Lawyer abandons law to start professional beer pong league.

(Alerted by Baseball Crank) I had a choice: I could consider this a sign of America’s ultimate decline, or else one that we really were still so Unbelievably Awesome that a picture of our country could heal.

I went with Awesome.

Drop in the Cup: Associate Leaves Am Law for Beer Pong

Thursday’s pre-St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in the big-firm market likely has many Am Law associates pondering a new career.

Meet William “Billy” Gaines II, a former intellectual property associate who gave up practicing law on December 31 to pursue his passion. When asked what firm he used to work for, Gaines demurred. But thanks to the glory of the Internet, the answer was a few clicks away: Vedder Price in Chicago.

As for his passion, well, it’s beer pong. But Gaines doesn’t just play what’s been the college drinking game of choice since the late 1990s–he aims to make a business out of it. And given that the University of Dayton law school graduate is the founder of the World Series of Beer Pong (the fourth one took place last month in Las Vegas), we’d say he’s off to a pretty good start.

You can find the official Beer Pong sport site here, and you’re welcome.  There’s money in this, apparently: first prize for their last World Series was fifty grand and they had it in Vegas, which isn’t bad for a sport that permits the drinking of beer.  Just ponder that bolded word for a moment.  “A sport that permits the drinking of beer.”  You can’t expect to see a statement like that every day.  Mind you, it’s probably Pabst Blue Ribbon, which is a bit problematical … but then, the game involves throwing things into cups of beer, so I suppose that you really don’t want to use a brew that you actually respect.

Moe Lane

PS: I don’t see what the big deal is about picking beer pong over the law as a career.  He’s doing something socially relevant.  What’s the hub-bub, bub?