One of the benefits of having a blog is having a venue to bitch about businesses that fail to meet your expectations, and brother, did I have plenty of those last night when I attempted to find a place to watch the Reds game over a beer and some wings.

Mind you, all this happened on the north side of Indianapolis, in case you'd like to look up these establishments and tell them what you think of them.

We started our evening at the nearby Buffalo Wild Wings. The previous time we'd been into this restaurant, the place was deserted and we attributed it to the fact that, for the first time, we were at a location that was not in a college town. Not so tonight, though, and we sat waiting for 15 minutes in the packed restaurant, watching grim families file in and out before they finally informed us that, while we could get a table, none of the three dozen televisions could be spared for baseball.

So we left.

Next, we headed to Majors Sports Cafe. We called on the way there to make sure we'd be able to see the game, but the number that Google connected us with was picked up by the fax machine. Very professional. When we arrived, I ran inside where I found out we could get a table in 15 minutes, but again they were unwilling to dedicate even one of the dozens and dozens of television to baseball. After all, what would happen if six televisions in a row weren't all tuned to the same football game??

That's when we remembered that the Scottie's Pub on 96th street has individual televisions for each table. If we could get a table, they couldn't refuse to change the channel. We called, and yes, we could get the game, if we were willing to wait an hour and a half for a table. Since the game would be over in an hour and a half, we moved on.

Finally, we came to the conclusion that there was nothing to do but to go home and hope that the rain had let up enough for us to catch the game on the satellite there. But first we decided to stop to pick up some sandwiches to take home. We pulled into the shopping center containing the Roly Poly Sandwich place, and notice that the Beef O'Brady's is nearly empty and showing sports on the several televisions. With low expectations, we went in.

The guy who greeted us invited us to sit anywhere, but before I would commit booty to booth I wanted to know whether we'd be able to see the game. No problem, he said. They'll just change whatever t.v. is closest to you. As we settled in to decide on a flavor of hot wings, we saw one of the televisions changing channels. It went to FSNO and got the message that the programming was not available. A moment later, a woman came out and said that she thought the owner hadn't paid for the baseball package. I actually banged my head on the table. So again, we left a restaurant, beerless and disappointed.

Back to our original backup backup plan, we headed to Roly Poly. It was closed. Before 9 p.m. on a Saturday. Instead, we walked into the neighboring W.G. Grinders. I ordered the sirloin grinder and tomato bisque. As we stood there, drinking diet Pepsi and waiting for our sandwiches, I mused that this was the first establishment of the night that had met my expectations, even though there was also football playing on their televisions.

Back at home, we were happy to find that the game was back on. Finally things were looking up. My soup was cold and my sirloin grinder turned out to be a stromboli, but at least the Reds were winning. I still didn't get any beer, though.