I had found myself at a brewery in Music City talking to a couple who had Minnesota Wild stuff on. Obviously they were from Minnesota. I asked them if the Wild was in town to play the Predators from Nashville. This then lead to “I’m from Chicago.” Then another question he did not want to hear my answer to… “Are you a Black Hawks fan?” Wanted to be like Curly from the Three Stooges and say, “Well, certainly.”

I said yes. This led to finding out what I knew already, the Hawks have eliminated the Wild multiple times from the playoffs. You’d think the conversation might end. However, something that beer does is keep a sports conversation going. Something about sitting bellied up to the bar and discussing sports. We started going through Minnesota versus Chicago in sports history for $500.00 please.

As the Beers continued flowing, I revealed how I hated the Twins for years. Ozzie Guillen called the Twins, “little piranhas.” All those years finishing right behind them in the standings.  How the White sox were tormented in the “twinkie dome”as  the great Hawk Harrelson called the Metro Dome. He liked Ozzie. I even told him all the crazy stuff that went down in the dome. How late leads were blown. How the epic endings happen in that building, leaving the White Sox to slink out of town. I guess now if you’re keeping score at home, it’s 1-1 as both cities hated one of the other city’s teams because of what they had accomplished.

As the beers continued, I felt like a state representative to my city and state. Two guys helping strained relations between two states. Can you imagine what Trump does to other countries’ Presidents? Kicking back enjoying a few belts from an old bottle of scotch, then he opens his mouth and all the toxic spews out. In most cases, a few beers talking about the local sports teams can go a long way. To see and to feel what their side is all about. In most cases, it can mend a lot of fences. It depends though because certain people do not play well with others, like my guess Mr. Chump.

Have you ever wondered what other cities say about the town you’re from? What they think about your sports teams? Are you embarrassed about the way your teams play? In Cleveland, if you are still a Browns fan, you might get asked why. Are you crazy? Some might say, “Does Cleveland even still have a team?” Are you happy the way your sports teams conduct business? Every city across the map would probably agree that the way their teams are run are terrible, and we fans can do a better job. You can not change the history of your town. However, if a fan stops buying tickets, you can change management to a certain degree. These are your typical pipe dreams fans have about their own teams. Bottom line is lots of times you may judge a city by their history regarding what they did to your team. That leads you to hate their traditions. Which leads you to labeling a whole city or state of people because of how their pro team beat your team. Or their college team beats yours.

Usually a hard working player is the player you hate when you face that team. However if he changes uniforms and joins your team, they become your favorite player. This is like AJ Pierzynski when he played for the Twins, I hated his guts. Then he played and won a championship for the White Sox and he is legend on the South Side of Chicago. He never disliked Jimmy Butler, but now the twin cities is happy that he’s on the Timberwolves. Plus the Bulls x coach, Thibs has turned this team around.  But both of us had players from the other city that you respected and wanted on your team. He loved Walter Payton and Neal Anderson, former Bears running backs. I respected Kirby Puckett, Mary Tyler Moore and of course Lou Grant.

We even dove deeper into both cities of Chicago and Minneapolis. How some areas in Minnesota still loved the North Stars who left town decades ago. These fans root now for the Dallas Stars like they never left. I told them I met a few people that were die hard Cardinal fans. Yes, the football team. The same football team that played on the South Side of Chicago at the old Comisky park. The Cardinals have left town it seems like a life time ago. I did explain the bar where these Cardinal fans were from, just closed. It could be the end of that Chicago following of the Cardinals for good.

Then of course my baseball team is the White sox. Many people assume the White Sox are in the bad neighborhood, while the Cubs are in yuppieville. Many think it’s like Al Capone in Chicago. However we still are high up there and considered the murder capital of the states. People are not being mowed down by a tommy gun by gangsters. Instead gang violence has been running wild. But the projects have been torn down by the White Sox stadium. I let him know the neighborhood is getting better. Some things about where you are from, you have to clear up. Like up North of Minnesota. I asked,
“Is it like the FX show Fargo?” Where Canadian sounding people in small towns are wasting each other and turning the towns North of Minnesota and into the Dakotas, blood baths. He explained yes they are the only areas of Minnesota that can not pronounce their R’S. But the deep freeze does not get their knickers into a twist.

I believe when we both finished our sixth beer of the afternoon, we had a better grip on each other’s city. We both would never bet actual money on our football teams. He said if you actually hear someone from Minnesota betting on the Vikings and winning money, it is just a flat out lie. Learned the Bears big rivalry with Packers is just a myth and not a real rivalry. Wisconsin people think Vikings and Packers are the rivals. He confirmed that as well, which Minnesota thinks the same thing. People from Chicago think Green Bay is a our big rival. However it takes two to tango. The Bears are the ugly person that is left without a dance at the end of the night.

As the sun was going down, our conversation was concluded.  The Minnesotans were heading off to Yazoo. While we were headed down the Music City yellow brick road in hopes of another brewery in the area that we had never tried. I was able to keep Patrick Kane on the Hawks, as he tried to pry him away from us. I was trying to pry a few young Twins away from his baseball team to join the young good guys on the south side. The talks have come to an end. But who knows what road we will meet down again when two guys that like beer, can hammer out a few trades of players that play in our home towns.