Ballechin

It was the star of the Haters Ball, but until last weekend it was not available in Rochester.

Big thanks to G-Man, for bringing a bottle of Edradour's Ballechin #2, finished in Madeira, from Jersey. Peat, Peat and More Peat. And a never ending finish. It's every bit as good and I remembered, and then some.

In view of the late hour, no time tonight for a full review of this remarkable whisky. That will have to wait a few days, as will the explanation of how we came to realize than when we have a chance to buy something whose supply is so limited, we really can't pass on the opportunity.

Speaking of the Haters Ball, last weekend's series seemed to clinch the AL East for the Yankees, and to relegate the Sox to a fight for the wild card. So be it. Looking back on 2007 tonight, I saw that the Sox played .500 ball for almost two months at one stretch, before they played into the post-season. So it's going to be a struggle for the wild card, and let's hope Beckett stops giving up five home runs every game. Meanwhile, I've got to finish this pour of Ballechin. The nose alone is sending me into a transcendental reverie. What a malt!!

By the Numbers

Baseball is a game of numbers, and for the Nation, the numbers have been pretty bad this summer. For a quick overview, consider that at the All-Star break, the Sox were twenty games up on .500, slightly exceeding the pace of five games up every month, which would lead to 96 wins, and a likely spot in the post-season. Since the break, however, the Sox have played five games under .500; have surrendered the lead in the AL East; and have now fallen behind the Rangers in the race for the Wild Card.

Here is an even worse number - 2. That's the number of road wins since the All-Star break, excepting the series in Baltimore, but I don't think that should count, because the Orioles don't have a major league team any more. Now I know the Sox have a nice home stretch coming up, but if they can't win games on the road, they're not going to get to the post-season in 2009.

In addition to that, there are some real bad numbers at the plate since the break. I'm not going to spend the time to get the precise figures, because it's far too discouraging, and really who cares about lousy numbers? I mean, it's always great to track some guy who's on a streak, and has been batting .450 over the past month, but how much fun is it to crunch the numbers and find out that Boston has been batting under .240 this past month. And I think that's pretty close to the mark. Pitching has been OK, especially considering that two of the season's starting rotation have been down. Lester and Beckett have been very consistent of late, but how often have the bats failed to support them, like the extra inning losses to the Rays and the Yankees in the terrible road stretch?

Speaking of bad numbers, how about this one: 96? That's the preseason ranking for Cuse football. Top one hundred. Now in some categories, top one hundred is pretty good. Top 100 of the Fortune 500; or say, top 100 lawyers in New York State; or even top 100 on the Billboard charts. But with only 119 Division I-A football teams, top 100 is like the top 84% of the class. I did notice that Cuse was ranked ahead of Western Kentucky, UAB, Mew Mexico, Indiana and Memphis. That would be great if we were talking hoops, but of course, we're not.

The season kicks off on Labor Day weekend against Minnesota. There are eight home games this year. I can't understand that. Eight home games would have been great when the team was in the top 20, and playing for a BCS bowl bid every year. The dome would be full eight times? Eight chances to see McNabb throwing to Harrison? That would fill the coffers at the Athletic Department. But to schedule eight home games when the team has been terrible? In the Robinson era, that would have been torture. To have to watch the team get pushed all over the field eight times? To sit there with ever dwindling crowds, until by season's end, the attendance was smaller than the average basketball game? I can't wait for the Maine game. That will be awesome - to see Cuse play Maine. Just like the old days, when Miami and Nebraska, and Penn State came to town, only it's Maine, not Miami. Imagine if we lose that game! My neighbor Ernie went to Rutgers, and I'm giving him the Rutgers tickets; I've been doing that for the last few years. Once upon a time we would score seventy points against Rutgers; Marvin Harrison and Kevin Johnson would turn short completions into long TDs. Now Rutgers grinds us into the turf, and when Ernie goes, he not only has a good time watching his alma mater, he saves me the indignity of having to watch all that.

Hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Marrone will turn things around. We'll beat not only Maine, but UConn, and Fredonia, and Geneseo, and who knows? By the end of the season we could be top 65. That's good enough for a bowl bid these days.

Haters Eat For Free; Hirsch in the City

I don’t want to suggest that the race for supremacy in the AL East is over, but Sox fans better start reaching for their wallets, because it sure looks like, come November, they will be paying up, while all the haters eat for free. If you catch my drift here.

I was worried about this road trip, after a disappointing July. Little did I imagine that they would go 24 innings, and still counting, without managing to push a single run across the plate. It was a bad omen, when, as the week began, the Sox could not support a great effort by Lester – six scoreless innings and ten strikeouts. Once the bullpen surrendered two runs over the last three innings, without Boston managing to do much of anything, that set the stage for the week’s first walkoff, this one when Longoria homered in the bottom of the thirteenth. Another bad omen.

Things went from bad to worse in the Bronx. The nadir was Friday night’s game, when Boston wasted another great performance by a starter – this one Beckett’s. Beckett has been as good as anyone in the AL this year, but what good is that if the bats sleep for longer than Van Winkle? That’s Rip, not Pappy. Even worse was the way it ended, with A-Rod hitting the walkoff in the fifteenth. Matsui, Jeter, Posada, anyone but A-Rod. So I’m still waiting to hear who declares for the Haters Ball, but any Boston fan who signs up now is surely paying for two.

In the meantime, let’s talk whisky for a minute. Riko probably thinks that this headline merely announces that John will be traveling to NY. And while that could be true, that’s not my real meaning. Instead, I’m talking about the other Hirsch, which can be found at a particularly good eating and drinking establishment, for a ridiculously reasonable price. Here’s a couple reference points. Earlier in the month, when we were down in the Apple for July Fourth, we went to the Oak Bar with John. They’re getting fifty-four dollars for a pour of Hirsch. Actually, I don’t really know that they ever get that much, only that the listed price is fifty-four. When we ate at Gramercy Tavern, which had the most interesting spirits menu I had ever seen anywhere, they were asking forty dollars a pour. And the reason, I assume, is that the distributor now asks two hundred dollars a bottle, wholesale. I happen to know that because I was recently looking through a couple catalogs to find good malts to suggest for Jeannine to put behind the bar at the Chophouse. Supply and demand, I suppose.

However, on Thursday, after arguing before the Circuit, I took Cousin Tiffany for a bite to eat, and we ended up at one well known spot, whose name shall remain a state secret, because I don’t want all of NYC running off to drink up the remainder of their Hirsch.We sat at the bar, and talked whisky with the bartenders. They must have liked that, because I was given a generous pour of Hirsch for twenty dollars. I saved enough money to pay for my plane fare, and had another chance to drink America’s best whisky. There are only so many bottles of Hirsch left on the planet, what with the distillery closed for over 15 years. Ben says that when we get down to the last thousand bottles, the price will go up into the four figure range. For now though, there are a few places with a bit of Hirsch in their inventory, and assuming that their bar managers don’t reprice the whisky to meet current market conditions, there are still a few places where one can affordably drink this American treasure. And for sure we’ll need plenty of whisky, to get us through the rest of this baseball season. Not for celebrating, though; more like the opposite.

July, November, to Infinity and Beyond

Was July a hiccup, or a harbinger? That's the question for all of Sox Nation as we enter into the month of August. The RedSox had the best record in the American league as the month began, and remained twenty games up on .500 at the All Star break. At that pace, they would have finished with 100 wins, and a clear path to the post-season. Plus, the schedule seemed to favor them coming out of the break, as they had no games with the Yankees, the Rays or the Angels for the rest of the month. But instead of putting some distance between them and the rest of the AL East, Boston stumbled badly. First the bats took an extra week off after the All Star break. Then the pitching, including the once flawless bullpen, began giving up an inordinate number of runs. And all this while the Yankees caught fire. They were so hot, Bloomberg had to declare a state of emergency in the Bronx. By the time July had ended, after Boston barely topped 500 for the month, not only had the best record in the AL been surrendered, so had the lead in the AL East. The Sox were suddenly playing for the wild card, and some distance had opened up between them and the Yankees. But then they had the good fortune to play the Orioles, and the Yankees somehow dropped three in a row to the White Sox. And suddenly, things were all knotted up again.

So maybe we have a pennant race after all, with the Sox and Yankees in a virtual dead heat after the first hundred games of the season. Of course, we'll know that better in a week after Boston travels first to Tampa, where they never seem to play well any more, and then to Yankee stadium for a four-game series with New York. And by the way, these Yankees are not the same Yankees who were swept in April and May.

An encouraging note of late was the red hot performance of Victor Martinez, V-Mart, in his first two games for the Sox. Five hits yesterday. That's as many as they whole team was managing some games in July. I remember the 2007 ALCS when no one could get Martinez out. He owned Schilling that October, batting around .750 against one of the games all-time best post-season performers. A discouraging note, a really discouraging note, was the revelation that Papi had tested positive in 2003. We still need to address Manny's fall from grace, but for now, let's just say that everyone in the Nation feels that the team's luster has been tarnished. To put it mildly. But another encouraging note has been the resurgence of Josh Beckett. If Beckett's on his game, and Boston makes it to the playoffs, Beckett gives the Sox an advantage over any team they face. I'd like to see one of the old geezers, say Smoltz, return to form; and it would be nice for Dice-K to reenter the rotation. Right now it's a bit of Beckett, Lester, and crossing our fingers.

Anyway, here's hoping that I can devote enough attention to the blog over the next two months, so that I can catch up on all these developments, plus post about some good whisky finds. If not, at least these issues can be aired at this fall's Haters Ball. Which reminds me -- all you haters need to sign up for a seat at the ball, and then we have to figure out a weekend that works for everyone. The way I figure, we are four and four this year (not counting the bitches), so that seems to work out just fine. But everyone needs to let me know, in or out, and good to do that soon, while the two teams remain neck and neck. Beyond November, well that's just too far out there even to think about.