October Blog

Bierstube Blog

"According to Jim" (Jim's rants & raves)

News, Notes, Facts & Opinions from the owner Jim Yanz (if you care).

Part 10: October 2008

Congratulations Bloggees (You)! This month you will be mostly spared from rants & raves from the Blogger (Me, Jim Yanz). In instead you'll have the opportunity to read some FUN, SHORT stories about the founder, original Bierstube Guy, my dad, Larry Yanz. Almost as important none of which are written by me. To close out the special Larry Yanz 25 Year Anniversary Tribute month, I hope you enjoy a few of the wonderful stories that so many of you (almost 50!) have so kindly & graciously took the time to remember & write about "the man who started it all." On behalf of my brother Mike, my wife Jodi, me & the rest of the family, we all THANK YOU very much!

 

1.       "For years Larry sold tickets on football games. When his good friend Joe Novak was appointed State Liquor Commissioner he told Larry that part of his job was to enforce anti-gambling ticket sales and that Larry would have to stop selling numbers. Tickets continued to be sold as long as Joe wasn't around. One evening, Joe came in about 6:00 pm and was sitting at a table talking to Larry. One of Larry's regulars came up to the table and asked Larry for two $25 tickets. Larry looked at the regular and said, in front of Joe, 'Oh no, I don't sell tickets anymore.' 'Bull Crap, you just sold my brother one 5 minutes ago.' Larry was speechless and Joe just low ered his eyes and slowly shook his head." Jake Moore

 

2.       Larry Yanz was not the brightest kid in school. Despite his own mother being a teacher, Larry often struggled in class.  My dad said if not for the cookies he regularly brought the teachers, Larry would never have passed. Sometime after high school Larry began to talk about opening a three-two-beer joint up in the Midtown area. My mother and father both told him, "You gotta be nuts! You will never make any money with a three-two joint!" Larry was just dumb enough not to listen and opened the Bierstube anyway. The place was quickly a hit and was soon packed nearly every night. Several years later, Larry told my father he was going to pay $3,000 and get a liquor license so he could sell strong beer and hard drinks. My father said, "What are you thinking?! You can't possibly fit any more people in this place. Why would you waste three thousand dollars?" Once again Larry was just dumb enough not to listen. Over the coming years the Bierstube expanded several times, and each time they managed to pack the place. Eventually opening several more Bierstube's throughout the metro area. Poor old Larry Yanz was just dumb enough to think he could make money selling great food and cold beer at reasonable prices. I suspect Larry is up in heaven still laughing." John McNamara

 

3.       "Jim and I have been great friends forever and when I was a senior in high school he called me to see if I wanted to go with him and Larry to a Gopher vs. Michigan State football game at the dome. At that time, the dome was brand new and it may have been the first event I'd ever seen there. Jimmy was still in crutches and a knee brace form his knee surgery that summer. I had no idea when going to the game that we were going to be sitting in Calvin Griffith's Me trodome suite. Well as the night progressed, Larry and the Robertson brothers were having a good time and at the end of the night we got a cab ride, because of Jimmy still being on crutches, from just outside the Metrodome to where we were parked, probably 8 or 10 blocks away. Upon arriving at the Yanz Cadillac in downtown Minneapolis, Larry tossed me the keys to drive home, since he had had a few too many to drink. I had never driven a car that big or that nice and, to make it worse, it was snowing all the way home. I was very relieved to have driven the Cadillac back to Hastings without a scratch." John Klimek.< /o:p>

 

4.       "Every New Year's Day, Larry would shot down the grill & provide free food the customers until it was gone. He would also rent 2 additional TV's to go with the 2 that were permanent, just for the bowl games. One New Year's Day, Larry had the numbers 4 & 3 on the Sugar Bowl. One team scored at eh end of the 3^rd quarter & went for 2 points. They were stopped & Larry won with his 4 & 3, so he thought. After the stop, Larry went into the men's room thinking he was $250 richer. However, there was a penalty on the extra point & they had to redo the play. This time the offense scored & the score became 4 & 5. Unaware of the turn of events & the score change, Larry came out of the men's room to find out the score was 4 & 5. He was totally confused. Finally someone explained what had happened while he was gone. Larry said, "That was an expensive sh--!" Jake Moore

 

5.       "I knew your father well as he was HHS Class of 1950 & I was 1952. In the fall of 1949 I threw many blocks to help him to run from his Right Halfback position. In what I remember as late August or September 1962 I had an extra Viking ticket which I offered to Larry. Upon returning from the Old Met Stadium we went to the almost completed Bierstube. I guess it must have been only days before it opened. Therefore, I claim to be one of his almost first customers. My last two years of college, 1956/57 I was a Hastings Policeman. I worked the 12 midnight shift. Late at night Larry would come over the Bridge at least 25 MPH over the speed limit. I stopped him numerous times giving him warning after warning after warning. Finally enough was enough I gave him a ticket for speeding. His comment was 'It's about time.' Was that the smell of alcohol I detected?" Ron Zastrow

 

6.       Shorty Hild was one of the more colorful characters Hastings ever produced. One quiet summer morning about 10:30, Shorty got up off his stool at the Stube & went to the pay phone hanging on the wall by the back door. Shorty called the Bierstube & disguised his voice to sound like a woman. Larry answered the phone by the till, listened intently & then hung up. He then went & got one bar towel & covered the phone he was talking on & then went & covered the pay phone Shorty had called on. Larry came back scratching his head & muttering that he had just received the strangest phone call. 'The phone company just called & asked me to cover up the phones because they were going to blow the dust out of the lines.' Suddenly it sunk in & Larry realized what had just happened. The guys sitting at the bar exploded in laughter!" Jake Moore

 

Incompetent Umpiring/Officiating Very Close to Ruining Sports!!! Just over this past week I've witnessed a completely unacceptable, incompetent, inexplicable, unbelievable, way beyond unfair, biased, seemingly fixed, the shows about me & not the players, make a call just so you can look at me officiating & umpiring that I've seen in the literally 1000's of sporting events the past 35 years, since I was 8 years old. Many officials & umpires nowadays have bigger egos than most of their harder working, more dedicated players they're working with. In the multibillion dollar business of sports, the officials of whatever sport it pertains should be held especially accountable for their incompetency with warnings, suspensions, fines & termination, just as any other normal job.

 

A Few Examples (Start all descriptions with incompetent, disgusting & unacceptable). Most egomaniacal officials in all of sports: Major League Umpires!!!  

* Completely inconsistent balls & strikes, ie: Twins vs. White Sox, Royals & many other ball games.

* Gopher football game vs. Ohio State: end of 1^st half, Gophers in Ohio State territory - ruling - Gopher fumble on converted 1^st down when momentum was clearly stopped, piling on ensued "A full 5 seconds" after a phantom fumble by the Gophers. Result: Ohio State ball. Halftime score Buckeyes 20, Gophers 7, instead of potentially only 13-10. I turned the game off immediately. If I were Brewster I would have stole one away from the penalty record breaking 1981 North Stars vs. Bruins in Boston, instructed my players to stand up to, go all out until a full 1.5 seconds afte r each & every play no matter how many penalties were called. Incidentally that year & EVERY year after that, the Bruins no longer had the Stars number & from that day forward gained their respect & never had the dominating upper hand again. I think I'll go check one of my boys into the boards right now.  

*18 yard gain by Adrian Peterson nullified by a 100% bogus holding call on Artis Hicks.

*Once again, a 23 yard gain by Peterson nullified by a COMPLETELY phantom holding call on Bobby Wade. (Adrian would've ended up with nearly 150 yards rushing & the Vikings would have had at least a chance to win that game.)

*Lastly, & maybe the most disgusting & disgraceful rulings of the entire weekend or maybe even entire month of September the SUPPOSED forward progress & obvious fumble on the 4^th & goal giving the Titans the ball on the ½ yard line, burning 2 timeouts & allowing them to score an easy ½ yard TD the very next play.

***All rhythm changing, momentum breaking, biased &/or ignorant or incompetent, but mostly "GAME CHANGING officiating" should not be allowed to continue. If it's not an obvious call, leave your "ego-driven" flags in your pocket & "LET THEM PLAY!!!"

A Little More Spewing: *NBA Draft lottery = fixed. *Baseball's division winning coin flip for home field advantage = ridiculous. *AJ Perzynski & Terrell Owens = top 5 biggest donkeys in sports. *College football not having a simple 4 or 8 team playoff = the WORST of ALL!!! Cut our losses & fire Childress already!!!

AHHHHHH!!!...I feel much better now!!!

CONGRATULATIONS on a Great Season Twins! Let's go get a HR hitter for next year!

Don't miss Oakdale's Halloween/Anniversary Party October 25^th!!!

Happy Halloween & don't forget to vote!!!