That Lucky Raptors Beer...

Somewhere during the Eastern Conference finals against the Milwaukee
Bucks, I was drinking New Belgium Fat Tire Amber Ale and when the
Raptors kept winning, I declared it the Raptors Lucky Beer. However,
during the pivotal Game 6 when the Raptors won, I had to drink the
Creemore Boundless IPA because I was trapped in a Molsons bar for a
high school reunion. The Raptors won so I was torn as to which beer I
should drink for the NBA Championship against Golden State. Yikes!

Pro athletes are, by their own nature, superstitious. If they put their equipment in a certain order and the team wins, then you can be damn sure they will repeat the process for the next game.

Those of us who watch the pro athletes are not superstitious. We're just enthusiastic.

Until we become superstitious. That happened very quickly to me during the Toronto Raptors' successful run to the NBA championship.

To be honest, I have no idea what beers I was drinking when the Raptors beat the Orlando Magic four games to one, winning the quarter-final. Ditto for whatever I was drinking during their full seven game push past the Philadelphia 76ers - the one that ended on "The Shot" by Kawhi Leonard, a buzzer-beater that bounced off the rim four times, dropped in and sent us to the Eastern Conference finals against the Milwaukee Bucks.

This photo, taken by Sandi Richardson, organizer
of our White Oaks SS Reunions every Summer,
shows me on the right during the dying seconds
of the Raptors win over Milwaukee that sent us to
the NBA Championship. I have a 'tell.' If I am
touching my face in any way, I am totally nervous.

I honestly didn't start paying attention to what beer I was drinking until well into the Eastern Conference Finals because at that point, luck comes into play for your sports team. And in sports, luck rides fast upon the coat-tails of superstition. 

Okay, those first two games against the Bucks, we got trounced. Like easily. So we're down 2-0 in the series. At about that time, New Belgium's Fat Tire Amber Ale lands in my Beer Store. This is a beer I've had several times during my Las Vegas trips because I love a good red ale as a day starter. However, the American version is brewed out of their Fort Collins, Colorado brewery while up here, it's brewed by Steam Whistle out of their Von Bugle Brewing facility in Etobicoke. So I grabbed a six-pack of it from the Beer Store for Game 3. The Raptors win it in double overtime. So I figure, "Hmmm, maybe it's a lucky beer" and buy more for Game 4, which we won again to even the series. Another sixer for Game 5. We win again so now we're up 3-2 and just one win away from going to the NBA Finals.

And then for Game 6, the fates intervene. I have my annual White Oaks Secondary School reunion at an Oakville sport bar called Monaghan's. They have no Fat Tire there. What the hell am I gonna do now? I'm without my Lucky Raptors Beer! 

I gotta admit that I like our version of the New Belgium Fat Tire
Amber Ale a bit more than the American version from Colorado.
Found theirs to be a touch more bitter while ours slides down like
tasty red ale, a style I thoroughly enjoy. (That makes me a rarity.)

Well, it's a Molson's bar so I gotta call a quick time-out from the bench. Viewing their taps, I see they have Creemore Springs Brewing's (owned by Molson) Boundless IPA. Well, it's not Fat Tire but at least it's an IPA, right? That's gotta be kinda lucky.

So was Boundless an outstanding IPA? No, sir. But it was far more tasty than any of the alternatives in a Molson's bar. I remember as at previous reunion there, they had the Mad & Noisy India Pale Lager (also Creemore... so Molson) on tap and I was perfectly content with that, as well. Being owned by a macro doesn't necessarily mean your product is gonna suck now. There's still some solid Creemore and Mill Street beers out there that I will happily drink. I'm a Beer Geek, not a Beer Snob. Long story short, while I'm drinking the Boundless, the Raptors win to clinch the Eastern Conference. Now I'm curious about the beer. So I Google it as I'm sitting there in a daze over the fact the Raptors are going to the NBA Championship.

In the end, during the NBA Championship, I switched to Lake
of Bays' Starboard New England IPA after a Game 2 Raptors'
loss and rode it until We The North won the whole damn thing.

Okay, it's exactly 5.1%, which explains quickly how I ended up drinking 10 of them during the six-plus hours of the reunion, which included the game. It bills itself as "hop forward." Well, let's be a little more honest and just say "hop inclusive," instead. But I can guarantee you this. Like all craft beers, it's all natural ingredients with no adjuncts because I woke up the following day without a hang-over. Fuzzy as hell? Oh hell yes. I mean, 10 beers? I don't do that anymore. But no hangover. You can function on fuzzy. This would be a decent crossover beer for a macro drinker to brag he or she had finally drank an IPA.

Regardless, this puts me into a bit of a dilemma. What do I drink during the NBA Championship? The Fat Tire that got us most of the way there? Or the Boundless that sealed the deal? So I got a sixer of Fat Tire and drove up the street to another Beer Store to grab some Boundless singles. (My store doesn't carry them. But the other store? Huge craft beer selection.)

Look, even as an employee, I never push the Beer Store as
"Your Craft Beer Destination" or anything silly like that. I'm
a "Brewery first, LCBO second, Beer Store third" realist. BUT
if you need any one craft beer in bulk, such as I did with Lake
of Bays' Starboard IPA, look at the TBS price breaks for six, 12
or 24. Again, most don't seek craft beer in bulk but when it's
the Lucky Raptors Beer, well, you're gonna need A LOT of it!!

So I started with the Fat Tire and stuck to it through Game 1. Raptors win. For Game 2, same two beers - Fat Tire first, Boundless ready on the bench. Well, things are even through to the half but in the third quarter, the Warriors just exploded. The Raps tried to claw their way back, I crack my Boundless in desperation... but it's too little, too late. Series tied at one and man, the Warriors are looking dominant!

Well, I gotta switch beers to shake things up but to what? Then I remembered not only the fun we had at the Huntsville Brewhouse but how much Lake of Bays' Starboard New England IPA the Huntsville Brew Crew drank during our IPA Brew Day and also how much we bought on our way out the door. Dozens of them. Hmmm, that was kind of a Good-Luck-Chuck day for us. We helped make a beer, were treated like royalty, I only got hushed about seven times (which sounds bad but actually is on the low side for me.) The whole day rocked and man, did we feel lucky!

So how did I feel going into Game 3 with an untested Lucky Raptors Beer? Please, you know me. I was as cool as... okay, totally nervous as shit.

And then... well, I'll be damned. In Game 3, we didn't lose a single quarter and cruised to victory, pushing us up 2-1 in the finals. More of the same in Game 4, using Starboard as an anchor! (You see what I did there. Nautical theme? Like Tyrion, I drink and I know things.) We were behind at the half and this time, it was OUR turn for that huge third quarter. Suddenly, we're up 3-1, one win away from the NBA Title Crown.

Here's (from left) Ottawa Matty, Nepean Beer Store Bro Ben and Ottawa
Joel at the recent Orleans Beer Festival. I mean, all of us were thrilled to
see the Raptors win the title but Ben? Man, this guy has been a diehard
since they started 24 years ago. I'll bet if we raided his closet, we'd even
find one of those old purple Raptors' jerseys in there. So while I was
happy for Toronto, Canada, the rest of us, I was most happy for Ben...

So that's two Raptor wins for my new Lucky Raptors Beer, both of which came in Oakland! I hashtagged that #MiracleAtOracle.

Game 5 was mired with controversy. There was an uncalled foul against Marc Gasol at the end of the game that would have put him on the foul line with two shots and insured a potential Raptors' win. Golden State took the game by one single point. Hell, the NBA apologized for the missed call the next day and many of us in Canada were wondering if the fix was in. That the league wanted the American squad to come away with the eventual victory.

So now, I had a big decision to make. Do I switch Lucky Raptors Beer as I did after the Game 2 loss? As stupid as this sounds, it actually weighed on my mind. I waited a day to make my decision. What beer could step in?

Another beauty of a cartoon from David Buist, Hamilton cartoonist and
artist. Once again, liberally cropped for my format (sorry, brother), he
drew this last night before today's big victory parade in Toronto. Nice!

In the end, I stuck with Starboard for two reasons. Number one, we didn't lose so much as have victory taken away from us due to shoddy officiating. (Nice to know the NHL isn't the only one.) And Number two, Starboard already won two games in Oakland already (well, the Raptors helped a little) where Game 6 was being played so to me, that was proof it had the right stuff.

Well, we all know how this Cinderella Story ended. We won by four points, Canada gets its first ever NBA championship (just as the Blue Jays did in MLB back in 1992-93) and for once, a somewhat fractious country was completely united and celebrating for one common like-minded goal.

Until the federal election, at least. But if I can just say one thing. As my high school friend Aruna pointed out, tongue firmly in cheek, it took a group of immigrants (there are no Canadian Raptors) to pull our country together as a unified force. Take that as you will.

But to Jackie, Emma, Tim, Rob and Darren at Lake of Bays Brewing, take a damn bow. Yeah, sure, Kawhi doesn't know what I'm drinking but it's sports... and superstition rules over all. Back soon with big Cameron's Brewing news. But Scooby Doo Gang, that's it, that's all and I am outta here! Until next time, I remain...