November 2018 - Virne Gilbert- Pomegranate Packs-a-Punch

Virne Beatrice "Jackie" Mitchell Gilbert (August 29, 1913 – January 7, 1987) 

Virne Gilbert was one of the first female pitchers in professional baseball history. At 17-years-old, she pitched for the Chattanooga Lookouts against the New York Yankees on April 2, 1931. The first batter she faced was Babe Ruth, followed by Lou Gehrig, the deadliest hitting duo in baseball history. Mitchell struck them both out. “Girl Pitcher Fans Ruth and Gehrig,” read the headline in the next day’s sports page of the New York Times, beside a photograph of Mitchell in uniform. In an editorial, the paper added: “The prospect grows gloomier for misogynists.” Mitchell’s unusual baseball career, however, wasn’t over. In an era before televised games, when blacks as well as women were unofficially barred from major-league baseball, an ersatz troupe of traveling teams barnstormed the nation, mostly playing in towns that lacked professional squads. In 1937 she retired from baseball and went to work for her father’s optical business in Tennessee.

The Cocktail:

Pomegranate Packs-a-Punch
2 cups pomegranate juice
1 cup cranberry juice
1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup dark rum
1 bottle of blanc de blancs sparkling wine
2 pomegranates sliced into rounds

Drinkability: 5
Drunkability: 3
Taxic Diversity: 3
Accessibility: 4
Priority for Conservation: 4

Comments: juicy

From "Knockout Punch!" hosted by Irish Knockout

November 2018 - Sharice Davids - Whiskey Punch

Sharice Davids (May 22, 1980 - )

Sharice Davids is an American attorney and politician from the state of Kansas. Davids is a member of the Ho-Chunk nation. Her maternal grandfather, Fredrick J. Davids, a 30-year Army veteran, was born into the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, in Oneida, Wisconsin. Sharice was raised by Fredrick's daughter, Crystal Herriage, a single mother who served in the U.S. Army. 

Davids began fighting mixed martial arts as an amateur in 2006, and went professional in 2013. She had a 5–1 win–loss record as an amateur and a 1–1 record as a professional. She tried out for The Ultimate Fighter but did not make it onto the show, allowing her to shift her focus away from MMA.

Davids began her legal career in 2010. She later directed community and economic development for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and opened her own business, Hoka Coffee. In 2016, she worked as a White House Fellow in the Department of Transportation during the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations. 

In the 2018 elections, Davids ran for the United States House of Representatives in Kansas's 3rd congressional district. She defeated Brent Welder, who had been endorsed by Bernie Sanders, by a margin of 37% to 34% in the August primary election.[8] Davids defeated incumbent Republican Kevin Yoder in the November 6, 2018, general election. This made her the first openly gay Native American in Congress, the first openly LGBTQ member of the Kansas congressional delegation, the first openly gay person representing Kansas on the federal level. Along with Deb Haaland, she was also one of the first Native American women in Congress. 

The Cocktail:

Whiskey Punch
1/4 cup honey syrup
4 cups lemonade
3 cups whiskey
4 cups club soda
(makes 12 drinks)

Drinkability: 5
Drunkabiltiy: 3
Taxic Diversity: 2
Accessibility: 4
Priority for Conservation: 5

Comments: - basically a cold hot toddy

From "Knockout Punch" hosted by Irish Knockout

June, 2018 - Robyn Smith - The Belmont Jewel

Robyn Smith was born Melody Dawn Miller. Her biological father deserted her and her 17 year old mother at her birth. Melody's mother was declared mentally unstable and Melody was placed in a foster home. She was adopted and renamed Caroline Smith. Later, after a grueling court battle, she was returned to her birth mother. When her mother's mental illness reappeared, she was placed back in the care of her adoptive family. She became a jockey in 1969, winning the Paumonok Handicap at Aqueduct in 1973 riding North Sea. She became the first woman to win a major race in the USA. Despite the difficulty she had getting respect, an agent and mounts, by '72 she was the top American-born jockey--of either gender—at Aqueduct Racetrack, where her winning percentage that year was second only to Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero's. On Jan. 1, 1973, at Santa Anita, Smith was preparing for her first mount of the year when a friend introduced her to Fred Astaire, 46 years her senior. Astaire asked whether he should put money on her horse, Exciting Devorcee, and Smith assured him it was a bad idea. He paid no heed, and when the horse beat Willie Shoemaker's mount by a nose, Smith had won her first race at Santa Anita, Astaire had won his wager on a long shot, and the seeds of a great romance had been planted. "I used to kid him and say, 'Oh, you fell in love with me when I won that race,'" says Robyn. In '80 she became Robyn Smith Astaire, and within four months she had left the horse racing circuit to spend more time with her new husband and because Fred was concerned for her safety. She remained married to Astaire until his death in 1987. Although she has tenaciously, and at times controversially, tried to control the use of her husband's image--her efforts helped lead to the passage of a California law limiting the use of deceased celebrities' likenesses--she still needed to satisfy her own competitive urges. "I didn't know what I was going to do with the rest of my life because I'd always been active," says Robyn. "I'm not one to sit home and eat potato chips and watch soap operas." After getting career counseling, she decided to become a helicopter pilot, and flying became her new passion. She started in choppers, worked her way up to jets and now works as a corporate pilot. 

The Drink

The Belmont Jewel - official cocktail of the Belmont Stakes since 2011
1.5 oz bourbon
2 oz lemonade
1 oz pomegranate juice

Drinkability: 5
Drunkability: 2
Accessbility: 4
Taxic Diversity: 2
Priority for Conservation: 4

Comments: We understand why they changed it. This is much easier to batch for a large crowd. The crowds at Belmont are supposed to be terrible.

From "Women Jockeys" hosted by Fluffy Ruffle

June, 2018 - Anna Rose Napravnik - The Belmont Breeze

Anna Rose "Rosie" Napravnik (born February 9, 1988) began her career in 2005 at Pimlico and has been regularly ranked among the top jockeys in North America in both earnings and total races won. She initially rode under the name "A.R. Napravnik" to conceal her gender. She acknowledges the struggles for equality that women riders in earlier generations had to face were greater than her own, but notes that women jockeys still "fight a battle.“ In her early career, she simply tried to "blend in" with the male riders, but nonetheless encountered some owners and trainers who refused to hire a female jockey. She later said, "I was very conscious when I raced against their horses—and when I beat them.“ Napravnik has encountered harassment from male jockeys on the track when other riders would deliberately bump her or pen in her horse from all sides. In a 2013 interview with 60 Minutes, Napravnik said that she has heard hecklers at the track yell at her to "go home and have a baby," or "go home and stay in the kitchen.“ In 2011, she won the Louisiana Derby for her first time, and was the first female winner, and was ninth in the 2011 Kentucky Derby, the sixth woman to ride in that race. In 2012, she broke the total wins and earnings record for a woman jockey previously held by Julie Krone, in the process becoming the first woman rider to win the Kentucky Oaks, riding Believe You Can, winning the race for a second time in 2014 on Untapable. She then rode in the Belmont Stakes for the first time, finishing fifth aboard Five Sixteen. Later that year, she won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile aboard Shanghai Bobby, becoming only the second woman jockey to win a Breeder's Cup race. She is the first to win more than one, also winning the 2014 Breeders' Cup Distaff on Untapable. Napravnik's fifthplace finish in the 2013 Kentucky Derby and third in the 2013 Preakness Stakes on Mylute are the best finishes for a woman jockey in those two Triple Crown races to date, and she is the only woman to have ridden in all three Triple Crown races. She is also the first to have run in all three Triple Crown races in the same year, doing so in 2013 and 2014. After her win in the 2014 Breeders' Cup Distaff, Napravnik announced she was seven weeks pregnant and taking a "retirement" of "indefinite" duration from race riding following the 2014 Breeders' Cup. She continues to assist her husband in training race horses, including 2017 Kentucky Derby contender Girvin. 

The Drink:

The Belmont Breeze - official cocktail of the Belmont Stakes 1997-2010
1.5 oz bourbon
.5 oz dry sherry
.5 oz lemon juice
.5 oz simple syrup
splash of orange juice
splash of cranberry juice
5 mint leaves

Drinkability: 3
Drunkability: 3.5
Accessibilty: 4
Taxic Diversity: 4
Priority for Conservation: 4

Comments: 

From "Women Jockeys" hosted by Fluffy Ruffle

June, 2018 - Diane Crump - Mint Julep

Diane Crump was born in 1948 in Milford, Connecticut. Her family moved to Oldsmar, Florida, and she began taking riding lessons when she was 13. On February 7, 1969, Crump became the first woman to compete as a professional jockey in the United States. She rode a horse named Bridle 'n Bit at Hialeah Park Race Track. There was so much hostility to a woman riding in a horse race that she needed a police escort to get to the track. Crump ultimately finished 9th in the 12-horse race and returned to cheers of support. Two weeks later, Crump rode her first winning race. She said, “The crowd was just swarming all over me. They were crazy, up in arms. . .The hecklers were yelling: 'Go back to the kitchen and cook dinner.' That was the mentality at the time. They thought I was going to be the downfall of the whole sport, which is such a medieval thought. I was like: 'Come on people, this is the 1960s!‘” The previous year, two women had been forced out of horse races they had entered after male jockeys threw rocks at the trailers used as locker rooms by the women and threatened a boycott. The situation changed at Hialeah because the track officials threatened sanctions against the male jockeys. In 1970, she became the first female jockey to ride in the Kentucky Derby. Crump won the first race on the underdcard that day, and then on a horse name Fathom, came in 15th in a 17-horse field in the Derby. By the time she ended her racing career in 1985, she had ridden to 235 wins. In a race in Puerto Rico in the early 1970s, she realized the male jockey behind her was holding onto her saddle, basically getting a free ride during the race. She began to hit him with her stick but he eventually pulled away from her and won the race. Crump retired for a time in 1985 and beginning in 1991 worked as a trainer for a small stable of horses at the Middleburg Training Center in Virginia. She resumed race riding in 1992 and rode races through 1998. She now runs an equine sales business. 

The Drink:

Mint Julep (official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby since 1938)
2oz bourbon
1oz simple syrup
Mint

Drinkability:  3
Drunkability:  4.5
Taxic Diversity:  4
Accessibility:  2
Priority for Conservation:  5

Comments:  Cheers to Dinae Crump! First woman to compete as a professional jockey in the U.S.

From "Female Jockeys" hosted by Fluffy Ruffle

March, 2016 - Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy - Cosmopolitan

Lady Isobel Gathorne-Hardy - September 2, 1875 - December 30, 1963)
was teh daughter of former Governor General of Canada Lord Stanley of Preston. She held the office of Woman of the Bedchamber to HM Queen Mary and she was invested as a Dame Commander, Royal Victorian Order (D.C.V.O.).  While living in Canada, Stanley helped to popularize ice hockey and is one of the first known women to play the game.  Stanley shared her father's love of the game of ice hockey and was instrumental in convincing her father to create the Stanley Cup.  After the opening of the Rideau Skating Rink, Stanley is mentioned in one of the first games of women's hockey, played at Rideau rink in 1899.  Lady Isobel's role as a pioneer of women's ice hockey in Canada is acknowledged with the Isobel Gathorne-Hardy Award.  The award is given to any active player (at any level) whose values, leadership and personal traits are representative of all female athletes. The (American) National Women's Hockey League's championship trophy is called the Isobel Cup in honor o f her contributions to women's hockey and hockey in general.

The Drink:

Cosmopolitan:
1 1/2 oz vodka
1/2 oz cointreau
1/2 oz cranberry juice
1/4 oz lime juice

Drinkability:  4
Drunkability:  4
Taxic Diversity:  2
Accessibility:  3
Priority for Conservation:  3.5

Comments:  FR admits to accidentally going a little heavy on the cranberry juice, but those of us who like cranberry juice like it better that way.

From FR's "Women of Sports with Awards Named After Them" themed meeting.

March, 2016 - Kim Perrot - Jack Rose

Kim Perrot - January 18, 1967 - August 19, 1999
was an American basketball player.  She played in the WNBA for thee Houston Comets.  Perrot attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette), and played four years there as a guard.  In one game against the University of Southeastern Louisiana, she scored 58 points, the third most in NCAA history.  After playing six seasons in Europe, Perrot became the regular point guard for the Houston Comets, helping them to win WNBA championships in 1997 and 1998.  At 5'5", she was noted for her ferocious play and was a crowd favorite.  She averaged 7.2 points, 3.3 steals, and 2.9 rebounds per game during her two seasons as a member of the Comets.  In February 1999, she was diagnosed with lung cancer which had already metastasized to her brain.  Perrot underwent surgery and radiation treatments to eradicate the tumors in her head, but declined chemotherapy recommended by her doctors.  Perrot went to Mexico to seek alternative methods to battle cancer.  Many attribute her death to that move - but metastasized lung cancer gave her no chance of survival with conventional medicine.  After her death, the Comets went on to win a third straight WNBA title.  She was posthumously awarded a third championship ring and her #10 jersey was retired, thus making her the first player in league history to have her number retired.  In 2000, the WNBA renamed their sportsmanship award in her honor.  While ill with cancer, Perrot had made many public appearances, and given motivational speeches, mostly at schools.

The Drink:

Jack Rose:
2 oz Laird's Applejack
3/4 oz grenadine
3/4 oz lemon juice
1 dash Pechaud's bitters

Drinkability:  3
Drunkability:  2.5
Taxic Diversity:  4
Accessibility:  3
Priority for Conservation:  2

Comments:  Taxic Diversity - diverse, but not blended well . Also, bitters are hard to find in Inwood.

From FR's "Women in Sports with Awards Named After Them" themed meeting.

March, 2016 - Sage Cowles - Income Tax

Sage Cowles
Former LPGA Tour Member Janie Blaylock, softball legend Joan Joyce and tennis icon Billie Jean King, founded the International Women's Professional Softball Association in 1976.  The fledgling association survived four seasons before lack of funds, high travel costs and inadequate facilities ultimately led to its demise.  In 1982, the NCAA began to sanction the Women's College World Series, a move that led to increased participation and exposure for the sport.  Along with her collegiate head coach John Horan, former Utah State University player Sage Cowles, owner of the Cowles Media Company, who agreed to provide financial backing for the endeavor.  Eight years of successful research and planning finally culminated in May 1997, with the Cowles family and title sponsor AT&T Wireless Services launching Women's Pro Fastpitch.  ESPN2 televised over 30 games from 1999 to 2001.  The broadcasts consistently out-rated those of Major League Soccer and the National Hockey League.  On Nov 21, 2002, WPSL announced a rebranding strategy and officially name changed to National Pro Fastpitch.  The 2004 season was distinguished by 178 league-wide games, 96 of the best female softball players in the country, the continued support of Major League Baseball, NPF playoffs, and the inaugural NPF Championship with the NY/NJ Juggernaut capturing the Championship Cowles Cup with a victory over the New England Riptide, fourth place finisher in the regular season.

Sage Cowles passed away in 2013 at the age of 88.  In her life she was "mother, wife, grandmother, friend. Philanthropist, fundraiser, benefactor.  Networker, cajoler.  Feminist, political activist, educator.  Softball and fitness enthusiast.  Artist: choreographer, performer, dancer", according to a profile written for the Walker Arts Center in Minnesota.  In addition to the Cowles Cup in softball, Sage helped make the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts a reality, giving Minnesota its long-awaited flagship for dance; and helped establish the Sage Cowles Land Grant Chair in Dance at the University of Minnesota, which brings in visiting artists.  In 2005, the Sage Awards for Dance were created to honor her profound contributions.  Outside of the arts, Sage served on the board of Planned Parenthood.  She and her husband were fellows at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs , where she taught the other fellows to engage with their bodies during movement workshops and wrote a paper calling for a more holistic educational model as the body isn't "a second-class citizen, separate from the mind."  

The Drink:

Income Tax

1 1/2 oz gin
3/4 oz dry vermouth
3/4 oz sweet vermouth
3/4 oz orange juice
2 dashes Angostura

Drinkability: 2
Drunkability: 4
Taxic Diversity:4
Accessibility: 3
Priority for Conservation: 1

Comments:  it was very diverse, but not a good tasting blend of flavors.

From FR's "Women in Sports with Awards Named After Them" themed meeting.

March, 2016 - Mae Louise Suggs - Three Mile Limit

Mae Louise Suggs (Sept 7, 1923 - Aug 7, 2015)
was an American professional golfer, one of teh founders of the LPGA Tour and thus modern ladies' gold.  Born in Atlanta, Suggs had a very successful amateur career, beginning as a teenager.  She won the Georgia State Amateur in 1940 at age 16 and again in 1942.  She won the 1946 and 1947 Women's Western Open, which was designated as a major championship when the LPGA was founded.  She finished her amateur career representing the United States on the 1948 Curtis Cup Team.  After her successful amateur career, she turned professional in 1948 and went on to win 58 professional tournaments, including 11 majors.  Her prowess on the golf course is reflected in the fact that from 1950 to 1960 she was only once out of the top 3 in the season-ending money list.  In 1957, she won the Vare Trophy (for low scoring average) and also became the LPGA's first player to complete the career grand slam, which included Titleholders Championship; six other women ahve since accomplished this feat.  Bob Hope nicknamed her "Miss Sluggs" for her long drives.  Suggs was inaugural inductee into the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame, established in 1967, and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1979.  She was one of the co-founders of the LPGA in 1950, which included her two great rivals of the time, Patty Berg and Babe Zaharias.  Suggs served as the organization's president from 1955 to 1957.  The Louise Suggs Rolex Rookie of the Year Award, given annually since 2000 to the most accomplished first-ear player on the LGPA Tour, is named in her honor.  In February 2015, she became one of the first female members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

The Drink:

Three Mile Limit

1 oz rum
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz grenadine
1/2 oz cognac

Drinkability: ?
Drunkability: ?
Taxic Diversity: ?
Accessibility: ?
Priority for Conservation: ?

Comments:  Last drink of the night, ranking never recorded, only "Go Syracuse!" 

From FR's "Women Athletes with Sports Awards Named After Them" theme.

July, 2015 - Interesting Tidbits and Quotes - Summer Martini

Nelfi Ibanez Guerra, 43, a Bolivian mother of two, is the first woman to coach a men's team in Peru,

To those who tell her she chose the wrong profession and that she should be in the kitchen, she responds, "the best chefs in the world are men, so perhaps the best soccer coaches are women."

"There are female Presidents, female mayors, so why not a female coach?  ... It's my first time with a female coach, but I'm already used to it... my mother and my wife tell me what to do a lot, too." - said David Zuloaga, a player for the team.

Helena Costa had been appointed manager of French club Clermont Foot 63, a men's squad, but resigned only a few days later after male colleagues sidelined her and left her convinced she was just a "face" to attract publicity.  

"Michy, the owner, said of her sudden departure:  "She's a woman so it could be down to any number of things ... it's an astonishing, irrational, and incomprehensible decision."

I don't know the exact percentages, but I do know this:  Many NBA players come from single-parent homes where the mother was the sole breadwinner, authority figure, disciplinarian, and mentor.  From LeBron James on down, many NBA players have been raised with little fatherly guidance and a strong female presence in their lives.  They have been programmed to believe that women will look out for their best interests whereas men -- not so much.  - Mike Bianchi
The Drink:

Summer Martini

2 oz vodka
2 oz triple sec
2 oz cranberry juice

Drinkability: 4
Drunkability: 4
Taxic Diversity: 3
Accessibility: 3
Priority for Conservation: 4

Comments:  

From "Women in Men's Pro Sports" hosted by BoilerMaker

July, 2015 - Dr. Jennifer Welter - Hot Summer Night

Dr. Jennifer Welter (born October 27, 1977)

is currently a training camp/preseason intern who is coaching inside linebackers for the NFL's Arizona Cardinals.  The signing with the Arizona Cardinals made her the first female coach in the NFL.  This is her third "first" for men's football in 2014 and 2015.

On January 24, 2014, the Revolution announced signing 5-foot-2, 130-pound Jennifer Welter as a running back.  This made her the second female player for a position other than kicker or placekick-holder on a men's professional football team, and the first at running back.

On February 12, 2015, the Indoor Football League's Texas Revolution named Welter their linebackers and special teams coach making her the first woman to coach in a men's professional football league.
Welter is a veteran of several women's professional and semi-professional football teams (including the Dallas Diamonds and Dallas Dragons).  She was a gold medal-winning member of Team USA at the International Federation of American Football's (IFAF) Women's World Championship in 2010 and 2013.  Welter graduated from Boston College and has a master's degree in Sport psychology and a PhD in psychology from Capella University.

The Drink:

Hot Summer Night

1 shot gin
1 shot triple sec
2 shots apple juice

Drinkability: 4
Drunkability: 3
Taxic Diversity: 2
Accessibility: 2
Priority for Conservation: 4.5

Comments: "peach apple hides the gin"

From "Women in Men's Pro Sports" hosted by BoilerMaker

July, 2015 - Sarah Thomas - Jack in the Summer

Sarah Thomas

began her officiating career in 1996, when she attended a meeting of the Gulf Coast Football Officials Association, though she worked her first varsity high school game in 1999.  During the 2009 season, Thomas was one of five female officials in major college football and the only one at the Football Bowl Subdivision level.  She was assigned to crew and given a full schedule of 11 games.  At the end of the season, she was selected to work the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl between Marshall and Ohio, making her the first woman to officiate a bowl game.  On November 12, 2011, Thomas became the first woman to officiate in a Big Ten stadium, working as a line judge when Northwestern hosted Rice.  In 2013, Thomas became one of 21 finalists in contention for a permanent NFL officiating position.  Thomas has worked New Orleans Saints scrimmages, and was part of the NFL officiating development program, spending three days at the Indianapolis Colts minicamp.

On April 8, 2015, the NFL officially announced that Thomas will become the first full-time female official in NFL history.  (Shannon Eastin, hired as a temporary non-union official during the 2012 NFL referee lockout, was the first woman to officiate an NFL game).


The Drink:

Jack in the Summer

1 oz Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey
1 oz cola
handful of strawberries

Drinkability: 3
Drunkability: 4
Taxic Diversity: 2
Accessibility: 2
Priority for Conservation: 4/5

Comments: the strawberries taste like whiskey but not the other way around - PofC depends on your memories of Jack & Coke in college.

From "Women in Men's Pro Sports" hosted by BoilerMaker

July, 2015 - Nancy Lieberman - Arctic Summer

Nancy Elizabeth Lieberman (born July 1, 1958)

Nicnamed "Lady Magic," Lieberman had a storied international career during the 1970s and1980s and is considered one of the best female basketball players in history.  She earned an Olympic silver medal with the United States in 1976.  In 1986, Lieberman was the first woman to play in a men's professional basketball league (USBL).  After retiring as a player in the Women's national Basketball League (WNBA), Nancy Lieberman was named general manager and head coach of the WNBA's Detroit Shock in 1998.  She helmed the team to the highest winning percentage of any expansion team in professional sports and was runner-up for Coach of the Year.  Lieberman took on another leadership role, when she served as president of the Women's Sports Foundation for two years.  Later, she served as head coach of the Dallas Fury of the NWBL, where she guided the team to a championship title.  On November 5, 2009, she was appointed as the first female head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA), taking the leadership role as head coach for the Dallas Mavericks' NBA D-League Team, Texas Legends.

As of July 30th the Sacramento Kings are planning to offer Nancy Lieberman an assistant coach position, which she will officially accept the following week.  Lieberman, 57, will be the NBA's second female assistant coach, joining the San Antonio Spurs' Becky Hammon.

The Drink:

Arctic Summer

1 1/2 oz gin
3/4 oz apricot brandy
1 tsp grenadine
4 oz sparkling bitter lemon soda

Drinkability: medium
Drunkability: low

Taxic Diversity: yucky? Medicine?

Accessibility: 3

Priority for Conservation: "OH makes it again, the rest of us stop drinking"

Comments:  (Curator's notes - I have no idea why we suddenly switched off the number system for the first time ever here...)

From "Women in Men's Pro Sports" hosted by BoilerMaker

July, 2015 - Rebecca Hammon - Summer Sunset

Rebecca Lynn "Becky" Hammon (born March 11, 1977)

is an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA and a retired professional basketball player.  Hammon played for the San Antonio Stars and New York Liberty of the WNBA.  She also played for multiple basketball teams outside the United Sates.  Hammon, who was born and grew up in the United States, became a naturalized Russian citizen in 2008 and represented the Russian national team in 2008 and 2012 Olympics.  

On August 5, 2014, Hammon was hired by the Spurs as an assistant coach, becoming the second female assistant coach in NBA history but the first full-time assistant coach.  This also makes her the first full-time female assistant coach in any of the four major professional sports in North America.  On July 3, 2015, the Spurs announced that Hammon would be the team's Summer League head-coach, the first woman to head-coach in that league.  Hammon led the Spurs to the Las Vegas Summer League title on July 20, 2015
The Drink:

Summer Sunset

1.5 oz pineapple juice
.75 oz cranberry juice
champagne 

Drinkability: 4.5 
Drunkability: 2
Taxic Diversity: 2
Accessibility: 3
Priority for Conservation: 4

Comments:  "a little sweet," "drunkability depends on the amount of champagne", "tastes like frothy juice" "good but kind of boring"

From "Women in Men's Pro Sports" hosted by BoilerMaker

May, 2015 - Anna Lee Aldred - Kentucky Buck

Anna Lee Aldred 

...was the first woman in the US to receive a jockey’s license.  She was born in Colorado in 1921, the daughter of a famous race horse trainer – she began racing ponies at the age of 3; by 12 she was racing flat, relay races – she was given her license at the age of 18 in 1939 after officials were unable to find a rule that barred women jockeys.   She retired six years later, after growing too tall (5’5”) and too heavy (118lbs) and switched to trick rider for rodeos.  She was inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1983, and Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame in 2004.  She continued riding until she broke her hip in 2001, she died in 2006 at the age of 85.

The Drink:

Kentucky Buck

.5 oz lemon juice

1 medium strawberry

1.5 oz bourbon

.5 oz simple syrup

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Top with ginger beer

Drinkability:  4
Drunkability:  2
Taxic Diversity:  4

Accessibility:  4
Priority for Conservation:  5

Comments:  "it's the ginger that slows you down" - OH

From "Women Jockeys" hosted by Alabazam

May 2015 - Julieann Louise Krone - Gravesend Smash

Julieann Louise “Julie” Krone 

Born in 1963, Julie started her equine career as a show horse rider in Western Michigan.  She made her debut as a jockey in 1982, at Tampa Bay Downs, on Tiny Star, and won her first race a month later aboard Lord Farkle.  She became a well known racing personality within only a few years, being the only woman to win riding championships at Belmont Park, Gulfstream Park, Monmouth Park, The Meadowlands, and Atlantic City Race Course.  In 1993 became the first female jockey to win a Triple Crown race when she won the Belmont Stakes aboard Colonial Affair.  In that same year, she received an ESPY Award as Female Athlete of the Year.  In 2000, she became the first woman inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.  She’s also been honored by induction into the National Women’s Hall of Fame and Cowgirl Hall of Fame.  She briefly retired in 1999 to try broadcasting horse races, but came out of retirement in 2002 – and went back into retirement in 2003 after fracturing two bones in her lower back.  She returned again later in 2003 to be the first woman to win a Breeders’ Cup race aboard Halfbridled.  Just weeks after, she broke several ribs and suffered severe muscle tears during a fall.  Due to her success in the face of severe inuries (over and over again), Krone was named USA Today’s top 10 Toughest Athletes and was honored by the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award by the Women’s Sports Foundation.  In 2013 she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

The Drink:

Gravesend Smash (a Breeder's Cup Cocktail)

2 oz moonshine

¾ oz st. germain

1/4^th grapefruit (medium, not large)

1/2 tsp pink peppercorns (divided)

muddle grapefruit and 1/2 pink peppercorn, add st. germain and moonshine, shake with ice, top with last bit of pink peppercorn

Drinkability:  2
Drunkability:  5
Taxic Diversity:  3
Accessibility:  2
Priority for Conservation:  4

Comments:  *Due to potential fresh grapefruit allergy, grapefruit was subbed with pomplemousse rose)  - this took a long time to drink - "hard but good"

From "Women Jockeys" hosted by Alabazam

May 2015 - Rosemary Homeister, Jr. - Jockey Club

Rosemary Homeister, Jr.  

Born from two jockey parents, she grew up riding horses.  She started her career working with horses as an exercise rider and breaking yearlings before beginning her apprenticeship in 1992.  She started her career by becoming the first woman to win the Eclipse Award for Oustanding Apprentice Jockey in the US.  Since then, she has won more than 2000 races at tracks around the US.  In 2000 and 2001, she was the US leading female jockey in wins, and in 2001 she was the first female jockey (only one so far?) to win the Clasico del Caribe aboard Alexia.  In 2003, she was only the fifth woman to compete in the Kentucky Derby.  She was inducted into the Calder Race Course Hall of Fame in 2006.   She won her 2000^th race in 2008, and temporarily retired in 2011 due to pregnancy.

The Drink:

Jockey Club
1.5 oz bourbon
1 oz sweet vermouth
.25 oz maraschino liqueur

Drinkability:  3.5
Drunkability:  4
Taxic Diversity:  2.5
Accessibility:  3
Priority for Conservation:  3

Comments:  "manhattan with a kick"

From "Women Jockeys" hosted by Alabazam

May 2015 - Anna Rose Napravnik - Kentucky Flyer

Anna Rose “Rosie” Napravnik

Born in 1988, began her career in 2005, and has regularly been ranked among the top jockeys in North America in both earnings and total races won.  She won the Louisiana Derby for the first time in 2011, and finished 9^th in the 2011 Kentucky Derby aboard Pants on Fire.  In 2012, she broke the total wins and earnings record previously held by Julie Krone, in the process becoming the first woman rider to win the Kentucky Oaks, aboard Believe You Can, and winning it again in 2014 aboard Untapable.  As of 2013, she has been in the top 10 for two years in a row, and is the highest-ranking woman jockey in North America.  She is only the second woman to win a Breeders’ Cup race, and the first to win more than one, having won both the 2012 Juvenile aboard Shanghai Bobby, and Distaff race aboard Untapable.  Her 5^th place finish in the 2013 Kentucky Derby and 3^rd place in the following Preakness on Mylute are the best finishes for a woman jocket in those two Triple Crown races to date, and she is the only woman to have riden in all three Triple Crown races.  As of 2014, she announced her pregnancy and “indefinite retirement” – she continues to assist her husband, a horse trainer, Joe Sharp, in training race horses in their homes in Louisville, KY and New Orleans, LA. 

The Drink:

Kentucky Flyer

2 oz rye whiskey

.75 oz luxardo maraschino

.5 oz lemon juice

1 fresh mint leaf

Drinkability:  3
Drunkability:  3 - 4
Taxic Diversity:  3
Accessibility:  3
Priority for Conservation:  3

Comments: (hard to gauge drunkability when already drunk going in)

From "Women Jockeys" hosted by Alabazam

April, 2015 - Fanny Blankers-Koen - Cel-Ray Spring Tonic

*NOTE* March LUPEC was skipped due to inability to meet a quorum.  

Fanny Blankers-Koen

Born in Amsterdam in 1918, Fanny spent much of her childhood swimming, skating, running, and playing tennis.  At the age of 14 and at the request of her father, Blanker-Koen began focusing on track and field.

Her Olympic debut occurred at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where she placed fifth for the 100-meter relay, and sixth for teh high jump.  Although the 1940 and 1944 Olympics were canceled because of World War II, Blankers-Koen continued to compete in various Dutch track meets, where she set multiple world records.  By the 1948 Olympics, she held the world record for the hurdle, long jump, high jump, and 100-meter race.  At the 1948 London Olympics, she became the first woman to win four gold medals at a single Olympics.

Over her 20-year career, Blankers-Koen set 20 world records in seven different events.  She was inducted into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame in 1980.

The Drink:

Cel-Ray Spring Tonic

3 oz vodka
large sprig celery leaves
6 slices of cucumber
2 slices of lime
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
ginger ale

*makes 2 drinks

Drinkability: 5
Drunkability:  2
Taxic Diversity:  3
Accessibility:  4
Priority for Conservation: 5+

Comments:  Drinks like water - all gone!  "This is the best cucumber water we've ever had"

From "Women Track Stars" hosted by Montana Prairie Fire

April, 2015 - Bobbi Gibb - The Devereaux

Bobbi Gibb

Roberta Louise "Bobbi" Gibb is the first woman to have run the entire Boston Marathon (1966).  She is recognized by the Boston Athletic Association as the pre-sanctioned era women's winner in 1966, 1967, and 1968.  Gibb's run in 1966 challenged prevalent prejudices and misconceptions about women's athletic capabilities.  Before 1966, it was generally believed that women were physiologically unable to run marathon distances.  The longest Amateur Athletic Union (AAU)-sanctioned race for women was one and a half miles.

Gibb trained for two years to run the Boston Marathon, covering as much as 40 miles in one day.  On writing for an application in February 1966, she received a letter from the race director, Will Cloney, informing her that women were not physiologically capable of running marathon distances and that under the rules that governed amateur sports set out by the AAU, women were not allowed to run more than a mile and a half competitively.

After three nights and four days on a bus from San Diego, California, Gibb arrived the day before the race at her parents' house in Winchester, Massachusetts.  Wearing her brother's Bermuda shorts and a blue hooded sweatshirt over her black, tanked-top swim suit, she hid in the bushes near the starting pen.  After the starting gun fired, she waited until about half of the pack had started and then jumped into the race.  

The men soon realized she was a woman.  Encouraged by their friendliness and support, she removed her sweatshirt.  To her delight and relief, the crowds cheered to see a woman running.  The press began to report on her progress towards Boston, history in the making.  She finished in three hours, twenty-one minutes, and forty seconds, ahead of two-thirds of the pack.

In 1967, Gibb returned and ran again.  She finished in three hours, twenty-seven minutes, and seventeen seconds, almost an hour ahead of the other female competitor, Kathrine Switzer.  In 1968, Gibb ran again, finishing in three hours, and thirty minutes, first among a growing number of women.  (In 1972, the first women's division of the Boston marathon opened.)  In 1996, at the 100th running of the Boston Marathon and the 30th anniversary of Gibb's first running of it, the Boston Athletic Association officially recognized her three wins in 1966, 1967, and 1968, and awarded her a medal.  Her name was inscribed with the names of the other winners on the Boston Marathon memorial in Copley Square.

The Drink:

The Devereaux:

1 oz bourbon
1/2 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
3 oz sparkling wine

Drinkability:  4
Drunkability:  3
Taxic Diversity:  3
Accessibility:  4
Priority for Conservation:  5

Comments:  N/A

From "Women Track Stars" hosted by Montana Prairie Fire