Hello everyone. It's been a little while since my last blog. The "Blame-Train" could cite many different reasons for this but at the end of the day it would end up being Garrett's fault. It's going to suck following up the most controversial blog. Nope, I'm not talking about Closing Time, I am of course referring to last week's Tuesday Morning Bring Back.

The gloves definitely came off in this one. In one corner, you had Barn Animal. He's about as old school as you can get. He hopped right out of the mean streets of Carroll County into the Maryland Beer Pong circuit about as early as anyone. I even have some pictures of Jeff talking trash during a make shift beer pong tournament at my house almost an entire year before MBDP was officially underway.

In the other corner you have Garrett who I can see making big things happen in the beer pong world once he finishes all that stupid PhD stuff he's been working on. He hasn't been around as long as some, but his motivation and vision of what MDBP can be make up for many of his weaknesses.

Before any good fight, the announcers always bring up the tail of the tape. Let's take a look shall we...

Stat	Barnes	Garrett	Notes
Weight		X	Barnes has lost almost 20 lbs this year. Garrett is fat.
Athletic Ability		X	Barnes is a 5-sport athlete including pong, softball, football, kickball, and ausball. Garrett has a 5-foot vertical leap. Case closed.
Intellect		X	Garrett just passed his PhD exam. Barnes offered to eat a whole frog for cash.
Pong Skills	X		Picking the best pong player out of these two is challenging to say the least. Barnes did place 25th at WSOBP V and Garrett didn't even come to watch.
Mic Skills	X		It's been a few years since Barnes was spinning the 1's and 2's at the dance floor at Nobles, but with Garrett we're never quite sure who's "neuft umpt awn tmableg phar".
Blogging Skills	X		Hot Topics can't hold the TMBB's jock strap...and that's the situation!
Likability		X	Facebook Friends is the ultimate measure of one's likability. 1601 to 675? Woodshed. Damn, I thought I had a good amount of friends but getting taken out to pasture by Garrett speaks otherwise.
Chin	X		Anyone who was at WSOBP V knows that the Barn Animal can take a punch. Garrett gets knocked out ever tournament he enters.

Looks like this is going to be a close battle. You be the judge.

As promised in my comments on the latest Tuesday Morning Bring Back, I'm going to do my best to share my opinions on the subject.

I think that in any organization you are going to have a disconnect between the old school and the new school. It happens in families, government, fraternity, you name it. The younger generation think the older generation doesn't understand them. The older generation looks at the younger generation and is disgusted with the "kids today". I think that Barn Animal's feeling that the community is deteriorating has a lot to do with that attitude.

I think that in reality the MDBP community is stronger now then it was back in the day. Back in the day the core group that came out to all the events was smaller. Of course a smaller group can be a little more close knit. Now that group is larger and spread out over a greater area. I think the community is still there, just maybe not the same as it was early on. The beer pong landscape has changed dramatically since 2005 and evolution is unavoidable.

I think that Foster brought up a very good point that perhaps some of the older players are getting caught up in nostalgia. People tend to remember the good times and forget the bad. Remember when Power Plant was the greatest place on earth? I used to love that shit but I grew out of it long ago. Beer Pong is kind of the same. You can play the game for a long time but it will never be the same as when you were just starting out.

One experience that I think helped me contribute to the MDBP community is when I was president of my fraternity at Bucknell. There are a ton of similarities between the two organizations. The way I see it you have two major goals when trying to make those organizations stronger: recruiting new members and keeping the ones you have. Rush (new member recruitment in PC language) and keeping the current brotherhood involved were huge in running a successful fraternity. I think the parallel to beer pong is also of key importance.

Recruiting new members is the topic of another blog. I want to focus on keeping the current members. I think variety is huge when trying to keep people interested. We try to mix things up in terms of venue but that only goes so far. One problem is that the events themselves have little variation. I mean, beer pong itself is not that interesting from a spectator standpoint. One thing I think we can do is mix up the structure of the events. We have had 1-on-1 tournaments, all-female tournaments, and coed tournaments which we will continue to have. Beyond those, here are some of my ideas and the ideas of others on the different kind of events that we could have...

• 3-on-3 Tournament - The idea speaks for itself. I think just how the teams form up would be half the fun.
• Random partner league - This would work almost like the Beast of the East worked this year. Each game you would be randomly paired with a partner and you would gain stats based on individual win/loss record. This could be done as a one day thing or an entire league.
• Flip Cup Tourney - Every once in a while a flip cup game or two will break out during beer pong. I think an organized event would be a lot of fun.
Who Am I Taking to the Woodshed
• Happy Hour - Nothing organized, just an awesome happy hour where people can casually play pong and hang out.
• Rule Variation Tourneys - Ever wonder who would win if we played elbow rule? What about no re-racks, bounce-only, call-your-cup, etc. How about a tournament where we mix up the rules. It would most likely be for fun or for charity to keep things not-so-competitive.

Those are my ideas. Let me know if you have any other suggestions and if any of the above jump out at you. I think the 3-on-3 thing is definitely going to happen this year.

Pun intended. There have been whispers in the inner beer pong circles that the Wet Ballz era was coming to an end. Well now it seems that the rumors are true, at least for a while. The Peoples' Champ, Theo, is out for at least a few weeks. TPC broke his hand playing softball and will be sporting a cast for a while. Jamie 'Big Cup' Behrens still has aspirations for a Atlantic City title and will seek a replacement for Theo, if you believe a substitute even exists.

Sometime life throws out little hints for those that are perceptive enough to pick them up - signs if you will. The one to the right is undeniable. With the Atlantic City Championships only about a month away, one thing comes to mind...woodshed. Perhaps the greatest sit-n-go team ever created, Team Woodshed will be giving it another go at Resorts this June.

I've been on a bit of a hot streak as of late, so potential woodshed victims abound. In lieu of taking someone to the woodshed this week, I dedicate this section to those that will be come June. The writing is on the wall...