Sheryle's Sports Bar - Chiang Mai: Fantastic, cheap, centrally-located pub

There are a lot of bars in Chiang Mai and many of them attempt to appeal to the sports nuts but most of the "sports bars" fail pretty miserably in the prospect because they don't have access to anything other than Premiere League Football. While I understand that popularity of that on a global scale, not everyone is a fan (me, for example is not a fan.)

However, there are a few gems out there that manage to cater to everyone and in my case it was a desire to watch the MLB playoffs.

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I don't know exactly how the owner is able to pull this off, but there were a lot of computers attached to his TV's so I presume he has some sort of internets involved in the process. The tough thing about watching USA baseball is the fact that if you watch it live, it is on in the middle of the damn night. However, Sheryle's is able to play just about anything on demand, so the only thing you have to do as a fan would be to avoid social media for half a day and while you aren't technically watching it live, it is live to you.

He has a sign out front informing people to please not spoil the result for those that are inside. This seems to be pretty well-observed.

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_{the game happened 14 hours ago, and no one knows the result!}

The place is 2 stories and they have a total of 4 really nice pool tables as well that you can play for free if you are buying something. They are extremely strict about the rules here but in my time in this country I have come to the realization that this is actually very necessary if you plan on having any equipment that actually works. The cues, the balls, and the tables are absolutely perfect and trust me when i say that this is a rarity in this country. Normally the table at least has a lean in it and these 4, slate, tables were some of the best I have ever played on.

One rule that will definitely get you a "warning" is if you don't use the "break stick" when breaking. The reason for this is that the cues are actually very high-quality and perfectly straight and they are kept this way by not using them for the part of the game that everyone is most likely to "hulk out" on. If your stick falls because you stowed it improperly you get one warning (this didn't happen to us but did to a neighboring table) and if it happens again, you are done.

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They have a wide variety of mostly western food options and they seem to specialize in pies and burgers. I didn't order either of these things but the ones that were coming out of the kitchen looked excellent.

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One thing that really appealed to me is that even though they have the latest sports on many different TV's as well as free, high-quality pool tables, the beer prices were still really impressive. A large beer costs less than 100 Baht here ($3) and the management doesn't seem overly concerned about adhering to the strange law that exists in the afternoon that forbids alcohol sales from 2-5 PM. We drank during all of those hours and no one seemed overly concerned about it.

Side Note: If you get "busted" drinking between 2-5pm in Thailand it will not be your problem, it will be the bar's. It is not illegal to drink during these hours, it is illegal to sell the alcohol during those hours

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tl;dr

Sheryle's Sport Bar is one of the better sports-oriented bars that I have been to anywhere in the world. It is friendly, cheap, and located right in the center of town. As nice as this place is I honestly expected it to be significantly more expensive than it is. However, despite this wonderful combination of additives, their prices are actually cheaper than most of the bars that I go to that don't have any of these niceties on offer. For a reasonable amount of food and drinks you can easily spend less than $10 a person here. If you are booze-hound like me, you might end up spending $20 if you try really hard.

If you find yourself in Thailand and want to watch some sporting event, it doesn't seem to matter how bizarre the sport is or even if it is on at the moment. If you are willing to shell out a few and order some food and drinks, the owner / manager will find exactly the game / event you are looking for and put it on for you.