A Beer Can Story

Facebook is telling me that today is National Beer Day.  The fact that this coincides with the Pirates Home Opener is either a perfect example of  serendipity or a recipe for disaster, but no mind.  This important day of observance does give me an opportunity to tell a beer, or rather a Can of Beer, related story.

About a month ago I was rummaging through our "downstairs refrigerator" when I found buried deep in the back of it this can of beer:

This is a sixteen ounce of Iron City Beer in a special commemorative can issued on the occasion of Bill Mazeroski's election to Baseball's Hall of Fame....in 2001!!!!  Yes, you are looking at a twenty-two year old can of Iron City Beer ("Iron City, Iron City, That's the beer for me, People love it, Drink more of it, That's the one for me.")  I imagine that way back at the beginning of this century, I bought myself a six pack of these babies, drank five of them, but just couldn't bring myself to crack open that last one, and then I forgot that I had it.  This can of beer actually moved with us from Field Club Drive to Village Drive back in 2010.  It's kind of astonishing when you think about it.

So what do I do now?  

I could, of course, drink it, but does beer age well?  Does it still taste like beer when it's 22 years old?

I could punch holes in the bottom of the can and then drink it, thus preserving the can as a "collectable", but I am not a collector, so an empty beer can, to me is just another piece of trash.

I could put it on eBay and see if there is a market for it.  I am guessing that there is.

I could just keep it.  Take it out of the fridge, and display it on a shelf in my office.  The thing has more value to me if it's filled, rather than just an empty can.   

Yep, I'm going to hang on to it.  Maybe I'll drink it on the day some doctor tells me I have twenty-four hours to live.  Or maybe I'll just look down from heaven (being an optimist here) and watch my various nephews and nieces fight over which one of them gets the "Maz Can".  Or maybe, like John Foster Kane's Rosebud, it will end up in a dumpster one day.

I heard Bill Cowher tell a story this past year that when he retired from the Steelers, he left a six pack of Iron City in his office fridge for "the next guy."  Someone then asked Mike Tomlin about it, and he said "It's still in there waiting for the next 'next guy.'"

Maybe that will be the case with this one single can.

Happy National Beer Day, one and all.