BSC 2019 Top 20 Countdown - #16 March Madness In Wrigley
A Note From Carl - This is the 5th entry in the Barstool Chicago Top 20 Moments of 2019 blog series. The list is coming from our perspective as 4 dudes who got the job of a lifetime exactly one year ago. We covered this list in person at the December 20th live show. We're following it up on our podcasts to close out the year under following schedule:#10-6: Red Line Radio 12/30
#5-1: Dog Walk 12/30
I'll be covering them on the blog one-by-one. I have no rhyme or reason to length or content other than I just want to give each one of these moments their own blog. And on a personal level, I want to hit 2020 in full stride and nothing says momentum like firing off 20 straight blogs to end the year:
#18 Keeping The Watch Party At Declan's Alive
#17 St. Patrick's Day Got Rowdy
#16 March Madness In Wrigley
I already talked in #18 about the importance of Barstool Chicago keeping up the watch party game. I said it very clearly but I'll repeat myself again: it's part of our DNA to throw meaningless parties as an excuse to get loaded and hang out. We've been doing that at Barstool Chicago since Big Cat got everyone together in December of 2013 to watch the Bears lose by 40+ to the Eagles with playoff hopes on the line. We will never abandon this post.
So rewind to opening Friday of the NCAA tournament when we took it to Old Crowe in Wrigleyville to hand out scratch cards and sell squares. I'm actually pretty sure this wasn't even a sanctioned party. We just showed up and started moving tables together and handing out great tasting less fillings. Within short order we sold out our 10x10 square for $1,000 winner take all:
A bunch of funny shit happened throughout this day that we cover at the end of Red Line last week. For now I just want to focus on the best part of the day, and that was handing out the grand prize to none other than THE BARTENDER
After logging 9 hours at the bar sitting in my own farts and losing $20-per-strip-card-per-half-per-game, nothing brought a smile to my face more than handing Hallie a fake check and $1,000 of crinkled 10's.
As we'll see later in the countdown there are some absolutely UNBELIEVABLE moments in Barstool Chicago 2019 that I am 100% certain come from the karma we created on this March evening with that giant fucking check. So while maybe it's not #16 on its own standing, consider that the baseball gods later rewarded us with Cup Snakes. Don't pretend that's a coincidence.
Our goal this year is to do the same thing except with a bigger check both literally and figuratively. Maybe even do a bracket contest and slow cook some Italian Beef if we can block out enough time. For now, it's important to drive home that you could be #16 on next year's list if you come to the 2020 March Madness watch party. Make it a resolution.
Up Next #15: Dee Brown On Red Line Radio