Beer Pong

Every generation has its drinking game.

In a story in this week’s TIME magazine, I learned of a game the ancient Greeks played called Kottabos, which, according to the article, “involved flinging the residue from the bottom of their cups of wine at a target.”

In my college days it was quarters — bounce a coin off the table into a short glass of beer and you can point to anyone at the table you want to drink it. It was usually the most obnoxious person at the table who everyone made drink the most… one of the reasons I drank more than my fair share in college.

And even though every state now has designed its own gaming device — with the 50 different quarter-dollars in circulation — these days, quarters have given way to ping pong balls as the projectile of choice to fling at malted beverages.

It’s called Beer Pong, and it’s all the rage, with several bars in New York city sporting the special tables for the game.

Last Thursday night, I spent a few hours with some of Beer Pong’s top tournament players in the New York area. Two young guys from Long Island drove in to Manhattan to meet me at Wicked Willy’s in the village before heading out later to White Plains to participate in a thousand-dollar tournament that night.

I shot video of it to accompany the story in TIME magazine. If central casting had beer pong players from Long Island among its roster, these guys would be it.