The 2009 Fack Youk Fall Beer Review

It's been a while since we talked brews around these parts, but judging by comments on previous posts, I can tell that there are a decent number of you out there who share my love for great beer.

I personally enjoy fall beers more than any other seasonals. A big part of that are brews like Oktoberfests and pumpkin ales which add dimensions that Winter, Spring and Summer brews just don't have. I find Winter ales to be over-spiced. Summer brews to be enjoyable but they aren't usually complex enough to achieve Great Beer® status. Spring ales are few and far between.

Something about beer and the Fall just seem to pair exceedingly well. It's just starting to get cold and the leaves are turning, setting the stage nicely for a darker, heartier brand of brew.

On to the review:

• Three of us (my buddies John, Frank and I) tasted 13 different beers, divided into 4 categories: 4 Oktoberfests, 2 Fest Biers, 3 Harvest Ales, and 4 Pumpkin Ales, in that order.
  
  
• As for ratings, we used a 1-5 scale with 1 being "I would never drink this beer again" and 5 being "I'm definitely buying this the next time I see it", or something to that effect.
  
  
• Two of us drank out of goblets like this one, and the other out of an oversized wine glass of roughly the same shape, which I always recommend in an effort to maximize your beer experience. We weren't too anal about rinsing them our or cleansing our palates so it wasn't the most scientific of tastings.
  
  
• The beers below are listed from least to most enjoyable by category and the ratings are based on the average of our 3 scores.
  
  
• Each beer is linked to its respective place on BeerAdvocate so you can get a good look at the bottle and some other (more expert) opinions if you'd like.

Oktoberfests - We tasted the this group first, which was probably the right move since they were the most straightforward of the bunch. The scores are lower than almost all of the other beers because they are simplistic, but as far as session beers go, these and the two Fest Biers are probably your best bet.

• Blue Point Oktoberfest - 2.50 -Extremely light and drinkable, the Blue Point lacked any sort of depth of flavor and had a sharp biting amount of carbonation on the tongue. It's a good session brew, but not highly recommended if given the choice between this and other Oktoberfests.
  
  
• Stoudt's Oktoberfest - 2.67 -Pouring out a copper colored hue, Stoudt's offering was simple and easy going down. It had the mildly skunky notes of a typical lager and slightly less carbonation than the Blue Point.
  
  
• Saranac Octoberfest - 3.33 - The flavors in the Saranac were immediately more apparent than either of the above two beers. It had a nuttier, breadier taste to it with a smoother mouthfeel. It was notably hoppy as well, balancing it out pretty nicely.
  
  
• Harpoon Oktoberfest - 3.50 - The Harpoon poured the darkest color of any of the four in this category - nearly garnet red. It had the recognizable flavors of Harpoon's signature yeast strain along with sweet notes including dark fruit (dates?), hints of butterscotch and caramel, and a nice amount of hops. Really well-balanced and the most enjoyable of the crew.

Fest Biers - We were originally going to lump these in with the Oktoberfests but they didn't quite fit; they aren't very similar to each other (aside from the name), but neither belonged in the previous category. Both of these came out with relatively higher ratings mostly because they weren't really playing by the same rules as the Okt's, hence the separation.

• Weihenstephaner Fest Bier - 3.67 -With a beautiful straw-colored pour, it was apparent that the Weiheny wasn't really comparable to a typical fall beer. It had a somewhat skunky nose but the taste was much sweeter, with hints of honey. It was soft on the palate and an ideal choice if you are going to kick a whole six pack by yourself.
  
  
• Victory Festbier - 3.83 - Holding this brew up to the light gave it to color of an orange gummy bear. The character expanded and had a deliciously long finish. It was rich and malty giving way to some spicy and hoppy notes. You might miss the complexity of this one if you are downing a whole bunch of them or drinking out of a bottle, but if you pour it into a proper glass and savor, it's well worth the effort.

Harvest Ales - The cool part about these beers was that each took on the character of their respective region. As you went north, starting with the Southern Tier, on to Redhook and finally arriving at Long Trail, the beers got steadily heartier and, in our opinion, more enjoyable.

• Southern Tier Harvest Ale - 4.17 - In a blind taste test, I'm not sure I could distinguish this from an IPA, which is probably a good thing. It was a gorgeous golden color with citrusy flavors backed with bright, hoppy notes. More of a late summer than fall beer maybe, but delicious nonetheless.
  
  
• Redhook Late Harvest Ale - 4.17 - The Red Hook sat roughly between the other two in this category. It had some of the hoppy and citrius elements of the Southern Tier and also a bit of the malty character of the Long Trail. A good beer in its own right, this one still comes with a sincere recommendation.
  
  
• Long Trail Harvest Ale - 4.33 - A rich ruby-color once emptied into a glass this baby was nutty with notes of hot cocoa. It was strong, roasted and malty with a warming, almost whiskey-like character. In our eyes, this is was a great execution of a Harvest Ale and the epitome of what a fall beer should be.

Pumpkin Ales - The pumpkins had the widest variance of any of the groups, spanning the spectrum from pretty bad to mind-blowingly good.

• Saranac Pumpkin Ale - 2.17 - With all due respect to Saranac, this one represented the mistake a lot of breweries make when attempting a pumpkin beer; just dumping in a whole bunch of spices in a ham-handed attempt to give it the expected characteristics. You might as well get a medium-bodied ale and shake some pumpkin pie spices in it yourself.
  
  
• Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale - 3.33 - The Smutty had some of the same problems as the Saranac but not nearly as bad. The spicing was overt and almost separate from the beer itself. It was enjoyable, but left something to be desired.
  
  
• Dogfish Head Punkin Ale - 3.83 - The Dogfish Head did the best job of the typical pumpkin ales at subtly blending the spices and the beer. There were some notes of semi-sweet chocolate, coffee and mocha to balance out the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice that overpowered the other ones. DFH rarely disappoints and this one did not either. Probably not worth the money, but the best one short of the...
  
  
• Southern Tier Pumpking - 5.00 - Being an imperial ale and checking it at 9% ABV, this one was already on a different level than the other three, but it went above and beyond expectations. That was apparent from the first whiff of this deep copper gem. You could smell the creamy sweetness as if you had just opened a box of pumpkin pie topped with fresh, home-made whipped cream. If you have had their Creme Brulee Stout, you'll recognize the amazing, ephemeral sweetness of the beer packed with caramel and vanilla. I kind of hate that we all gave this a 5, but it was the last beer of the night and stood out so far and above everything we tasted, we had no choice.

There are some notable omissions to this list and we are currently preparing a second round of tasting to come sometime this week. Stay tuned.

A-Rod's Turbulent But Taciturn 2009

Good morning, Fackers. The Yankees and A-Rod in particular closed out the regular season with a bang yesterday.

This year will be remembered for a lot of things done by individual players. The debuts of CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett, the emergence of Nick Swisher, the defensive re-invention of Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano's rebound, Jorge Posada's ability to contribute despite his shoulder and hamstring injuries, Johnny Damon's power surge, Chien Ming Wang's fall from grace, Phil Hughes' transition to the bullpen, Brett Gardner's first season in The Bigs, Mariano Rivera's continued excellence, Joba Chamberlain's innings limit, and the swan song of Hideki Matsui.

Am I missing anything? Oh yeah, A-Rod.

A-Rod endured what was certainly the most tumultuous offseason a player has had since Game of Shadows essentially convicted Barry Bonds of doing steroids in the court of public opinion before the 2006 season to have a pretty damn good year in 2009.

It started with Joe Torre's book, exploded with his admissions of steroid use, got worse with his interview with Peter Gammons and even more ugly with his press conference in Tampa. Adding still more fuel to the fire was the time he left the park with his disgraced cousin, the Details magazine photo shoot and the revelations that he was involved in a relationship with the madame of a whorehouse.

Those events were really just bad P.R. and weren't going to have much of an impact on his on-field production. Then came the news of his hip injury and the impending surgery which ultimately cost him the first month of the season. What was already a disastrous offseason got tangibly, inarguably a whole lot worse. At least it seemed pretty terrible at the time. (Click through that one for one of my finer photoshops)

But at a certain point when he was hiding out and rehabbing in Colorado, things started to change. The details of Selena Roberts's book began to leak and some had the potential to be very damning, but the tide began to turn. Craig from Shysterball was among the first to question the motives and level of objectivity Roberts used in writing her exposé and fairly swiftly, we all grew tired of the never ending stream of A-Rod's exploits.

Then of course he rejoined the team in a moment a movie studio would have rejected because it was too unrealistic; a three run shot on the very first pitch he saw. Although he struggled early on in his return, the back to back days off he got off in Florida seemed to turn his season around.

Since his return the Yankees went 88-44 and climbed from 4.5 games behind the Red Sox to achieve the best record in baseball by 6 games. Since his two day hiatus they are 62-28. He was probably given too much credit for turning Mark Teixeira's season around, but it's hard to understate the importance of swapping replacement-level guys like Angel Berroa and Cody Ransom for one of the 5 best hitters in the game.

We've heard a lot about the fact that A-Rod has flown under the radar this year. Joel Sherman recently talked about his newfound ability to blend in with the team. Yesterday, Marc Carig dubbed him the "Quietest Yankee". Even our pal PeteAbe, who has never been too fond of the slugger, gave him credit for his ability to "blend in [and] stay out of the news".

Did anyone see this coming? I'll be the first to admit that I did not. One the posts I wrote before the season started and liked above was entitled "This Is Never Going To End" and another was "Hurricane A-Rod". I put up another one comparing him to an actual Albatross. At the time it looked like he was spiraling out of control and I think we should be very thankful that he did not.

It's not just that he eclipsed the 30 home run and 100 RBI marks for the 13th straight season, miraculously breaking a record he previously shared with Jimmie Foxx and Manny Ramirez. A-Rod actually had a higher on-base percentage than in 2008 despite batting 16 points lower. He changed his approach at the plate and as a result struck out in 18.2% of his plate appearances, down from 19.6% in 2008.

Fifty-one of his 100 RBIs tied the game or gave the Yankees the lead (although that didn't stop a certain insufferably bitter Yankee blogger who didn't even watch yesterday's game from dismissing the homers because they came in "garbage time"). He stole 14 bases and got caught only twice. He gave the Yankees more production than they could have reasonably expected given the injury he was coming off of.

I'm not going to fall into the trap of saying any of this makes him more likely to have a great postseason. I thought his ridiculous MVP campaign in 2007 set him up to break out of his October slump but it most definitely did not. The reality is that a 5 game series is a tiny, tiny sample and there is no guarantee that he will get the big hit or hits that he is seemingly due for.

I'm sure as hell hoping it happens, though. A-Rod is a power hitter with holes in his swing, who seems to alter his approach when the pressure elevates, neither of which portend profound postseason production. But as he's demonstrated time and time again, he can carry a team when he finds his groove. Maybe this is the year he finally gets hot in the postseason, and maybe it's not. If it is though, the other teams standing in the Yankees' way had better watch out.

Yanks Hit Their Numbers, Take Regular Season Finale

You know what time it is. Time for the bullet points, Fackers:

• A.J. Burnett pitched fairly well today, giving up two runs (one earned) over 5 innings. Evan Longoria homered off Burnett in the first inning and also came around to score on a passed ball in the fifth. Burnett worked into and out of trouble in third and fifth but escaped largely unscathed, getting Willy Aybar to stirke out to end both threats. He threw 84 pitches and allowed 7 hits, but only walked one batter. It was the 100th win of of his career and the 13th of his up and down first season in Pinstripes.
  
  
• After Burnett, David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Coke, Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera all pitched without allowing a single baserunner between them and recorded a strikeout apiece.
  
  
• The Yanks were held scoreless in 8 out of their 9 frames, but the top of the 6th was a duesy. Ten Yanks crossed the plate, and seven of them were driven in by A-Rod, which is a new American League record. In between the blasts, Johnny Damon added an RBI double and Freddy Guzman scored with the bases loaded when Andy Sonnanstine couldn't handle a tapper from Jose Molina.
  
  
• A-Rod's season ended as spectacularly as it began. The first pitch he saw this year turned into a three run homer and the last one ended up as a grand slam. He came into the game with 28 HRs and 93 RBIs and amazingly, incredibly, rounded out a 30HR, 100RBI effort for the 12th straight season in the 6th inning alone. The salami also tied him for 8th place all-time with Mark McGwire at 583.
  
  
• The Yanks hit win number 103, tying their mark from 2002 and broke and set their single season home run total with #'s 243 & 244 off the bat of A-Rod.
  
  
• The only person who didn't get to a dangling milestone was Mark Teixeira, who was stymied at 39 homers and will end the season tied with Carlos Pena for the AL lead. The Rays walked him in front of A-Rod before the grand slam which seems kind of weak but A-Rod made them pay.
  
  
• George Steinbrenner made a visit to the clubhouse before the game and saw the Yanks play in person for the first time since July 29th.
  
  
• And in AL Central News, the Twins and Tigers both won and will square off in a play-in game on Tuesday. That game should be good theater on what would have been an eerily quiet night in sports and helpful for the Yanks as well.
  
  
• Justin Verlander was dominant until the 8th inning for the Tigers. He gave up three runs in the frame but Fernando Rodney bailed him out and then closed the game down as the Tigers won 5-3.
  
  
• With the Tiger's victory already in the books the Twins came fairly close to gagging away the victory in the 6th inning. Pavano gave up three runs in the frame before getting yanked. Ron Gardenhire burned through three more pitchers to get the final two outs and at one point Kansas City brought the tying run at the plate via a HBP. As they are so adept at doing, the Royals blew the chance and the Twins went on to win 13-4.

See y'all tomorrow, there's more football to watch.

Game 162: Ten Years Gone

So here we are folks, at game 162. It's a little hard to believe isn't it? Thankfully, the Yankees don't have anything to worry about today, so their game is probably the least compelling of the 4 relevant early afternoon sporting events in my opinion. But the game has some interesting connections with the last game of the season 10 years ago.

As Marc Carig of the Newark Star-Leger noted this morning, back in 1999, Joe Girardi had his first taste of managing a big league ball club.

It was October 3rd and the Yankees were playing their last game of the season against the then Devil Rays at Tropicana Field with a playoff spot already secured. Per tradition, Joe Torre turned over the managerial reigns to Paul O'Neill, who appointed Girardi to be the bench coach and David Cone coaching the pitchers. Jorge Posada was behind the plate that game, in his second season as the Yankees' primary catcher.

During the fourth inning, the Rays loaded the bases against journeyman Jeff Juden in what would be his last appearance as a Major League pitcher. The bags were juiced thanks in part to current Yankees broadcaster and former backstop John Flaherty's double. Juden then hit a batter and another run scored on an E3, bringing Randy Winn to the plate with the sacks still packed. Winn pulled off the rare feat of an inside the park grand slam on a line drive over the head of Chad Curtis, blowing the game wide open.

With the game pretty much out of hand, during the sixth inning, O'Neill went down to the locker room to get treatment for his bad back, leaving Girardi in charge and in his words today "high and dry".

Ten years have gone by, Cone and Flaherty work for the Yankees and Girardi is the real manager whose team has the luxury of allowing a player to be skipper for the game. Since he's going to be on the bench anyway, Posada will be acting as manager for the game and can chose two other players to be his bench and pitching coaches.

Jorgie will have some responsibilities to tend to, as he needs to decide when to pull the plug on A.J. Burnett and how to get Joba Chamberlain, David Robertson, Mariano Rivera and possibly Phil Hughes some work. He'll also probably shuffle in some bench players as the game wears on as Girardi has done in previous days.

We all know how the 1999 season ended. Let's hope this isn't the last connection this team makes with that one.

Then as it was, then again it will be,
An' though the course may change sometimes,
Rivers always reach the sea.

Flyin' skys of fortune, each have separate ways,
On the wings of maybe, downing birds of prey,
Kind of makes me feel sometimes, didn't have to go,
But as the eagle leaves the nest, it's got so far to go.

The Twins & Tigers Tied, Time To Tango

After catching the better part of the Twins and Royals game yesterday, my time watching baseball last night was evenly divided between the Yankees and the Tigers/White Sox game on the MLB Network. I guess I might be doing some advanced amateur scouting in advance, but I'm really just enjoying the drama of this AL Central race which has, against all odds, come down to the wire. No team has ever failed to make the playoffs after holding a three game lead with four to play. If they aren't careful, the Tigers might be the first.

Clearly in desperation mode, Jim Leyland pulled his starter after surrendering only 2 runs in 1.1 IP last night, but no amount of damage control could make up for the fact that his offense only scored one run off of Freddy Garcia in 7 innings and nothing more off of the bullpen after that. The Tigers looked to be set up, trailing by 3 with men on first and second with no one out in the 8th inning with a run already in, but Magglio Ordonez lined out to short and Miguel Cabrera bounced into a double play to end the inning.

Dead even heading into the last day of the season, the Tigers start at 1:05 while the Twins go an hour later. Carl Pavano starts on three days rest for the Twinkies, which he specifically requested after getting tagged for 7 runs against the Tigers his last time out. Pavano has only started on such short rest of rest once in his career, way back in 2004 for the Marlins against the Expos, the last game he started before signing with the Yankees. I have no idea why this happened because the Marlins were nowhere near the Wild Card race, but he was solid, throwing 7 innings of one run ball. This over-extension in a meaningless outing didn't have any ill effects on him going forward because he was nothing short of a horse for the Yanke... HEY, WAIT A SECOND!

Maybe it's because my judgement on this subject is clouded with bitterness and hatred, but I can't see this ending in any other fashion than a visit to the mound by the Twins trainer and a showering of boos.

Upshot: If the Twins and Tigers don't end the season tied (which would be awesome for the Yankees for reasons previously discussed), it's almost a given that we can blame Carl Pavano. If he throws a gem and the Tigers lose, "Damn you Pavano, you worthless hack! Where was this when you were on the Yankees!". If the gets shelled and the Tigers win, "What the FUCK Pavano? Can't you ever deliver when there is something on the line, you human fucking Ponzi Scheme! You just haaaad to take the ball on three days rest, didn't you?"

Amazingly, if the Twins, Tigers and Yankees lose, the Rays will have the same number of wins (85) that the two teams from the Central do (in an infinitely tougher division), except they will have missed the playoffs by 9 or 10 games.

Whichever way it shakes out, this should make for some furious sports action starting at 1:00, with the Giants and Yankees both in action along with the Twins with the Tigers close on their heels. Gotta love Sundays in the early Fall. Buckle your seatbelts, crack a beer, fire up your fantasy football stat tracker and get ready to hate Carl Pavano.

Go Yanks, G-Men and Twins/Tigers -OR- Royals/White Sox! Woohoo!!!

Stuck On A Hundred and Two

Andy Pettitte didn't pitch as poorly last night as CC Sabathia did the night before, but it certainly wasn't a positive note on which to head into the playoffs either. Andy gave up six hits and an uncharacteristic 4 walks and needed 95 pitches to complete 4 1/3 innings.

Most of the damage came with two outs in the second inning. Pettitte allowed a two run shot to Dioner Navarro which was followed by a double by Akinori Iwamura and an RBI single by Jason Bartlett.

When Pettitte was removed with one out in the fifth inning in favor of Alfredo Aceves, he left men on first and second. With Willy Aybar up, the Rays attempted a double steal and Aceves had Ben Zobrist caught between second and third. For some reason Eric Hinkse went directly towards the base instead of just getting between the runner and the bag since there was no potential for a force out. Aceves threw the ball slightly behind him and it glanced off Hinkse's glove rolling back into the large swath of foul territory northwest of third base, allowing Zobrist to score and B.J. Upton, who had already taken second, to come around as well.

Those were the last runs the Rays would score though, as Aceves pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings and Chad Gaudin added 1 1/3 of his own. Aceves had obviously already secured his spot on the postseason 25, and Gaudin made it even more difficult to leave him off with the way he pitched last night. He's excelled in every role he's been asked to fill and would be a valuable weapon to be able to deploy in the playoffs.

Not much to report of the offensive front for the Yanks. All of their runs were scored on two out RBI singles in the fifth and sixth innings by Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira and Jerry Hairston, Jr. The Yanks had 9 hits but no player had more than one, partially due to the fact that Girardi used 5 position players, but mostly because Jeff Neimann and the Rays' pen pitched pretty darn well.

The full line line up, save for Jorge Posada, returns tomorrow as the Yanks close down the regular season and look for the elusive win number 103.

Game 161: Over The Hills And Far Away

Down at Tropicana Field, Andy Pettitte will get his final tune up for the postseason. Jorge Posada is catching today, and since tomorrow is a day game after a night game, Jose Molina will be behind the dish for A.J. Burnett once again. Joe from RAB brought up the possibility eariler today and Steve at The Yankee Universe looked a little deeper into the topic. Surely some people will object to taking Jorge out of the line up but he and Burnett don't seem to be on the same page very often. It's one game, and a potential bad outing out of Burnett is going to do a lot more to hurt the Yanks' chances than a good night for Posada at the plate, not to mention the advantage Molina has in controlling the running game.

Jeff Neimann goes for the Rays tonight. He was dominant against the Yankees last time he faced them, going 7 innings and allowing one run while striking out 8 and walking only one batter. He'll be up against a softer Yankees lineup this time, though. Derek Jeter and A-Rod get the night off while Jerry Hairston and Eric Hinske take their places. Brett Gardner will man CF as Melky will start the night on the bench.

Perhaps more interesting than what goes on with the Yankees, however, are the outcomes of the Twins and Tigers games taking place up around Lake Michgan.

The Twins started at 4 and are currently leading the Royals 4-1. Nick Blackburn to his credit has pitched awfully well against Zack Greinke, who had held the Twins scoreless until Joe Mauer singled across a run with two outs in the 6th. Delmon Young then hit a bases-clearing double to put the Twins up by 4. Mike Jacobs then countered with a HR for the Royals. [Update 6:15: Alex Gordon just hit a 2 run shot to make it 4-3] [6:23: The game is tied at 4 as the Royals score another run on a double play] [6:30: Cuddyer jacks one to put the Twins back on top 5-4] [Update 6:44: Joe Nathan shuts it down, Twins win.]

Freddy Garcia goes for the White Sox against Alfredo Figaro and the Tigers in a 7:00 start in Detriot. If the Twins hang on to win, the AL Central will still be undetermined going into the last day of the season. That would mean that Justin Verlander will have to start tomorrow, pushing his start in the ALDS back to Game 2. Unless of course the Twins come all the way back to tie the division, we could be on our way to the crazy play-in game scenario that Matt brought up on Wednesday.

There are still some pieces of the playoff picture yet to fall into place but they aren't going to be determined down in Tampa Bay.

Many is a word that only leaves you guessin',
Guessin' 'bout a thing you really ought to know.
You really ought to know.
I really ought to know.

19 It Is...

(Photos)

CC Sabathia will have to wait until at least next year to finally get his 20 win season. The big man got shelled in a bad way, allowing 9 runs (5 earned) over 2 2/3 IP, raising his season ERA from 3.21 to 3.37. The fact that 4 of the runs don't count against his ERA is nice, but it's also a little misleading since the Yanks committed a grand total of one error behind him and it came with no one out in the first. And although Mark Teixeira was charged with the gaffe, he recovered in time but Sabathia wasn't covering first base. Unfortunately, the 9 run figure does more justice to the performance that the official 5. It was his worst start of the season.

As brilliant as he has been over his last 11 starts, Sabathia was as terrible last night, allowing 14 men to reach base while recording only 8 outs, expending an average of just over 10 pitches to get each out. The Rays slapped 8 hits, drew 5 walks and were hit by a pitch.

Speaking of being hit by pitches, Mark Teixeira was plunked in the left hand by David Price in the first inning, possible retribution for Sabathia breaking two of Carlos Pena's fingers the last time the two teams squared off. Teixeira is currently tied with Pena for the AL lead in home runs and it wouldn't be too much of a stretch that Tampa, with nothing left to pay for, was seeking their pound of flesh from the Yankees' first baseman. Teix was visibly shaken and it might have contributed to his fielding error in the first.

But back to Sabathia. It would have been worse in a way if the bullpen blew the game for him, but it's not exactly the best note on which to head into the postseason. After the game he talked about not being able to command his fastball but also said: "It's definitely disappointing any time you lose. It's tough to go out there and pitch for individual things, so I just wanted to go out and have a good outing and keep it relevant to the playoffs."

It was relevant to his previous playoff performances, all right. Typically a great control pitcher, Sabathia has walked 22 batters in 25 postseason innings and has given up 22 runs. It's one start, but it came in the game where he was probably putting the most pressure on himself that he had in a while. He also walked 5 batters on Opening Day and 5 more at the opening of the New Stadium, when all eyes were seemed to be on him. I don't want to be concerned, but yeah, I'm a little concerned.

It doesn't at all take away from the type of season he's had for the Yanks, especially the second half, but falling short of 20 wins, especially in the fashion that he did, just killed whatever slim chance that he might steal the AL Cy Young from Zack Greinke. It's probably better that way, since Greinke wholly deserves the honor.

The final tally was 13-4. It was an ugly game on all fronts and one that the Yanks will forget about soon enough.

A few other notes: B.J. Upton hit for the first cycle in Devil Rays/Rays history in his first four at bats, going triple, double, homer single, and drove in 6 runs in the process. He drew a walk later in the game as well, making it an even more cyclic cycle. The Yankees almost used an entire 25 man roster tonight, calling on 16 position players and 8 pitchers. Juan Miranda hit his first Major League homer, a 460 ft blast that was declared the longest at Tropicana Field this season which also tied the Yanks' record for most HRs in a season at 242, set in 2004. Phil Hughes also had a bad night, pitching 1/3 of an inning and giving up three hits and a run. The AL Central race got a little more interesting as the Tigers lost and Twins won. Zack Greinke faces the Twinkies tomorrow, however.

Game 160: One More Chance

CC Sabathia will step to the mound tonight in search of his 20th victory of the season. The Big CCheese won 19 along with the AL Cy Young Award in 2007 and coincidentally has the same ERA (3.21) and the same record (19-7) that year as he does with one start to go in 2009. Odds are, one of those three numbers will change tonight, and likely, two of them will fluctuate.

The Tampa Bay Rays, led by David Price will be trying to see to it that the numbers that change are in the "loss" and "ERA" columns. This is not the position the Rays envisioned themselves in when this season began - long since eliminated from the postseason and simply playing out the string. The media darlings were predicted to contend for the AL East crown or at least the Wild Card but instead were pretty much out of the playoff picture when August came around.

A sort of symbol of the Rays struggles, Price has has a disappointing season as well. in 121 1/3 IP, he's stuck out 97, walked 52 and racked up a 4.60 ERA. When he was unveiled during last year's playoff run as a reliever, the general consensus was that he would be a force to be reckoned with one transitioned to the starting rotation. However, much like Joba Chamberlain, he's thrown too many pitches and walked too many batters. He's been better as of late though, carrying a 3.86 ERA over his last seven starts, including six innings of two run ball against the Yanks about three weeks ago.

Like Mr. Sabathia, Mike Mussina made a charge towards 20 wins last season notching victories in each of his last three starts including the last one against a division rival (the Red Sox) on the road, in a meaningless game (although meaningless for entirely different reasons). Paradoxically, Mussina did it with a higher ERA on a team with at least 13 fewer victories.

Should he complete the feat, Sabathia will have gone 10-0 in his last 12 starts to get 20 victories. CC will be the man of the night, whether he wants to acknowledge it or not:

Right now, to be honest, 20 wins is the last thing on my mind. I'm just trying to get ready to pitch on Wednesday. It would be great to be able to look back one day and say I won 20 games one year, but it's not a crazy goal.

He's not the type of guy who is going to make a big deal out of it, but I'm sure he's thinking about getting to the big 2-0. If you work the whole season and are within reach of that milestone for the first time in your career and you're going to want it pretty badly. He'll probably be putting a little more pressure on himself than usual, so it will be more interesting than your average playoff tune-up.

Big Poppa's only got one chance to do it. This year anyway.

Lyrically, I'm supposed to represent,
I'm not only the client, I'm the player president.

One more chance,
Biggie give me one more chance,
All I need is one more chance.

[Sidenote: The song choices have been a bit of a struggle lately, since we've ripped through 160 of them now, but this one might have been the easiest of the year. Sometimes they just fall into place.]

Programming Note

Sometime this morning, Blogger dropped an unexpected software change on our asses. All of a sudden, you can only put 10 tags on a post and each blog can have only 2,000 tags in total.

Well, by now you've probably noticed that we get a little tag-happy. I usually tried to hit the previous maximum of 200 characters on every post, regardless of the subject matter, partially for the resulting search traffic and partially just for the fuck of it. Unfortunately, this little habit has kind of backfired because by my count, we have nearly 4,350 individual tags ranging from "AssClowns" to "ZipTies".

That means that we can't put new tags on anything until we get back under that number. Since Blogger's software totally sucks, editing these labels incredibly tedious and I've got a pretty large mess on my hands that their Help Forums aren't going to be able to provide much assistance with. In the meantime we'll have get a little creative and re-use the tags we have.

As such, I won't be able to get to the Fall Beer Review I mentioned last night. But rest assured that Frank, John and I drank 6 Oktoberfests/Festbiers, 3 Harvest Ales and 4 Pumpkin Ales and recorded our reactions to them. It just has to be typed up and that's not happening today. I'll get it done over the weekend though and post it here on Monday when there will be some more eyes on it. For now, here are the baker's dozen we sampled last night.

Be back with the preview in a little while.

Get Ready To Yearn For Michael Kay

We Yankee fans are tough to please. We expect a successful team, we pointed out every flaw in the billion dollar palace they just erected, we chronicled all the wasted space on our 40 man roster, and constantly question how our manager uses the bullpen although he's got great results.

We also complain a lot about our announcers, when in the grand scheme of things, they aren't that bad, as those who have the DirecTV Extra Innings package like my buddy Cliff can tell you. John Sterling, Suzyn Waldman and especially Michael Kay are endlessly scrutinized but it's to be expected since they are in our ear for a good 500 hours a year, unless you listen to Kay's radio show, in which case that number expands to approximately 6,000.

As you probably already know, these last three games in Tampa will be the last we hear of Michael and his signature play-by-play stylings - aside from Yankees Classics and highlight bits on YES - until next Spring. While that might seem like a good thing at first glance, it means that we are going to be stuck with national broadcasters for the rest of the way; guys who haven't followed the team all year and probably aren't going to tell you much you don't already know.

I linked to the playoff announcing schedule yesterday, but wanted to save by anti-Chip Carey rant for another post.

The 2007 postseason were the first national games that TBS had broadcast rights to. As such, it was the first time that Chit Carry had called a Yankee game... and it showed. It was so bad, Richard Sandomir cataloged Carrey's numerous factual errors one by one and wondered in print, "Why isn’t he better prepared?".

It's been two years since that debacle, so you'd think that Chop might have learned a few things in the meantime. Not so much. Here are some comments he made about A.J. Burnett during a media conference call yesterday, (via LoHud):

When he’s on, he’s unhittable. He has a slider that when he throws it where he wants, no one can hit it. The key for him is, he’s kind of an excitable boy. Sometimes that works in his advantage, sometimes I think it works against him. Getting in charge of his emotion will be key. He’s brought a lot of levity to that team. The Yankees were always a team that seemed more like IBM than Apple.

I'm all for referencing Warren Zevon but I don't think Kip Scary would want to call A.J. Burnett an "excitable boy" to his face. And please spare us your dumb analogies and stick to the script, Chep. You're paid to be the play-by-play guy, not to take veiled shots at the Yankees for spending a lot of money. It's no secret that Carray, the son of the legendary Cubs broadcaster, is a fan of National League baseball and not fond of the Yanks and their free-spending, power-hitting ways.

And Chap, Burnett doesn't throw a slider. No one has ever called it a slider. Pitch f/x does not call it a slider. It's a curveball.

Oh wait. What's that? It's Chip? Chip Caray? And he's the grandson of Harry Caray? And that was Ron Darling who was being quoted? Oh, my bad. I guess I should have done some research before going up with the post.

Postseason Tickets Aren't Selling For Face Value?!?!?

Ken Belson of the NYT Bats Blog seems genuinely surprised, if not appalled that you won't be able to buy Yankees playoff tickets for $5.

The Yankees made a big deal out of their decision to hold ticket prices steady for the first round of the playoffs. That’s right, even those $5 seats in the center-field bleachers with obstructed views of the field would remain $5 when the Yankees play either the Detroit Tigers or the Minnesota Twins next week.

But unless you are a season ticket-holder, forget about that $5 price. Fans selling those bleacher seats on line are charging no less than $98 each for a chance to see about two-thirds of the field, according to FanSnap, a Web site that scans dozens of ticket resellers.

Raise your hand if you were counting on purchasing a Yankees playoff ticket for $5. Okay, now keep it in the air, clench your fingers into a fist and punch yourself in the face.

The Yankees made a big deal of the pricing structure for the P.R. boost after all the negative press over their ticket pricing for the regular season. This year, as has been the case ever since the Yanks went on their dynastic run, there only a precious few postseason tickets available to the general public. A few weeks back, Ross from New Stadium Insider did some quick calculations and estimated the amount of available tickets for each round of the postseason to be:

ALDS: 4,735
ALCS: 3,235
WS: 735

It doesn't take a mathematician to decipher that, unless you are a season ticket holder, you are going to be paying through to nose to observe some playoff baseball in the Bronx.

A Rare October Call Up

Good morning, Fackers. Let's start the day off on a positive note.

Our friend Jason has some big news:

It's About The Money, Stupid has been selected by Rob Neyer and ESPN to be a charter member of what will be a new blog network on ESPN.com known as ESPN.com's SweetSpot Blog Network! IIATMS has the distinct honor of being the sole blog representing the New York Yankees in this network throughout the 2009 Playoffs, and hopefully into 2010 and beyond.

The network won't officially launch until Monday so there's nowhere to direct you to just yet, but I will of course provide that info once it become available. Check out the post linked above for Jason's reaction. He's justifiably excited and those guys at IIATMS should be in for a fun ride.

ESPN.com is a pretty lofty place for a blog to ascend to and let's hope that they do the blogs in that network justice and feature them prominently as they should. There's a lot of interesting insight and analysis be churned out by hobbyists like Jason, Will, Tamar and Brendan and ESPN has the chance to elevate blogs as a whole by placing them in front of baseball fans who don't really visit them or understand the concept... yet. Who knows how assertive they'll be on this front, but there's hope.

A good amount of you probably haven't been around long enough to be aware of this, but Fack Youk also sprouted underneath of the Rob Neyer/Shysterball/IIATMS blogging tree to some extent. Jason was one of the first bloggers to take interest in our site, allowing me to do a couple guest posts to promote this operation early on and linking to us more than one could rightfully expect over the past 9 months. Craig was more than generous with his advice when I first started doing this back in December, and has been kind enough to point people to the site in the past as well.

In short, those guys did more than their fair share to introduce our site to some of you. They offered a helping hand up onto the already crowded stage of baseball blogging and it's good to see some of that good karma coming back around. Whether it be Craig getting absorbed by the Hardball Times and NBC or Jason now appearing on ESPN.com, it's cool to be able to recall the simpler days of reading them on Blogspot, you know, back before they were big internet celebrities.

Congrats, Jason. Enjoy the ride.