Two (shameless) plugs
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Apr 01, 2008 
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The hard-working people in the office (or so they say) have added a button on the blog that will take you to a database of baseball salaries. It’s over to the right.
The people in the Blog Button Database Department have families to feed, so support their efforts and check it out.
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Sportswriters have an old tradition. Well, two. We love free lunches provided by teams and we plug each other’s books.
So if you like golf, check out the new book by Ian O’Connor on Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. Arnie and Jack is about one of the great rivalries in all of sports. Before Tiger came along, they were golf.
Ian is one of the best writers in the business and was of great assistance when Sam, Mark and I wrote our book on Chien-Ming Wang last year. Alas, the book is only available in Chinese. We remain the only people in history who wrote a book we can’t read.
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Hope you Tivo’d Letterman last night. Biff Henderson’s spring training report was hilarious.
Interesting take:
Red Sox wine is done while Yankee variety a hit
BY MARIE McGOVERN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, April 1st 2008, 4:00 AM
Opening Day was a washout for the Yankees, but they managed to score a big win anyway – in a wine-tasting with the hated Red Sox.
Charity Wines’ Longball Cellars brand uses baseball players to market a selection of wines, donating a portion of each sale to the player’s charity of choice.
While Atlanta’s Chipper Chardonnay sounded intriguing and Cincinnati’s B-Lark Merlot was appealing, the big question was how do the Yankee wines stack up against Boston’s?
Paul Grieco, a native of Toronto and the owner of critically acclaimed restaurants Hearth and Insieme, was called in as an objective, third-party taster.
He agreed to lend his expert opinion to a blind tasting of our rival Yankee and Red Sox selections at his East Village wine bar Terroir, which in the world of wine people, is code for “I know a lot about wine.”
The Yankee and Red Sox wines were lined up on the bar.
At bat for the Yankees was Bobby Abreu’s Finest Merlot and Jorge Posada’s Jorge Cabernet. On deck for the Red Sox was David Ortiz’s Vintage Papi California blend and Jason Varitek’s Captain’s Cabernet.
The lineup was set. The labels were covered and Grieco sat down for a serious blind tasting.
He poured the first wine. He swirled, studied, sniffed, sipped, slurped, spit, then spoke.
“This wine has balance and finesse. It’s a cab/Merlot blend – a solid performer with a degree of elegance. It tastes like a fine Yankee wine – not rough around the edges like you’d expect a Boston wine to be.” Grieco says it was a hit – but for which team? “A solid standing single.”
A clean glass slid into the game and he moved on to the second player.
Again he poured, swirled, studied, slurped and spit. “Thrown out at first,” he said matter-of-factly. “It’s a dud.”
Hearts raced, was this a Yankee or a Red Sox selection? No one knew. Fans sat on the edge of their barstools as Grieco grabbed a glass and went for bottle No. 3.
After the spit he paused, with head down and out-stretched arms in quiet contemplation. He spoke in staccato phrases. “More depth, has length, a solid triple,” he said as his head rose. “It’s complex. It has structure. This is a good wine that will be a great wine. Put it in the cellar and it will be in the World Series.”
The fourth wine struck out. “It’s the perfect expression of mediocrity. Send it back to the minors!” Grieco said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
The game was over and it was time to reveal the results. The first wine with a standing single was the Yankees’ Bobby Abreu Merlot. The second wine thrown out at first was Red Sox player David Ortiz’s Vintage Papi.
The score: Yankees 1-0.
The solid triple came from the Yankees’ Jorge Posada with his Jorge Cabernet and the final wine that struck out was the Red Sox captain Jason Varitek’s Captain’s Cabernet.
“Especially blind, the overall quality level of the Yankees’ wine far outshone the Boston Red Sox grape juice,” Grieco said with a smart-guy wine knowledge and New York bravado.
It was a crushing victory with the Yankee wines stomping the Red Sox 2-0 – and if the results were any indication of the baseball season, Yankee fans will be savoring a sweet October.
Pete -
Thanks for the heads up on the book. Father’s Day gift for Dad!
Also, you crack me up!!!! Is your book ever going to be translated into English, now the CMW is established over here?
Has anyone been listening to the disgusting Mut fans! According to them yesterday was great because the yanks got rained out so all attention was focused on them. One reporter wrote that the Mets are on a HOT STREAK! A hot streak? Ummmm…they played one game. They also, are one game away from winning the world series, according to MUT fans! So pathetic!
Now THAT CMW is established. Ugh.
Morning. Hope you all slept well
“Stupid game” Furio’s accurate assessment of golf.
I guess you can buy it in stores now. I’ll have to go and check it out.
Sara by the same token they are one game away from a losing streak!
I will check out the book Abraham, but as I understand it from my dad, Nicklaus unseated Palmer as the consensus best player and then Palmer gave way to younger guns like Watson and Weiskopf, who were to Nicklaus later in his career like Mickelson and Els are now to Tiger, i.e., talented enough to press him once in a while but always in his rear-view mirror.
People who call golf a stupid game are the people who; go to a driving range one time, flail for a half hour trying to hit the ball, fail miserably, then rail at golfers for the rest of their lives at how stupid their game is.
Grow up and get a clue.
Pete,
I would wager that Canseco can read his books, but he needs help with the bigger words which were written for him.
golf is fun. i enjoy it. but i always had a hard time considering it a sport.
Golf is a game of self-humiliation
Golfers refer to their favorite activity as “a good walk spoiled” so that’s all I need to know. Besides, if I ever have so much free time that I’d waste it on golf, I told my kids to shoot me. In the head.
The video link to Biff’s spring training bit is here:
http://www.cbs.com/latenight/l.....lips.phtml
thanks Rich, you rock!
Forget Letterman. Conan is where it’s at!
Conan is great but what does that have to do with Letterman?
Are they on opposite each other?
No.
Please go back to the mets blog RIGHT NOW. Hurry!!
Conan? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzz
Pete, what was your take on Franesca and Russo attacking Ian O’Connor during last year’s playoffs?
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