The Nats were just swept by their AL neighbor rivals, the Baltimore Orioles. But they didn’t just lose 3 straight, they lost them in tremendous fashion. Going up 5-0 in game one, up 6-0 in game two, and 3-0 in game three only to lose all three games by one run.

This was likely the end of any wildcard hopes for the Nats, who back when Tyler Clippard was 8-0, looked like a dark horse to make the post season. What will be interesting is to see how the team rebounds from what surely was the 3 most painful loses of the year. The reaction to such a series includes not only the players but also the management. Will Adam Dunn get a contract extension? Will the team ship any players off? Will Strasburg continue to get 95 pitches every 5 days? Will Livan Hernandez start day laboring at 23 hours at a time?

With Stephen Strasburg still garnishing national attention every time he has a bowel movement there can still be a silver lining to remaining 2010 season for the Nats. And I am not talking about him joining the NL all-star team, but rather hope comes in the form of the NL Rookie of The Year award. The Nationals look like they will send only the requisite one player to this year’s all-star game and may not crack above .500 before October, but even with that reality - anyone can be rookie of the year with a stellar performance despite the team’s shortcomings. However as of late the weak Nats bats on Strasburgs starts (many coming with no runs at all) and terrible fielding of the Nationals infield has really hurt Strasburg (most recently a bases loaded error in Atlanta) and become his biggest threat.

With large media draw and an excited crowd each time Strasburg pitches, fans can continue cheering for something relevant with regards to the Nats. I am sure the Nats will enjoy playing spoiler to teams like the Mets toward the end of the year as well. In previous years the Nats have gone 382,893-2 in September against the Mets. Team manager said he would do anything to prevent this at a press conference, holding up a crudely drawn picture of Carlos Beltran with tank treads for legs.

So even if cheering for the Nats has become just about the same as cheering for Teddy in the Presidents race, remember that the Strasburg Show is still in its first season and September 29 is knit beanie night.

So we already know that USC had to vacate it’s 2004 Orange Bowl Championship game win because of NCAA rules violations and that was the year that Virginia Tech opened up against USC at FedEx field. So then if that USC team didn’t really “exist” then just how different would have our 2004 season have been?

1. First of all we would have turned the FedEx home opener in to a shit slinging barn burner. With no team to compete against for 60 minutes there wouldn’t have been a need for any keys at all, just start chanting “stick it in” from your own 20 and start setting records.

2. With an 11-1 record the Hokies would have played in the National Championship game. Losing to only NC State on what would go down as one of Brandon Pace’s only bad games, the Hokies may have squeaked by to play Oklahoma in the National Championship and we all know OU only loses the big games so by that logic the Hokies would be crowned national champions.

3. An outpouring of pride in the Commonwealth of Virginia resulting from the Hokies first National Championship would motivate the young voters of the state, turning the state for the democrats in the 2004 presidential election thus causing a run off in which John Kerry would be elected the 44th President of the United States.

4. With Dick Cheney out of the White House, Halliburton would have far less power and would not secure Off-Shore Drilling subcontracts in the Gulf of Mexico. You guessed it, crisis avoided, the gulf is safe and the world is at peace and everyone is a Hokies fan.

So now that we know what happens when you erase USC from the 2004 season we can all look back wishing that the world knew then what it knows now. The 2004 Hokie National Championship team and creation of 100% clean renewable energy were so close to being a reality, mankind just wasn’t ready for Utopia.

The merging of two beautiful things is taking longer than expected - so I guess we can’t be all that upset that Chipotle is a number of months behind on opening their main street location in downtown Blacksburg. No one asked God to speed things up when he created man in His own image, right?

Over a year after news broke of the big C coming to Bburg the interior work now begins on the site that once held Joe’s Barber shop. Delays brought on by a harsh winter and unexpected building modifications and flooring problems appear to be over as workers are ready to assemble the familiar steel and wood eating spaces where eventually up to 42 hokies will be able to enjoy their burritos. There is also going to be a back patio with additional seating.

As for now the target open date is August, before students pour back on to campus with fully charged Hokie Passports, tons of food swiped from their parents pantry, and bitchin’ new flavors of ice tea vodka.

And Chipotle better get things wrapped up in time for the football season. That cock of a burrito joint, Qdoba Mexican Grill said its heading in to Blacksburg soon as well. I need Chipotle to get in there and crank out the bliss, the campus has suffered long enough with the likes of Extreme Pita, A&W, Philly City and Moe’s.

I love Priceline… I basically use it every time I need a hotel room and I don’t need to stay in a specific hotel (i.e. wedding party, convention, bed and breakfast). The goal with Priceline is to work the system so that you get the best hotel at the cheapest price in the particular “region” you want to stay.

The main websites that you use to achieve this include the following:
1. Priceline.com (duh)
2. Hotwire.com
3. Betterbidding.com

Other helpful sites/tools:
1. Kayak.com
2. TripAdvisor.com (to get an idea of how the hotels rank and determine the best area of a city you should stay)
3. Priceline iPhone App (I’ll explain how that one helps further down)

I think the best way to show how this all works is to plan a fake trip. Let’s say we want to go see the Twins play in their new stadium, Target Field, in Minneapolis, MN.

You should start off by heading over to TripAdvisor to learn more about the city, figure out where it is the best to stay (downtown/east side/garden district/etc), what there is to do there (“Things to do” TripAdvisor rankings are great) and see if it’s a city in which a rental car, cab, walking/public transit will be best when considering where to stay. From all of that information you can get an idea of the city’s region in which you want to stay. Priceline breaks down each city in to geographical regions so that you know your hotel won’t be located at the Airport if you are trying to stay in the downtown area and vice versa.

So then head on over to Priceline and begin a search…

In our example, staying one Saturday night in Minneapolis, MN should do it –that place has a mall and a baseball team and a river, whoopee fucking doo.
The next screen that Priceline will show you lays out the areas in which you can select to stay. ALWAYS start of picky, select only the #1 area you want to stay in and nothing else.

Let’s say we select “Downtown Minneapolis” as our desired area. Priceline will then bring up the star rankings for that area. Keep in mind some areas don’t have all the star levels available because hotels of certain caliber simply don’t exist in that region (which is actually helpful as you’ll see later on).

Always select 4-Star Deluxe (or highest star level available). After all you not only want to stay somewhere on the cheap but also get a sick ass deal for it. Anyone can stay at the La Quinta Inn next to an abandoned Best Products parking lot with a year round gypsy carnival – that is not the goal here.

If you are concerned about just which hotels are in that area and star level here is where the most useful website in the process, BetterBidding.com, comes in to play. Go to http://www.betterbidding.com/ and select the state you are staying in (in this case Minnesota) then select the Priceline forum for that state (Priceline-Minnesota). At the top there will always be a “pinned” forum topic with something named along the lines of “Pinned: Priceline Hotel List – Minnesota”. This is an ever-changing and constantly fact-checked listing of all hotels that participate with Priceline and their regions and star levels.

So for instance we go looking for Downtown Minneapolis on that list and find:

All those 4 star hotels sound good to me… and I can always shoot over to TripAdvisor.com if I am worried that some of them may not be up to snuff and then I may also consider possibly changing my region. I have yet to find a horrible 4 star hotel on these lists however.

Here is where shit gets interesting – your bid for your hotel. There are several places you can look for ideas on a good starting bid. The BetterBidding site you just used also keeps a user-driven listing of winning bids under each state’s forum and you can check that:

These forum posts give you an idea of a specific date, location in the city, star level and what bid was required to land that hotel (Note that the dollar amounts listed are pretax bid prices). This shouldn’t be your only stop however because chances are these postings will not perfectly mirror your desired criteria.

You can continue your search by going to Kayak.com and searching to see what hotels would be going for at published retail prices for the dates and star level you are attempting to bid on. It can also show you if there is a wide range between prices of hotels with your desired star level (which tends to mean better deals for you).
Next I recommend going to Hotwire.com, a blind-buy hotel website that can help show you what a reasonable bid could be. Search the exact same criteria (note that you only filter by region after searching) and see what comes up:

So now we see that pretax $67 bucks lands you a 4 star hotel in your particular region using Hotwire. Note that the Hotwire star rankings and regions and the Priceline star rankings and regions are NOT the same. The BetterBidding.com site can show you the Hotwire hotels are in much the same fashion as the Priceline hotels list, simply click the “Hotwire-Insert State Name” discussion instead of Priceline. The rankings are pretty similar though, you won’t find a terrible hotel in the high star rankings.

So $67 bucks is now your new MAX bid consideration. Immediately take 20% off that bid price, so approximately $54.

The last step before you make an initial bid is to pull out your iPhone and boot up the “Priceline Negotiator” App (it’s free). Select the city and star level you want, then select the star level of the hotel in the region you want. Slide the “Name Your Own Price” bid slide bar all the way to the left of the “Low Chance” left side. That bid comes out to $42.

You can start your bidding off at $42 now and have an okay chance of landing the hotel, I tend to bump it up a couple bucks if the 20% discount off of Hotwire is more (recall it was $12 dollars more) so I would go with a first bid of $48 bucks.

Fill in your bid and name (I recommend you create a profile and sign in to the Priceline if you want to save time by avoiding the need to fill out the credit card and address information every time).

Don’t be scared if you get a message like this “Based on past Priceline customer requests for hotels in this area, your offer price of $48 has almost no chance of being accepted.” – this hasn’t proven the case more than a few times for me.

The next page will show you the total price (including Taxes and Services Fees) — which may be some dollars added on to your bid, but you are still shattering the lowest published price so who cares.

I never mess with Insurance. Then initial the page and wait to see if your bid is accepted. If it is, that’s great and you are done. Print out the confirmation page and Google the hotel you landed and see how sick of a deal it was by comparing your price to the published rate.

If it didn’t go through, no worries, now you just adjust your bid price… but this is where it also requires some trickery. See, they want you to not only change your bid but ALSO change one of your criteria (such as star level or region).

For this you should open up a new browser window and again bring up Priceline.com and again search for your city and date. But now you are looking for help from the section where you select your specific region for your stay.

Click each location one by one and see which star levels are illuminated below as available hotels. You are looking for regions that DO NOT have the same star levels as what you are seeing. For instance “Roseville” shows that there are no 3.5 or 4 star hotels in that region.

You can now return to the “Try Again Right Now” browser window and add “Roseville” to your Downtown selection and then DO NOT change the star level from 4 stars. The beauty in this is that because there are no 4 star hotels in Roseville you are essentially searching the same pool of 4 star downtown hotels you initially searched. Add 4-5 dollars to your asking bid and try again.

If you again get a rejection on your bid, repeat the last step to find more regions that do not that have your requested star level. NEVER BID MORE THAN THE HOTWIRE OFFER – If Hotwire had a hotel in your region for a set price, no need to use Priceline, simply buy with Hotwire. This has never happened to me though, Priceline has always scored a better price (usually around 20% less than the Hotwire price).

Do these steps and you will always land a great deal on your hotel with Priceline.

From the where are they now pile… one of my favorite Hokie basketball players, Deron Washington (aka Deron Flopington and Greg Paulus’ new hat), last I heard was bouncing around in the European basketball circuit and had some practice time with the Pistons. Well imagine my surprise when Versus showed the NBA-Development league championships last night and none other than Deron and his headband came out of the tunnel for one of the teams, the Tulsa 66′ers. Strangely enough I actually thought to myself “I bet Deron was playing in the NBA-D” as the coverage began, but it looks like he’s playing well enough to start for a finals team. Granted its still the finals of the subpar D league, but I am pretty sure the 66′ers could give the Wizards a shellacking.

Game two of the best of 3 series is on tonight at the stroke of midnight.

Seth Greenberg and the Hokies got a lot of press on Sunday, but not for all the best reason. As the first 10-6 team to miss the big dance, many analysts including Dick Vitale, said that something unjust had happened to the ACC 4th place Hokies especially in comparison to Wake Forest - a team VT beat head-to-head and outperformed in the ACC.

A lot of disappointed fans felt jaded on Sunday and players like Malcom Delaney tweeted that he just wanted to be left alone and “not talk about it”. Still, the team is getting a lot of attention we wouldn’t otherwise have gotten as a 10-seed that had little hope of going beyond the first or second round in the tournament.

The real dagger in the Hokies bid for a tournament seed came in their extremely weak out of conference schedule. In case you forgot because the games weren’t even broadcast on the radio, here are some of the teams we played:

• North Carolina Central Eagles
• UMBC Retrievers
• Charleston Southern Buccaneers
• Campbell Fighting Camels

The sad thing is perhaps we had played a Syracuse or Georgetown in our out-of-conference and gotten beaten badly, it would have actually helped us. No one would have had a problem accepting a 10-ACC-Win team with 21-10 record.  Granted we can simply point to the one and done loss to Miami in the first round of the ACC tournament as well.

At least with the NIT the fans down in Blacksburg get more basketball, beginning with a 7pm game tonight against the Quinnipiac Bobcats - at least its not the retrievers.

The Hokies men’s basketball team has finally gotten to where they need to be: on the coveted ESPN “Locks” list for the NCAA tournament.

After a great February turned in to disaster at the end of the month the Hokies rebounded to win two crucial games at the end of the regular season and earned themselves a bye in the ACC tournament (and any potential embarrassment in a first round collapse had they played a team such as a re-born UNC as a five-seed).

In years past the Hokies have always slipped off the back of the bubble come this time of year with too many blemishes on their resume, especially in out-of-conference play. I liked this year’s path to the big dance though… play easy out-of-conference and then hold tough in the middle of the ACC pack. The Hokies managed a 10-6 ACC record (note that no team has ever been denied a ticket to the tournament with such a record in the ACC) and lost only one home game all season in the double overtime take-a-shot-to-win heartbreaker against ACC Co-champion Maryland. Not bad Seth, not bad at all.

Still even as a “lock” in the bracket of 65 the Hokies can help bolster their arguments for inclusion and fight for a better seed and easier path to deeper play in the tournament with a strong showing at the ACC tournament. Tech will face either #5 Wake Forest or #12 Miami in their first game (Miami is much better than their last place finish would have you believe and Wake Forest is trying to build on their street credit for the tournament just like the Hokies).

As an individual accolade, Malcolm Delaney was a first-team selection on all 53  ballots cast by members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association. Way to get even better and make up for that slob Jeff Allen, we love you, man.

The Final Tally

Before we come to the moment of truth lets also see a summary of the previous rounds that lead us to this point:

Round 1: The point at which the two locations diverge. A tie is the only result when you compare similarities. 

Round 2: Take your flavor of shit - you’ll see an even share of scum and oddities when you make a trip to a remote Sheetz or Wawa. They tie in round two.

Round 3: Touch screens separate all need to interact with store employee, which means you won’t get judged at 2am when you order 4 feet of subs. Wawa is the winner of the food round.

Round 4: Do you have twenty bucks and no will to live? Then fill up a bag full of carnival food and caffeine. Sheetz will take you further.

Round 5: Sheetz has just too much convenience and tops Wawa in the mixed-bag fifth round.

Comments were also considered in addition to the five rounds. Some of the comments were made here on the site, some on facebook, others were shared over drinks. The general effect was a boost in Wawa’s street credibility and fan support.

Using all of this information it came time to analyze all of the data and put a team of Dic Tailgate experts to the task of deciding a winner.

“Look where this shit is going” (stock photo from Dic Tailgate HQ)

With similar revenues (about sales 4.5 billion each), comparable business models, and overlapping operating territories most times you could interchange the names  Sheetz or Wawa in whatever you were saying and it would still make perfect sense. But we came here to declare a winner.

With all the votes in, the scorecards tallied, and the extra bacon for 40 cents more the winner is…

When its all said and done Sheetz just knows its game too well. It may not be the cultural hub of Wawa and the prepared foods are a step below Wawa - but Sheetz rises to the top when you factor in cost, convenience, and overall effectiveness as a stop-and-go gas and convenience store.

Wawa creates superfans from their ability to attach themselves to neighborhoods and the personalities that patronize the store whereas Sheetz simply gets dropped in like a SimCity gift (”cheers”) to just about any location with great success. The passion for Wawa is great, greater than Sheetz in fact (and for good reason) but love it or hate it you Wawa fanboys Sheetz is the king of town. You have your winner, now go get a side of Fryz.

ROUND 5: Everything else.

Sheetz is morally more corrupt than Wawa. Sheetz sells porno, lottery tickets, even beer pong game kits. Sheetz features beer caves and questionable trucker gambling machines that I don’t think are legal even in Nevada. They have a very wide range of hardware items and automotive care products.

Also, almost all Sheetz locations sell gas (cheap shitty gas but it will still make your car go) whereas a good number of Wawa locations do not sell any gas at all - there aren’t even any air pumps.

From personal experience I also know that Wawa sells very few automotive products. I once ran out of gas outside of Baltimore and walked nearly 2 miles to Wawa (I was trying to get there in the first place). I asked if they had a loaner gas can and they said “no, because its a liability”- okay fine - so I asked to buy one. They had only one, and that one was a 10 gallon jug that couldn’t even fit in my trunk. I drove back to the Wawa after pouring in a gallon. Having no need for the gas container I offered to donate it to the store for any future patrons who may be in my position but they just said “we’ll just throw it away and put in an order for a new one to replenish the stock.” I guess they needed to make room for their hard boiled egg party platters and “How I Met Your Mother” t-shirts.

Sheetz is now starting to put touch screen MTO ordering systems out by the pump. Though there have been a number of technical problems with the systems due to their exposure to elements, when they are working its great to get all your beep beep boops done before your gas is even done pumping.

For a while neither location welcomed patrons to stay around and loiter. Neither had any kind of eating area or seating. There has been a slight change in the tides with the newer Sheetz locations however. Metal tables and chairs adorned with bright green metal umbrellas have appeared outside of some storefronts and others have a cafe area where patrons can sip their coffee in a Starbucks like atmosphere. The first company to offer free Wifi might just be decalared a defacto winner of this round but as of yet, you still need to drive across the street to the Microtel and steal theirs.

ADVANTAGE: Sheetz is the winner here, there is just too much convenience at Sheetz when you compare to Wawa - and that’s important as afterall they are both convenience stores.

Click to Get To The Final Round: The Final Tally

ROUND 4: The $20 Test.

It was a favorite game played between me and my roommates at Penn State and the rules were simple and singular: determine who could accumulate the most Sheetz MTO or Wawa ToGo per visit based on weight with the winner being the owner of the order that tipped the scale the most (the winner had to eat the contents of their bag to actually achieve victory).

However, that game may not be the best metric when trying compare between the Pennsylvania born Sheetz with the New Jersey native Wawa. Instead we will see what around $20 bucks can get you at each location:

Wawa takes a leave from this battle earlier on. Though gas prices are generally the same at each establishment, and costs for regular retail merchandise and brand-name foods are pretty similiar, the prepared foods and self-serve drink prices are much better at Sheetz. Perhaps you are paying for higher quality at Wawa and so you’d expect to pay a bit more, but you can bet that your 20 bucks will get you a much heavier bag at Sheetz.

Sheetz is the king of sub 2-dollar menu items (and equally low-priced cigarettes). They feature 4 dollar footlong subs and dirt cheap loaded hot dogs. Drink promotions allow you to get ANY size coffee or softdrink at a single price point, usually around a dollar.

Wawa long held claim to “NO FEES” ATM machines. It was an unheard of practice when I first saw it (especially compared to $7.50 fees you see on Bourbon Street) but Sheetz has followed suit and now offers the same fee-free ATM machines at their locations.

When you are a Wawa location, you can charge a bit more since you are offering mini-veggie trays and hummus cups. But careful of that impulse filled soft-pretzel buy you might make while checking out, it could set you back another three bucks. Sheetz won’t charge you that - but that’s because they have nothing as remotely appetizing in the check out line. For this round its the mighty dollar and what you can get for it that carries the day and who can say no to a two dollar Meatball Sub with parmesan cheese, pickles, cooked onions and peppers, olives, and some BBQ sauce?

RESULT: Sheetz is the heavier hitter and gives you more bang for your buck – it’s a the clear winner of this round.

Click to Continue to Tomorrow’s Round: Everything else (not just on the shelves)