Front page Yahoo article on Brewers reliever

Nice article on Mark DiFelice on the front page of Yahoo... I don't think I've ever seen a middle reliever featured on the front page before.

Kinda ironic, I saw this article right after he came in last night and gave up a 2 run homer vs. the Cardinals!

Man crush on Trevor Hoffman

This is weird. I'm used to long drawn out, dramatic 9th innings. Where's the fun in just setting them down in 8 pitches?

I bought Hells Bells (the CD, apparently AC/DC and I-tunes haven't reached a deal yet... but I'm just gonna sell the CD back so they would've made more money off me if I had bought it off I-tunes).

Reminds me of his SportsCenter commercial...

The best sign ever

Watching the Brewers/Cubs game yesterday...


Aw yeah... one of the best use of acronyms I've seen in a while (this one actually uses the first letter of each word and is grammatically correct... and of course true)

The King of Queens in a baseball uniform

Interesting observation by the Astros TV announcer today during the Brewer game. It was regarding Brad Nelson, a backup player on the Brewers. Called him the King of Queens in a baseball uniform...

Huh?

Watching Brewers vs. Mets, with the Mets broadcast. On a promo for the next game, it said:

"The Mets take on the Brewers and the powerful swing of Rickie Weeks."

Rickie Weeks? Where are you getting your scouting report?

The Wave - Wisconsin style!

The Reds announcers tonight made note of the wave that was going on at Miller Park... said the wave go turn really slow for a round, then come back and go really fast. "That's kinda neat!" They said.

Little do they know... this was started at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison at football games. The student section would start the wave. On the way around, the student section would chant "sloooow sloooow slooooow" all while motioning with the palms down gesture. The next wave would go really really slow around the stadium. Then we'd go fast and it'd race around the stadium.

Not done yet... next trick was "reverse reverse reverse." The wave would go around backwards. Near the end of my time at Madison, we added the "split" wave, where the wave would split in half and half would go one way and half the other.

Not bad for a bunch of drunk undergrads...

Happy Day! Bob Uecker on my iPhone!

Today a friend told me that you can get the MLB Gameday Audio app for you iPhone... and listen to games! I thought about renewing my XM Satellite subscription because I wanted to listen to Bob Uecker while he was still the Brewer's guy (especially after the news about Harry Kalas... made me want to enjoy Uecker while we had him). So now I'm listening to the Brewers play my hometown Reds, with Bob Uecker's voice in my white iPhone earbuds. I couldn't be happier. Don't tell MLB, but I would've paid more than the $10 it costed me.

What's with the love affair with Jeff Suppan?

Is it just me or does he suck? Why do managers love this guy? He had ONE great postseason. For some reason that makes him a savvy veteran that you can make your opening day starter? Now he walks 6 people, including 3 with the bases loaded against the Cubs.

Sorry had to vent.

Opening Day comeback... but I just stepped out for a sec!

So I'm in Chicago this weekend for a wedding, and since it's only 2 hours from Milwaukee I came up here early to meet my parents for lunch. It also happens to be Opening Day and the Brewers are playing the Cubs!

So lunch ends just as the game is starting... it's on TV here in Chicago, so I flip it on at the hotel. I watch the Brewers struggle to get runs, Koyie Hill's 2 run HR to put the Cubs ahead, and at the end of the 8th inning it's still 3-2. I get a call from the wedding party, saying they were gathering and hanging out before the evening festivities. I think I should probably go for a bit, thinking wouldn't it be ironic if the Brewers came back for a thrilling victory and I missed it after investing so much of my time to the game.

So I run upstairs to shoot the breeze a bit... when I come back downstairs to my room, I flip on the TV and see if the Brewers can pull off a comeback. What I saw was a replay of Rickie Weeks sliding into home and the catcher spiking the fall in anger... Brewers win 4-3. Sigh... well I guess it's better than the Brewers losing.

During one of my first years in Cincinnati, I attended a Brewers/Reds game and took the risk of donning a cheesehead. Since the Brewers aren’t exactly a great draw, the stadium usually isn’t too full and no one usually wants to go with me. Because of that, I’m able to get some pretty good deals from the scalpers selling on the street… I once got seats behind the plate a few rows up for $20. I told my family back in Milwaukee to look for me on TV, since I wearing a giant yellow wedge of cheese usually gets attention from the cameras.

Well, I didn’t get on TV, but a dad and his 9 year old son sat down in the row behind me. The kid of course was intrigued by the cheese shaped foam I was wearing. Throughout the game, the dad and the kid would both good-naturedly make fun of it and people from Wisconsin who wear it. After the game ended, I got the last laugh as the kid said “Dad, I want a cheesehead.” I said if it didn’t cost $30 I would have given it to him. Now I kinda wish I had given it to him… it would’ve given him a great memory and a great impression of people from Wisconsin!

Packer Season Ticket List - 91 years to go!

Guess what came today? My latest Packer season ticket waiting list update... So here's the graph with the most updated data. At this rate, I will be sitting in the General Stadium Bowl Seats in 91 years (assuming a linear decay of course)! Click to enlarge.

Bucks player twitters in locker room at halftime

Pretty cool stuff! I'm starting to like Charlie Villanueva...

http://twitter.com/CV31

Bucks announcers... really leaving a lot to be desired

So with Jon Paschke out, the Bucks have turned to a guy named Jim Jones. I love his positivity and his enthusiasm, but he's not a very good announcer. Here's a sampling:

"They shoot at 7 right?" - Near the end of the game, trying to figure out when a team was in the penalty (in the NBA, you shoot at 5 team fouls). Are you kidding me? A professional announcer who doesn't know the rules of the game?
"Oooh, he's gonna be a great one!" - Goes a bit overdramatic... he was talking about Mbah a Moute here after he makes one play
"Uh oh, that's a really bad sign if he can make that shot!" - More overdrama... This was when Stephon Marbury came in the game and made a 12 footer. Marbury ended up with 4 points.

And then there's Tony Brown, who reports after the game and at halftime. This guy never has anything important to say. I wonder, how hard is it to get someone who's at least decent? There's got to be a lot of journalism majors out there who could do a better job. Heck do an audition and some fan would be happy to do it for free. I think companies are overvaluing the name (these guys are former players) and not valuing the quality enough.

Bango the Buck... what the heck was he doing up there anyway?

So the Bucks mascot is gaining some fame... this is from All-Star weekend. There's two parts, the first part where he gets hit in the groin and the ball goes through the basket. The second is when he falls and tears his ACL.

I can't imagine him being perched up there being safe in any stretch of the imagination.

The Toronto feed: Charlie V

So tonight, I'm getting the Toronto Raptors feed on my NBA League Pass. Couple of interesting things:

The color guy is really excitable, kinda like Dick Vitale. I can see how it could get a bit much, but most of the color guys I've heard in the league have been pretty personality-less, so this guy actually is a breath of fresh air.

The Raptors are on this network called TSN... but apparently it's their version of ESPN, because they have Sportscenter with the same logo.

Canadians spell center like "centre." Just kinda funny to see Francisco Elson - Centre. And "SportsCentre"

The play by play guy asked the color guy for a Superbowl prediction. The guy said Arizona, and the play by play guy said "Did you son just email that to you?" I always wondered what Canadians think of American football.

They interviewed Charlie Villianueva at halftime... Apparently they still love him in Toronto. They said he did a lot for the community when he was in Toronto, and he gives tickets to kids with the same disease as he has, alopecia areata, where you don't have the ability to grow hair. It was neat seeing his section of fans out there and him signing autographs and bringing awareness to this disease.

OK the color guy's name is Jack Armstrong, and the play by play guy is Matt Devlin. And Jack has this east coast accent, almost Boston like. Weird.

Bucks horrible red uniforms

I'm watching the Bucks and the Pacers on NBA League Pass today, and I'm getting the Pacers announcers. The Bucks are wearing their "alternate" road uniforms, the all red throwbacks:

The Pacers's announcer says the Bucks are in their alternate red road uniforms. The color guy says: "I've never seen this look before... I'm, um, glad they like it. That's all I can say."

Dude, I'd hafta agree with you. These are one of the Bucks worst. If you wanna go old school, stick with the green. Just total lack of brand equity when I can't even recognize my own team.

Where's the defense?

The Brewers signed Prince to a two year deal... probably a good move by the club, we'll be able to keep him in case he has a monster year this year. It still leaves the door open to trading him. I'm on the bandwagon of trading him... I'm really sick of one dimensional players who can't play defense. He'd be a great DH somewhere. Maybe the Yankees.

But the issue is defense... why are teams so willing to sacrifice it? The Brewers made a point last year to improve their defense, which is a step in the right direction. That's why I'm not too down on Mike Cameron. Braun seems athletic enough to be able to handle LF. Hart is great defensively, which is overlooked. He struggled at the plate, but he made it up in his defense.

JJ is great at SS. Kendall is great at C, although he does do a boneheaded throw on a bunt every once in a while. I think we got someone in Rivera. Anyone know how good the catchers we have in the farm system are defensively?

The good news is Alcides Escobar, from what I hear, is stellar defensively. Hallelujah. So why not put him at SS and move JJ to 2B? I hear a lot of 3B, but man there's a gaping hole at 2B defensively (and offensively for that matter with Rickie Weeks... I shall rant on him later).

Then there's the problem with 3B. I've heard moving JJ to 3B, but man having a great fielder at 2B who has pop sounds really enticing. Unfortunately Gamel looks like he'll have the same problems as Braun at 3B. Can he play 1B?

NBA vacuum

My first year in Cincinnati was 2000-2001, the year the Bucks went deep into the playoffs. Of course there's no NBA team in Cincinnati, but I didn't realize just how dead the NBA was to this city. I was watching the deciding game that would send us to the NBA finals on TNT when my cable inexplicably went out. So I really quick got in the car and headed to Willie's, my local sports bar.

Now this is a true sports bar, with maybe 15 TV's scattered in the whole place. I walk in, I think it's a Tuesday night, and all 15 TV's have a NASCAR race on. In fact, I would say it was a replay of a NASCAR race because it was during the day, and I was there at night. I ask the server if they could put on the basketball game, and she says "what game?" I'm thinking, "um, game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals?"

Well I did end up watching the game, and when Glenn Robinson missed that baseline shot, there was no one in the bar to lament too.

Why Joe Alexander should blow your mind

I was telling my friend Eric about some trivia about Joe Alexander, the Bucks' first round pick this year. He actually grew up in China, where his dad worked, so he became fluent in Mandarin. He's also a candidate for the NBA slam dunk contest, but he has to be voted in by fans. (By the way, vote at seejoedunk.com!)

Eric made an interesting observation:

"So he's a white guy who speaks Chinese, and can dunk?"

Yeah, what a country eh?

Bucks Badinage

"Badinage" was one of those random words I learned while playing cranium... It means "banter" basically. Anyways, I'm using it as cool way to say "random thoughts."

Bucks uniform: I always thought they should go blaze orange for home and camouflage for away. Imagine how many uniforms they could sell with that combo! It totally beats the current lame logo, posted here. I guess it's always Christmas with the Bucks! (or maybe always Christmas for the Bucks opponent's offense).

Luke Ridnour: Man, he's got a really sweet running teardrop shot. Run into the lane and ease it up there before anyone can jump to block it. And he's playing really well lately. I was a big Ramon Sessions fan for a while, but Luke's doing so well even I hafta admit it's the right move.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute: What a find in the second round! A Bucks guy who plays defense? Wow. One of the downsides of watching the Bucks on the NBA cable package is you get other team's announcers sometimes. And they all say the same things... i.e he's a prince of a village in Cameroon. I guess that is pretty cool. Plus it's really fun to keep saying "Mbah a Moute."

I must admit, the team is almost bearable to watch now...

Thank god your logo doesn't look like this

Check out this logo that the Mets are using to commemorate the first year in their ballpark.

Contrast it to the best logo in all of sports (even one of my Boston Red Sox fans thinks so). BRING IT BACK!

We have a Marty Conlon sighting!

Saw this on a recent Bucks broadcast (thank goodness for the NBA League Pass!). Marty Conlon was one of those names that you could say to weed out real Bucks fans from fake ones... the real Bucks fans wouldn't be able to hold back a laugh. (Other names: Fred Roberts, Paul Mokeski, Randy Breuer. Maybe I should be a little more diverse in my choice).



Marty was actually a fan favorite... if I remember right, he had the most awkward looking jump shot where his left elbow swung straight out. But he was a dead accurate shooter.

Any other fan favorites out there? Any other names that you would throw out if I held a gun to your head and said "Prove that you're a Bucks fan?"

Trevor Hoffman... much better than Gagne!

Top 10 Reasons Why Trevor Hoffman is a Great Signing

His ERA is almost a run and a half lower than Gagne
He's $2.5-4 million cheaper than Gagne
We might actually consider offering him arbitration, and some team might actually consider signing him, so we can get a draft pick and get the next Ryan Braun
He hasn't taken HGH
He didn't STOP taking HGH
We haven't had a good closer song since "Wild Thing"
I don't hafta listen to my Red Sox fan friends laugh at me anymore for signing their garbage for $10 million
We can trade Cameron to the Yankees now
He can teach Tony Gwynn Jr how to hit pitchers other than himself
We get to see his SportsCenter commercial again

Gotta love them cookies

So one Milwaukee secret is Midwest Airlines... They have a nice flight out of Dayton, Ohio to Milwaukee (they have a hub in Milwaukee) so I can head home for the holidays for a decent price. What's the big secret? Well they serve fresh baked chocolate chip cookies right on board. You gotta love it when they give you two cookies with the chocolate chips still gooey. I usually take a nap on the flights, but I manage to stay awake on Midwest flights!

That's our Brett

Just finished watching an ESPN Sportscenter story on Thomas Jones criticizing Brett Favre... Well welcome to the Brett Favre roller coaster ride that us Packer fans all know about. He's always been the gunslinger, risk-taker type. I call it the "Brett Favre chuck and duck." He seems to be playing within himself, managing the game, we might be down, and then it's almost as if he gets bored and decides to chuck it. But dang, he was fun to watch. I'd take Brett any day over the 21 QBs the Bears went through while he was the Packer QB.

I was shocked when he announced his retirement... and then when we traded him to the Jets I refused to picture him with a Jets uniform. But I can honestly say, after a week or so, it didn't really matter anymore... Brett was just a veteran QB trying to lead another team. Plus I think Aaron Rodgers will be awesome. I'm actually tempted to get myself a Favre Jets jersey since I can probably get it pretty cheap and it'd be neat to have.


Just for fun, here's the list of QBs the Bears went through in the Favre era:

Henry Burris, Chris Chandler, Will Furrer, Brian Griese, Rex Grossman, Jim Harbaugh, Chad Hutchinson, Erik Kramer, Craig Krenzel, Dave Krieg, Shane Matthews, Cade McNown, Jim Miller, Rick Mirer, Moses Moreno, Kyle Orton, Jonathan Quinn, Steve Stenstrom, Kordell Stewart, Steve Walsh, Peter Tom Willis.

Wisconsin claim to fame: Packer bikini girls

My friend Morris has a blog where he posts about random stuff that he’s thinking about. He has no other niche or strategy, but he says he gets a few hundred readers a day. Sometimes he randomly is in the top results of certain Google searches… one of them turns out to be a posting on the Packers bikini girls. I’m happy the zaniess of fans of my hometown team can provide traffic to his blog! Looks like he’s at it again with a follow up post on the Packers bikini girls…