I Heart Fitzgerald's

Last Saturday, while gearing up for the WVU-UCLA basketball game which was to be broadcast nationally on CBS, I discovered at the last minute that my local CBS affliate (WBNS-10) would not be airing the game. Instead, they would be showing ESPN Plus coverage of Indiana vs Purdue. Bastards! I called various taverns and restaurants in the Columbus area to find out whether they would broadcast the game. After a confusing phone conversation with a lady at Champs, I was assured that the restaurant indeed had two different CBS channels and would carry the game. Yeah, right! They didn't have the game, and neither did another place down the street. These so-called "sports taverns" have satellite TV of one form or another and yet had no coverage of one of the premiere basketball games of the day! At this point, I concluded that no place in Columbus will show the game and that my Saturday has been ruined.

So, I drive home, swearing up a storm and badmouthing Columbus for being a "Buckeye town" rather than a "sports town". One of my more colorful comments had something to do with people in Columbus staring at a turd shaped like a buckeye leaf while a major sporting event was taking place behind them. Before we make it all the way home, my wife suggests we try Fitzgerald's. (Incidentally, she had suggested this before we had even left home.) I agree, and guess what? Not only do they have the game on screen, but they have it on two of their large screens, with sound, and the place is packed with Mountaineer fans wearing WVU hats, sweatshirts, and jerseys! Apparently, Fitzgerald's is a regular meeting place for the Cental Ohio Chapter of the WVU Alumni Association on game days. The place even welcomes us on their homepage (see the left side), and gives us a separate room when there are conflicting events! We had good food and good beer with some good ol' Mountaineer fans, and we'll definitely be going back. I'll be sure to visit the place even when there isn't a game, just to show my appreciation. It is my new favorite place in Columbus.