Amsterdam Ale House

Formerly Westside Brewing Co, seeing the sign for Amsterdam Ale House made my day. And it was only 9:30.

Guess that guy on the Beer Advocate message board was right...

What's The Difference?

I have a question.

What's the difference between A-Rod's comments regarding Jose Reyes and Derek Jeter's in reference to David Wright?

A-Rod:

I wish (Reyes) was leading off on our team or playing on our team. That’s fun to watch.

Yes, he said he wished Reyes was playing for the Yankees, but listen to Jeter talk about Wright (emphasis mine):

The thing with him, I respect the way he handles himself in New York. I think he shows all the right leadership skills - he leads by example and he's not phony. What you see is what you get from him. It's not an image he's trying to portray; I think that's how he is as a person.

If that isn't a blatant shot aimed squarely at A-Fraud, I don't know what is. (Well, maybe this.)

Had you read the Jeter quote before right then? I hadn't before I dug them up in the Daily News today. Why wasn't there a massive public outcry? Which of those quotes would you rather have aimed at you? This is just personal preference, but last thing in the world I want to be called is phony.

PeteAbe, where were you on that one? When A-Rod made his Reyes comments this is what you said, "It’s truly amazing the fixes this guys gets himself into. It really is."

And here is what you said about Jeter's comments on Wright, "__________". (It didn't even make the blog.)

Listen, I've had as much fun as A-Rod's expense as anyone. This post was responsible for the biggest day in the history of our site (thanks in part to PeteAbe). But let's not kid ourselves into thinking that Derek Jeter has some bulletproof persona and incredible media savvy and A-Rod is just some bumbling buffoon who fucks up pretty much every time he opens his mouth. Actually, I'm okay with the second part of that.

But the self-fulfilling prophecy of Jeter's "public genius" is amazing. Beat writers and media types love Jeter because he's charming and straightforward and therefore they automatically give him credibility. He can get away with saying something almost exactly in line with what A-Rod says, and it gets buried at the end of a Daily News article, while everyone flogs A-Rod for taking shots at the Teflon SS. The funny thing is A-Rod probably just didn't chose his words well, but you can tell there was some angst and frustration behind what Jeter said.

The short answer to the question I posed at the top: The person who said it.

Until I started writing for this blog, I didn't realize the importance of who is actually saying something. We probably all have blog feeds with multiple authors and prefer one to another. If for some reason they posted a Christmas Ape post at KSK under Big Daddy Drew's name, I would probably think it was funnier, given my appreciation for Drew's past work.

Similarly, when Jeter opens his mouth, people expect him to say something uncontroversial and because of that, his quotes are presented as carefully calculated insights. A-Rod is no stranger to saying and doing inexplicable things, so when he says something asinine, everyone thinks to themselves, "I fucking knew it", right before they clobber him for it.

It's human nature. I don't mean to call out PeteAbe for not liking A-Rod because he's the best Yankee blogger we've got, and if any of us were in his position, we'd probably hate A-Rod's guts just as much or more.

Case in point:

Jeter says he admires the way both Pedroia and Youkilis play "every game like it's the last game they're going to play. You appreciate that."

I didn't hear anyone say: "ZOMG, did he just take a shot at the sometimes lackadaisical-looking Robinson Cano?!/?1!?/11!?1 He's no Captain."

Dr. Dre, would you please tell these mahfackers:

Second Thoughts...

While Syracuse and UCONN rocked the sports world with their epic six overtime clash, right around the corner from my apartment, a much smaller number of attendees were rocked in a much different way.

Yesterday, Fat Jon informed me via text message of an internet rumor that Trey Anastasio and Paige McConnell from Phish might be joining the Allmans on stage at the Beacon Theater that night (part of their 40th Anniversary Run). I took this pretty seriously because Trey lives on the Upper West Side and I've had the chance to chat with him before at a street fair (extremely cool). Phish had just wrapped up Hampton and it seemed to make sense.

If you have been reading this site carefully, you could have probably guessed that this was right up my alley.

Allmans + Phish + Beacon = Me

I left work and walked right over to the Theater and check out the ticket scene. It was about 7:00 and the show didn't start 'til 8, but there were far fewer scalpers out front than usual. Since Fairway is right across the street, on my way to get groceries, I'll get caught in the crossfire if there is a show that night. As a result, I've got a pretty good feel for the atmosphere despite not going to all that many shows there.

The mix of scalpers outside of the Beacon is always a treat. There are the stereotypical skeevy-looking, quasi-homeless fat old white dudes with tattered jackets on. You could pick these creepers out of a scalper line up in a heartbeat. They tend to cluster towards the corner of 75th and Broadway, while the black dudes stay closer to 74th. They are the characters. They also look about one bender from being a full blown vagrant, but unlike the standoffish white guys, they are more friendly and engaging.

Within 12 seconds of walking up alongside Beacon Wine & Spirits, one of the guys was grumbled, "Do you need any BUD maaaaaaan?". Yes. This is how I would like to acquire some drugs. Right on a crowded street corner in Manhattan. Don't worry, there aren't six cops within 50 feet of us. All set in that department, champ. Do you have any tickets?

He directed to a bearded gentleman in a camouflage coat with the hood up who informed me that he had one ticket in the Orchestra, Row 9, for $175. I didn't even bother to bargain with him since it was so far out of my price range. I scoured around for a little while longer to no avail, and went back to my apartment to regroup.

I re-emerged at 7:30, hit the ATM and decided I would be willing to push my budget to about $100 or so to adjust to the sellers market I detected. When I got back, it was even worse. The buyer to seller ratio was roughly 50:0. No joke. I walked around until 8:15 and did not see one ticket change hands, at any price.

I was pretty disappointed, but just headed over to Fairway and picked up two crab cakes and a sirloin that was sliced off the ol' block 10 seconds before my boy Ralph the butcher bagged it for me. It was a decent consolation prize.

I checked the setlist after the 'Cuse game and indeed, Trey and Paige showed up (along with Buddy Guy).

Set 1
Little Martha
Trouble No More
Leave My Blues at Home
Who’s Been Talking (old Howling Wolf Song)
Black Hearted Woman
You Can’t Lose What You Never Had
The Sky Is Crying (with Buddy Guy)
You Don’t Love Me (with Buddy Guy)
Southbound (Buddy Guy/Page/Trey)

Set 2
I Know You Rider (w/Trey & Page)
In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed (w/Trey & Page)
Dreams
Jessica

Encore
Statesboro Blues (extended version)

Here is an awesome review of the show (where I pulled the pics from).

$175 for 9th row seats doesn't seem like that bad of an investment anymore. This post would have been roughly 2000 times better. There is an unoffical guest list floating around that details who is going to be playing with them at the Beacon, and so far it has been pretty close. Boz Scaggs is up tonight (Loan Me A Dime?) and Clapton is playing on the 19th & 20th (Mean Old World?).

Well, since I probably won't be able to get tickets to any of those without falling into a never ending spiral of credit card debt, I think I'm going to have to settle for Moogis. For $125, you can watch every one of the shows live or on demand. It's not just confined to the Beacon run, you can watch performances from 2007 at Piedmont Park. They claim to be adding more shows as well.

Who wants to have a simulcast party???

Otto's Pimp Hand Is Strong

That was honestly the greatest college basketball...check that, basketball game I have ever seen. What more can you ask for? 6OTs, back and forth all night, long range 3s, big dunks, walk-ons getting huge rebounds (Thomas), etc.

I am a huge Cuse fan as many of you know, so this will sound homeresque, but refs don't call shit on UConn, not just in this game but all season. Thabeet especially, he gets a lot of blocks but he fouls with the body every fucking time. That asshole should have fouled out in the first half.

This game was way to long to recap the entire thing, but here are some take-aways for the kids taking notes at home:

*Devendorf's 3 at the end of regulation was after the buzzer, but it was so fucking close and he got fouled on that shit.

*Stanley Robinson fucking sucks and has sucked all year, but had the best game of his career last night, which seems to happen an awful lot against Cuse.

*Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf seemed to pull their heads out of each others asses and realized you can't drive on Thabeet.

*Syracuse shot 78.4% FT as a team. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!

*16:27 was the Cuse:UConn turnover ratio, enough said.

*I know it was 6OTs but Paul Harris had 22 rebounds, 4 players has over 20pts, and Flynn was 16-16 from the line.

The game changer was when Thabeet fouled out. AJ Price is really good, but he can't guard Johnny Flynn and with out the shot blocking threat he had an open lane to the hoop on every possession. If you were at the Washington Tavern (WTs or Ts) you would know this cause i was screaming it. I am not sure who the player of the game was but it had to be Flynn. Here is his line:

67 minutes, 16-16 FT, 11Ast, 7 TO, 6 Stl, 34 Pts

As such, I have officially assigned the new entry music that should be played as Johnny steps on to the court at all games at the Dome and the Garden ('Cuses' home away from home).



As for tonight, I think it will be tough because they are so tired, but on the other hand WVU isn't very good against the zone. No matter what happens Cuse just played themselves into a 3, possibly a 2 seed. So I ask you this, all homerism aside, do you really want to see your team in the same bracket as Syracuse?

As mentioned before we were watching this at WTs, which was awesome, except for the length of this game. This is because when your at a bar watching a 2 hour game that becomes a 4 hour game in the middle of a DWI blanket patrol, you could run into some problems.



(Everyone got home ok, please drink responsibly)

Ending Fuck You's
-John Cahill (head ref)
-The entire University of Connecticut
-The entire State of Connecticut
-Announcers, even though I couldn't hear them, I could sense the awfulness
-Duke
-Youk
-You and you motherfuckin' mama

7ZZZzzzzzz

F___ing SIX?????

Five

4?

00.0

Yeessssssssssss!
Yeeeesss?

Ummm...
No?

Fuck.

Kellerman! Simmons! Francesa!

Neil Best of Newsday has been on top of the Kellerman story since it broke (err, I tipped him off about it and was not attributed)

And yesterday afternoon he transcribed a portion of the B.S. Report (at the 45:09 mark) where Simmons addressed the story about Kellerman and the rumors concerning Francesa. (I'm just going to blockquote the whole thing):

Bill Simmons: "Max Kellerman left his ESPN Radio New York show today. Uh, I'm throwing our hat in the ring. Our collective hat."

(Simmons' friend) JackO: "Fantastic. He left it? Why, he just gave it up?"

Simmons: "I don't know. Details have not come out."

JackO: "There was some ugliness?"

Simmons: "Who knows? I had a reader email a month ago and say he was at a restaurant where Max and Mike Francesa were having dinner together."

JackO: "Really? Uh, oh. The new Mad Dog, do you think?"

Simmons: "Mike and the Max Dog?"

JackO: "Mike and Max. It works."

Simmons: "Mike and Max?"

JackO: "Got the alliteration down."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "We'll be back, 'Mike and Max,' after this. 'Mike and The Max,' maybe?"

JackO: "Yeah, but that's his first name, he can't become The Max."

Simmons: "Let's say, hypothetically, Francesa and Kellerman, does that show work, or not?"

JackO: "You know, I've only seen Max Kellerman on TV. I've never listened to his radio show, so I don't know what he's like. It might be a case of too many lead dogs trying to be there, you know."

Simmons: "It's like a Kobe-Shaq."

JackO: "I'm not sure how it would work. One guy's got to be the second banana and know his role."

Simmons: "2003 Kobe and Shaq, not 2000 Kobe and Shaq. It would be interesting. I could see the show being great for like three months and them like fighting to the death."

JackO: "If you've already been the star of your own show it's tough to go back now and be the supporting actor."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "Hey, Max, let me tell you something, you're in the big time now. This is my show. You are a second banana, my friend."

JackO (with a Francesa accent): "You know, you don't bring a knife to a gunfight."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "I'm Jordan, you're Pippen, got it?"

Simmons: "But that would be interesting. Keep an eye on that."

The restaurant story is pretty interesting, but I would be curious to know if it came before or after Kellerman was notified that his air time was being cut back.

A Kellerman/Simmons show would be phenomenal, but obviously that's not going to happen because Kellerman can't go back to ESPN and Simmons can't leave. Even though I imagine he was kidding, I'd probably listen to a Simmons/JackO show. I give it a try at the very least. Too bad it would never happen because 1050 would never bring in such a personality so closely associated with Boston into the New York market, even if Simmons had JackO to balance him out.

"Their degree of greatness doesn't matter, just the greatness itself."

Maybe a pregnant Candace Parker being on the cover of the new ESPN The Magazine started me off on the wrong foot, but I couldn't help but FJM Bill Simmons' column.

I'm hoping The Sports Guy didn't write the headline...

You don't need stats to know greatness. Meryl taught me that.

...because his entire column seeks to undermine it.

Only 59 years old, Streep has been in 40 movies (stat) (not including voice-overs and cameos), taken home Oscars for Sophie's Choice (best actress) and Kramer vs. Kramer (best supporting actress) (stat) and drawn 13 other nominations (stat). She's been nominated for 23 Golden Globes (stat) and won six (stat). She has two Emmys (stat).

If we called age "Years Lived (YL)", that would be a stat too. Just like the people rail against "advanced" statistics in baseball, Simmons rips off a bunch of numbers that when strung together give you an idea of how good of an actress Meryl Streep is, but individually are fairly arbitrary and incomplete. If only someone could devise a better analytical technique...

Only Katharine Hepburn had a more decorated career -- four Oscars and 12 nominations in all -- but Streep has a lot of years left to pass her.

Hang on to that, because we are going to need it later.

Statistics allow us to compare players with one another, follow their peaks and valleys, determine which are most responsible for their team's success. Hollywood doesn't work like that.

Well, yeah it kind of does. This entire column is about actors' peaks and valleys. It's just that the "teams" come together temporarily and are disbanded when production of a movie is finished. You can't determine that the producer, director, and starring actors are mostly responsible for the success of a movie?

It's an industry of extremes -- this movie had the biggest opening weekend, this guy made the most money, this woman used to be terrific until she went crazy -- that hinges on what everyone believes, not on what can be proved.

I'm pretty sure which "movie had the biggest weekend" and which "guy made the most money" can be proved.

At some point in his career [Jack Nicholson] broke into the greatest actors club, the membership of which we have all subconsciously agreed upon. We know who the best actors are. We just do. It's why Hollywood has never built a Hall of Fame. We don't need it.

You know there is a Hollywood Walk of Fame, right?

Sports are objective (you win or you lose), whereas movies are almost entirely subjective.

All of the numbers you've cited for movies are "win or lose" (Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes). And movies are so subjective that we can all "subconsciously agree upon" the membership of the "greatest actors club"?

If the Oscars were reliable, they would help us create a formula that enabled us to rank actors of all eras.

Well, Nate Silver created a formula to predict this year's Oscars using past results and they were fairly reliable. I wouldn't expect you to know anything about that though, because you don't read blogs.

Well, what if we tried anyway?

Then it would completely contradict the title of this column?

Let's make best actor/actress nods worth seven points and nominations worth three. Then let's make best supporting actor/actress nods worth three and nominations worth one(...)

Top 13 actors: Nicholson (38); Spencer Tracy (35); Laurence Olivier (32); Marlon Brando (30); Hoffman, Newman (29); Jack Lemmon (28); Peter O'Toole (24); Gary Cooper, Hanks, Penn (23); De Niro and Pacino (22).

>8

Are you happy with those rankings? Me too! I'm a genius! Yeah, Pacino and De Niro should be higher, but they were robbed in '74 and '76, so their stats make sense.

That, and like you said about Meryl Streep, their careers aren't over. But why would this part of the column agree with another? That would totally shatter the precedent you've established.

Other than that, I have no major qualms besides a failure to account for iconic performances like De Niro's in Raging Bull (should it be worth 10?)...

No major qualms with the system you just arbitrarily created? I mean, I'd like to think that you read this once or twice after you wrote it. You probably could have gone back and worked it in.

Now, if you feel like getting your supernerd on, you could figure out Simmons Points on a per-film basis by dividing SPs by movies made... a Hollinger-like AER (actor's efficiency rating) ... or even VODM (like baseball's value over replacement player, only it would be value over Dermot Mulroney).

Why does it have to be me getting my "supernerd on", Bill? You are the one who just named the fucking statistic you just created after yourself. Why do you have to deflect the "statistics are nerdy" stigma, dude? Because fantasy sports are so much cooler?

But that's not the point. We've had ample time to figure this all out, and we've never bothered.

Maybe the reason that we've never bothered is because acting is not quantifiable unless you want to start tallying things like "lines spoken" or "scenes appeared in".

The numbers that you've cited throughout this column (award nominations and victories) are just like measuring an athlete by the number of championships won. Award shows each happen once a year. Being nominated is sort of like making the playoffs. There are an incredible number of variables that go into making a movie aside from that person's performance, most of which are well beyond their control.

We never felt the need to validate Brando's brilliance by raving that he's the most consecutively nominated leading actor (four, from 1951 to '54), nor do we pimp Nicholson by pointing out that he's the only living actor with three Oscars.

Those are some really interesting stats you just used to indicate greatness. That's not what Meryl taught you.

Those guys are legends. Their degree of greatness doesn't matter, just the greatness itself.

Yes, once you surpass the Greatness Threshold (GT) it doesn't matter. Which of course is why you began this column proclaiming Meryl Streep as the "greatest living actor" and state your case with absolute certainty.

Maybe we overthink this stuff. The truth is, either you're great or you're not.

And I think that we can all subconsciously agree that Bill Simmons' is great.

-----

Here's what I don't understand: He makes up a pretty interesting system, finds some holes in it, and even goes as far as to create more insightful ways of looking at it. And right after he does that, he just shoots it down all in the name of "stats are for nerds". Then he wraps up by stating a fucking stupid truism: "either you're great or you're not"? Thanks for that, Bill.

Why couldn't he write the column and actually try to create some sort of a rubric for measuring actors against each other? It would have been interesting. The crux of it is already in there, just trapped inside a two inch coating of condescending bullshit.

Yankees: "Nothing's F___ed Here, Dude"

Part of an email from New York Yankees Ticket News:

Yankees Seats Between The Bases:

We are happy to announce that a limited number of Season Plan seat locations are now available in select infield seating areas between the bases of the new Yankee Stadium. Season Plans between the bases are the best way to ensure the finest general seat locations for 2009, the inaugural season of the new Yankee Stadium.

Buy Seats Between The Bases Now »

Number One: You are not "happy to announce that a limited number of Season Plan seat locations are now available in select infield seating areas...". Yes, we are thrilled that some of the most expensive seats in our Stadium are still unsold!

"A ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY"... you hear that, folks? This reminds me of the infomerical for some shitty gold coin or an Obama plate that they are calling a "collector's item".

"Due to strong demand, there is a limit of two victory plates per caller".

Actually, no. Due to weak demand, you have to advertise. Do people really fall for this shit? I can only buy two??? They must be valuable!!! Nevermind the fact that nothing ever purchased on an infomercial or QVC has ever increased in value. They don't sell things that are rare, or that actual collectors want on TV.

They are even having an Open House so you can select the seats!!!!

A limited number of Field Level seats between the bases and Yankees Premium Season Seat Licenses are still available.

Come to Yankee Stadium to meet with a Yankees Account Representative and view the best available locations, which feature spectacular views and numerous amenities. During the Open House Select a Seat, guests will be able to "try-out" seat locations for all ticket packages, including Full and Partial Plans.

"Try-out"? Does that mean you get to, like, sit in them? Get the Yankees to play an exhibition game for people, and you might get some of them to think about dropping a minimum of $325 per ticket.

The Quote Of The Day

...comes from Jason at It Is About The Money, Stupid, and coincidentally is about the money (stupid):

Maybe the Yanks have become a giant Ponzi scheme of their own. Bigger and bigger contracts and longer and longer commitments, all funded by a scheme of a shiny new ballpark with all the bells and whistles. But if the team slumps and that leads to attendance slumps, could we see some major changes due to solvency issues?

God, that is frightening. Unfortunately, it also makes a whole lot of sense. The same things that were seen as tremendous opportunities heading into Spring Training now seem like potential liabilities.

The New Stadium, which was supposed to create a thrust of new revenue, has large vacancies in the most expensive areas. The Yankees aren't divulging the extent to which tickets remain unsold, but the fact that they were advertising them during a Spring Training game is a terrible sign. The plan for the New Stadium was to keep the upper deck seats affordable by charging the corporations who were going to buy the luxury boxes and field level seats through the nose because of their lack of price sensitivity.

That dynamic no longer exists. Companies are pinching pennies everywhere you look, and to many of them, not having to fire an extra employee or two is worth not getting season tickets. What now? The Yankees can't lower the prices for the seats that remain unsold without royally pissing off those who have already paid full price.

There are on-the-field considerations as well. That one guy, the steroid user with 9 years on his contract and the bad hip. I was a lot more optimistic about his future about 40 days ago. As Jason points out in his post, Sabathia and Teixeira were both great acquisitions, but they were acquired at premium prices and are unlikely to look like bargains at any point in their deals. Five years of A.J. Burnett at $16.5M per... ditto.

Could the Yankees, once (and probably still) a blue chip stock, ever fall so far as to deal with solvency issues? Most of that depends on the on-field product. If they are winning, the New Stadium will be packed. However, if the Yanks are drifting lifelessly through August and September like they were last year, they are going to be a whole lot more empty seats this time around.