AMF

I know they haven't played the World Series yet, but as far as I'm concerned, the baseball season is ovah. On behalf of everyone in the Nation, or at least everyone in my family, I'd like to thank the Tigers for having swept the Yankees. It was extra fun to see A-Rod humiliated throughout the ALCS. By the way, I read in the paper that Judge Judy got paid $45 million this year, which means she's the only person in the country to make more money than A-Rod for sitting on the bench. Anyway, I'm a Tigers fan for the next ten days or so, although I'm not sure that's such a great thing for Detroit, the way my teams have been going.

So the Giants are about to win Game Seven of the NLCS, and I would not be surprised to see Marco Scutaro end up MVP of this series. Wouldn't that be great? He's another guy who was under-appreciated in Boston, while they were paying eight figures to the likes of John Lackey, JD Drew and Carl Crawford. (More on that below) And isn't it ironic, to think about how he left Boston, a team that's supposed to be in the post-season,  for the Rockies, a team that's not supposed to go anywhere, only to end up on a Giants team that's about to play in the World Series?

So speaking of wasting millions on over-the-hill talent, how about the great game Bronson Arroyo pitched for the Reds in the NLDS? Bronson has been a decent right-handed starter for Cincinnati ever since he was traded away by the Sox. And let's not forget how the front office betrayed him, taking advantage of the fact that Bronson wanted to remain in Boston, and was willing to sign for well below market value. And then five minutes after they signed him, the front office traded him away. (Why anyone wanted to trade any player who was in the clubhouse during the 2004 season is still a big mystery to me.)  So while Arroyo has been starting for the Reds ever since they picked him up, and carrying a decent ERA throughout that time, the Sox have signed all these right-handed pitchers to enormous contracts: Dice-K, John Lackey, Matt Clement, etc. etc. Yet another example of how Theo might have been more lucky than skilled.

So since baseball season is over, and the Orange football team is struggling to reach .500, and thank goodness I'm not a Bills fan, all my sports attention is getting focused on the upcoming hoops season. Even with Deon, Fab, Scoop and Kris Joseph gone, the team is ranked in the pre-season top ten. Locally, expectations are pretty high despite all those changes in the roster. The Orange were ten deep last year; and they could put a decent team on the court just with their returning players. But in addition, they have a red-shirt freshman, sharp-shooting two guard, and DaJuan Coleman, who looks (from the Orange Madness footage I saw), like the biggest front-court guy we've had since AO, both of whom can probably contribute right from the opening tip-off. So let's all look forward to November, to another twenty win season, to yet another trip to the NCAA tournament, and who knows -- maybe yet another Final Four. Go Orange.

Haters Unite Behind the Tigers

It's official; I'm a Tigers fan for now. And who knows, if they knock the Yankees out of the post-season, perhaps all of RedSox nation will be so happy that we'll be willing to donate a couple of our best players to Detroit for 2013 and thereafter. How about John Lackey? Don't you think that Lackey would look good in a Motor City uniform?  But let's not get ahead of ourselves, because the Tigers have a tough road ahead. The Yankees proved very resilient in their ALDS series with the Orioles; and it often seems that teams who manage to win games with miracle finishes find a way to keep advancing through the post-season, often toward a championship banner. Let's hope that Ibanez doesn't repeat his ALDS heroics. Someone ought to turn a fire-hose on that guy and cool him off.

And speaking of Tigers fans, here's a hater who was recently photographed at an undisclosed location, somewhere in the Nation. I know is shirt is politically incorrect, but can you really blame him? One thing about the shirt though; it ought to name A-Rod and not Jeter, because didn't Rodriguez play like a little bitch in the ALDS? Imagine having the highest salary in the majors, and then getting benched for a decisive game five. A-Rod has often disappeared in October, but I'm not sure I can ever recall him sitting for a play-off game. Of course, that made Girardi look like a genius. Except that when one guy bats .125 with zero RBIs, and zero extra base hits, and the other guy bats over .400, with a walkoff home run thrown in for good measure, maybe you don't need to be a genius to figure out who can better help your team. The freakin guy is forty years old!!

The other thing here, the unspoken thing, is how pathetic it is to be relegated to hating in October, after not having had a single thing to cheer about all summer long. Ever since Hurricane Irene swept through New England, and washed out Boston's 2011 season, fans throughout RedSox nation have teetered between apathy and despair. And now, we're faced with another post-season when the only thing that might give us some satisfaction is seeing the Yankees booted from the playoffs. Only thing is that, so far, it hasn't happened. But we're counting on Detroit to fix all that. We're counting on Detroit to give us some some warm and hateful memories to carry us through the winter months and into spring training. We're relegated to that old RedSox mantra - wait till next year. And in the meantime, Go Tigers!

Old School

Back in the day, way back in my teenage years, the only straight rye whisky that my dad sold was Old Overholt. Suffice it to say that I knew nothing at all about Old Overholt. (Today's Overholt is owned by, and distilled at Jim Beam. Originally, it was distilled somewhere in Pennsylvania, which was also the home of other great American distilleries, chief among them Michters, where Hirsch was brewed and bottled.) What little I knew back in the 60s was that most whiskies were blends, and that the leading top shelf blends in those days -- Canadian Club and Seagrams VO -- were largely rye. And in fact, back in those days, when one ordered a highball like rye and ginger, one was likely to get CC or VO as the rye. Maybe 7 Crown. As for straight whisky, in those days one was pretty much talking about bourbon. All the scotch sold in this country, except perhaps for a couple specialty stores located in big cities like NY, was blended whisky. Glenlivet had not yet hit the shelves here, so scotch drinkers were buying Johnny Walker, or Cutty, or Dewars, or J&B, or Ballentine, or Pinch, or Black and White, etc. etc. etc. There were loads of blended scotches. Anyway, we sold about as much Overholt as Rock & Rye -- in other words, close to nothing. Maybe a bottle or two a month, if that.

So as my readers know, I've been making my own Rock and Rye for the better part of a year now, having discovered the recipe in Imbibe, the history of the cocktail in America. I've typically made it with Sazerac, which is an excellent rye whisky that's bottled at 90 proof. One time I made it with Rittenhouse Rye, which comes in at one hundred proof. Of the two, I preferred the Sazerac; maybe it was the higher alcohol content, but the Rittenhouse seemed to give the Rock and Rye a little bite. But more recently, I made a batch with Old Overholt. I wasn't all that familiar with Overholt, despite my long standing acquaintance with this whisky, but I know that some places, including Good Luck, use Overholt as their well rye, so I figured it couldn't be all that bad.

I'm pleased to report that the latest batch of Rock and Rye might be the best yet. We tasted it before we had finished the last jar, and the Overholt batch was softer and smoother than the Sazerac recipe. That might be simply because Overholt is only eighty proof, and the extra five percent alcohol gives the other mix a harder edge. But I liked the flavor better as well. It wasn't just the softer profile; it was a touch sweeter, which works well for Rock and Rye.

So there you have it.  It can't get any more old school than Rock and Rye made with Old Overholt straight rye whisky.