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.