Red Sox (two) - it came crashing down in a way that is maybe all too familiar. Well, I don't know that yet. But history seems to be a scary sign at the moment. The Astros just limped out of the playoffs against a White Sox team that was as recently as last year a mockery. Granted, the Pope may have helped.

But in all seriousness, this is now twice in three years the Astros lost in teh Wild Card round, losing both of their two home games without even forcing teh third. In the year in between, they didn't make the playoffs with a huge September collapse that would've been more talked about had other teams not had worse collapses that same September. This was after losing the 2023 ALCS, and a chance to play a plucky but eminently beatable Diamondbacks team, getting blown out in Game 6-7 at home, this after losing Games 1-2 at home as well. If you include their loss at home in Game 2 of the 2023 ALDS (they won that series in four), we are up to a staggering nine straight home losses. It's debilitating, and it finally broke.

The last period of sustained success (1997-2005) ended in the same way. That stretch had the team make the playoffs six times, make an NLCS and make their first World Series. In year 10 (2006), they won 82 games and would have made the playoffs under the current six-team field. In year 12 (2008) they won 87 games inexplicably. This all made then owner Drayton McLane keep thinking the team was in good footing and closer than it was. Seriously, it was so apparently obvious to anyone with eyes that the Astros were aging, with a laughable farm system. It took three more years until the teardown finally began in 2011, the year that ironically McLane sold the team to Jim Crane.

He was supposed to be different. Hell, he was - he hired Jeff Luhnow in 2012, the tank continued but slowly but surely they made great draft picks, they scoured the international leagues like nobodies business, they had a near unparalleled pitcher development system that despite never having top pitching prospects, so many would develop (ironically, their most acclaimed pitching prospect in this era, Forrest Whitley, never made it). Of course, they stole signs and what-not - but other teams did and even there the Astros were on the leading edge. They then entered this run that at times seemed endless - even after Luhnow was fired and banned after the sign stealing scandal. Crane replaced him with James Click, an established SABR-mindful executive who led the team brilliantly to restock and make smart trades even as the minor leagues were thinning out.

Of course, this culminated in the 2022 World Series Title, when a mostly young Astors team, with just four rostered players as holdovers from 2017, won again. It was a triumph. My post right after on the 22 memories from that run had my #1 as "The Dynasty to Come". I made a compelling and sensible case at the time, but no one could have forecasted the biggest change - that Crane and Click would ahve a huge falling out, Click would be fired, and the fox woudl run the henhouse in the naem of Jeff Bagwell - obviously a legendary Astros but somehow who connived his way into silently running teh Astros (much like say Jack Easterby who did the same with the Texans). It's infuriating because it was all so obvious the second at the end of November (the same month that started with the WS win) Bagwell said publicly that "players win games, not computers." From that moment you draw the line to where we are today - from the awful Abreu signings, the random money thrown at bad relievers (Hader accepted), and so much more. The Astros lost their edge that second and Jim Crane better wake up.

The biggest mess of this is that Jim Crane oversaw a dynasty built using "computers", but also so much more - the scouting, the player development - all of it was first class. I get that he may have felt burned by Luhnow, but the weirdest part is then he went and hired Click who was very similar to Luhnow when it came to how they viewed the game - and by all accounts that worked, but something then broke. I liken it to Jim Irsay deciding one day to stop being in the background and let Bill Polian run the show and decideing to meddlesome and go away from "star wars numbers" and all that stuff - but Irsay was a whack-job. Crane by all accounts is not.

**Quick aside, one of the pieces of evidence, hilariously, to credit Crane with is he is one of the few white billionaire sports owners who is not openly a GOP and/or Trump supporter. In fact, Crane donated to Biden and Harris (granted, gave barely anything). He's not a democraft, like say the Eagles's Jeff Lurie, but he leans left and is by and large super smart**

I hate to blame Bagwell, but that link and change in Crane's outlook is so stark once Bagwell became his sideline sensei. Granted, Bagwell now is somewhat out of the picture (hopefully for good) so maybe there is time yet for Crane to learn the error of his ways. The team will need a serious rebuild, but if he starts that now in a smart way, they won't need to go all the way down like the 2011-2013 Astros did. There is one other problem though, I don't think that will ever get fixed as long as Crane is the owner - and it brings us back to our friend Jeff Luhnow.

Jim Crane has done a lot to excise Jeff Luhnow from Astros history except for one annoying thing that he has retained, which is that Jeff Luhnow put it in his head to never give long term on contracts. Granted, the math probably backs that up, but backs it up less when you have a bunch of superstars coming to free agency before they hit 30. Still, the most years Crane has given in a contract is six (Altuve). The 2019 Astros had Altuve, Springer, Correa, Bregman, Tucker, Yordan, Cole, Verlander. Now, Verlander was too old to go more than six years, and with Yordan lets see. But the heart of the issue is that piece is the middle. They let Springer walk after 2020, ostensibly to pay Correa, who they let walk after 2021, ostensibly to pay Bregman, who they let walk after 2023, ostensibly to pay Tucker, who they let walk after 2025. Now, some of these guys were bad investments for their new team (Correa, Tucker), but still it just sets a terrible tone for the franchise.

The irony isn't that thsi isn't a "Jim Crane is cheap" attack. Crane is not, especially by MLB Owner standards, cheap. When the team was tanking and spending $30m for teh team, he said he would spend when they got good. The Astros got good and he spent - the Astros have carried a Top-5/10 payroll for most of this entire run, including these last three years. Therein lies the problem - he is willing to spend but spend in the wrong ways - throwing money in short term at Abreu (both Jose and Brian!), at Christian Walker, at other long relievers. The money they "saved" by not extending the core young guys they've wasted on worse players. 

Anyway, we sit at the precipice - they won the division again but as the worst division winner ever. They have the likely AL MVP who will still be great, but present another case for Crane to deal with money wise in a years time. They have little else in terms of young talent, but some interesting tradeable assets (Pena, Paredes, hell, even Hunter Brown). The next few yaers are dark - but I've lived through darkness before, and it will be very tough for this upcoming darkness to match 2011-2013. What I hope though is to get us out of the darkness we don't need to change owners, but every year and decision that goes by, I do worry that is more and more the case.

My Favorite Restaurants: Top 62 Tasting Menus, Pt. 3 (#16 - #1)

16.) A Casa do Porco  (Sao Paulo - 2025)

Honestly, A Casa do Porco was so good I'm not even giving it credit here with the ranking that the place is committed to serving a tasting menu aroudn $40. They do that - and its proper tasting menu with a panoply of dishes and more. It is incredible. Pork and Pig reigns supreme everywhere, for chicharron in the weirdest ways, to sausage, to mortadella, to terrine, to so much damn more. It isn't just meat though - the incredible vegetables, the great dessert. The feeing that you are eating a place that has such a pointed view of what it wants to be, and then executes that perfectly. Yes, it isn't quite as refined as many of the places above it, but here's where their incredible price point makes up for some ills. Just an amazing spot within Sao Paulo. Worthy of every plaudit it has received.

15.) Fyn  (Cape Town - 2025)

To be honest, not sure why I avoided going to Fyn all these years. It has been well reputed on the World Top 50 list for some time now. Maybe it is the whole "Japanese Cuisine with South African Flavors" bit, but I'm over that childishness - Fyn is unreal. From their varied starters, to their outrageous tonkatsu dish, to of course the main of wagyu - they take Japanese inspiration but pour the produce, the flavors of the Cape on it. Fyn was a truly magical experience, so much so that yes, I wish their head chef who is clearly brilliant, woudl try his hand with a more pure South African restaurant. Anyway, back to the meal - the freshness of the fish right from the Bay, to the loveliness of the meats. It combines everything great with Cape Town with one of the worlds' best cuisines from a refinement standpoint - what's not to like?

14.) Mayta  (Lima - 2022)

I went to Mayta not really knowing how good it was, and was astounding by the quality of its tasting menu. Not the longest, but maybe the one that truly had no bad dish. A little bit later, it was ranked as the 32nd best restaurant in teh world. Hard to argue. The setting is great, with stone tables and greenery everywhere. The food was incredible, with some of the most interesting dishes I've had - from a aged, roasted eggplant with an incredible foam, maybe the best cooked fish I've ever had, and a really beautiful duck and black rice main. Even the desserts were nice. Sure, you coudl wish it was longer, but there was also no miss, no oversight, nothing but great dish after great dish.

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13.) Salon  (Cape Town - 2024)

One of my only real regrets through all my trips to Cape Town is taht I never made it to The Test Kitchen, which for years was the premier single restaurant in Cape Town. Bookings were frighteningly tough. Then Luke Dale Roberts closed it during Covid, but I guess got the itch back to open a fine dining spot. It was incredible, a culinary tour through all the spots the Chef Roberts has worked or taken inspiration from. Brilliant South African dishes to be sure, but also a foie gras take on black forest cake, a brilliant "tamale" dish featuring the most Mexican of flavor profiles, to a brilliant play on Duck l'Orange, to authentic Korean to end it. It was all brilliant. In isolation, maybe you would worry about how successfully a place could pull off all these different cuisines, but apparently Mr. Luke Dale Roberts is a talented, worldly man - and after going to Salon, if anything I rue not having gone to The Test Kitchen even more.

12.) Pujol  (Mexico City - 2018)

Pujol is Mexico City's best or 2nd best restaurant, going back and forth with Quintonil (haven't been). It was the first on this list to be featured on Chef's Table with chef/owner Enrique Olvera. On the downside, there were only six listed courses which expanded to eight with a few extras thrown in. On the plus side, each was immaculate, from the famous baby-corn coated in a sauce made from ants, to a perfectly cooked octopus, to another perfectly cooked dish with lamb chops and a green mole. Even the desserts with their mango dessert and best churro you will ever have were both excellent. But of course, one cannot talk about Pujol without talking about the Mole Madre dish, their centerpiece, which is just a plate with two concentric circles of dark and light mole, with nopal tortillas. It seems crazy to serve just that as effectively the main course - but it is truly unbelievable. It is accepted people will go as far to lick the last drop of mole off the plate. It truly was a showstopper of a dish that elevates a bunch of other really great dishes.

11.) I Pupi  (Sicily - 2019)

This was the second tasting course meal we had in our trip to Italy in 2019, and while the first one - Imago in Rome - was a big disappointment, the seafood-forward I Pupi in Bagheria, Sicily (about 30 min away from Palermo) was incredible. Their first course of a random assortment of small bites was inspired, each being seafood forward. The second plate which was a platter with six nigiri on it with six different salts to add on top was divine, and while not 'Italian' in any way was just an insane dish. The rest of the meal got more Italian, but still small, focused, refine, seafood plates, from a zuchinni noodle wrapped fish, to an incredible soup, to lamb chops (the only meat). Each dish was so well put together, alternating from amazing small bites to dishes that approached the size of a normal restaurant starter, to everything in between. This was just a fabulous meal and such a nice comeback after being disappointed with Imago earlier in that trip.

10.) Merito  (Lima - 2025)

The weird thing is when you look up Merito, they talk about the fact the head chef is from Venezuela. I'm sure he is, and that cuising ie present here, but realistically if you just said "hey, here's a Central protege going at it on his own!" you would imagine what Merito is, and it blows you away further, It has the fun of Central, the ridiculously inventive use of various tubers, the sharpness of tis colors, and so much more. It has the taste of it too. Merito is such a perfect place, a gold standard in its city, but new enough it gets to invejnt the worlds coolest desert because it doesn't yet have to live up to Maido's or Central's reputation (granted those two are still to come...). Merito is probably in its perfect phase right now, just amazing enough to get recongized, but still undergroudn enough that it can experiment with things like a course that was basically fish and chips - yeah, better fish and chips than you've ever had.

9.) Quintonil  (Mexico City - 2026)

I can't remember when I first made the Quintonil booking, but it is a place that takes a 50% deposit that is non-refundable, but you can shift dates. I shifted I think three times, and finally made it in May, 2026, and it was worth the wait. It is worth the hype, it is the best meal I've had in a food mecca. Quintonil found a perfect balance between some incredible, refined, stunning dishes with showcasing the more homestyle but brilliant flavors of Mexico. From their first little bites, to their incredible use of bugs (in four courses) to some outlandish use of fish and native plants for sauces. Rarely been to a place where the sauces (not all are moles...) were so on point. It was a coordinated celebration of Mexico. The only thing keeping it from being slightly higher is everything above it had at least 12 courses. Quintonil was only 10. Fine margins, but still a special place.    

8.) Tresind  (Dubai  -  2025)

The best Indian restaurant I've been to is still to come, but while that one starts with Indian flavors and goes all fusiony with it at tiems (in the best way), Tresind starts with Indian flavors and just elevates and executes the shit out of them - from incredible takes on pani pure, to fish, to lamb curry, to everything else, Tresind executes in perfection - similar to any 3 star Michelin place. Not that it doesn't take risks, but there is such a focus on exacting preparations, visuals where there are a few dishes that look slightly better on the plate than they taste - in that they look like a 10/10 but taste like a 9/10. Those are the minority of dishes across their 15 course menu. Tresind is at the end of the day probably the best pure Indian restaurant in teh world - it could maybe just stand to take a few more risks.

8.) Mingles  (Seoul - 2022)

Mingles is Seoul's top ranked restaurant, and after going I can see why. It was a classic tasting menu shop, with sharp clarity on its menu, its decor, its everything. It also had a really nice 'Korean Liquor' pairing along with the wine pairing, something I took that got me to taste various different Korean localized liquors. The meal itself was great, with some of the best, most interesting dishes I've had, such as a great king-crab two ways dish, a brilliant take on surf & turf (pork & squid stuffed oyster, along with a braised beef cube), to an incredible lamb three ways dish as the primary main. The vegetable dishes were also spectacular, such as a corn soup dish that opened my eyes to just how sweet corn can be. Mingles was a special restaurant showcasing the best of modern Korean cuisine.\

6.) Borago  (Santiago - 2024)

Central gets all the notoriety from showcasing native food and different altitudes and all that stuff. Deservedly so - it is still to come. But the Chilean version, to some degree, is nearly as good. Rodolfo Guzman's restaurant was the highlight of my trip to Santiago, with some staggering dishes. From a paper scallop with a bright blue algae sauce, to a staggering monkfish and lobster cooked in seaweed. There were incredible small bites to start, like a little makeshift bumblebee of honey and a Chilean corn. And of course that final dish, that Patagonian lamb - just a piece of lamb, roasted over a fire for 24 hours. Much like say it takes balls for Enrique Olvera to serve mole as the main dish at Pujol, so too is it here serving a piece of lamb with no sauce, no sides. Nothing - and it was truly perfect. As was Borago more or less as a whole.

5.) Maido  (Lima - 2016, 2022)

Maido will always have a soft spot for me as it was the first tasting menu spot I went to, at a time where I didn't really know just how well reputed it was. We went for lunch, unable to get a dinner reservation but the menu is the same either way. It is a japanese-peruvian kaiseke meal that is just perfectly designed, executed, presented and crafted. 13 courses, all seafood based, all incredible, from various nigiris, to incredible takes on ceviche, to a choripan of fish & octopus sausage, to a very complicated but inredible soup decanted in front of you. Even the deserts of sea urchin and what they call the 'reef' which is a giant edible reef rock, are wild. I'm sure there are places in Japan that are just as good and more 'authentic', but this is my favorite take on Japanese cuisine ever. Just now I remember being mesmerized at each dish, on how it looked when it was brought out, on the complexity of the way it is described and of course on how it tasted. This, and to be fair the two above it, are peerless for me in the sense that I have zero idea how to recreate any of these dishes. They are simple while being complex, each ingredient, each little piece just so perfect. I hope to go Lima's other world reknowned restaurant Central at some point (maybe even this year, to which I will have to likely re-write this list to add it in), but if we could only go to one premier spot last time, Maido was a perfect pick.

4.) Gaggan Anand  (Bangkok - 2022)

Because of many reasons, I'm going to rank my 2nd trip to a Gaggan Anand restaurant separately from the first one. One reason is it technically is a different restaurant, in a different space. Another is the experience was different - this is a restaurant where he serves just at a chef's table to a group of 14 people. And the biggest difference was Gaggan Anand himself was present, was there to talk to the patrons, the entire thing being equally an experience along with the food. The food was still great, with some of the most inventive dishes I've ever had with insane preparations that he explained so well. It still had all the measure of excitement, like random things that tasted like tom yum soup, or charcoal chicken balls or a dried paper lightly filled that tasted just like hummus. It was classic Gaggan, classic modern cooking, and the only restaurant on this list whre the Chef was there to personally chat with and serve to the customers. The old restaurant is higher up the lsit because at the end I think the food was even better, but my second trip to a Gaggan was about as good as I could have imagined.

3.) Azurmendi  (Bilbao - 2021)

Azurmendi came as close as any meal I've had to unseating what might be a lifetime pick at #1. The basque restaurant certainly met it for downright creativity and presentation. From the picnic basket of small bites, to the greenhouse where they were literally picking up roses from a garden bed before you realized it was sorbet, to of course each incredible bite at the table. All in all they technically had 27 dishes, almost all of which were excellent in their design, freshness, preparation and ultimately taste. My favorites of the small bites were the cod fish brioche and the truffle meringue, just incredible little bites. The daiquiri rose was incredible, from presentation to taste. The asparagurus three ways and play on fish taco were divine. The tempura oyster was maybe the best bite I've ever had, and the ending dishes of cod tart and iberico pork were just sublime. They have a rich tapestry to which to create from local produce and Iberian meats and fishes, but Eneko Atxa's brilliant mind puts it to incredible use.

2.) Central  (Lima - 2022)

Very likely next year Central will be named the best restaurant in the wrold by San Pellegrino in their World's Best 50 list. It is well deserved (the restaurant ranked above it for me has reached similar heights on the same list). The dishes are both uniformly incredibly tasty, and ridiculously inventive. As shown on his turn on Chef's Table, what chef Virgilio Martinez and his team create are art pieces, they're stunning, they're beautiful, they look as good as any dishes I've had, and they were all very good. From dishes made out of random amazonian vegetables, to amazonian fish, to incredibly weird lattice things, to some of the most inventive desserts I've had, including a panoply of peruvian chocolate as the final dish. The best part of the restaurant is how focused the theme is, with showcasing hte beauty of Peru across elevations and its various weird ingredients. It may not have been as many courses as it was in its height pre-covid (I believe 18, now down to 14) but I can only imagine what the four extra would have been.

1.) Gaggan  (Bangkok - 2019)

I don't know if any restaurant will ever top Gaggan, which had so much hype entering in, having seen it on Chef's Table, see it rise up the world rankings, and it being Indian focused. I was expecting a lot, and it somehow overdelivrered. The 25 course menu was just perfect from the start of audacious versions of famous Indian street food (still unsure how my little bit of what looked like a cracker with foam and curry leaf tasted like idli sambar), to the mains of prawn balchao, decronstructed curries, a perfect lamb leg, and multiple Japanese dishes during Gaggan's Japanese phase. The setting, sitting at the chef's table watching his sous chef's go to work, with Gaggan's noted love of Heavy Metal ringing through the speakers, was a delight. IT was so well paced, 25 dishes of 3:30, never once making you feel like you're being rushed through each delectable dish. It is astounding to think this is what is possible with Indian food, that this is how good a menu can be even if you limit yourself to just five meat courses in the 25, and how great an atmosphere, a perspective, a cuisine and a legendary chef can concoct together.