You may remember the three Red Sox members (Schilling, Manram, and Tim Wakefield) who had wines named after them for charity, and if you got last week’s SI with the Hanson Brothers on the cover, you read about all the jocks with their own vineyards.
Clearly, we have a massive trend on our hands here, because every ex-jock and their mother is getting in on this. Get ready to add Mets great Tom Seaver to that list, as the Cali native is preparing the release of his own wines under the GTS Vineyard (the “G” for George) — he’s selling cabernet by mail, as the first shipment of ‘05 stuff is getting ready. Naturally, like most of the contemporaries, he’s raising it in the Napa Valley — where just about everyone goes to try and grow wine.
Armed with a compass, Seaver began cutting and slashing through the foliage again and found, to his delight, a pair of tree-covered slopes facing south and southeast. He knew from research that the best grapes grow with southern exposure, and vineyard manager Jim Barbour, recommended to him by former teammate and restaurant owner Rusty Staub, underscored that, telling Seaver, “How in the world did you find it? This is what people are killing for out here.”
Well, Seaver said, “Sometimes you win, 7-6. That’s what I mean about being lucky.”
I like wine, but I’m really a beer person by nature (plus Seaver’s stuff sounds way out of my price range; I know of brands similar to his in Paso Robles). When’s a jock going to start his own brewery?
Filed under: MLB | Tagged: retirement, Tom Seaver, wine
Yes, but will you be drinking any ****ing merlot? Nothing quite like Rusty Staub and Tom Seaver talking wines…what I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.