Zugzwang

A Death in Happy Valley

2012-01-22T11:50:00.000-06:00

So, Joe Paterno is dead. This time for sure. I was a bit surprised when both ESPN Radio and FoxSportsRadio interrupted their programming and adopted the tones one imagines Radio Moscow took when Stalin died. It was nearly Cronkite telling the nation JFK had passed.

This isn't going to be one of those bitter reflections about a man who ended a notable sporting life with a sour revelation of weakness followed by an ignominious dismissal. Nor is this going to be a mediation about what a great guy JoePa was (although there seems to be plenty of evidence to suggest he was). That's because I didn't really have a sense for the man. His teams won a lot of football games, to be sure. He seemed like an amusing and cantankerousness old dude. But, one way or the other, he didn't really move my meter like, say, his contemporary Al McGuire did. So you shouldn't take what follows as an apology for the clay feet that were revealed toward the end of Paterno's life.

It certainly does seem he should have done more to intervene when the sordid Sandusky business came to his attention. Paterno even said as much in his last weeks. But it is easy for us to sit where we do and pass judgment, confident in our minds that we would have heroically intervened and brought that reprobate to justice. Thinking that way feels very good; moral superiority will do that. And perhaps the best thing that comes of this episode is in giving us a dry run, a test case, so that if we are confronted with something similar some day we might act in a noble manner and not passively as Paterno did.

However, I don't think the taint that has come upon the now deceased coach is altogether merited. Confronted with the facts, he did was he was supposed to do. We now can look at the situation clinically and come to the verdict that he didn't do enough. That seems to be right, but in the context of the moment, I imagine things looked very different to JoePa. I mean, it's not like he ignored the matter--he kicked it upstream, as he should have. If we are honest with ourselves, many of us on our jobs would likely have done the same thing. A few of us might have done more, just as some might have looked the other way entirely. We'd all like to think we are Karen Silkwood, but few of us are.

So I don't think the scorn heaped on Paterno that so colored the coda of Jeremy Schaap's sanctimonious obit on ESPN Radio this morning was appropriate. Nor do I believe that Paterno should have gotten the boot at Penn State as the result of his actions in the Sandusky affair. (JoePa should have been eased out years ago because coaches over 80 should move on in a dignified manner to the next phase of their lives.) The saddest part of all this -- beyond the likely irreparable damage done to the abused boys -- is that his failure to live up to our idealized expectations has taken the shine off of what otherwise seems to have been a remarkable life and a noteworthy career.

Braun & The Juice

2012-01-21T14:06:00.000-06:00

Reading this fine entry at Disciples of Uecker today got me thinking about Ryan Braun and the drama that has surrounded him since ESPN leaked the story of his failed drug test. While I tend to believe Braun's contention that he didn't take a PED, I have no illusions that he won't be suspended for the first 50 games of the upcoming season. The rules on this matter are pretty clear--he had a bad test; MLB doesn't care why or what extenuating circumstances there are.

The real shame is that there seems to be a reason why 8 took whatever he took: Some unspecified "medical situation," which I suppose resulted in the high testosterone readings he pegged, might have been for a condition that may be embarrassing to disclose. Still, his suspension will paint him with the Bonds Brush and the general, rank and file MLB fan will believe Braun was juicing last season and will contend that is why he won the MVP.

I have wondered about the whole steroids in sports issue for years. I have been slow to condemn those found using because I've always had a lingering ambivalence about it. My stance has always been to joke about it, saying that I think all players should be required to go on The Needle because it would enhance their performance and, hence, provide me, the sports fan schmuck who throws down his money to watch them, with a greater degree of entertainment. But the whole Braun thing has caused me to look more closely at my feelings, to take a more serious approach to the subject. I suspect many won't like where I am on the topic right now.

It is my understanding that these drugs are illegal to use for non-medical purposes at the moment in the US. If that is right, MLB rules are meaningless as using them to enhance performance is a criminal activity and users should face prosecution (Hard Time in The Big House trumps a league suspension). But there was a time when these drugs were not illegal to use without a prescription and that might be true again someday. In those instances, I wouldn't have a problem if, in fact, every professional athlete was on them. Why not? Their chosen profession is, by definition, highly competitive. Why wouldn't they look for every edge they can? Actually doing so is, of course, stupid because using PEDs can have nasty side-effects (shrunken jewels, anyone?) including premature death. Not for me, thank you. But, then again, I would never ram my head repeatedly into piles of 300 pound men or train like a freakin' mad man in order to excel at a sport. But for those who want it that bad, who are willing to sacrifice to play their game of choice, I don't believe it is for me to say they shouldn't employ every weapon at their disposal in pursuit of their goal. As long as they are the ones bearing the consequences and are the only person they are hurting, I think they should be allowed to have at it.

I know there is an argument about how using PEDs sets a horrible example for young athletes. But I think the USS Role Model set sail long ago -- these men and women have not been exemplars for the broader society for quite some time. Kids need to be disabused of that notion -- by their families -- early on.

So if it weren't illegal to do so, I can see no reason why any player who is seeking to improve their performance shouldn't be allowed to blow up like Bruce Banner if that is their desire. Professional sports, like swimsuit modelling, is a complete freak show anyway, made up of people who aren't like you and me -- everything about their lives is alien to that of regular people (other than the fact that the Reaper will get them, too, at some point). So why pretend this is something that it's not? After all, if this is a door open to all, it certainly levels the playing field.

Rating the 2011 Brewers

2011-10-17T13:23:00.001-05:00

My friend @MilwaukeeBrian asked a number of us who follow the Brewers and write for PocketDoppler.com to offer thoughts on how the team's players fared this past season. Brian asked us to rate players on a 10 scale, with "1" being the low end; he'll add the scores and post the average score. I expect that article to appear later this week, but I thought I would breakout my takes to own my perspective aside from my colleagues:

John Axford    9.5 -- Hard not to give him a 10, but he did blow a couple of saves early.
Marco Estrada    6 -- Filled in well early when Greinke was hurt, and late when Narv cut himself. Mediocre out of pen.
Yovani Gallardo    8.5 -- Often brilliant, but also had periods when he disappeared.
Zack Greinke    8 -- Missed the opening month, took a while to get on track, then outstanding.
LaTroy Hawkins    6 -- Some good innings in low leverage relief.
Kameron Loe    5 -- Best when the stakes were low. Inconsistent.
Shaun Marcum    7.5 -- Carried the staff early, solid in the middle, crashed at the end.
Chris Narveson    6.5 -- Solid #5 starter, but a #5 for a reason.
Frankie Rodriguez   8.5 -- Nearly airtight in setting up Ax.
Takashi Saito    7.5 -- Missed a lot of time with injury, but when given the 7th inning role, usually responded.
Randy Wolf    7 -- Some bad stretches, but a plus #4 starter. Bonus points for his Game 4 NLCS start.

George Kottaras    5 -- Decent back up catcher. Wolf gives him a 10, but the rest of us see a player limited offensively and defensively.
Jonathan Lucroy    6.5 -- Is becoming a good backstop, but took a beating behind the plate that seemed to impact his offense.

Yuni Betancourt     4.5 -- Not as bad as I expected, but below average in the field & at the plate. Bonus .5 for August and playoffs.
Craig Counsell    3 -- Still gave them good defense, but it was painful to watch him hit. Thanks, CC, but it's time to retire.
Prince Fielder    9 -- The team's emotional center, played every day and produced. Subpar defense and AWOL in NLCS.
Taylor Green    4 -- Love his promise and approach, but didn't see what I thought I'd see (albeit in very limited action).
Jerry Hairston Jr.    6.5 -- Exceeded expectations as deadline acquistion. Good postseason diminished by critical errors at 3b.
Casey McGehee    3 -- Kept waiting for him to break out. He never really did. Offered little at the plate or in the field.
Rickie Weeks    8.5 -- Outstanding season ruined by injury. MKE needs more guys with Rickie's heart.


Ryan Braun    9.5 -- MVP caliber season sullied by disappearing act in NLCS. Glad he's shut up about shadows at The Keg.
Carlos Gomez    6 -- Made a real impact defensively. Plays hard. Needs to get on base more to be difference maker.
Corey Hart    7 -- Quietly had impressive offensive season. Speed all but gone. Subpar defense costly in NLCS.
Mark Kotsay    6.5 -- Some key hits, nice fill-in when Braun hurt. Defensive liability. Gave them more than I expected.
Nyjer Morgan    7.5 -- Decent defense, several big hits, better than expected offensively. Jolt of energy sometimes double-edged sword.

Zach Braddock    2 -- The talent is probably there, but it was lost in off-field emotional issues.
Frankie De La Cruz    3 -- Glad he got his shot. Hope he enjoyed it as I doubt he will be back.
Tim Dillard    3 -- He wiggled off the hook late in a tense mid-season game, otherwise I didn't see much to be excited about.
Mat Gamel    2 -- Don Money's less than glowing comments combined with consistent underperformance in MLB makes me wonder if Mat is AAAA.
Josh Wilson    3.5 -- A couple of big hits, even a little pop, mediocre defense. He didn't hurt the Brewers but I don't want him back.

Ron Roenicke 8.5 -- People are going to rag on the decision to go with Marcum in Game 6 of the NLCS. But what were the options? Narveson also got lit up that night. Starting Gallardo on three days rest after he got blasted for four in the first inning of his previous outing didn't seem any wiser. There were no good moves to make, yet he had to made a move: In other words, he was in Zugzwang, so I feel a good deal of compassion for him. However, he did lead a team that won a team record 96 games, its first NL division flag and advanced to the LCS for the first time in nearly three decades. Not bad for a first year skipper.

Doug Melvin 9 -- Bold moves to eschew trading Prince in favor of upgrading the rotation and shrewd decisions to bolster the bullpen (e.g. K-Rod, Saito) coupled with acquiring Nyjer Morgan made this stellar year for Melvin. Moreover, it also proved to be astute to deal for Jerry Hairston, Jr. But Yuni Betancourt was more often a weight around their neck than he was a benefit, and thin bench left RR with few desirable options. Still, the bottom line was very good. Melvin would certainly get the blame if the season went badly, so he should get some credit when things go well.

Sadly, the Cards in Six

2011-10-09T07:17:00.001-05:00

My distaste for the St. Louis Cardinals has been well-documented, as is my fear that STL presents a highly undesirable opponent for the Brewers in the post-season. The concerns are numerous:

The Cards surged during September to claim the NL Wild Card and have sustained their good play from the last month of the season. During that time they took five of six from MKE (in addition to taking six of nine from PHL). Not only should they beat the Crew (six seems about the right number of games given the matchups) but the Cards might ride that all the way to a World Series Championship. It's not just the Brewers flaws that will get them, it's that STL is a good team playing great ball right now.

As for the Brewers, their rotation does not seem to be in a good place. Greinke's last start (albeit on short rest) was mediocre. Gallardo battled last time out and was effective, but he struggled, and usually doesn't pitch well coming off games in which he has to labor with high stress innings. Wolf and Marcum are presently a mess. In the bullpen, their closer just blew a save and their set up guy looked to be on the brink of doing the same. Overall, the Brewers staff doesn't seem like it is ready to shut down a Cardinals team that just handled the best rotation in baseball. This is not the kind of group I want to throwing to a brutal middle of the order (plus David Freese, who appears to be emerging as a high quality hitter). Mix in a closer they can't hit (Motte) and a couple of starters who have owned them (Garcia and Carpenter, both of whom they'll see twice) and I don't think the outlook is good for MKE.

St. Louis is historically associated with the self-proclaimed "King of Beers." With a handle like that it really is no surprise that the baseball team once owned by the brewery seems to consider itself the arbiter of the game's "unwritten rules" and possessor of the sacred knowledge of "the right way to play the game." This sort of sanctimony is sickening. That is going to make the outcome of this series either completely satisfying (should I be wrong and the Brewers win) or devastatingly disheartening (should my feelings be born out). Either way, it should be good theater.

Favre on Rodgers and Packers

2011-10-08T11:14:00.000-05:00

While he has tried to back away from it, Brett Favre can't seem to get out of his own way when it comes to commenting on the Green Bay Packers and the man who replaced him at QB, Aaron Rodgers. Along the way to picking the Packers to beat the Falcons this weekend, NY Times sportswriter Mike Tanier lobbed this perfectly written bomb:

Of course, for some that turning point arrived a little late. “I’m really surprised that it kind of took him so long,” Brett Favre said of the three interminable years it took Aaron Rodgers to lead the Packers to the Super Bowl. Who knew that through all of those quasi-retirements, through his stints with the Jets and the Vikings, Favre was just impatiently waiting for Rodgers to close the deal? Favre did not sound as if he was trying to insult Rodgers — he has simply lost the ability to compliment people who are not him — but teammates and analysts have rushed to Rodgers’s defense, which he does not really need. It had been peaceful months since the last self-serving Favre rant. What took him so long?

Perhaps Favre is just misunderstood. Maybe he didn't mean to insult the Packers or their QB. Perhaps he should offer less ambiguous comments if he's asked again in the future, maybe something along the lines of "I was delighted to see my old team win the Super Bowl. Aaron played well. Their future looks bright." Heck, if he wanted to win back the hearts of the many Packers who have soured on him since he left GB, he might even make that proposed first sentence "I was delighted to see us win the Super Bowl."

Or, perhaps, the best course is simply to decline comment in the future.

It's All Good, Right?

2011-09-13T15:05:00.000-05:00

A number of bloggers are responding to an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noting how the Brewers have sucked against decent competition. For example:

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Milwaukee Brewers recent struggles | Miller Park Drunk

As it typically the case with this blog, it's a good piece. But it seems to be based on a belief that all losses are created equal -- I don't think that's the case. I didn’t expect the Brewers to win all three series v. STL and PHL, but I don’t know how anyone can be sanguine when Milwaukee played 2-8 ball over those three sets, especially when seven of those games were at home. I mean, how about going 5-5 against those teams? Not great, but a showing good enough to argue that they are on par with those clubs.

As it is, the evidence suggests that at this time the Brewers are a good team, but not one likely to have a bright playoff future. To me, no amount of cutting the season stats or shaping past outcomes is going to change the results of those recent 10 games played against good teams.

Enjoying the Ride, But Still Tentative About the Brewers

2011-08-19T14:10:00.000-05:00

I consider this to be my 43rd season as a baseball fan. While I recall going to see the Pale Hose play at old County Stadium in Milwaukee in 1968 (who forgets their first Bat Night?), I didn't really become a fan until the following season. For reasons that are unclear to me, I chose to become a Cubs fan in 1969. It might have been that the Cubs, unlike the Sox, could be seen regularly on TV in Milwaukee. Also, their radio broadcasts on WGN boomed in clearly on my mom's AM radio, allowing me to follow every game. It also could have been that the Cubs were a much better team than the White Sox.

Whatever the reason, unbeknownst to me, I had purchased a ticket on the Titantic. While that CHI team finished with 92 wins, they aren't remembered for their solid overall performance or quality of their pitching staff or their fine everyday lineup. No, that club is remembered for a monumental collapse that converted a nine game division lead on August 12 to a eight game deficit by the time the season ended just six weeks later.

And herein lies the root of my hesitation to jump out of my shoes about the seemingly commanding NL Central lead presently possessed by the Brewers, the team I cashiered the Cubs for and have followed religiously since they came to Milwaukee 42 seasons ago.

I have been taking a lot of shots (mostly good-natured) from my Twitter tweeps about my hesitation to be giddy about the Brewers current state of affairs. These guys are real students of the game, follow it closely and are extremely knowledgeable--not just about the Brewers, but about the whole professional baseball scene. However, I have at least 15 years on most of them, and that has allowed me to see stories like this unfold in ways that haven't always had a happy ending. Like @BigSnakeMan (who is just three days younger than me), I've been following the game long enough to have experienced a sudden downpour on an otherwise sunny day. In other words, I've seen my team cash in a nine game lead at this time of the year and exchange it for an eight game deficit by season's end. I've seen how a five game winning streak can be immediately followed by losing 11 of the next 13, dropping my team out of the lead and leaving it listing.

I realize that the projections show the Brewers have a better than 90% chance of making it to the post-season. I know that Rickie Weeks is making progress with his ankle injury and will probably be back in the Brewers lineup early next month (just when the team will also be able to bring on some minor league reinforcements when the rosters expand). By then, Chris Narveson will also be back in the rotation and Carlos Gomez will be available to provide defensive help and pinch run in close and late situations. All that is good. But it is hard for me to get too revved up just yet. After all, the Cubs were seven games up on the Mets in the NL East after 125 games in 1969. Interestingly, after 125 games this year the Brewers are 6.5 games up heading into tonight's match up against, of all teams, the Mets. Fortunately, NY won't be sending Tom Seaver to the mound during this series.

What Boehner Can Learn From Radical Extremists

2011-08-08T14:18:00.000-05:00

Lane Wallace wrote an excellent piece on The Atlantic's blog today about her experience attending a conference of former ideological zealots. While I encourage people to read her entire post, I'm highlighting what I believe to be the salient points below:

The former extremists at the Google summit had all walked some very difficult roads of hope, anger, naivete, disillusionment, regret, learning, and growth to get where they are today. But many of them spoke of initially being attracted to an ideology that seemed both simple and clear, and which seemed to provide answers to not only how the world was, but also how to fix it. They were young and idealistic. And there is, they acknowledged, a great appeal to simple, black-and-white approaches that reduce messy complexity to something more manageable, with a clear and "simple" fix.

Both the Colombian rebels and the Islamist jihadists had seen real problems and injustices around them and had initially joined activist or resistance groups in the hopes of creating a more fair and better society. That those ideologies were over-simplistic and naive was a problem, of course. But the real problem, many of them now say, was not the ideologies themselves, but when those ideologies became both rigid and sacred. Or when the ideology became not a means to an end, but an end in of itself; a sacred idol that had to be preserved, intact and uncompromising, at all costs.

Ideology can be a very helpful in organizing people around a shared set of values or beliefs. And as a starting point, it can be very positive tool. But when any group, whether it's a righteous freshman class of Tea Party diehards or any other offspring of a political or social movement, become not only rigid in their thinking, but also willing to risk recklessly for the sake of keeping their ideological underpinnings intact, we should worry. Because ideology, especially in a democracy made up of differing constituencies and viewpoints, should only be a starting point. When it becomes something more rigid than that, it starts to become dangerous.

Pope Ted the Assassin

2011-07-30T10:30:00.004-05:00

I think it's safe to say that Packers fans found the team's Super Bowl victory over the Steelers last February to be satisfying. For me, there remains a warm glow to this day. But in the wake of the sweet victory there emerged another level of satisfaction for those of us who were patient with Packers General Manager Ted Thompson, who gave him the benefit of the doubt when his personnel moves seemed shaky (or, sometimes, downright puzzling). I cannot say that I always agreed with everything TT did in building the team, but I recognized that my view of things was distant and far less refined that his.

As Ted went about recasting the team with draft choices almost to the exclusion of any free agents, I willingly suspended my disbelief, characterizing Ted's bland and somewhat distant public persona not as that of a nonplussed doofus, but rather glossed him a "steely-eyed assassin." Whether or not I really believed that is less important than the fun Dave and I had with it on the Packers Therapy podcast. The point is, I always believed that Ted, as a professional personnel guy had a much better viewpoint of these matters than any fan, regardless of how engaged and passionate that fan might be about the team. I wanted to introduce the possibility that the way Ted might appear in front of a camera or microphone wasn't necessarily a sign that he was asleep at the switch, and so the "Steely-eyed Assassin" was born.

However, now that Ted and his methods have been vindicated with a Lombardi Trophy, I am seeing a different bias about Thompson emerging among some bloggers and a number of the Twitterati: the notion that the championship won last season puts Thompson above criticism. Ted has been doing what Ted does during the first days of the new league season--coolly cutting vets, clearing cap space, not signing free agents and eschewing all but a select few of is own team's free agents. Now, I will be the first to say that Ted is probably making most of the right moves; his track record would suggest that he knows what he's doing. However, I don't believe Ted has donned a papal mitre and is speaking ex cathedra on these matters (to the extent he speaks at all, of course). He's earned a good deal of grace, but not to the extent of infallibility.

Besides, just as Ted is doing what Ted does, it should be remembered that fans are just doing what fans do: Second guessing the management of one's favorite teams is our lingua franca. Certainly, it is the mother's milk of bloggers, podcasters and tweeters. How much fun would it be to be a fan if the judgement of the people who ran our teams was deemed so sacred that we couldn't debate the value of resigning Nick Barnett or James Jones?

So it would be nice if those people who are dismissing commentators who dare to question moves TT has made (or suggest hopes for moves unmade) would stop with their "Don't question Ted because he's been proven right" takes. Thompson might have a Super Bowl ring, but the Steely-eyed Assassin does not wear the Ring of the Fisherman.

Country Joe McDonald: Manic Depressive

2011-07-22T18:19:00.000-05:00

"Breakfast for Two" by Country Joe McDonald has an excellent, smooth vibe. (If you doubt me, you can hear it here.) It's either the hottest song this side of Heart's "Crazy on You" or it is the most delicious love song to over-eating ever recorded, the sort of thing you might imagine Joey Chestnut and Kobayashi listening to on a date:

We went out to dinner
Boy, what an appetite
We just couldn't stop eating
We stayed up most of the night

And after three or four hours
Our stomachs began to hurt
But everything tasted so good
We didn't stop until after dessert

[CHORUS]

Ooh la la, breakfast for two
Ooh la la, you got me and I got you

I've eaten in Italy
Yes, I've eaten in Spain
I must admit I'd be licking my lips
If I ever was to eat there again

But last night at dinner
You really, really blew my mind
The way we supped just filled me up
I think about food all of the time

Anyway, in hearing the song today, I was struck by this jarring lyric affixed onto the end of this otherwise hedonistically sensual song:

People always come up to me
They say, hey, man
How about a little smile
Don't take life so seriously
Lighten up for a little while

I say that a man's a fool
If he don't know how to cry
When I get down, I sure get down
But when I'm up, I know how to fly

Whoa, dude! I mean, WTF? How does that possibly follow the eating metaphor you hooked me on? All that "excuse me whilst I loosen my collar because it's suddenly hot in here" tastiness suddenly detouring to "oh, yeah, I have bi-polar disorder" is clearly a mood killer, Joe. Hit that with some Lithium and get back in the studio and take another run at what otherwise is a sumptuous song.

This is Still Killing Me

2011-07-15T10:53:00.000-05:00

My recent post about the AMC TV show "The Killing" has clearly displayed that I am at odds with many of my fellows when it comes to my feelings about the show. I was ready to put that aside until my Twitter buddy Kenn posted this piece today.

Reading this article, which questions the premise of Clark Kent's employment, reminds me of the arguments surrounding The Killing. Obviously, the point of the Superman story is lost if one questions too deeply--it's for fun, surprises, thrills and entertainment because it is, well, just a story. But as I was reading this article, which is obviously tongue-in-cheek, it occurred to me that we hold so many bits of entertainment up to the mirror of reality these days--it's how we're taught to consume things, we measure them against our understanding of truth and validity.

I wonder if the idea of Superman would have ever taken off (pardon the pun) if it was hatched today? Perhaps something so implausible would be dismissed out of hand for something more real. In fact, as you look at the recent takes on Batman you can see a lot of the magic as been removed in favor of what appears to be a more gritty reality. I get that re-interpretation as it is a reflection of contemporary expectations. However, I fear something is lost in translation and media consumers are missing out on a lot of the fun that the earlier versions provided.

Some will argue that Superman was a comic book, so all bets are off. Well, I would note that Superman was also a TV show (several, in fact) and a series of movies. So it wasn't just a comic book. I would even go so far as to suggest the popular understanding of the Superman story is shaped more by the TV shows and movie interpretations.

To reiterate, I am not a huge fan of The Killing. I like it and will continue to watch it, but it's no Six Feet Under or The Wire. Heck, it's not even Rubicon. But there just seems to be something wrong when we evaluate an artifact based on what we think it should be rather than examine it for what it is, taking it on its own terms.

Said another way, I like allow the storyteller the room to tell their story. But if you don't give them some leash and go with them for a while, you will never get the payoff that is intended.

For instance, Field of Dreams is one of my favorite movies. The denouement still makes me shiver. And I feel this way even though I remain appalled that they allowed Ray Liota to swing the bat right handed!!!! Argh -- Joe Jackson hit LEFT HANDED. How could they do this? Seeing that was like a fork in my eye. But I suspended my disbelief and was glad I did because I still get chills when I hear James Earl Jones' "People will come, Ray" monologue. I would never be irked that a movie that starts off about a struggling family farm veered so suddenly into fantasy about long dead ballplayers reappearing from a corn field and that somehow saves the farm. It's ridiculous, but its entertainment, a nostalgic story about magic, totally implausible, yet completely enjoyable. So powerful that I have seen the film at least five times and have even visited that farm to see the diamond in the middle of a corn field. The factual problems of the film, while very real, don't detract from my enjoyment and appreciation because I went with the premise and enjoyed the payoff.

Not a CC Reprise

2011-07-13T16:52:00.000-05:00

Pardon my skepticism about the Brewers move to acquire Francisco Rodriguez. In the wake of the largely positive response to the deal from most fans and writers, my enthusiasm is tempered. As more and more details of the trade seep out, I am cheered to learn that this does not appear to be another desperate grasp for a reliever, a move Doug Melvin made in 2007 when he reached for Scott Linebrink. Milwaukee ended up getting 25 innings of slightly above average pitching (3.55 ERA/1.5 WHIP) in exchange for three minor league pitchers. While two of those guys have been hurt and not seen the majors, the third -- Joe Thatcher -- gave San Diego 126 good innings (3.27 ERA/1.255 WHIP) over the past four years before getting hurt. While early indications are that this isn't going to be that kind of deal, I am not without concerns:

The fact is, K-Rod has not been that good this season, at least relative to the shutdown guy he was with the Angels. After an terrible month of June, he has a 3.16 ERA, which is fine, and he's converted 88% of his saves, which is good. But a WHIP 1.4+ is not what you want from a back-end of the pen guy. Moreover, as Jim at Bernie's Crew notes, K-Rod has been losing steam on his once-upon-a-time 98 MPH heater. At 29 I'd like not to think Frankie is not in full decline, but the statistical trends are not encouraging.

Of course, the future really shouldn't matter because I can't see K-Rod being in MKE beyond the end of this season. The only way that happens is if Rodriguez somehow finishes out 21 games, thus vesting his $17.5MM option for 2012. If that happens for reasons other than an injury to John Axford, I might finally join the "Fire Ron Roenicke" crowd. Simply put, that is one poison pill the Brewers simply cannot swallow.

So that puts K-Rod into the ever-popular role of Eighth Inning Guy, and that is another of my concerns. Already, Scott Boras, Frankie's new agent, has said: "Do you want an unhappy setup man in your clubhouse?" (He could have added, "...particularly a guy who punched out his girlfriend's father near there last year.") On this score, Jon Heyman, writing for SI, offered this:

Rodriguez's position now is that he wants to stay as a closer. "He's a closer, he's one of the game's best closers,'' Rodriguez's new agent, Scott Boras, said before the trade to Milwaukee was consummated. "And he wants to remain a closer.'' Brewers GM Doug Melvin made the trade before checking with K-Rod, but Boras and Melvin spoke about the subject shortly after the trade. Boras made the case that K-Rod should close, suggesting he wouldn't do nearly as well setting up, while Melvin apparently made no commitment, suggesting only that things "will work out,'' or words to that effect. This is something the Brewers may need to work on to make it work out. Because while K-Rod has behaved impeccably all year, he has a bit of a reputation, and a player close to him said, "You don't want him unhappy.''

At least John Axford is tweeting tidings of good will about the transaction and, welcoming K-Rod with (seemingly) open arms. So I guess this could be worse.

On the plus side, Brewers fans can feel good about the commitment to winning displayed by the team's ownership and management. Even if they don't reach the post-season and this move is stamped as a failure, fans know that the Brewers truly have gone balls-out during Prince Fielder's last year with the club. That should keep the turnstiles spinning for at least another season.

So the Brewers have added a good arm, although not one as good as it once was, to the back of their bullpen, shoring up one of the teams soft areas. It's a deal that has reportedly given them enough cash to cut in half their exposure on the remainder of Rodriguez's 2011 salary + $3.5MM buyout -- that makes the deal affordable. And based on Doug Melvin's comments at today's presser, it doesn't sound as if the two Players to be Named Later are going to thin an already lean farm system. So it's not all bad.

To be clear, don't mistake my jaundiced eye for disapproval: I'm not down on this trade as much as I am simply not excited about it; there are too many holes to make it anything like the CC Sabathia deal in 2008. Besides, just as "Charlie don't surf," Frankie don't play short. If Milwaukee can find a upgrade there to go with the potential of an improved bullpen, I might be more enthusiastic.

Missing the Point on "The Killing"

2011-07-11T13:11:00.000-05:00

The AV Club looked back the the just-concluded first season of the AMC drama "The Killing" and had some significant problems with the show. Meredith Blake makes some good points here, but also some that are, in my judgment, not so good because I think they misconstrue the intent of the show.

While I liked the ambiguity of the season finale, I will concede that I seized upon a number of things noted in the article myself while watching. But in the end I didn't really see the program as a "police procedural" in the way that CSI or Law & Order are, so the plot holes didn't bother me in the same way. I view The Killing as less about the details and nuance of criminal investigation and more like a soap opera where the unpredictable (and far fetched) twists and turns are the point. I think Blake's comparison of the show to Twin Peaks was valid:

This episode once again invited (negative) comparisons to Twin Peaks which, like The Killing, ended its first episode without revealing the identity of Laura Palmer’s killer. Frustrated viewers abandoned the show in its second season, then ran for the hills once the mystery was solved. What I’m wondering is, will anyone watch The Killing next season?

I certainly will, just as I stuck with Twin Peaks. The same thing is true of both shows: It's not so much about the crime and the march to justice as it is about the adventure of the journey. Twin Peaks, to me, was an absurdist comedy, not a cop show. In a similar way, The Killing is less a cop show than it is a thriller, a program more concerned with surprising the viewer than with the details of police investigation. Given that, my suspension of disbelief was broader, taking it out of the context of a standard "who-done-it" and putting in a different class of entertainment. Viewing "The Killing" through the same lens as Blake would be like watching Psych or Monk as procedurals--that isn't the point of those programs and, I think, neither is that the truest intent of The Killing.

Brewers at the Break

2011-07-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

The Brewers cruise into the All Star Break in a first place tie with STL, only the third time in their history they've been in such a lofty perch at this point in the season. They finished strong by taking three of four from division rival CIN...and doing it without all-star LF Ryan Braun. So all is good, right?

What tempers my enthusiasm for the Crew winning four of the last five is the tentative nature of the wins, particularly the three v. the Reds, all of which were by a single run. They needed furious bottom of the ninth rallies to win two of those games; that was great theater and highly entertaining, but one might say they were lucky to win.

Even with the strong close to the first half, Milwaukee is just six over in what appears to be a wide-open NL Central. Following the break they begin a brutal stretch, facing what could be a season-determining 11 game road trip starting on Thursday night. While the Brewers have the best home record in baseball, they face the top three teams in the NL West -- AZ, CO and SF -- all away from Miller Park. The road has not been kind to the Crew this season as they've posted just 16 wins and won only 36% of their games.

It says here the Brewers will need to win five of those 11 roadies. If they can do that, they return home five above sea level and probably still in the race with the worst part of their schedule behind them--that should be good enough to give them a chance to reach the post season. But if they pull some sort of 3-8 pratfall, I won't like their chances going forward.

Is Casey McGehee on the JJ Hardy Track?

2011-07-01T09:06:00.000-05:00

Casey McGehee is having a miserable season for the Milwaukee Brewers. Posting a .586 OPS during the first half of this season (for a nifty OPS+ of 61) is down in the dreaded Bettancourt Zone of Horrid Production. Casey's bad half season cannot be sugar-coated, and I won't try to here. In fact, things have gotten so bad that some observers are suggesting it's time to send Casey down to Nashville (and not so that he can enjoy a fine array of Country Music).

The turmoil with McGehee reminds me of the Last Days of JJ Hardy (which sounds like the title of a major motion picture). You will recall JJ's struggles in 2009 were so hard that he was sent to AAA for a stint. Following the season, Doug Melvin moved quickly -- some would say irrationally -- and dealt JJ to MN for Carlos Gomez, giving the SS position to Alcides Escobar. It was a stunning move, weakening two positions simultaneously, leaving a lingering stench. As a result, the Brewers are still looking to replace Hardy at short.

The move to Escobar made sense based on AE's good minor league numbers and his play during the period in which JJ was sent down. But it didn't pan out that way in 2010: In terms of WAR (Wins Against Replacement), all AE could muster was a rather limp 0.9; Hardy was at 2.5. JJ's OPS was a full .100 points higher (.714 v. .614).

Defense was supposed to be where Escobar made the difference, but the stats show that the much maligned Hardy was actually the better defender. AE committed 20 errors and logged a .964 fielding percentage; JJ played in fewer games (100 v. 138) but committed just 11 errors and had a .976 fielding percentage. But those fielding stats are not accepted by a lot of fans these days. They prefer UZR (ultimate zone rating), and even on that account JJ was better in 2010: 8.1 v. 3.8.

So we can see that Hardy was the better overall player than Escobar in 2010 and, by extension, it is clear to me that they made a mistake by trading JJ so quickly after a down season. This year's performance, in which Hardy is rocking a .903 OPS while Escobar is languishing at .598, only underscores that proposition.

That brings us back to Casey McGehee, who seems to be this year's JJ Hardy, in that he has followed up two fine offensive seasons with the aforementioned Half-Season of Stink. This year the cry is for promising Taylor Green who is ripping it up down in Nashville. Actually, I am not against giving the kid a try at third to see what he can do while Casey tries to find himself at AAA (McGehee certainly seems to need a full system reset right now).

What I wouldn't do, however, is put too much stock in Green's performance as they did with Escobar. I wouldn't lose sight of the fact that McGehee has actually produced Big Boy numbers at the MLB level over two full seasons. I wouldn't let my head be turned by a few weeks of good performance by a young player and act impetuously as they did with Hardy. I realize most fans have had enough of Casey and want him gone, but my hope is that Doug Melvin would not repeat the Hardy/Escobar mistake and proceed in a more measured fashion this time.

Why doesn't Fielder lose weight?

2011-06-25T11:32:00.001-05:00

I came across this question posted in the post game comments section related to the Brewers 4-3 over the Twins last night. It's a question/comment I see offered frequently by fans of teams playing Milwaukee. Lots of fat jokes and outdated takes about Prince's girth. I've been responding to these jabs via Twitter, but I took the long-form route today when replying to "JasonCG" who, apparently, lives in Forest Lake, MN:

Prince appears to be trimmer this year than in the recent past, possibly eating more celery now to gain more salary in a few months. Having observed nearly every Brewers game this season, I can tell you that he also seems more agile and athletic this season, although he has always moved well for a guy his size.

That aside, I think it is important to note that Prince has lost weight from his teen years when (reportedly) he was pushing three bills. It is possible that given his genetic pool, he is at or near the best shape he can be in.

Whether or not that genetic disposition will hurt him at the bargaining table this winter remains to be seen. But someone will pay him Serious Jack regardless of his body type, and that very likely will be someone other than Milwaukee. Of course, this could be something of a blessing for the Brewers because the chances of Prince performing at his present level or near it for the length of the seven or eight year deal he will probably sign are slim, something Prince will almost certainly never be. And that makes him a risk and a luxury a franchise like Milwaukee cannot afford.

Be that as it may, I am one Brewers fan who will miss the guy. He's been good for the team, both on and off the field.

Another peeve of mine is the incessant and out-of-date statements about the Twins payroll. Fact is, the Twins payroll is the ninth largest in MLB this year, $27MM larger than Milwaukee's (the Crew is ranked 16th). Moreover, the Twins opening day payroll was significantly larger than the Brewers in 2010, too. While that hasn't always been the case, for some reason people (and I am looking at you, Mike Heller & Company on WTSO's afternoon show) keep holding on to what was true two years ago even though it is no longer the case.

Your Album Station

2011-06-18T12:03:00.000-05:00

College radio changed my life.

The three intense years I spent at WWSP-FM at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point were among the most enriching of my life, helping me acquire skills, both personal and professional, that were every bit as important as what I learned in the classrooms around campus. So it was with admiration and a certain delight that I read this article, Preserving College Radio, in the New York Times. One quote rang especially true for me:

"There’s a false but widespread image of college radio as a pointless, narcissistic exercise — that it’s nothing more than a crew of campus oddballs who like playing D.J., even though no one is listening.

WRVU demonstrated how wrong that image is. Not only did it command respect and interest on campus, but, thanks to a longstanding and farsighted policy, it allowed and encouraged members of the off-campus community to volunteer as D.J.’s — and so drew on the rich cultural heritage of Music City U.S.A. as well."

I am not sure if WWSP filled the sort of local niche in Stevens Point that WRVU apparently did (and does) in Nashville. Although the huge trivia contest we did every year (and still is going strong 30 years later) certainly engaged the local population. And that 54 hour spring ritual has been driven by station staff in collaboration with a local teacher and business owner who started as a community volunteer at 90FM, so there are examples of significant ways in which the station meant more to the town than just being a source of navel gazing for students. But even at that level, WWSP ("Your Album Station") filled a niche on the local airwaves, playing music and covering news/sports that were not available elsewhere on the dial.

I don't know if my experience there is indicative of the majority of student workers who passed through the studios of 90FM over the past 40 years. But the many things I did there were significant in shaping what has become of my life. Of course I played records there back in the late '70s/early '80s -- and that was, indeed, fun. But I also learned to write news copy and figured out how to present it effectively on the air. That led directly to a job in news at the local commercial station, first as a part-timer during school and later as a full-time "news editor" after graduation. Little did I know then that all that writing, which sprang from learning to ask good questions and listen carefully to replies, and all that time spent learning how to smoothly and powerfully present that material, would be the perfect training for my career in fundraising. The development profession is all about building relationships, and the ability to speak and write clearly and affectively, is at the core.

I also served as station manager for a summer and as program director for an academic year while at 90FM. These were my first tastes of management, and with it came the challenges of hiring, firing and coaching staff, representing the organization to outside constituencies; creating a programmatic vision, with procedures, guidelines and standards that would define success; and a chance to learn about my shortcomings and blindspots by making mistakes. It was my first taste of leadership and management training, done on the job in an environment that was stimulating yet safe. It perfectly augmented my classroom college education, giving practical substance to the academic program. On my way to a senior leadership position at my organization, I've been through many training programs, but none finer that those 12 months in those two roles at 90FM.

But there is another element at play, one that might be of even greater value at some level. I was in college at a time when fraternities and sororities were, generally, in a period of decline. Membership wasn't as cool as it once might have been (and perhaps is once again). So having a place like the campus radio station filled for me a much needed place of social connection, a place to hang out with like-minded people, to learn about life from those who weren't from your hometown, to find companions to share the load of a journey through a challenging and, at times, tumultuous period of personal development. In short, I made good friends at 90FM, I was exposed to all sorts new and different things and ideas -- it was a place where, on a human level, I grew up.

So it's no surprise that when I receive those periodic calls from my alma mater, I designate my gifts to support the ongoing program at WWSP. It is important to me that 90FM remain student run because that is where the value to students truly is, even if they get there by playing a stack of their favorite CDs.

Portrait of the Artist While Seated

2011-05-18T14:44:00.001-05:00

CyMek, designer of the Packers Therapy logo (which can be seen on the right side of this blog page), recently had a showing of his work at Cornell College. While the show, glossed Stochastic Resonance, is now closed, I wanted to share some of his work here (as I have done on earlier occasions in this blog).

First, here's how the show was described in a news release:

"...a collection of digital collages displayed on posters and televisions, which expose the fundamental dissonance underlying most everyday situations. Each work is intended to contradict itself and break preconceived notions of what it means to be right, inspiring thought instead of doctrines."

Here's a walk through his show, illustrating how the photo collage poster images were mixed with video:

The closing frames of the video are where this blog post gets its name.

Finally, a closer look at some of the images featured in the show:

Tiger Can Still Catch Jack

2011-05-17T09:54:00.004-05:00

Tiger Woods' withdrawal from TPC at Sawgrass last week has many commentators suggesting his career is cycling down and that it is now unlikely he will catch, let-alone surpass, Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 professional major championships. I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Tiger's chances going forward.

Certainly, years of taking that aggressive slash he calls a swing has taken a toll on Woods' body. He has already had multiple knee surgeries, and he's been dealing with other assorted leg injuries. That's not unusual for golfers as they age; Nicklaus also battled injuries as he grew older, and he was never the physical specimen that Woods' is.

Tiger is now 35; Jack was winning majors until he was 46. So that should give Woods 42 chances to win five more to exceed Nicklaus' standard. It won't be easy given the new generation of fine players on the rise. But it should also be noted that Jack won six of his 18 majors after he turned 35, so I don't think it is out of the question that Woods could do the same.

The Graduation Ceremony

2011-05-16T15:10:00.000-05:00

Very glad to see Joseph Arthur's upcoming release getting a lot of note around the Internet. This bit is from American Songwriter:

"Singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur’s new album, The Graduation Ceremony, is currently streaming on NPR Music ahead of its May 24 release date. It’s his first solo album since 2006’s Nuclear Daydream, and the followup to and follow up to Fistful of Mercy, his 2010 collaboration with Ben Harper and Dhani Harrison. Beginning June 12, Arthur will perform for ten straight nights at The Living Room in New York City. He’ll also be performing at Pearl Jam’s 20th Anniversary Festival on Labor Day weekend in East Troy, Wisconsin, on a bill which will also feature Queens of the Stone Age, Mudhoney, Glenn Hansard and the Strokes."

Given the rest of the bill, I doubt I will be going to Alpine Valley to see Joseph. But if he will also be playing solo at a club or other venue in Milwaukee or Madison, I'll be there. At the moment, Arthur is touring in France and Germany, so I will fill the gap by downloading The Graduation Ceremony.

Two Shots to the Face

2011-05-04T02:11:00.000-05:00

That's how SEAL Team Six took down Osama bin Laden. The accounts of the raid on his comfortable retirement home just outside of Islamabad are simultaneously chilling, awesome and, ultimately, sobering. I am among those who can't get with the mobs who broke out in celebration when word of bin Laden's death was announced--Osama was a bad actor, but he was also a human being. Somehow cheering a man's execution seemed...wrong. To me it brought back too many memories of my disgust 10 years ago seeing people in parts of the Middle East shooting guns in the air and whooping it up in the wake of 9/11. I was appalled then, so I wasn't going to join that company now.

I shared the article linked above with a couple of people who are very close to me and I received thoughtful replies, comments so worth considering that I feel it necessary to quote them here:

Like you, I would prefer to see the 'flag-waving' kept to a minimum. I realize there was an imperative to bring Bin Laden to 'justice' and therefore what was done needed to be done. But I can't look at this as anything to be exalted or celebrated. As I listened to POTUS recall the innocent lives lost on 9/11, I couldn't help but wonder about the other innocent lives lost over the course of the last 10 years as a result of U.S. operations in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The unfortunate side effect of the "war on terror" is the idea that non-American lives somehow have less value than those of Americans. It is that kind of thinking that will continue to make American interests the target of terrorist campaigns.

I also find laughable the notion that this somehow sends a message to our enemies. If such a message were delivered, it would be lost on those for whom it was intended, especially 10 years after the fact. As 'victories' go, this one is hollow and probably short-lived. The fact that they supposedly found bin Laden in a fortified mansion (as opposed to some Afghan cave) suggests that he had already been marginalized as a terrorist threat. I don't believe for a second that the demise of bin Laden makes the world any safer and quite possibly could have the opposite effect in essentially making him a martyr for the 'cause'.

Indeed: Killing bin Laden is no more likely to end world terrorism than killing John Dillinger ended crime in America.

From a bit different perspective, another correspondent writes:

Certainly the element in Washington is a symptom of a larger attitude that finds satisfaction in revenge. But I think cheering for the destruction of state enemies is never something we have been immune from. Think of all the tyrants and dictators opposed to this country throughout the years- I doubt news of the death of Stalin, Hitler, or jung-Il at American hands would have been greeted with less schadenfreude.

What I do think is regrettable is that there was no way to bring to bear a more "civilized" form of judgment in a court setting.

I also think much of the reaction we are seeing comes from a disaffected public looking for some validation of this last lost decade. Certainly the Global War on Terror was conceived hastily and without much planning ... is the second most important event in the past ten years (after the financial crisis). Because of the haphazard and poorly conceived nature of that ongoing conflict, we have invested trillions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of lives, and an inconceivable amount political good will abroad, and for what? A democratic Iraq still suffering the aftershocks of civil war seems to be the only visible if not tangible sign of "progress" for the American public that saw its future mortgaged in costly global pursuit of an amorphous enemy. Even if we are honest and acknowledge that we destroyed only the face of that enemy without changing the larger nature of the conflict with the many who harbour disputes against the US, the tangibility of our "progress" makes the reaction from our citizenry very understandable. At least we have at long last, as Bush said days after 9/11, the "measurable progress" we wanted in reaction to the tragedies of that day. The problem is, as John Hall said, that when you allow your objective, your ends, to be progress itself you often find yourself fighting an incremental conflict that ends up pulling you deeper and deeper into irrational conflict.

As I reflect on these thoughts with Easter just past, it occurs to me that Christian teaching would contend that Jesus died on the cross for Osama bin Laden just the same way he died for Mother Teresa and Rev. King. That notion makes it exceedingly difficult for me to cheer ObL taking two to the face.

Inside the Philly Phanatic's Dome

2011-04-23T09:28:00.001-05:00

The Sklar Brothers were in for Jim Rome yesterday, which is "must listen" radio for me. Randy and Jason didn't disappoint.

There might have been something incongruent about listening to the brothers shtick on the way to Good Friday services, but it somehow seemed perfect when they relayed the story of a guy who got the Philly Phanatic to attend his Bar Mitzvah. For some reason dude in the costume popped off the head, revealing the smell of "Doritos, whiskey...and broken dreams."

I am not sure why, but for me this was the prefect preamble for three hours of reflection on injustice, betrayal, torture, death, sin and eternity.

A Holy Thursday

2011-04-22T10:30:00.001-05:00

Somewhere along Havey Road, Jesus washed my feet
And when he gave me absolution
I'll be damned if it wasn't Pete Townshend
Singing "A Quick One" coda

Before my eyes were dry
Christ was gone, on his way to other feet:
The hipster sipping a latte at Starbucks
The pastor jacking off in the sacristy
The banker betting against his clients
That dick who cut me off downtown
And the dude who turned Of Montreal
Into shills for Outback Steakhouse

Somewhere a tumor grows in a bladder undetected
While wire holding an anniverary picture slips its nail
I'm still walking that hill on Havey Road
Decoding images in a gray Lenten sky

The Flawed Dustin Johnson

2011-04-03T21:15:00.000-05:00

SI's Alan Shipnuck wrote an fine profile of PGAer Dustin Johnson that I think is worth checking out. One of the best moments in the article:

The most treasured correspondence Johnson has received came in the wake of the PGA Championship fiasco. It was from Byron Nelson's widow, Peggy. "You handled the situation at the PGA in such a wonderfully gentlemanly, sportsmanlike way," she wrote. "Byron would have been proud of you. I'm still seething with righteous indignation." She also included a $300 check, passing on a debt of gratitude that extends back to the 1939 Hershey Open. As Peggy explained in the letter, Byron was leading that tournament when he piped a seemingly perfect drive to the blind 15th fairway. Inexplicably the ball could not be found, even after a long search by the gallery. Nelson was forced to declare the ball lost and re-tee, eating the two strokes that ultimately sent him skidding to fourth place. Weeks later an anonymous letter arrived, in which a remorseful fan said that his lady friend had cluelessly picked up the ball and put it in her purse, which the letter writer didn't discover until the train ride home. Included was a check for $300, the difference between first- and fourth-place money. "It's a pretty cool story," says Johnson, with typical understatement.

I have been following Johnson since witnessing him give back the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits last August. I spent most of the day near the 17th Green with my buddy Mike (@BigSnakeMan). When Johnson and the final group came through we watched Johnson lingering for what seemed like an hour on the 18th tee. The article doesn't portray him as a tense guy, but he certainly looked tight as he waited. And the drive he pushed badly right seemed to support that theory. The tough penalty he took while hitting from the "hazard" made him a sympathetic figure to me. The right call was made, but I never thought it was just.

Mike makes the point that Johnson comes off as a slacker in the article and I can't disagree. But to me he also comes off a bit like a young Fred Couples -- digs sports, seems cool, likes chillin'. Those traits attracted me to Freddie, and the same applies to Johnson. However, like Couples, Dustin doesn't seem to work his game and might ultimately wear the "underachiever" tag like Fred has. That would be a shame, but I will likely follow him down that road. linked as we are by those few minutes at the Straits last summer.

A Celebration of Day 2

2011-04-02T08:10:00.000-05:00

Required reading for baseball fans from one of the finest observers of the game:

Joe Blogs: A Celebration of Day 2:

"Opening Day is about hope ... beautiful, glorious and irrational hope. And second days are about the slow and irretrievable loss of that hope. Opening Day is about being young. And Day 2 is about getting old. Stadiums in many places are now half-filled ... no child gets to skip school to catch the SECOND game of the season. The lifers remain. Scorecards are creased and smeared and abandoned by the fourth inning. The drumbeat sounds. The long march of the season begins. The three-hit first day, in the slow and sure way of inevitability, morphs into that .263 batting that was preordained by the martial law of 600 plate appearances. The flawed teams begin their steady descent into the standings."

Why I'm Supporting the Billionaires v. the Millionaires

2011-03-08T13:41:00.000-06:00

When it comes to the labor dispute between the NFL players and team owners, I am supporting the latter. It's not because I am a shill for management who hates the working man; in fact, this stance makes me uncomfortable at a visceral level. However, I am supporting the owners because players come and go while ownership largely stays around for an extended stretch. I guess when it comes right down to it I am supporting ownership because I care about my team and what is good for it more than I care about what is good for the transient group that are players.

I am unmoved by the fact that player careers in the NFL last only a few years. Yeah, it sucks that they can only pull down mid-six-figure salaries for an average of three and a half years. NFL minimums in those three-plus seasons would amount to about $1.2MM--not bad for a first job out of college. Hell, if they lasted just one year in the NFL, they still earn $325K for that season. I think that would be enough to get most people off to a good start in life, particularly when most players had their education paid for and are positioned to cash in on their athletic exploits as they enter the regular work force.

I am no fan of many of the guys that own NFL teams. Frankly, a lot of them seem pretty slimy. But for better or worse, owners represent the teams and, collectively, the league: as a fan, the health of those organisms matter more to me than the employment issues facing a highly paid work force. So just as I don't care what kind of guy Steve Jobs is when I buy an iPad, I don't care what sort of labor issues Apple has to overcome in order to keep producing iPods and iPhones. In the same way, I just want the Packers to remain financially healthy enough to be able to compete on Sundays in the fall; whatever the league's owners have to do assure that is fine with me.

Is that fair to the players? Maybe not, but it seems they are getting well compensated for the "injustice" they face. I would tend to care more about how Apple is dealing with its employees -- a group I am guessing is largely ununionized and compensated at a much lower level than NFL players. But, in all honesty, I don't think about them when I fire up iTunes; I just want the software to work. I feel pretty much the same when it comes to the NFL labor dispute.

Wisconsin Budget Crisis Solved: Sell the Green Bay Packers

2011-02-22T13:33:00.001-06:00

Finally, a reasonable solution to the Wisconsin budget crisis:

"Walker could start by selling the Green Bay Packers. Decades after Akron and Pottsville and Kenosha dropped out of the football business, Green Bay is still, somehow, in possession of an NFL team. It makes no sense. An outdated system of socialized public ownership has enabled an obscure small city to occupy a place in pro sports that by all economic logic should go to a wealthy metropolis.

The average estimated value of an NFL team is already more than $1 billion, but the sale of the Packers should be worth far, far more than that. They are the league's reigning champion, with a stellar young quarterback. If the team were to be condemned and put on the open market, it would be the object of a bidding war, with would-be buyers unrestricted by location. The sales price might even clear the $1.8 billion estimated value of the Dallas Cowboys—eliminating more than half of Wisconsin's budget shortfall instantly."

Validating Bo

2011-02-13T03:38:00.000-06:00

The conversation took me back more than 10 years, to the Spring of 2000. Listening to Madison sports talk on the way home from work on Friday the question was being debated: Does Wisconsin Basketball Coach Bo Ryan need to take a team to the Final Four in order to validate his career? I found the question jarring, but having heard similar talk about Dick Bennett 11 years ago, I chuckled this time instead of being irked like I was a decade ago.

Back in those days, fans were complaining about the Badgers style of play under Bennett, that is was solid and all, but not much fun to watch and probably not going to result in much major success for UW. Of course, famously, Wisconsin made the NCAA Tournament as an eight seed a few weeks later and drove all way to the Final Four.

Right on cue, just as some are questioning Bo Ryan, his Badgers take down top ranked Ohio State on Saturday at the Kohl Center, the first time UW has managed to beat a Number One since 1962. Even before this stunner, I believe Bo's record at Wisconsin (and at UW-Platteville and UW-Milwaukee) speaks for itself; he needed no validation, least of all from me. The guy is one of the game's best coaches, with several Big Ten titles and an uninterrupted string of NCAA Tournament berths since coming to Madison. But if this win over the OSU doesn't clarify that in the minds of basketball observers in this city -- or anywhere else for that matter -- then they just don't want to face facts and accept the truth.

And on the subject of truth, I will confess: I was among those who cashiered this team in December. I watched a number of early season games and came away totally unimpressed. With the Big Ten seemingly loaded with a half dozen very good teams, it looked like a down year for Bucky to me. I was hoping they might win seven conference games and go deep enough in the post-season tourney to sneak in to The Dance as a low seed. More likely, I thought this was an NIT team.

But somehow, as he always seems to do, Ryan has his team in contention for the conference title and on the cusp of 20 wins. Now, I don't think they will win the Big Ten, especially with some very tough road games upcoming. But what Bo has done with the collection of players he has, a group that outside of Jon Leuer and the terrific Jordan Taylor is pretty much unproven and/or nondescript, is nothing short of outstanding. Ryan should be beyond questions of the sort being tossed around the airwaves on Friday. The proof was on the floor of the Kohl Center Saturday afternoon.

...and so it begins.

2011-02-12T05:10:00.003-06:00

Word out of Green Bay yesterday was that Jimmy Robinson was hired by Cowboys to coach their WRs and be Assistant Head Coach. This might not seem like a huge deal, but, as noted in the media account, "Robinson was responsible for coaching different aspects of the passing game as well as developing the wide receivers. He is considered meticulous and a perfectionist and does not bend an inch on demanding his receivers follow the design of the offense." The Packers had one of the best, if not the best, WR corps in the NFL under Robinson. The talent of those players is, without question, the most important factor in their success. But it sounds as though Robinson was also a fine molder of that talent. I have to wonder if that is going to impact the Packers passing game going forward.

One of the ways championship teams fall back is by loosing a few coaches here and a couple of players there. That process has now started in Green Bay. I expect other coaches to be in play, and Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel considers at least four players -- Bigby, Colledge, Spitz and Jackson -- to be "as good as gone" with two others -- Jones and Crosby -- 50/50 propositions. Some might argue that losing a few of those guys would be addition by subtraction, and it would be hard to disagree. However, the slow erosion of championship teams, even at the edges, is an important factor in what makes repeating so very difficult in professional sports.

Zach Greinke's Mental Game

2011-02-10T06:24:00.005-06:00

I am looking forward to the coming season for the Milwaukee Brewers. It's hard not to be excited about the way they have upgraded their pitching staff, acquiring Shaun Marcum and -- in a move that shook the baseball world -- one-time Cy Young award winner Zach Greinke. It would seem that the Crew has positioned themselves for a run at the post-season.

But there is something nagging, a lingering pang in the back of my mind. The issue is how Greinke will deal with the sky-high expectations that accompany him to Milwaukee. The fan base that has been making the turnstiles spin at Miller Park thirsts for a winner. The dalliance that was the team's appearance in the 2008 post-season was merely a tease for long-suffering fans. The drama of Doug Melvin's bold moves has energized the fanbase and Greinke, who has suffered bouts of social anxiety disorder and depression during his professional career, is sailing into this storm.

Many people don't understand the seriousness of mental health issues like Greinke's. We have a feel for the common athletic debilitations--shoulders, elbows, knees; tears, breaks and strains. We've even learned that concussions are much more serious than merely getting one's "bell rung." But I suspect we are much less well acquainted with how crushing anxiety and depression can be. We see these disorders illustrated on commercials for Cymbalta on TV--the people are sad and mopey one second and, presumably after popping a few blue and white pills, presto! and it's all good. Unfortunately, it's not that easy and it's far from that clear cut.

Brewers fans should examine Greinke's history and do a little reading about these disorders before the season starts. It might be helpful in giving a fuller perspective to the state of the incoming ace of the pitching staff.

I'm not saying Greinke's mental health issues will result is subpar performance and grave disappointment. But I would raise concerns about the new expectations for Greinke and this team. Greinke is not CC Sabathia even though Melvin did broach that comparison (though I believe he was referring to the trades impact as opposed to the abilities of the two, a distinction might by lost on many fans). It's worth noting that Greinke's past mental health problems were enough to make the Yankees question whether he'd be able to handle playing in New York. By his own admission, Greinke said that his numbers last year were affected by his disillusionment in K.C. That doesn't exactly suggest a "bulldog mentality" that one would normally expect from a #1 starter. The question I would have is if the Brewers get off to a slow start or face a run of bad luck, how is he going to respond?

The mental aspect of the game is huge. Pitchers face challenges and adversity all the time. Does Greinke have the composition to perform under pressure and/or when the chips are down? Or, instead, will he lose interest or, worse, collapse in trying circumstances? It's one thing to be lights out in KC when there is little pressure and few expectations. But in MKE this season, there will be huge crowds every night with sky-high expectations. Does his past struggle with social anxiety suggest that he is not suited to such a stage, even in a small market like MKE?

Reluctantly, Regrettably...I'm Picking the Steelers

2011-02-04T14:58:00.004-06:00

I have massive respect for the Steelers' organization. Perhaps because in many ways they remind me of the Packers: A classic, proud, old school club that does things the right way, with a fan base that tapes their ankles before games. It's hard to hate PIT as that would be like hating GB.

Oh, yeah: The Steelers also have a very good football team this year. They are a tough, hard-nosed unit with a QB who (off-field exploits aside) is a proven winner, a guy who more times than not finds a way to lead his team to victory even when he is not on top of his game. They have a smart, no-nonsense head coach and a group of experienced, veteran play-makers on defense.

While PIT has "been there before" the Packers, almost to a man, have not. Perhaps that will make GB hungry, but given the circus that is the Super Bowl, I think that prior "Big Game" experience will help the Steelers. Moreover, in addition to the distraction brought on by the side show elements associated with the game, I wonder if there isn't a bit of the edge worn off the Packers after successfully facing down five straight games of back-to-the-wall, elimination football--particularly after a season spent regrouping in compensation for an injury list of Biblical proportions. In light of all of that, I suppose in some ways it would be understandable if the Packers had a little "just happy to be here" attitude. Will the urgency be there when guys like Bob McGinn are writing that this could be the first of multiple Super Bowls for the team?

I would not be surprised to see GB fall behind by 10 causing cracks to form in the dam, and then the whole thing giving way under the stress of all of the above: Talk about a lousy way to end a terrific season. But while a boatrace is not out of the question, I just can't see the Packers doing anything but giving PIT a run for its money. It might be wishful thinking, but I see a close, hard fought game. How else could that end but with GB losing by four freakin' points? Final PIT over Pack, 24-20.

Enjoy Hype While It Lasts

2011-02-02T18:21:00.001-06:00

The author of this blog post, Adam Czech (@adamczech on Twitter), perfectly expresses my feelings about the media saturation bombing leading up to the Super Bowl:

Enjoy Hype Surrounding the Green Bay Packers While it Lasts | AllGreenBayPackers.Com

I was just a babe of 38 the last time GB played in "the big game" and, apparently, I was too immature to enjoy the hype and build up. Perhaps I thought there would be a lot more of these occasions over the following years. Now I am wiser (and, sadly, older) and realize how truly special this is, so I am with Adam and drinking this all in. I am allowing myself to float the in excess and overkill because now I know: It doesn't matter how bright the future might appear for one's team, the reality is that this sort of thing just doesn't happen that often. Enjoy it, Packers fans. It might not come again for a while.

Still Debating Jay Cutler

2011-01-28T13:46:00.000-06:00

It's been five days since the Packers ended the Bears season in the NFC Championship Game, but people are still talking about whether or not Jay Cutler wimped out by not finishing the game on his sprained MCL. For the record, I don't think a guy gets to the level Cutler is at by not having a significant amount of drive and determination, and a huge amount of sack. Professional football remains a genuine Man's Game--anyone who straps it on in the NFL has more than a modicum of stones and a ton of desire.

I could see there being questions raised about Cutler had he opted out in Week 3 or Week 6, or decided to sit out in Week 11 if his team was out of playoff contention. But it makes no sense that he would go all soft and squishy in the second half of a Championship contest that results in a berth in the sport's ultimate game. Why would a guy who endured 57 sacks all season and was knocked out of a game earlier in the year lose his grit when all he sacrificed for was within reach?

I think the players and fans who are questioning this guy need to check themselves.

Less Than Picture Perfect

2011-01-27T10:49:00.000-06:00

So it seems that Aaron Rodgers and Charles Woodson went to Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy and convinced him to shift around his Super Bowl schedule so that the team picture could be taken at a time when the injured players could be included. I thought moving the pic to next Friday seemed like a good solution, very inclusive, a way of acknowledging the contribution of those on IR -- very Packers.

However, McCarthy didn't seem to be in much of a magnanimous mood when speaking with the media on Thursday morning. He expressed his disappointment with Nick Barnett and Jermichael Finley, the two guys who publicly lamented the exclusion of IR players, and with a taste of that famed "Pittsburgh Macho" declared that there will be "no apologies." That firm stance left me wondering about the future of those two players. Finley is a rising star, so I expect he will be chastised and will return to the team next year. But Barnett, over 30 and likely on the downside of his career, might have hastened his departure from GB by going public with his feelings.

As I think about the roots of why this whole issue surfaced in the first place, I recall reading stories last summer about the pictures adorning the walls of 1265 Lombardi Avenue, photos that honor the past championship teams. I recall that McCarthy noted that only title teams are so remembered in the hallowed halls of Packers HQ. With that sort of premium placed on such team pictures, I can see why it would be important to players to be pictured with their teammates, particularly if you were a guy like Nick Barnett who has a long history with the team, who has endured a lot of "close but no cigar" situations, a player whose clock is ticking -- this might be his last chance to be remembered as part of a Packers championship team. To me, that makes his feelings all the more understandable.

Picture Snub

2011-01-25T14:06:00.000-06:00

Nick Barnett and Jermichael Finley have been on the Packers Injured Reserve list for most of the season. From all accounts, being on IR is sort of like being in Limbo -- one is not divorced from the team, but one is not really part of it, either. So I suppose it is not a real surprise to learn that, apparently, Barnett and Finley, along with the other 13 players on IR, won't be part of the team picture when it is taken in conjunction with the Super Bowl next week.

While this might not be a startling revelation, it is also not surprising that these two guys are more than a little hurt by their exclusion. I certainly can't blame them. I mean, it's not like they just checked out or quit playing -- they were hurt badly enough to end their seasons, and they did it in service of the Packers. If either of these guys was Johnny Jolly, a player who made bad decisions off the field and ended up being suspended before the season started, it would be another matter. But that just wasn't the case here.

My guess is that the Packers probably wouldn't mind having Barnett and Finley in the team photo as they were core members of the squad at the time of their injuries. But including them means including people like Josh Bell and Anthony Levine, players who are decidedly not part of the nucleus that resulted in such a successful season. So, rather than parse that out and risk owning up to a double-standard, the Packers probably decided it would be cleaner to exclude everyone who is not on the active roster.

If my guess is right, I would understand the decision, but wouldn't like it. If a team is told that every member is important, than everyone who contributed to the season, who played a role no matter how small, should be invited to stand with their teammates when the picture is captured for posterity.

Some might see this as a small thing, but for players I suspect it means a lot. It certainly did for me. Back in high school I played one season of varsity baseball, my senior year. I wasn't a great player, but good enough to be a late inning defensive replacement and do some pinch-running (that, of course, was many, many pounds ago). In that role, I played in about half of the team's games, including the game in which we won the conference championship. However, when the roster shrunk from 18 to 15 for the post-season tournament, I was left off (and it was probably the right decision to do so). Unfortunately, the team picture was taken before the first tournament game and, not being on the roster at that time, I was excluded. So the picture of that championship team, the one I contributed to all season, does not include me--and that photo is the one that went into the school's trophy case. So, yeah, I get why Nick Barnett is sad and Jermichael Finley is miffed.

At least 56 and 88 will get Super Bowl rings should the Packers win on February 6--that is some consolation. Even though my picture doesn't grace the high school trophy case at Stevens Point Area Senior High, I did get the medal that goes to members of the 1977 Wisconsin Valley Conference Championship Baseball Team. And while that is certainly meaningful, there is something about being pictured along with one's teammates, the guys you won and lost with, permanently together and on display for future generations to see.

Moving On from Brett Favre

2011-01-19T14:09:00.001-06:00

Michael Hunt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel weighed in with a few thoughts on the apparent attempt by former Vikings legend QB Brett Favre to ingratiate himself with fans of his long-ago team:

So Our Man Brett believes the Packers will win the Super Bowl.

In an e-mail to ESPN, No. 4 opines that his former team is "by far" the best remaining among the final four. He says his replacement behind center is the superior quarterback in the tournament field, better even than the guy in Pittsburgh who has as many Super Bowl rings as Aaron Rodgers does playoff victories.

Favre heaps hosannas on the Green Bay receiving corps, Dom Capers and the defense in general. He stops short, though, of mentioning the general manager, head coach or the person who worked so hard to move his locker to the inaccessible reaches of the Packers' locker room.

And, as the final plank in the platform speech he hopes will secure the nomination as Ambassador for Life with one of the world's pre-eminent franchises, Favre also wrote this about the Packers winning the whole thing:

"I hope they do, if you're wondering."

Actually, I wasn't. Except for an occasional thought of the American Hamlet catching on next season with the Carolina Panthers after the labor dust settles, out of mind had been an appropriate dwelling place for the last QB to lead the Packers to a Super Bowl championship. . . . XIV seasons ago.

When I posted this to a group of friends to who like to discuss the Packers, one colleague responded by noting that he wished the team would win the Super Bowl so fans could move on from Favre. In contemplating that, I don't know that any of us who lived through the Favre years can ever really "move on." I mean, I've never really moved on from Bart Starr--he remains my hero to this day. Because of the depth of my feelings for the Packers, I will probably never be able to shrug my shoulders and say "whatever" about any guy who was as important to the team as a guy like Favre. But passion is a doubled-edged sword, magnifying both the joys and the hurts. I don't know that either ever really go away. Time might mute those feelings to some degree, but if they were really honestly felt, I am not sure that one is ever entirely free of or fully objective about them.

Oh, I will always relish the success the team had with Favre calling the signals and acknowledge the key role Brett played in that era. But feeling again about him as I once did, that is much more difficult. I don't think winning a Super Bowl with another QB is going to flip that switch for me, at least not now, and probably not for some time.

Looking Ahead, Seeing Darkness

2011-01-18T07:08:00.010-06:00

Readers of this blog and my thoughts collected at PocketDoppler.com will note that I have been optimistic about the Packers first two rounds of the NFL post-season: I picked them to win both games. Surprisingly, my confidence has been rewarded with two victories. But looking ahead to this Sunday, in their long-awaited playoff showdown v. CHI, all I see is darkness.

The negative factors I outlined in the most recent edition of Packers Therapy include:

The nagging, irritating spate of Bears good fortune, punctuated by their easy draw into the NFC Championship.

CHI's home-field advantage.

Match ups -- mainly CHI's D v. GB's O -- that don't favor the Packers.

GB's stated distaste for playing in the cold.

The weight of four previous weeks of elimination football combined with the accumulated stress of playing short-handed for most of the season is bound to catch up with them.

I am not saying that the Packers can't overcome these things and find a way to win. Heck, the Bears might pee down their collective legs and make things easy for GB. What I am saying is that I don't like how this game is setting up for the Packers. Perhaps 45 years of being a fan that has witnessed far more disappointment than ecstasy has conditioned me to expect the worst.

Aaron Rodgers and the Media

2011-01-17T12:44:00.000-06:00

Wherever you turn today you find the media gushing about Packers QB Aaron Rodgers. And why not? The guy was nails in ATL on Saturday; and if post-season performance is the best measure of a QB, then Rodgers is off to a great start, having all three of his playoff starts end with a passer rating over 120.

Yes, everyone seems impressed with Aaron Rodgers...except, of course, Colin Cowherd, who notes that Rodgers is only 2-1 in the post season whereas Jets' QB Mark Sanchez is 4-1. Cowherd also pointed out that while Rodgers had a nice game v. ATL, it was the first time he has dominated a playoff game. For a coup de grace, he added that a loss on Sunday will make everyone forget about the ATL game.

So, the only question remaining for me is whether Cowherd is an ass clown or an ass hat...

Divisional Weekend Picks

2011-01-14T14:32:00.000-06:00

I suppose it could have been worse--I was two for four picking winners duirng Wild Card weekend, but the only one that peeves me is SEA's sucker punch of NO. So I gave it another go this week at PocketDoppler.com:

Steelers over Ravens – When I’m recording the Packers Therapy podcast, I usually have a TV on, tuned to whatever game is playing. The last time these two teams met, it was the featured game while we were recording. That contest was so brutal, so compelling that I listened even less to Dave’s bizarre ramblings and was sucked into the horror that was unfolding in front of me. So I suspect the winner of this rematch will be the orthopedic surgeons for each team–they should be plenty busy after the game. The winner on the score board is a much more difficult call. While BAL impressed me with their strong game v. KC, and Joe Flacco appeared better than I recall him looking in the past, I give the edge to PIT as they are playing at home and have the better QB. Most importantly, they are coming off a bye week, and I think that will be enough to give them the win over the Ravens.

Patriots over Jets – I have a hunch that these two teams don’t like each other. The advance rhetoric has been intense, setting the stage for what I expect to be a disappointing game. Yes, that’s right: Disappointing. I think NE is just a far better team than NYJ, so I expect them to win convincingly. That’s not to say that the Jets can’t soar past and punk the Pats (they certainly can) but their public utterances suggest a team that is trying to pump itself up, possibly because they don’t really believe in themselves. NE is coming off a bye, playing at home, and has Coach Poindexter — he of the greasy hair and natty, cut-off hoodie — on the sidelines. I just don’t see Buddy’s Boy having an answer for that. Well, unless they somehow form a wall and trip every Patriot this side of Ben Franklin.

Packers over Falcons – Sorry, Packers fans: I’m picking our team to win again this week. I apologize for having to do this, but my ample gut says GB can win. I am picking the Pack because I thought they were the better team when these two teams played in late November. I realize the Falcons are coming off a bye and, once again, playing at home. But the Packers appear improved over the past six weeks, and given they only lost by three last time, I don’t think it’s out of the question that they could surprise ATL this time around. At some point, GB will cave to the unrelenting pressure of a string of elimination games. But I don’t think it will be this week.

Bears over Seahawks – I tisk-tisked SEA’s chances v. the defending Super Bowl Champions last week, and I think I was right to do so. What I failed to take into account is the Bears uncanny luck. Of course SEA won–that gave CHI the easiest possible path to the NFC Championship Game, playing a team with a losing record at home coming off a bye week. It’s another reason why GB will probably win–because that will allow the Bears to play at home for the right to go to the Super Bowl. I am sticking with my theory that the Staleys have made a Faustian Bargain that will allow them to play (and get ceremoniously disemboweled by) the Patriots in DAL next month. The first step along that Highway to Hell is to dispatch the Seahawks this weekend.

12 Yards to the Win

2011-01-13T16:38:00.001-06:00

First off, let me note that the premise of this article -- that Matt Ryan hasn't established his bonafides because he hasn't yet won a post-season game -- to be absurd.

Postseason win would be big step for Ryan - NFC South Blog - ESPN

I mean, the guy has only played in one post-season game. The idea was lame when it applied to Aaron Rodgers before last week's win over PHL and it is equally vacuous when applied to Ryan this week.

However, the line that really caught my attention, was this: "Ryan beat the Packers with a last-minute drive to set up a field goal in a regular-season game back in late November." He most certainly did "drive" ATL to the winning FG: he moved them a whopping 12 yards following a patented special teams boner by the Packers to tee up that win.

So while I find the rap on Ryan's lack of post-season success to be misplaced, I also find praising him for such a weak accomplishment to be swinging too far in the other direction.

Thoughts On What Might Have Been

2011-01-11T15:26:00.001-06:00

A post today at PocketDoppler.com is suggesting that the slew of injuries enduring by the Green Bay Packers this season might not be an altogether bad thing:

A Violent Femme’s View – What Might Have Been | PocketDoppler.com

While I don't entirely disagree, I do feel the need to note that losing Ryan Grant and Jermichael Finley was, in no way, a "blessing in disguise" as suggested by one commentator. In the same way, Packers fans have lived through the growing pains of a rookie tackle playing out of position at RT. Perhaps had Colledge gone down instead of Tauscher, that would have been a "blessing." As it was, I think they would have gotten more consistency out of the vet on the right side. My guess is that their offensive inconsistency can be traced to not having these three players.

On defense, having Bishop at ILB has been a plus, but I am not sure that Zombo or Walden were upgrades over Jones. Due to the injuries, they are dangerously thin at LB right now. Peprah v. Burnett is probably a push. The pass rush has been OK, but losing Neal didn't help it get better; the short time he was in there it was clear he brought something extra.

So, yes, the reserves have stepped up. But they were reserves for a reason. I am not saying their would have been 13-3 with a healthy team, but I do think the Packers would have locked up a playoff spot sooner and, with it, a higher seed.

Playoff Picks

2011-01-07T16:01:00.002-06:00

I've been picking NFL games over at PocketDoppler.com most of this season with my buddies Mike and Wally. However, up until this time, it hasn't occurred to me to share my rare and special gift with the misguided who read this blog. So here, now, are my picks for Wildcard Weekend:

Colts over Jets – The Jets are barrel-rolling into the postseason, having lost their last three of five. Meanwhile the Colts are prancing in on a four game winning streak. Something tells me to pick the Jets despite my distaste for the team and its coach, but given IND is at home and appears the hotter club, I will Show You My Horseshoe and go with Not-As-Young-As-They-Used-To-Be Horses.

Ravens over Chiefs – Even after an entire season, I still can’t believe Kansas City is as good as their record. Moreover, I wet myself in horror each time I view the menacing visage of the Baltimore Ravens. Even with BAL on the road, I expect them to flambe the Chefs in an Arrowhead stew.

Saints over Seahawks – Child, please: In my wildest fantasies (which, for the record, only occasionally involve sweaty, spandex clad NFLers) I can’t conceive of an scenario in which a team with a losing record punks the defending Super Bowl champions. Saints on the road over SEA.

Packers over Eagles – I fear Ron Mexico, and it’s not just because of his herpes. No, his talent is felonious and gives me grave concern. Still, I think PHL can be had. That loss to MN at home in Week 16 was more brutal than a dog fight. And that limp-wristed finale was lame. But Andy Reid will have his team ready to play–he always does. Moreover, Philly Phan will be Philly Phan, so that is sure to be ugly for the Packers. But I think GB has more than a puncher’s chance in this one, so in a Going-With-My-Substantial-Gut pick, I will take GB to upset the Iggles on the road.

Packers Record in "Close" Games

2011-01-06T08:11:00.003-06:00

If you read Tom Silverstein's chat from Sunday night he references the Packers poor record in close losses as if this were an indictment on McCarthy and his team. First off, I was perplexed as to why four points was some sort of magic defining mark for close games. I would argue that GB's wins over PHL, MN, NYJ and CHI were all close games even through they were decided by more than four points.

However, in determining the quality of McCarthy's coaching and the Packers under his leadership, perhaps a better measure is not what the team does in close games, but -- as Jason Lisk notes below -- how many times they can boatrace an opponent:

I know you might be surprised to look at a list of coaching records in close games. Vince Tobin (16-6) has the best record in games decided by 3 or less, just ahead of John Madden. Let that soak in. Chuck Noll (0.395), Dick Vermeil (0.412) and Bill Walsh (0.419) all had losing records in field goal games. As Football Outsiders pointed out here, great teams aren’t defined by their ability to win close games, but rather, blow out opponents.

By that standard, McCarthy's Packers fare much better, finishing third or higher in point differential in three of the past four seasons.

So I think the hand-wringing about the Packers record under McCarthy in close games being some sort of indicator of his coaching ability or the quality of the program with him at the helm is greatly misplaced.

The Anxiety of the Man on the Sidelines

2011-01-02T12:35:00.004-06:00

As I ready myself for today's Packers v. Bears game, I am watching the Vikings take on the Lions. Moments ago the Lions lost a challenge on a play at the goal line -- their receiver, struggling for the stripe, reached the ball forward only to have it knocked out of his hands just before crossing the line. I imagine some Lions fans (assuming there are such things right now) will be critical of the challenge that cost their team a time out. It seems coaches are often second guessed on these matters, and to me it seems rather unfair.

It is much easier for fans to make decisions sitting comfortably at home with the benefit of a 50" plasma HDTV, a variety of camera angles and aided commentary from announcers who are cued by producers with access to vast resources. We aren't under the same pressure or constraints that coaches are: They are bombarded by a stream of information inputs and distractions that can only cloud and slow their judgment, probably more than it helps. They also have a terrible vantage point. Coaches in the booth (apparently) don't have the TV view and, besides, there are 20 assistants who are similarly distracted and come to the problem with a variety of opinions. Then there is the whole sideline circus to deal with on top of that. In other words, it's a mess down there and, to me, the amazing part is that good decisions ever get made under those constraints and circumstances.

So if the Packers game comes down to a murky officiating decision, and somehow that call is challenged unfavorably for Green Bay, I hope the posse will take a step back before it moves to string up Mike McCarthy.

Winning It All

2010-12-31T08:01:00.000-06:00

I was thinking recently about whether the Packers can win a Super Bowl during the time that Aaron Rodgers is QB. While it is certainly possible given the strength of the franchise, the available talent and Rodgers ability, I don't like the odds: Too many things need to go just right in an environment where so many other teams are legitimately capable of winning it all.

The reason the NFL is so compelling is because of the number of teams that have a chance of being champion. The vagaries of a season long enough to cripple a contender with injuries yet short enough to allow an improbable team to get on a title roll underscores how difficult it is for even the best run franchises replete with winning-caliber talent to capture the top prize. Certainly, the Packers are equipped for the challenge, but reaching the goal is a whole different matter.

Reflections on the Dark

2010-12-30T07:10:00.008-06:00

There was a period in my life when this time of the year brought on extra excitement. The winter nights were longer and that meant more time in the dark, longer hours for doing things that people do in the dark. In those times, I understood just what Sting, Stewart and Andy were getting at -- indeed, "Bring on the Night":

But the days of bars and parties are largely past for me. In fact, if truth be told, I was never really into that scene too much anyway. These days the shortness of the daylight hours leaves me listless, cold, and dispirited. In my head, the Counting Crows stellar "Daylight Fading" is laced with a sadness that I feel this time of year, a longing for the excitement of night only to find the reality to be something less, something far from fulfilling:

Maybe that's one of the reasons why the Christian season of Lent -- "the lengthening of days" -- holds meaning for me. I connect with the introspection the season, to be sure. But that self-examination is played out against of backdrop of creeping daylight and warming weather. The combination, culminating in Easter, has a certain exhilaration for me.

It might also be a reason why certain sports hold their place in my life: Baseball is the game I played most (and, probably, best) as a boy, perhaps because it celebrated summer. But my affection for football -- specifically the Packers -- has been cast in a new light, too. My passion for the Packers might be a life raft for me, a vehicle that ushers me through the growing darkness until the time when the days start to lengthen and my spirits rediscover their equilibrium.

2010 Playlist

2010-12-29T06:55:00.000-06:00

Well, there it is -- the artists I've been listening to this year (courtesy of Last .fm). Clearly, I discovered the Avett Brothers in 2010. When their disc "I and Love and You" topped Paste's best of 2009 list I got intrigued, so much so that the record found its way to my Heavy Rotation this year. I also note Mike Behrends checking in at #10. This young man is a serious singer-songwriter talent -- hit the link and check him out. The only other surprise for me was how much Elton John I listened to. I stumbled on some old acoustic versions of classic stuff (e.g. Grey Seal) and several new remixes of "Rocket Man" that I guess I really liked. So, what were you listening to this year?

I've Found the Horseshoe...

2010-12-27T13:35:00.000-06:00

...and it's up Lovie Smith's tuchas.

In the afterglow of a Gigantic boatrace v. NY, the Packers now face another do-or-die situation against the Chicago Bears next Sunday on the electronically unfrozen DD GrassMaster of Lambeau Field. In order to stuff more cash into Rupert Murdock's pants, the game has been shifted to a 3:15pm (CST) start.

If PHL throws up on itself and somehow loses to MN on tomorrow night, CHI secures the second playoff seed and will likely be more docile at Lambeau next weekend. For that matter, even if PHL wins on Tuesday but somehow manages to lose their noon tilt on Sunday, the Mortgage Lenders of the Midway will still find themselves with a first round bye.

But if none of that happens and the Bears have something to play for next Sunday, it says here they will take down my beloved Packers. I don't feel this way because I believe CHI is that good. Heck, I don't even think they are better than the grotesquely diminished Packers (the second most injured team in the NFL--how's that for a marketing slogan for '11?). But as I have been saying for months, every season has at least once surprise team, a club everyone has overlooked or written off; this year, it's the Bears. Luck has gone their way since Week One when one of the worst calls in memory went their way, wiping the winning Lions TD off the board. They then caught the Cowboys at the front end of their meltdown and were the recipient of a franchise record penalty orgy by the Packers, riding those 18 flags to a three point win at Solider Field. Their luck has held all season, as evidenced by the play this past Sunday when Jay Cutler's pass to his intended receiver was batted down in an excellent play by a Jets defender...and right into the arms of Johnny Knox, who as inexplicably standing nearby. Even Franco Harris thought that was lucky. Oh, and if that isn't enough, CHI is one of the league's healthiest teams, too.

So, Packers fans, get ready for disappointment next Sunday. Somehow the Bears will find their way to victory, likely in some excruciating, improbable manner. And after the game, when Lovie Smith takes his copy of Sports Illustrated into the Bears Den, rabbit's feet will no doubt pour forth...

Injury Fallout

2010-12-23T10:29:00.001-06:00

Prior to getting injured and becoming one of the Packers 15 players lost for the year on IR, Mark Tauscher was not having a great season. At least he wasn't as solid as he was after coming back from knee surgery last year when he stabilized the Green Bay OL during the second half of the season. When Tauscher went down, the Packers responded by inserting rookie left tackle Brian Bulaga into Tauscher's RT spot, a position Bulaga had little experience playing. He has done OK, but there have been rough patches as one would expect for a rookie (even a talented one with a bright future) thrust into such a situation. One of those happened late in the game last Sunday and it was discussed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today:

Bulaga made a rare mental error at the end of the Packers' 31-27 loss to the New England Patriots on Sunday that put a major crimp in the offense's hopes for a last-minute comeback. Rather than pick up an outside blitzer, Bulaga blocked down on the end and allowed quarterback Matt Flynn to be sacked for an 8-yard loss with 53 seconds left.
Not only did it push the Packers back to the Patriots' 32, it forced them to use their last timeout so they could regroup.
"I've been pretty solid with assignments the whole year," Bulaga said. "I was pretty solid with assignments that whole game to be honest with you. We had that look multiple times; we picked it up multiple times, and just that one the communication was off.
"I was on a different page and that's the kind of stuff that happens when everyone isn't on the same page."

That's what happens to a rookie OT who is learning a new position on the job. Injury forced him into the line up and required him to move to the right side, not his natural position. Episodes like those described in the article are emblematic of the fallout from losing players to injury...something the Packers have excelled at this season.

Let's Fire the Coach!

2010-12-22T06:35:00.001-06:00

One of the keenest observers of sports I know is my friend Mike, known as BigSnakeMan on Twitter and around the Net. In response to a blog post at the sublime PocketDoppler.com (disclaimer: Mike and I are part of the team that founded that site) BigSnakeMan took on the question of whether the Packers struggles in close games under Mike McCarthy merit the coach's dismissal:

I’ve heard a lot of people in the last couple of days argue that McCarthy should be fired. Not one of them has indicated who they would replace him with.

There’s only one Bill Belicheck, kids, and he ain’t leaving New England. (And his team didn’t look all that great Sunday night, either.) I defy those calling for McCarthy’s head to name one available candidate that they can positively say would do a better job overall.

Fans look at the close losses and say that injuries aren’t a factor. To my way of thinking, that’s illogical. Such games are generally decided by a handful of plays; plays that quite possibly would go the Packers way if they had their full compliment of players.

I certainly understand the frustration; I’m seeing the same things as everyone else. But change for the sake of change doesn’t guarantee improvement. A new coaching staff brings a new scheme with new terminology and most likely at least some new personnel to fit that scheme. That takes time to pull together and would probably require at least a minor step backwards. If I’m reading the dissatisfaction correctly, it’s because fans think the Packers are too close to waste this opportunity. That’s why I find it ironic that their solution is to start over.

I’m not even saying that those calling for a coaching change are necessarily wrong. I do believe, however, that they oversimply the situation. By focusing on a few details and ignoring the overall picture, they are guilty of the same mistake they accuse McCarthy of making. If you are in favor of a coaching change, just be aware of all that entails.

Despite what many think, I believe MM deserves a pass on this season. Since they installed Rodgers at QB and revamped the defense, I’ve seen steady signs of progress from this team. It’s funny that since McCarthy has kept his team in playoff contention despite the personnel losses, he’s actually made it easier for his critics to deny that injuries have derailed their season.

IMO, MM merits at least one more year to take this team to the next level. The Packers record during his tenure is among the best in the NFL. Until I see a better alternative, I’ll take my chances with what we have.

As they often say on Twitter: "Co-sign."

Requiem for a Dongslinger

2010-12-15T13:24:00.001-06:00

When it comes to understanding the feelings of a good number of Packers fans about Brett Favre, sports talk radio host Steve Czaban gets it:

I don't know that I will always harbor this hurt about Favre, but I am still not ready to embrace this guy again right now. With his consecutive games started streak over and permanent retirement very likely looming , perhaps my feelings will begin to soften. But I am still some distance from that.

"If Everyone Stays Healthy..."

2010-12-14T10:46:00.002-06:00

It's instructive to look back at the preseason predictions for the Green Bay Packers. I couldn't help but notice the caveat: "If everyone stays healthy, this team is the Super Bowl favorite in the N.F.C." The thing is, everyone has not stayed healthy. The team has 13 players on IR, including six starters, among them vital cogs like Jermichael Finley and Ryan Grant. (They are also playing the season without another starter, Johnny Jolly, who is under a league mandated suspension.) The Packers have also lost games to injury for key players like Donald Driver, Clay Matthews and Cullen Jenkins. Things have gotten so bad that reserves who were never expected to play important roles but who have stepped up -- guys like Frank Zombo -- are finding their way to the sidelines. In short, the Packers depth has been gutted.

It is unrealistic to expect a team to overcome a wave of injuries this large and still fulfill the preseason expectations that many had for them. I would also suggest it is unfair to evaluate them on that basis given the circumstances. Instead, I think it is remarkable that Green Bay has weathered the storm as well as it has, posting a winning record with a chance -- albeit diminishing -- of reaching the postseason entering Week 15. So instead of joining the chorus of those calling for the head of Head Coach Mike McCarthy and/or General Manager Ted Thompson, I applaud their efforts in keeping this team competitive in the face of the roster upheaval.

Should Aaron Rodgers Take a Seat?

2010-12-13T14:34:00.000-06:00

When Packers QB Aaron Rodgers suffered a concussion in yesterday's game at Ford Field, causing him to miss the second half against the Lions, the first question most of us had was "Will he be ready to play next week?" It was also the question many in the media had for Coach Mike McCarthy following the game and again today at his Monday presser.

But maybe that is the wrong question to be asking. I think the team needs to decide if risking Rodgers' long-term health is worth the dim chance they have of beating the Pats on Sunday night. Even if they do prevail in Foxborough, the Packers odds of reaching the post-season are not great, so is it smart to risk the future of the franchise on what is becoming an increasingly long bet?

Multiple concussions, especially so close together, is a warning sign. If Rodgers is prone to this sort of injury it could end up shortening his career--Troy Aikman and Steve Young retired when the concussions started piling up on them. Rodgers should just be entering his peak years of performance. I would hate to see that short-circuited, casting the Packers into the dark spiral of grasping for a franchise QB.

The War on Christmas is Over ... And Christmas Lost

2010-12-13T12:47:00.001-06:00

In recent years I have started suffering a deep malaise this time of year. I don't do well in the cold darkness of winter, but that usually was a problem for me mainly after the Holidays (and before pitchers and catchers started to report for Spring Training). Lately, though, December has become a struggle. I think this might be part of the reason why:

"...many Christians (and non-Christians) now feel completely overwhelmed with the demands of the consumerist holiday. Not news, you say? Well, the difference now is that the pressure to buy, decorate, spend, send, mail, bake, prepare, party and plan, which used to be confined to ads for a few weeks after Thanksgiving is now a two-month bacchanal in newspapers, television, radio, your mailbox, your smart phone, your email, and on the web."

I think the priest who offers this reflection in the Huffington Post is on the right track. For me, the Season has become that Counting Crows song -- "A Long December" -- on continuous repeat.

AMC Crosses the Rubicon

2010-11-26T13:38:00.000-06:00

AMC has made some great programming choices over the past few years. For instance, I think Mad Men is brilliant--one of my favorite shows. Adding Rubicon earlier this year was another magnificent decision. Sadly, after 13 outstanding episodes, AMC pulled the plug on the show earlier this month. Bad call. I think Mike Ryan, writing at VanityFair.com, got it just right:

AMC, which now has a stellar history of original programming, pulled the plug too soon on Rubicon. If I'm not mistaken, most of the people who watch Mad Men weren't watching from the beginning. Viewers caught up through iTunes or DVD. This would have happened with Rubicon, too. I know AMC is looking at the decline in viewership as the season went along, but those numbers can be misleading. The initial ratings came from people expecting non-stop action, based on the promo featuring a horrific train crash. Those people—the ones who stopped watching when they decided there weren’t enough explosions—should be
ignored, Rubicon would have built its own audience, based on the quality of the second half of the season. It had finally found its groove.

With the success of quality shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad, you'd think there would be a place for a show like Rubicon at AMC. But "the show's pacing and complicated conspiracy storytelling resulted in a very small — but passionate — viewership" and that, ultimately, wasn't enough to convince AMC to renew it for a second season. So, I guess, there isn't much room for moody, atmospheric shows that require viewers to think...unless there are enough explosions and titillation to pump up the ratings. Too bad. A shame, really. But that's show biz, I guess.

Turnovers = NFL Death

2010-11-18T11:15:00.000-06:00

This assertion by Tom Silverstein in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is ludicrous:

(Packers QB Aaron) Rodgers already has nine interceptions, two more than he had last season and four fewer than he had in 2008. But he has been less guilty of holding onto the ball waiting for a big play to appear and more willing to take a chance.

In some ways, that has been an improvement.

Turnovers are lethal. If Rodgers is going to take a chance, I'd rather he took that chance by holding it a beat longer risking a sack and, in the process, being more careful rather than getting rid of it quicker and turning it over.

Sightlines

2010-11-12T19:06:00.000-06:00

Rogue Wave is one of my favorite under-the-radar recording artists. Plaintive vocals, dark abstract lyrics...yeah, perfect for a rainy November night.

http://www.last.fm/music/Rogue+Wave/_/Sightlines

Lyrics | Rogue Wave - SightLines lyrics

For MLB, More Might Be Merrier

2010-10-04T15:57:00.000-05:00

The Major League Baseball regular season has wrapped, leaving us with eight teams vying to be World Series Champion. Of all the major team professional sports, Baseball's season is the purest test--a long 162 game grind with just a few playoff spots available. In MLB, only 27% of the clubs make it to the second season. Contrast that with the NFL (where 38% make the playoffs) and the NBA (where more than half the teams play on--and the others, presumably, get participation trophies) and one can truly appreciate the accomplishment it is for a team to qualify for Baseball's championship tournament.

But as laudable as this purity is, I think the good of the game requires that MLB add a fifth team in each league to the post-season mix. I don't think Baseball compromises itself with 10 playoff teams--that's still just 33% of the overall field, still more select than either the NFL or NBA.

The reason I suggest this is because Baseball is getting swallowed up in September by the start of the NFL season (not to mention all the attention given to the opening of NCAA football). MLB needs more teams in the mix, more markets involved in "pennant races" to help stem this tide. Having two more teams shines a brighter light on the sport and allows it to play a more meaningful role on the Fall stage.

Expanding the field wouldn't have to unduly expand the length of the post-season. The way I see it, the two Wild Card teams could square off in a best two-out-of-three series hosted by the club with the better record. It would run Tuesday through Thursday with the series winner opening the next round (a 3 of 5 series) against the division winner with the best record on Saturday. That adds three days to the playoffs, as they presently start on Wednesday.

This season, BOS would have won the second AL Wild Card and would be headed to NY for the three game playoff series. Personally, I could care less about another BoSox/Yanquis match up. (Don't we see them playing each other every weekend all season long already?) But it would be huge for MLB to have two of its flagship teams with national followings squaring off in the post-season when they otherwise wouldn't.

The NL's San Diego/ATL series would have much less national interest, but it would engage another market in the post-season and the race for the final spot would have given a couple of other clubs and their fans reason to remain excited down the stretch.

I don't see a downside to adding a second Wild Card to the MLB playoff slate. But I can see it creating new enthusiasm for Baseball at a time when the sporting public is beginning to look away. Moreover, for fans of teams that are frequently out of the post-season mix, the extra slot would provide another reason to hope, and as Commissioner Bud Selig as noted, hope is what being a fan is all about.

How Tweeting Has Ruined Blogging

2010-08-23T14:52:00.002-05:00

I know this is true for me:

How Tweeting Has Ruined Blogging | The Atlantic Wire

Time I used to spend processing and contemplating blog posts have been replaced by a dozen short bursts on Twitter. Is that a bad thing? In some ways, I suppose so. But it is just so much easier (and more fun) to volley back and forth on Twitter rather then struggle in developing ideas for a blog post. I guess that says a lot about me, eh?

Cuban Blockade

2010-08-06T09:14:00.000-05:00

Jaymes Langrehr writes the fine Brewers Bar blog and offers up many interesting thoughts about the Milwaukee Brewers and Major League Baseball. As yesterday was an off day for the Crew, Jaymes was pondering the baseball landscape and decided that Mark Cuban Needs to Own an MLB Team. Among his reasons is that "you can bet (Cuban would) be on the front lines fighting for things like total instant replay, umpire accountability, and leveling the playing field between the haves and the have-nots."

That's a nice thought, and if it were true I would be all for having Cuban as a MLB owner. However, I am not sure where the basis is for this speculation. I suspect Cuban would be for doing what is best for whatever team Cuban owned, not trying to level the playing field for the betterment of all his competitors. That's why I think having Cuban in MLB would be a bad thing, particularly for a team like the Brewers. Owner Mark Attanasio is a wealthy man, but not in the same league as Cuban, who is willing to dip into his personal fortune and spend whatever amount of money is necessary to win. The Brewers -- and teams like them -- can't keep up with that.

When George Steinbrenner died the question was raised: Are there any owners today in professional sports like him? The answer I heard over and over again was "Mark Cuban." I am sure he would be good for the fans of whatever team he bought just like Big Stein was for Yankee fans. But as a Brewers fan, I would prefer Cuban remain fenced out of the game.

I Think We're Being Teased

2010-07-27T07:28:00.000-05:00

So, the Brewers have won five in a row and 11 of 15. Not sure a lot of people saw that coming, especially last night's well-played, taut thriller v. CIN. They looked like a serious MLB team in beating the Reds at Miller Park on Monday evening, so much so that it was hard not to start wondering if this team might have a run in them...

But as much as I want to believe that, in truth the only “excitement” I see with the Brewers is whether they can finish at or above .500. While that might not get the juices flowing for most fans, I think it would represent a significant achievement for a team many left for dead after their nine game losing streak in May. For me, it provides a reason to continue following their fortunes once the Packers open training camp.

Of course, I’d follow the Brewers regardless of where they stood in the standings…particularly now that Bob Uecker is back behind the mic on the radio broadcasts. In any case, the notion of a .500 or better season would be, for me at least, a redeeming element for the season, so I am intrigued. But, then again, I saw them as a .500 team coming into the season so I am not as jaded about their performance as many observers.

Rickie Takes One in the Dome

2010-07-25T11:49:00.000-05:00

I witnessed Brewers 2B Rickie Weeks get beaned by the Nats Collin Balester last night at Miller Park. That pitch that took down Weeks was a 94 mph heater. It was sickening to watch.

On the drive home from the game, 540 ESPN played the TV audio commentary from FSN's Bill Schroeder. Rock’s point was that if a guy doesn’t know how to pitch inside without beaning a guy he shouldn’t be trying to go there. I agree.

Another comment (and I forget if it was from Dan O’Donnell on WTMJ or Craig Karmazin on ESPN MKE) suggested that a punishment for Balester is in order. The host noted that just because one doesn’t intend to do something, one is still responsible for the results (and he used the criminal justice system as an example). Again, I agree.

If Balester just let one get away, OK–it happens. But that shouldn’t make him immune from the consequences for laying a guy out with a 94 mph fastball. The punishment should be more lenient (perhaps a three day suspension instead of 10 days for doing it with intent) but there should still be consequences, particularly as the Brewers (Prince Fielder and Weeks in particular) have seemingly become targets for NL pitchers this season.

The Rebuilding Green Bay Packers

2010-07-11T08:56:00.000-05:00

CD Angeli does a nice job with his Tundra Vision blog, and this entry is no exception. I like his balanced, thoughtful approach to the question of whether or not the Packers are, perhaps surprisingly, rebuilding in 2010. But I was particularly taken with the comments from my friend Mike, the legendary BigSnakeMan from PocketDoppler.com, in response to CD's thoughts. I think they merit repeating here as they pretty much mirror my thoughts:

I agree that the Packers possess some glaring vulnerabilities that are ultimately going to hold them back. But, looking across the league, I don't see any other teams that don't have some holes somewhere in the lineup. How they compensate for those deficiencies is the key. There's a certain amount of luck involved (injuries, unexpected performances, who you play & when you play them) that often determine the course of a team's season. Having grown up in the 70's, I guess I'd rather see the team remain perpetually competitive and always have a puncher's chance than to see them load up for a short term run & fail.

After an exchange with CD, Mike adds:

More often than not, teams are measured by the expectations held for them by the fans. The problem with the approach of ... the Vikings is that anything short of a championship has to be considered a failure. I suppose most people would consider that a positive as far as raising the bar. I'm sure I'm in the minority but I'd rather enjoy the journey as the odds are always stacked against winning it all.

That last sentence really says it all for me. If you can't enjoy a season that ends in the post-season but short of a Super Bowl title, then you are in for a lot of misery and disappointment as a sports fan. For me, the Super Bowl is one game; what really matters is the journey, the week to week enjoyment of a season. It's great when one's team wins it all. But if that's the only measuring stick for success, then why bother?

Gazing at Shiny Objects

2010-07-10T11:12:00.000-05:00

This isn't one of those, "I know better than others about how to build the Milwaukee Brewers" posts. No--far from it. I will admit straight up that I don't know the best course the team should trod on its way back to winning baseball. But I do have some preferences, and a major tenet is a hope that the team doesn't become too infatuated with the potential of the minor league prospects it might acquire as it retools its roster.

I think most of us humans can get sucked in by the allure of "shiny objects." I experienced this just yesterday when I watched a video of the soon-to-be-released BlackBerry 9800. Now, I have a perfectly good BlackBerry, the Bold 9000, which is just 1.5 years old. It's still cool, works well, and remains the best phone I've ever had. Yet that new slider...damn, it looked fine! Just imagine all the awesome stuff it could do with that new OS6! It must be faster and have improved call quality. Hey, it looked unbelievable on that video...

But there's the rub. From a distance, promise and potential always seem more exciting and better than what is known. Trouble is, it often doesn't end up going that way. A lot of people who cashiered cable for satellite TV know that for all the benefits there is also another side to the coin: a new set a problems, different from the old ones, but real nonetheless. And I think that is the story with gazing at baseball prospects from afar.

Of course, not everyone sees it this way. In fact, a couple of thoughtful observers whom I respect and like a great deal over at the Bernie's Crew blog think that the key to improvement for the Brewers is changing out guys like Corey Hart and Prince Fielder for as many prospects as possible. My disagreement is not that I don't favor a trade or would be against a deal for prospects, it's the level at which I think those prospects should be. To my way of thinking, the more known about them, the closer they are to the Major Leagues, the better. I am all for acquiring talent--ability and skill of players wins a lot more games than anything a manager or pitching coach might do. But the deeper down prospects are the more chance there is of something going wrong in their development. Also, the longer it takes for them to make it to The Show. Meanwhile, as those prospects are maturing, the Big League club goes wanting and fans are left with their noses pushed against the glass, waiting for the day the team will be competitive again.

Personally, I don't want to wait around for a tomorrow that might never come. We just went through that with the current cohort of players on the Milwaukee roster. I recall too well the many nights when the best thing Jim Powell could talk about on the Brewers radio broadcast was how well JJ Hardy was doing at High Desert in A ball. The message then was: Be patient Brewers fans because a talented group of prospects is on the way. OK, I waited, they came, things got better, but I guess I expected more than three non-losing seasons out of four between 2005-2008 before the window closed. It seems that highly touted minor league talent doesn't always translate into sustained big league success.

This time around I would like to see them acquire talent in the upper reaches of the minors, players who might cost more but will help them sooner. While I understand the counter argument (younger players = higher ceiling) that strikes me as too much of a crap shoot. Being a fan is about hope (I think Bud Selig was spot on when he uncorked that beauty); I really don't want to sit through a series of hopeless seasons waiting for a cohort of 20 year old guys to fulfill their potential while avoiding injury, drugs and a multitude of other factors that could befall them as they take those long minor league bus rides. Maybe it is just me, but I would rather enter the season thinking .500 is a real possibility instead of spending my summer dreaming about how some AA pitcher is going to dominate three years down the line.

I am not suggesting that merely finishing at or above .500 should be the goal of each season: I think that should be the first goal, not the last. But if a team trades off all of its good pieces every year in the hopes of stockpiling raw talent, the chances of winning any time soon at the Big League level is diminished and deferred. I don't think that should have to be the case; it certainly hasn't been for St. Louis (2010 payroll $93MM) or Minnesota (2010 payroll $90MM), so why should the Brewers have to voluntarily descend into a period of "no hope" when the only payback is a projected hope that the crop of minor leagues far off in the distance will stay on track and mature in a timely and efficient manner? The Cards and Twins, despite having similar payroll constraints, have found a way to remain competitive while developing talent. I would hope this is possible for the Brewers.

So, yes, trade Prince Fielder. Even if all they can get is a single young pitcher--if that guy is a highly regarded rookie or AAA pitcher who will be under the team's control for the next five or six year, the deal is worth it. If nothing else they improve their pitching staff, save payroll and improve their infield defense. But if Prince is dealt for, say, three A ball kids, the likelihood is that we might only see two of them, and only then in three years, and one of them will likely underperform expectations. I guess I'd rather go for one guy that can help in the near future even if the cost and perception of value isn't as great on the front end.

What's $5 Million Worth?

2010-07-05T09:22:00.000-05:00

With his second trip to the All Star game now certain, Brewers RF Corey Hart just added a few million dollars to his 2011 salary. Who knows what he will demand in arbitration this coming off-season, but my guess is around $8 million. That's a shiny nickel, to be sure. But I think the Brewers should not blink and pick up his deal.

However, they shouldn't stop there. They should move him to first base -- his original position -- and find a team who can take Prince Fielder off their hands. There is no question in my mind that Hart will not be as productive as Fielder. But with Prince likely to make ~ $13 million next year, I think the gap between Corey's numbers and Prince's totals won't be worth the extra $5 million Fielder will cost.

Let's say both players revert to their means: Hart posting his present .811 career OPS in 2011, and Prince clocking in with his career average .925 OPS next season. I am not sure those .114 OPS points are worth $5 million, particularly when that money can be used to fill other gaps that can make the overall team better. Moreover, Fielder will likely bring more in trade than Corey, even considering Prince's value is likely to be depressed given his less-than-stellar 2010 (at least to date), his defensive shortcomings and the likelihood that his genes probably are going to shorten the length of his effectiveness.

Some have suggested trading both players as a way to gain more prospects and save even more payroll. I am not against this. However, at some point the team becomes far less competitive, and that will hurt attendance. The Brewers can still be credible on the field if they deal some of their offense as long as they gain more consistent pitching. I think they can best do that by taking what they can for Prince, installing Hart in his place and using the savings to plug other holes.

The Slick Fielding Alcides Escobar

2010-07-03T22:25:00.001-05:00

When Alcides Escobar was working his way through the Milwaukee Brewers farm system fans heard many stories of the amazing defense this guy played. One scout was even reported to have said that Escobar made one outstanding play each game. While there were questions about how his bat would translate to the big leagues, there seemed to be little question about his glove. However, halfway through his first full season in Milwaukee, it seems as though those advance reports might have been a bit oversold.

Yes, Escobar is just a rookie, and -- yes -- he will likely get better with experience. But when I read things like this, I just scratch my head. I have watched and/or listened to just about every game this season and, at this point, don't see why the Brewers are so excited about Escobar's play in the field. I don't think he's bad out there, but he doesn't stand out and makes more than his share of errors--only Ian Desmond of the Nationals has more errors at SS than Escobar, who ranks 20th of 22 in Fielding Percentage.

Before I go further, let me state that I don't buy into the school of thought that soft-pedals the issue by saying that they are "mostly throwing errors" or that they are a result off his "getting to balls that others wouldn't." First, throwing errors still count. In fact, they probably hurt a team more than misplaying a ball because throwing errors often result in the runner(s) taking an extra base. Part of being a plus defender is knowing when to give up on a play and put the ball in your pocket.

As for errors being dismissed because of his supposed outstanding range, the stats suggest that just isn't the case. As of this writing, Escobar's Zone Rating ranks 12th in the majors out of 22 shortstops that qualify for the ranking. (A side note: Craig Counsell's Zone Rating is better than Escobar's this year, although CC doesn't qualify for the official MLB ranking.) Moreover, Escobar's Range Factor isn't much better, landing him 11th out of those 22 players.

So I am perplexed as to why the Brewers are reportedly so pleased with Escobar's defense. I haven't see the wizardly fielding we heard so much about while he was coming up. In fact, he doesn't seem to be much of an improvement over JJ Hardy, whose fielding stats from last season show that he was, across the board, better than what we've seen from Escobar so far in 2010.

Perhaps by the end of the season I will be singing a different tune. Surely, by the end of 2011 that will be the case. For the Brewers sake, I hope so because Escobar's offense leaves much to be desired.

Checking Back With Ryan Bruan

2010-07-03T16:46:00.000-05:00

It's now been nearly a month since I suggested that something wasn't right with Brewers left fielder Ryan Braun. The notion that Braun might not be mentally dialed in due to the hitting conditions at Miller Park and the team's woeful pitching was not well received in some quarters.

Still, 24 games later, Braun continues to flop around, notching a .698 OPS over that stretch. The saving grace is that the team has gone 14-10 during this period, thanks in large part to improved pitching. Nonetheless, I am still wondering where Ryan Braun has gone, the Braun who was Rookie of the Year in 2007 and posted .900+ OPSs on his way to consecutive All Star Game appearances.

Brewers fans seem reluctant to admit it, but Braun is having a limp season. Sure, he will probably play in his third straight All Star Game later this month (and might even be a starter), but most of that buzz was built on a quick start (1.058 OPS in his first 30 games). Since May 9 -- a span of 48 games -- his OPS is .681.

So what's up with this guy? After putting together three outstanding seasons and jumping off great in 2010, has he suddenly lost it? I find that doubtful. Some suggest he is just becoming who he really is. Analyst Nicholas Zettel of the blog Bernie's Crew offers this:

I am hearing more and more rumbling about Ryan Braun, given the recent news of his new restaurant opening and his current hitting woes (.264/.299/.409 in June). What people are missing, due to their previous perception of Braun as a consistent power and average hitter due to his previous surface stats and splits, is the trends of Braun's K%, BB%, and HR% over the course of his career.

Throughout his short career, Braun already features distinct batting trends towards more contact, which basically means that he is putting the ball in play more over time, which means fewer home runs, fewer strike outs, and more walks to boot.

Here is Braun's batting luck, or his approach to putting the ball in play:

BIP% BABIP BB%     K%        HR%
2007              0.63    0.361 0.056 0.228 0.069
2008                0.677 0.305 0.063 0.195 0.056
2009                 0.685     0.353 0.081 0.171 0.045
2010                      0.744     0.320           0.079     0.146     0.032

I have said it before, and I'll say it again: people became so wound up with Braun's extreme counting stats to start his career, and the surface consistency of his splits and batting stats, that they forgot to analyze him as a hitter. Even moreso, I think people decided to revel more in the feeling that Braun was an elite hitter, and focused simply on him being one of the best young hitters, rather than focusing on how he actually approaches hitting.

In a word, fans sometimes are so concerned with Braun being the next Manny Ramirez that they don't understand that it's perfectly acceptable for him to become the next Danny Tartabull. And if you don't believe me, look at Danny Tartabull's value prior to age 30 -- then tell me with a straight face that you'd be disappointed if that was Braun's value as a hitter with the Brewers over the course of a decade.

So I took the Pepsi Challenge and checked out Tarabull's stats. If that's the direction Braun is headed, I can live with that. I only hope this is just a correction for Bruan, not something with its roots in his displeasure with the park he will call home for the next 5.5 seasons or the state of the team's pitching staff. Because if he is psyched about his home yard or the way management is building the team, that is not likely to end well for the club or its fans.

Ryan Bruan Has Left the Building

2010-06-06T15:38:00.001-05:00

It's probably just me, but it seems like Brewers OF Ryan Braun has checked out. It's not just that he looks more lost in left field than he usually does, but his stats over the last 24 games tell an alarming story: A mediocre.250 BA coupled with a limp.286 OBP mixed with an anemic.380 SLG for a totally indifferent OPS of .666. Not surprisingly, the team has gone 8-16 over that stretch.

I wonder about where Braun's head is at. He has been on record complaining about the hitting conditions at Miller Park, not liking the batting backdrop and troubled by the shadows during day games. Interestingly, his numbers at home this year are very much like his overall numbers over the past 24 games--a .667 OPS (including a sub .300 OBP).

Braun is also on record bitching about the team's pitching last year; to his credit, he clammed up about it after he got some blow-back from management and fans. But while he might be silent about the team's woeful pitching this season, he is playing like that poor performance has sapped his energy.

So, has the Hebrew Hammer mailed it in? Is he letting frustrations about Miller Park and the team's pitching staff rob his enthusiasm? I certainly hope not, as that would be a horrible character flaw. For now, I will chalk it up as a performance slump, perhaps caused by his sore knee. That would definitely help me feel better about his recent play. But it doesn't keep me from wondering...

The Brewers' Hart Problem

2010-05-30T09:04:00.002-05:00

Milwaukee Brewers Right Fielder Corey Hart leads the National League in Home Runs. He tied a club record by homering on three consecutive at bats, two of which drove in six runs in a win over the Mets last night. That performance earned him a curtain call from delighted fans at Miller Park. After the game, excited bloggers were urging General Manager Doug Melvin to trade Hart's sorry Kentucky Ass.

It's not that I don't get this line of thought. In fact, there is a part of me that agrees--Hart's value will probably never be higher. With the team's need for quality pitching, particularly young arms with potential who are at or near being "Major League Ready," the Brewers are going to have to be creative in swinging some deals. That makes Hart, a plus player with an escalating salary, a prime trade candidate.

I get all that. What I don't understand is the lingering hard feelings about Hart. I suppose some fans still are miffed that he won his arbitration hearing in March, coming as it did on the heels of a rather flaccid 2009 performance. I think others will never forgive him for speaking the truth in September 2008 about how the club was booed at home during its playoff run. Still others point to Hart's horrific offensive performance that month as evidence that he is a bum.

Certainly, Hart has some baggage. But there is a mythology that has grown up around Hart that has labeled him a declining or disappointing player, a perception that seems to focus on a mediocre 140 game, 517 at bat stretch between September 2008 and the end of the 2009 season, while ignoring his first 1314 at bats over the initial 381 games of his career. That larger sample size combined with his play this season tells me that Corey Hart, who at 28 is entering the prime years of his career, is an ascending player and asset to the Brewers. I think Hart's critics are focusing too much on the .694 OPS he posted in the sour 140 stretch and forgetting the strong .835 OPS he racked up over the prior 381 games.

I think the Brewers would be wise to consider keeping Hart. He wants to be in Milwaukee and is competitively priced. Rather than breaking the bank on Prince Fielder, whose price will be astronomical, perhaps an idea is to deal Fielder and move Hart to first base, his original minor league position. Fielder would bring much more in trade and give the team far greater salary relief; dealing Prince would also create a hole at first, a gap that does not seem to have a ready solution in the team's minor league system. Meanwhile, back-filling for Hart in right is a much easier problem to solve with the likes of Lo Cain and Mat Gamel.

So if I was encouraging Doug Melvin to think about anything in the wake of Corey Hart's recent torrent, I would urge him to take a broader, more circumspect approach.

Who Should Take the Bullet for the Brewers Predicament?

2010-05-18T11:36:00.004-05:00

As the losers of seven games in a row entering Tuesday, the Milwaukee Brewers seem to be circling the drain. Yes, it is still only the middle of May, but that sort of thinking won't cut it with fans whose expectations of the club have become sky high in recent years. These days, fans have an entitled attitude about their teams, we demand "accountability" -- what we really want is someone to take the weight for a disappointing start, a personification of the frustrations that can be offed to make us feel better, to feel like something is being done to make things better.

But, in truth, I don't think there is really a bad guy here, someone in the organization who so completely and totally fucked up that he needs to be aced on the jumbotron in front of a full house of angry, blood-thirsty season ticket holders. No, the way I see it is more complex: There were a lot of small decisions, agreed on by all levels of the organization, that played out over the course of many years. These decisions framed a philosophical approach that put the Brewers where they are now.

Here's how I think it might have played out. Our story has its roots in the fight for Miller Park. Those shenanigans put even more pressure on the club to produce a winner. So when the place opened and the team sucked, something needed to be done as quickly as possible to create hope, fill the place and make good on the promise that Miller Park would cause the team to be better. Dean Taylor turns to his boy Jack Zduriencik and a plan is hatched--probably in concert with Wendy Selig and her husband--to create a team that will be exciting enough to draw fans to their new park. The team can't afford high priced free agent talent, so they need to draft young offensively-oriented players who can advance quickly through the system. Pitchers would be nice, too, but they are such a crap shoot and most of them advance slowly through the minors. Besides, more people are going to come to the park to see a team score seven runs (even if they lose) than they will to see a team score two (even if they win).

Sadly, Taylor makes some unfortunate major league decisions (e.g. signing Jeffrey Hammonds) and the team comes off the rails, losing 106 games. There is not enough buzz coming out of the minors at this point to create hope in the locals, so a demonstration must be made: Taylor is capped, Doug Melvin is hired, and he brings in a former Brewer to run the show on the field. Melvin understands the business model and the goal, and takes it to the next logical place, believing that if he can nurse things along until the young hitters blossom, he can fill in with mid-tier veteran pitchers who will suck up enough innings while keeping the team close enough to bludgeon their way to victory.

Things perk up enough that someone is willing to buy the club and that guy inherits a strategy that seems generally acceptable in that it will make his product exciting enough to market and draw fans and do so on a relatively short timeline. He is willing to overpay for mediocre veteran pitching if it is going to be "good enough" to allow the prized young hitters to compensate by out-scoring the opposition. Hence, MKE targets affordable, middle of the road pitchers, so guys like Jeff Suppan and Randy Wolf become free agent targets.

So, when those pitchers don't even live up to the modest expectations, and when the hitters don't consistently mash like they thought, the plan doesn't run as smoothly as the rapidly rotating turnstiles at Miller Park, another demonstration must be made. Everyone is complicit, but shit runs downhill...and you can't fire the players (as the key culprits have expensive, long-term deals)--so Ken Macha is the boy who draws the short straw.

The problem, as I see it, is a management philosophy geared toward a quick fix to appease a fanbase grown bitter and cynical from years of losing, a fanbase that believed the hype that Miller Park would equate to winning baseball, and somehow believed that would happen overnight. I can't fault the fans for wanting a winner, and I can't fault management for trying to find the quickest way to get them one. Should Melvin be fired because his execution of the strategy was flawed? Only if one believes that he behaved illogically and bypassed better moves that would have been clear to just about any other GM. Now, certainly there are other baseball executives that would have made different moves given the same circumstances, but would those moves have surely resulted in better outcomes? I think that is open to wide speculation...and there is the rub.

While it would be easy to lay the present circumstances off on one person, the fact is that there were many players in the drama that has brought the Brewers to where they are now. While there might be a White Knight who would have made all the right decisions while executing the combined strategy, chances are most GMs would have had a bag as mixed as Melvin's--different decisions probably, but uneven results leading us to pretty much the same place we are now.

So before anyone is made to swing for where the Brewers find themselves at the moment, I think the broader picture needs to be examined.

Cappy on the Way Back?

2010-05-14T13:12:00.001-05:00

It wasn't so long ago that Chris Capuano was an All Star "twirler" for the Brewers. But Cappy blew out his elbow -- for a second time in his career -- two years ago and subsequently endured a second Tommy John surgery. How many times have we read media accounts noting that few pitchers have made it back from a second such procedure? It seems that is a standard part of every story written about Capuano's quest. But in four starts, CC has been nothing short of tremendous, posting a 0.79 ERA.

While he has put up some strong numbers, Capuano has posted them in the minor leagues. I hope that earns him a shot with the big club because, well, I am a sucker for a good story. But I have very low expectations for a guy coming back off those surgeries and throwing in the mid-80s.

Of course, it is not the raw speed of the pitch that solely matters, but the ability to change speeds and hit locations that will largely determine success. However, the margin for error is so much finer when a guy is throwing 85 instead of 95 (or even 90); a harder thrower has a greater margin for error. That might not reveal itself in the minors, but in MLB the slightest mistakes will be turned around and lit up.

So, by all means, bring Cappy home. Give him a shot--not much to lose at the moment for Milwaukee. The team could probably use some feel-good vibe right about now. But don't expect CC to be an elixir. That's not fair to him or, probably, realistic.

Yost and Macha

2010-05-14T10:19:00.002-05:00

This excellent piece by former Brewers beat writer Drew Olson (who now writes for OnMilwaukee.com) caught my attention because it spoke to a long held opinion that I have about MLB managers: They simply don't matter as much as many fans seem to think they do. I think the article is sharp enough that instead of just linking to it, I have copied it in full here:

Should Brewers manager Macha be on the hot seat?

For those who have been too busy working, studying or trying to figure out the most recent episode of "Lost" to notice, the Brewers are scuffling.

A deflating 9-2 loss to Atlanta Wednesday afternoon at Miller Park capped an ugly three-game sweep and dropped their record to 15-19 overall and a hideous 4-11 at home.

Given the circumstances, it's not surprising that many fans are taking out their frustrations on manager Ken Macha. The accusations range from strategy ("He leaves pitchers in too long"; "He tinkers with the lineup too much") to style ("He doesn't show any emotion; he looks sedated.")
It's pretty standard stuff. Fans are riled up about the team's inconsistent play -- especially at home -- and the "throw the bum out" crowd seems to be turning up the volume a bit.

After a brutal series in San Diego during the last trip, general manager Doug Melvin offered the opinion that Macha was not to blame for the team's struggles. "We're not performing well," Melvin said, "but Ken, I haven't seen him swing at a bad breaking ball yet. I haven't seen him give up two runs, three runs in an inning yet."

While those comments may have made Macha feel better, they also riled up his detractors.
"Managers never swing a bat or throw a pitch," a co-worker commented. "If you go by that measure, why would you ever fire a manager? Why do you even have a manager?"

Since that last question was flip, I gave a smart-alecky answer: "Because they need somebody to focus on in the dugout when a pitcher melts down on the mound!"

The manager is the public face of the organization. He's the conduit between the ball club, the media and the fan base. He's a natural lightning rod. But for all the talk about lineups, matchups, double-switches and motivational speeches, the manager's role in a team's success or failure is grossly exaggerated.
Because the manager controls the lineup, you can say that everything that happens in a game is his ultimate responsibility. The reality is that the guys on the field dictate the action in a game is steeped in streaks of success, failure and logic-defying luck.

If a pitcher throws the ball down the middle of the plate and the batter fouls it back, it's a strike. Bad pitch, good result. Earlier this year, Trevor Hoffman threw a nicely-located pitch that St. Louis' Nick Stavinoha golfed off his shoelaces into the stands. Nice pitch, horrendous result.

It's pretty much the same thing with managers. A handful of times this year, Macha and the Brewers followed their pre-game blueprint to the letter, took a lead into the ninth inning, handed the ball to Hoffman, the all-time saves leader, and ended up losing the game.

A loss like that ends up on Macha's record, but it wasn't his fault. On the flip side, managers can get caught in bad matchups late in games and have them work out favorably.

I've talked to plenty of managers over the past 15 years and my belief that a skipper's strategic moves -- the actual chess match maneuvers that fans obsess about -- directly influence the outcome of somewhere between five and 10 games per season.

I don't mean to diminish the importance of those games. Over the course of the 162-game schedule, they can be the difference between a playoff berth and an October tee time.

It's just that the majority of the action on the field is dictated by players and not managers/coaches. Now, if the players "quit" on a manager, that can be a sure sign that a change is needed. Sometimes, there is merit to the "change for the sake of change" move.

Baseball is a long-haul game, not given to snap judgments. Were fans asking for Macha's head after the ugly series in San Diego lobbying for him to get an extension when the team clobbered Pittsburgh the trip before?

With that out of the way, we return to the central question: Should Ken Macha be worried about his job security at this point? While my inclination is to say "Of course not; it's too early," the memory of Ned Yost creeps into the equation. The Brewers fired Yost with two weeks left in the 2008 season and the team holding a 83-67 record. With an incident like that in the past, an early exit for Macha wouldn't be shocking.

At this point, though, it wouldn't be warranted.

Macha will look a lot smarter if/when Ryan Braun's bruised elbow heals, Prince Fielder starts producing, Hoffman regains last year's form and starters Yovani Gallardo, Doug Davis and Randy Wolf start working deeper into games to take a strain off an overworked bullpen.

If those things don't happen in the next six weeks or so, the Brewers will have a tough time living up to the modest projections of the experts who envisioned a slightly-better-than-.500 finish and Macha's seat will be much hotter than it is today.
By then, though, fans may bypass Macha and shift their focus to Melvin.

That last bit is particularly spot on. If Doug aces Ken, then all eyes are on Melvin. And that is probably as it should be.

That aside, I wanted to join those offering good wishes to Ned in KC--he's going to need all the positive energy available to crack that nut. I was never as down on the guy as many fans were (and remain), but that had less to do with my feelings for and about Yost than it does for my beliefs about the role and relative importance of managers as articulated by Olson above. In retrospect, I think Ned did a lot of good for the Brewers and, ultimately, had a measure of success that the team hadn't experienced in nearly two decades. Capping him and bringing in a "proven winner" has shown that the difference that managers make to the winning equation is relatively minor.

Fielder's Days in Milwaukee Dwindling

2010-05-03T14:03:00.002-05:00

I hate to admit it because I like Prince Fielder and, as a Brewers fan, I especially like his big bat in the middle of the Milwaukee line up. But, sadly, the time does appear to be coming where the team will need to part ways with him. The blog Bernie's Crew thinks that the sooner the deed is done probably the better. The more the Brewers fail around, the more this view not only seems right, but inevitable.

Craig Calcaterra suggests the Brewers consider unloading Fielder this year. Unless something changes with this team is a hurry, that would be their best play. Fielder's trade value will be at it's highest at the 2010 deadline when some team in the playoff race will be scrambling for a bat.

It may be really tough to accept, but long-term this move would be in best interest of the organization. The longer they try to paste together a roster that can win around 80 games, the longer it will take to rebuild when the time comes. Reload. Get ahead of the curve. It might mean a slight attendance decline in the short term, but there is money coming off the books after this season. The Brewers should still be in a relatively strong financial position."

More at: Brewers Round 'em Up: Monday 05.03.10 - JSOnline:

Did Goldman Act Ethically?

2010-04-30T10:54:00.004-05:00

Andrew Clark at The Guardian: "You can argue that there shouldn't be such thing as a 'synthetic collateralised debt obligation' in the first place, and you'd have a good point. But Goldman wasn't unique in dabbling in this stuff - it was just the savviest and most successful. The fact is that it's neither unlawful nor unethical to bet against your own clients, or to match together different investors with opposite goals. It's the way Wall Street works."

I am not an expert on such matters, but is seems to me that betting against one's own clients is not clearly ethical behavior. To my way of thinking, when one enters into a business relationship with a client, a partnership is formed. Often, the client has entered into the relationship seeking the guidance of the organization, so a bond of trust would appear to be implicit. So I am left to think that the bond is broken when one party bets against the other.

Moreover, the same firm matching together different investors with opposite goals seems like duplicitous, double-dealing. Perhaps this is just old-fashioned, romantic thinking on my part. But these tactics don't pass the smell test for me.

Finally, to dismiss this as "just the way Wall Street works" is not only cold comfort, but completely discouraging. I mean, why would anyone want to trust banks with their money if this is standard operating procedure? If breezily dismissing this apparent ethical breech and double-dealing with a shrug is what we are to expect, then it is little wonder there is so much cynicism and mistrust about the financial institutions in this country.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Government-Launches-Criminal-Probe-of-Goldman-Sachs-3428

Brewers' Escobar Still A Work In Progress

2010-04-25T11:06:00.006-05:00

I went to the Brewers game last night with BigSnakeMan of PocketDoppler.com. It was an overwhelmingly flat affair at Miller Park. Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly kept Milwaukee in check, allowing plenty of time for Mike and I to muse about the Brewers. He shared some of those thoughts at PocketDoppler, but I thought his observations about the team's rookie shortstop were particularly spot on:

Unfortunately, my fears about shortstop Alcides Escobar are being realized. Escobar has committed 5 errors so far, which puts him on a pace for about 40 on the season. That’s unacceptable for any player, much less one who’s always been touted as a defensive wizard. The Brewers seem content to pass off his infractions as rookie mistakes, but this is a continuing pattern that Escobar exhibited throughout his minor league career. Even last night, Escobar failed to stop two hard grounders that could have saved runs had he kept them on the infield. Sure, they would have been tough plays but they were well within his supposedly magnificent range. For 3 years I’ve been hearing what a great defensive shortstop this kid is but I’ve yet to see much evidence of it on the field. Obviously, Escobar is still very young and hopefully will grow into the position. Bench coach Willie Randolph helped to make 2nd baseman Rickie Weeks into a competent fielder so he should be able to help Escobar. But given the reputation that he came up with, it’s certainly going to take more work than I anticipated.

I applaud Mike for speaking what others seem reluctant to say about Escobar. He might turn out to be everything so many have proclaimed, but to this point the jury is clearly out. For the Brewers sake, I hope he develops as expected. Of course, if he does, he will probably be playing in a major market six years from now.

Packers 2010 Draft Musings

2010-04-25T11:03:00.001-05:00

It is so very refreshing to read some thoughtful, measured commentary on the Packers draft. As Mike, the "BigSnakeMan" of the Pocket Doppler blog notes, none of us know how good or bad this draft was for the Packers, and we won’t have a real idea until at least three years hence. The tone of this piece supports that notion and I consider it a "must read" for Packers fans.

Like Mike, I also would have liked to see GB snag Wisconsin's O'Brien Schofield. But the notion–expressed in a reader comment to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article–that Ted Thompson somehow made a mistake that will “haunt” him by not selecting Schofield is simply whack. GB did not have a fourth round pick (the round in which Schofield was drafted) and it would have been careless to use a third on a guy coming off an ACL who was projected no better than a second when fully healthy. Also, I certainly wouldn’t have wanted TT to expend additional draft choices to trade back into the fourth–to get ahead of Arizona, the team that picked Schofield–in order to acquire an injured player.

I also liked the idea of acquiring FSU safety Myron Rolle, the Rhodes Scholar. Deep down, though, I wonder if the questions about his “commitment” are code for an unexpressed bias about players who are “too smart:” Will he be a trouble maker, asking all kinds of questions and challenging coaching authority? Will he be reading The Economist when others in the locker room are reading Sports Illustrated? (That is, assuming they are reading anything at all.) Can a smart guy really be a tough, hard-hitting football player? We all have biases; I expect NFL front office personnel are no exception.

Carbon Leaf Live -- Really Live -- In Madison

2010-04-24T11:55:00.002-05:00

My friend Dan (@SportsBubbler on Twitter) is a huge fan of the Virginia band Carbon Leaf. Knowing that I am an admirer of their music, he sent me this video, which I thought was so good and I wanted to share it here (and not just because it was recorded prior to their recent gig in my town):

I have heard and seen a lot of performance music, on record and in video. Usually I find those to be lacking something. But this one has that rare combination of sincerity and polish. Well done, Carbon Leaf! And thanks, Dan, for passing it on. Certainly worth the viewing.

More Tax Day Perspective: Socialsim, Social Justice and Glenn Beck

2010-04-15T16:59:00.002-05:00

While some see paying taxes as a joy because they put the act in the context of Christian charity, others see this sort of government imposed redistribution of wealth as unwanted Socialism. The below perspective casts the matter in an entirely different light:

Tri Robinson: What Glenn Beck Doesn't Understand: Christian Social Justice Is Not Socialism: "Christian social justice is not socialism. Christian social justice is rooted in compassion. It happens when people get a divine glimpse of who God really is. Mother Teresa got it. So did William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. Glenn Beck clearly doesn't.

The difference between Christian social justice and socialism is a matter of not just goodwill but free will. Socialism demands equality at the expense of people who don't want to participate. Socialism mandates by law and through oppressive taxation its will on an entire social structure. No one has a choice in the matter; no one can exercise free will.

Authentic Christianity is based on free will. God in his infinite wisdom knows that love requires a choice. No one can be forced to love. Love only works when it is open-handed. The Bible tells us that we love God because he first loved us, but it has always been our human right to accept or reject his love. If we do accept that love, we soon learn to love what he loves, choosing to become his hands and feet in this broken world. Caring for the least of humanity comes with a package. We don't do it because we have to but because we choose to. We engage our lives in goodwill because we have been given free will."

A Novel View on Tax Day

2010-04-15T14:21:00.001-05:00

Today is a day of dread for many Americans--the day taxes are due to be filed. But I came across a different view, one with a slant fresh enough that I wanted to post it here:

Diana Butler Bass: Happy Tax Day: Progressive Taxes and Christian Faith: "Taxes aren't such a bad deal. Nor are they, as the Tea Party rabble have claimed throughout the year, at odds with Christianity. Indeed, tax day is a day that progressive people of faith should celebrate, as we participate in one of the greatest social reforms of the twentieth century: the progressive income tax."

In Praise of a Bulldog Effort

2010-04-05T08:28:00.000-05:00

So, Butler brings down Michigan State 52-50 in the national semi-final game over the weekend. And what does the post-game analysis focus on? What a magnificent story Butler is. How they are the smallest school ever to make the national championship game. Indeed, the Bulldogs making it to the final is a great story (and I will be rooting for them over Duke tonight).

But hardly a word is said about the low scoring nature of that game against the Spartans. However, as Mike Lucas and Matt Lepay noted this morning on WTSO in Madison, had it been the University of Wisconsin basketball team grinding it out in a similar manner, the focus would be on the "plodding Badgers" and on "limiting possessions." In other words, there would be disdain and disgust instead of praise for the plucky underdogs.

I wonder how far Roy Williams thought Butler's win set basketball back? If he figured the UW-MSU semi in 2000 set the game back 20 years, I would have to guess the Carolina head man would have thought this one set the game back three decades. But I suppose Coach Williams was indisposed, still licking his wounds from getting bounced by Dayton in the NIT final last week.

It Is Finished

2010-04-03T15:06:00.001-05:00

During Good Friday services yesterday Pastor Sarah Harrold of Madison's Bethel Lutheran Church was tasked to offer a mediation on Jesus' last words. Rather than give a traditional sermon, Pastor Harrold stepped into the pulpit and, without preamble or explanation, delivered this poem which she wrote specifically for this occasion:

It is finished.
Becoming human, uniting with creation.
Walking in one another’s presence
lovers learning
to truly live together.
Discovering nooks and crannies
of personalities, delighting in
triumphs; crying through
struggles.
Experiencing physical limitations,
understanding language,
swimming in mixed seas of hope and despair;
O Lord and humans alike,
It is finished.

It is finished,
loving the brokenness that is.
For it is not the brokenness
that’s repulsive –
but rather the death that it brings.
The brokenness tragically beautiful;
The despair its mutation.
Dependence on one another brings
life to all those involved;
but shame, guilt, and oppression bring
only death.
In the midst of all brokenness,
It is finished.

It is finished,
serving the unsuspecting.
Compassion for the rich and blind,
faith to the hopeless father;
life to the widow,
friendship to the poor.
Some come demanding your gifts;
But others did not even know to ask.
It is to such as these
that your light has gone.
For those who never knew God would serve,
It is finished.

It is finished,
loving the betrayers.
For connections do not simply disappear
nor love switch off.
Betrayal’s damage is that of a broken heart –
of the starkness of solitude -
not the physical death that it this time brings.
Throughout all actions that cut off
my love remains,
for it is finished.
It is finished.
Those healed
are the ones demanding crucifixion.
How powerful religion,
how strong a crowd;
that those who have been given life –
could forget so easily.
Familiar faces once filled with tears
now look straight in eye
with disgust.
For these lost in confusion, will this death
bring true healing.
For it is finished.

It is finished,
seeing leaders unwilling
to take a stand.
The need of acceptance knows no bounds;
judges search the accused for truth
and cry for forgiveness even as pain
overtakes courage.
For those not strong enough to recognize
the way of life,
It is finished.

It is finished,
walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
Your rod and staff have led
to this beating
to this death
to this public walk to the hill of execution.
Your rod and staff
yet they comfort though
You have forsaken.
It is finished.

It is finished.
Love has gone fully unrequited;
the heart fully broken.
Who are friends, who are foes?
Who is God and who the devil?
In the pain of love there is nothing
left but to die;
In the pain of love
nothing but to keep on loving.
For you, it is finished.

It is finished.
Taking away the power of
Guilt.
Shame.
Insignificance.
Orphanage.
Death.
Taking its power and giving it to
Love.
Forgiveness.
Dignity.
Courageous Hope.
And Life.
In this act you are known.
In this act you are made available
to anyone, anytime.
In this act will all people cling to you.
In this act, it is finished.

It is finished.
The ability to move forward together -
the world and God –
is here.
Reconciliation between the broken
and the Giver of Life.
The ones who seek
are now the sought after.
The powerful and the weak;
the large and the small;
the pure and the dirty;
the lovely and the hideous;
are now made one together.
Reconciliation.
It is finished.

It is finished,
this meeting in the cross.
In death
is death swallowed up.
Tangible guilt and shame is for
all to see.
Yet in this death is sin’s
transformation to life and love.
This meeting of God and world –
the cross –
One moment in time
powerfully eternal.
It is finished.

Into your hands, Lord,
I commend my spirit.
Now,
It is finished.

I have heard many sermons over the years, but Pastor Harrold's choice of a poem -- original and unexplained -- was something I'd never encountered, particularly on Good Friday when ministers tend to play it safe. I found it a bold and inspired choice.

What now, Corey Hart?

2010-03-31T07:38:00.000-05:00

Now what?

You are one of the lucky ones. A guy who has, against the odds, accomplished your major aspirations for your career. But you are still young, mid-career at most. So what is your response?

Perhaps you just smile and ride it out. But do you approach the work with the same fire? You've reached your destination, gotten farther than you ever thought you would and are making jack like you never imagined. What lights the fire now?

I write this today thinking of Brewers RF Corey Hart. I don't know the guy so I have no idea if his spring training funk is in any way linked to thoughts like the above. Although my guess is that those reflections mirror his situation even if they aren't consciously rolling through his mind. Hart is an 11th round draft pick out of a Kentucky high school who survived several position changes while working his way through the minor leagues to became an all star big leaguer who just landed a contract that will pay him nearly $5 million this season (and bring his career earnings close to $10 million). That's a long road, one traversed in less than a decade.

Or maybe his reduced production, which, after all, started back in late 2008 and lingered through last season, is the result of other teams figuring him out, knowing that he's a sucker for the outside slider. Or maybe it was his deteriorating eyesight (which required him to get glasses this year)--perhaps he just hasn't adjusted to the correction. Could be last year's numbers were the result of the appendix operation that forced him to miss about a month of the 2009 season.

Or maybe it is a matter of a confluence of factors--all of the above--coming together to create the possibility that he will lose his starting job in RF and become part of a platoon with Jim Edmonds.

Now, imagine for a moment that this isn't about Corey Hart at all. Imagine that the first few paragraphs above were not about a major league baseball player. Imagine if they were about a regular guy. This is an issue I wonder about for all of us. If we achieve our goals, if we rise to a position in our companies or secure our "dream job," or find a way to make more money than we ever imagined, what's left? What drives us? Do we have the energy to set it all aside and make new goals or is it completely understandable human nature to enjoy the achievement and dial back?

Most of us will never get to that point, perhaps because few of us have clear dreams or specific objectives we're are shooting for. We just want to get through the day and make it to the ballpark on time. But if we personalize the situation, then perhaps we might understand why Corey Hart (or Bill Hall or Geoff Jenkins or any number of other pro players) seem to get so far and then, for some reason, just fall off.

Those musings aside, here's hoping Hart snaps out of his funk, that those new glasses do the trick, and he can post a .275/.340/.480 line for the Crew this season. I think he is capable of it. But early signs don't suggest that is in the works. For now, his struggles remain a mystery to fans...and perhaps even to Hart himself.

Jerusalem

2010-03-25T10:22:00.004-05:00

The recent statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (glossed "Ben the Builder" by the BBC) that his country will continue to build homes for Jews in East Jerusalem knocked the scab off an international wound that just won't seem to heal. The situation seems bleak to me; it always has appeared intractable to my eyes. Centuries of dispute about a city that is cherished by three great religions. Such feelings, deep seated as they are, are hard to negotiate way.

That's why I took comfort this morning when Steve Earle's "Jerusalem" shuffled out of my iPod.

Jerusalem - Steve Earle

I woke up this mornin' and none of the news was good
And death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood
And the man on my TV told me that it had always been that way
And there was nothin' anyone could do or say

And I almost listened to him
Yeah, I almost lost my mind
Then I regained my senses again
And looked into my heart to find

That I believe that one fine day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem

Well maybe I'm only dreamin' and maybe I'm just a fool
But I don't remember learnin' how to hate in Sunday school
But somewhere along the way I strayed and I never looked back again
But I still find some comfort now and then

Then the storm comes rumblin' in
And I can't lay me down
And the drums are drummin' again
And I can't stand the sound

But I believe there'll come a day when the lion and the lamb
Will lie down in peace together in Jerusalem

Major Wisdom

2010-03-21T12:17:00.004-05:00

A note about that Domino’s Pizza commercial set in New Orleans that seems to be in Hot Rotation during the NCAA Tournament on CBS this weekend. First, Domino’s Pizza is poison and should be avoided at all costs. Second, the courthouse in front of which the ad is shot, is named for Judge John Minor Wisdom. I was lucky enough to sit in this great man’s study 15 years ago and I consider the hour I spent with him to be one of the privileges of my life. I suggest checking out this to understand who this guy was and what he meant to our country.

I think it is important that Judge Wisdom not be remembered simply as a backdrop in a pizza spot.

Clarence is Oveur

2010-03-15T07:09:00.003-05:00

The demise of actor Peter Graves has allowed those of us who are AIRPLANE! devotees to recall that magnificent film and load our blogs with clever headlines (like the above, which is likely too clever by half) and embed vintage video of the man who was the original Jim Phelps in the TV version of "Mission: Impossible." So, now that I have accomplished the first half of that objective, I will complete the second part of my mission.

Many thanks to PocketDoppler.com for the link which allowed me to locate the above.

Bucky Blows Up and Gets Bounced

2010-03-12T14:42:00.008-06:00

Flat and uninspired -- overall, that's how I would describe the mess I witnessed today during the UW v. Illinois game in the Big(11)Ten tourney. Posting on Twitter, WTMJ Radio host Gene Mueller asked, "Has a Wis. hoop team ever played more inept/uninspired b-ball under Bo Ryan?" Off the top of my head, I'd say, "no." So what Badgers fans are left with is a 58-54 loss and Wisconsin eliminated from the conference tournament.

Sure, Bucky made it a game when Trevon Hughes -- who was zero for his first 11 shots -- caught fire late in the game from Three Point Land, and led the Badgers back to trail by just two with 26 seconds to play. In the end, it was their inability to do much of anything in the first 35 minutes of the game that proved to be their undoing.

Illinois just seemed the crisper team--they certainly were ringing the bell from the field, particularly from beyond the arc. UW, meanwhile, unloaded at least four airballs in the first 15 minutes and seemed to be routinely slow and lacking urgency until their rate run. That's highly unusual for the Badgers over the past decade and a half.

How bad were things for UW? They were so bad Ryan actually went with full court pressure late in the second half. Can't think of the last time I saw anything resembling a press from Wisconsin.

In any case, Bucky certainly didn't look like a Top 15 team today, at least until the very end of the game. In fact, I'd stay the Badgers looked more like a Five Seed in the Tournament, the kind that gets bounced in the first round by a 12 Seed.

Perhaps this is just an aberration, a meaningless blip. But when I see UW play that way this late in the season, it makes me wonder if they might have run their engine dry compensating for Jon Leuer's nine game absence, leaving them running on fumes at the most critical point in the season. On the other hand, perhaps this was the proverbial "wake up call," and that last minute run was a sign of a team that still has some spark.

Talkin' On Things I Don't Know About

2010-03-07T18:01:00.006-06:00

I was almost back home when my CD player spit out "Ten Thousand Words" by the Avett Brothers. I have noted in this blog several times over the past couple of months about my affection for their latest album "I And Love And You," so my attraction to this song might be expected. But this was something different, a jolt that caused me to hit the repeat button...a half-dozen times.

Perhaps it was the moody gathering darkness of late winter in South Central Wisconsin; maybe it was the pensiveness of Lent; or it could have been emotions rubbed raw by having dropped my son back at college marinated in fatigue at the end of a six hour drive. Whatever the case, I found myself shaken by a highly convicting and haunting refrain:

Ain’t it like most people? I’m no different
We love to talk on things we don’t know about

Guilty as charged.

Ten Thousand Words - The Avett...

A Seasonal Reminder

2010-02-19T09:31:00.004-06:00

Lori died Tuesday night. 54 years old. Brain cancer. So Lent begins.

I'd known her for 20 years, since the day I started at my present job. Lori was smart, pretty, funny and quirky -- especially quirky. It was one of the things I liked best about her. She had style, a jauntiness. Lori was good at her job, and she believed in what she was doing. Above all else, I found her to be a good person. She is missed by many, and I am among them.

So as I continue to process Lori's passing, contemplating my own mortality in the context of Lent, an old Bruce Cockburn song comes to mind.

Joy Will Find a Way (A Song Ab...

It's a beautiful mediation, and surely filled with a lot of truth. But it's not always so easy to see this way.

Lenten Faux Pas

2010-02-18T10:45:00.004-06:00

On Twitter yesterday I related the story of a colleague who was mystified about the mark on my forehead a couple of Ash Wednesday's ago. "Dude, you've got something on you forehead!" When I noted it was Ash Wednesday the guy was mortified, totally embarrassed.That is one reason why I get my ashes after work these days--it's not just my discomfort about walking around with them, but it is because it tends to make others uncomfortable.

Well, apparently, Joe Biden has no such qualms, and props to him for that. This video, passed along by the folks at Beliefnet, illustrates the complete befuddlement of the Sky News crew in trying to decode what is going on with Joe's head. Check about 50 seconds in and then near the end when someone clues in the anchor as to what's up with Joe. Pretty funny...

Lent 2010 Theme Song

2010-02-17T10:01:00.002-06:00

I stumbled upon this song when one of my Internet buddies sent me the latest from the Avett Brothers, "I And Love And You." A magnificent record, one of the best discs start to finish I have had the pleasure of hearing. However, this track, "Ill With Want" jumped out at me as the perfect meditation for the Lenten Season:

Ill With Want - The Avett Brot...

Yeah, I can relate. I will be thinking about this song when I get my ashes tonight.

"Here it is...your moment of Zen."

2010-02-14T00:44:00.004-06:00

Not from Jon Stewart, but Eckhart Tolle, who doesn't seem to have been raised Catholic:

Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry — all forms of fear — are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.

My wife and I are doing a little reading on Buddhism. I like the Zen notion of living in the moment. In fact, the New Testament finds Jesus to be right there:

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble," (Matthew 6:34 NKJV)

As I consider the coming Lenten Season, I would like this practice to become one of my disciplines.

Wondering Where the Lions Are

2010-02-13T20:29:00.005-06:00

With the coming week commencing Lent, it seems like a good time to do some "thinkin' about eternity." That's what Bruce Cockburn did 30 years ago when he wrote "Wondering Where the Lions Are," and it is what Stephanie Drury did when she pondered doubt in a recent blog post...

"Where will you spend eternity? That person happens to know beyond a shadow of a doubt. Sound good? You can know too!

Can you? And should you? If God revealed himself completely and removed the need for faith, would it destroy a sacred part of us and turn us into chess pieces?"

I think Drury has a good perspective on this, something I will consider when Lent starts this coming Wednesday.

We Choose Not To Go To The Moon...

2010-02-11T17:42:00.003-06:00

When I heard that the Obama administration has decided to bag a return trip to the moon, I couldn't help but hear the voice of JFK in his rousing speech from 1961 stating, emphatically, that "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things...not because they are easy, but because they are hard." I understand why the Administration has opted to farm space exploration out to private industry -- the costs are great and the payback is not always perceptible, and the state of the national economy is anything but robust. Moreover, I think conservative writer Ross Douthat was on to something when he made this observation in his New York Times blog (The End of the Space Age):

"The administration wouldn’t be cutting the manned spaceflight program if Americans were still enthusiastic about going to the stars — if space exploration still occupied a privileged place in our imagination, if our jocks still wanted to be astronauts and our nerds still wanted to build rockets. Obama is simply bowing to our culture’s priorities: Our geeks want to build a better XBox, and our jocks want to buy it to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Our technological energy is still immense, but it’s increasingly turned inward — toward communication, life-extension, and computer-generated adventure — rather than outward toward the stars."

So it seems I probably won't get a chance to see an American follow where Gene Cernan left off back in 1972. I don't believe returning to the moon or blasting off for Mars is going to find a lucrative enough market to inspire private industry to pick up the challenge, so it appears the die is cast. Exploration like this is the sort of mission that governments have historically tackled--Columbus, Lewis & Clark--striking out to see what was there. But as America labors under its increasing bloat and faces its inevitable decline, I expect there will be another young nation, one hungry for challenge and achievement, that will be willing to pay the considerable cost of going where no one has gone before.

Comment: Don't make Fielder a villain

2010-02-11T16:20:00.001-06:00

I think the points made by my cyberfriend Steve Garczynski in his recent blog post -- Don't make Fielder a villain - JSOnline -- are fair and reasonable. Nonetheless, I would like to see MKE make a run at signing Prince, but I doubt that whatever they offer will get the job done. My guess is that the bid they put on the table will establish the floor for the Fielder Market and will be quickly swept away. It's just a fact of life for teams like the Brewers.

That said, I would at least like the Crew to make a statement by getting in the game. They owe their fans at least that much. Even if it is ultimately little more than a gesture, it is one made in good faith, and that is something teams that play in MKE need to do with those that flood the turnstiles.

Favre Close to Jumping the Shark

2010-02-08T10:20:00.001-06:00

I did like The Ol' Gunslinger's commercial during The Big Game. However, time might be running out on his playing off his indecision. The Sears thing was clever and last night was OK, too. But I think there is a limit to that particular joke.

The Best Super Bowl Party Ever...

2010-02-08T06:59:00.001-06:00

...at least as far as I am concerned:

Madison Bus Drivers Aren't Weakerthans

2010-02-07T09:00:00.004-06:00

It says something about Madison, Wisconsin that its highest paid city employee is a bus driver. I am not sure what it says, but it seems to be emblematic of the sort of place this is. And somehow, that gives me a sense of civic pride, perhaps in an amusing, ironic sort of way. It's just who we are here.

So in honor of that driver who knocked down nearly $160K last year, I offer my props and the only bus driver song I can think of in my collection...and it is a good one, too:

Civil Twilight - The Weakertha...

I'll Take Bucky over Brees or Manning

2010-02-07T08:50:00.004-06:00

How much do I like this season's Wisconsin Badgers basketball team? If they were playing opposite the Super Bowl today and I didn't have TiVo or any other time-shifting mechanism, I would dump the football game in favor of Bo Ryan's team. I like the way they play -- a lot.

I was noticing in yesterday's win over Michigan how they ran the offense so deep into the shot clock with no panic whatsoever, as if they knew they would get a shot, a good one, and drain it with less than five seconds left. The poise and confidence they showed was remarkable. A great game on both ends of the court.

I am very impressed with how this team plays, even more considering that they haven't folded without Jon Leuer. I am not seeing a deep tournament run, but that would take nothing away from the stones they have shown throughout this season. I am not sure it is Bo's best job of coaching, but rather, the culmination of years of consistent recruiting and teaching that has gotten the program to this point.

Leuerless and Still Winning

2010-02-06T18:10:00.005-06:00

If it's possible, I think the Badger basketball team is better than their 18-5 record suggests. Even when they've lost this season they've looked solid. This team just appears to be focused, rock steady and consistent. Of course, great guard play will do that for a team, and having a pair of seniors like Jason Bohannon and Trevon Hughes together with a mature-beyond-his-years sophomore like Jordan Taylor have certainly given the Badgers that.

But there is something else about this team, something I can't quite put my finger on, something intangible that has allowed this group to be resilient enough to withstand the loss of Jon Leuer, their second leading scorer and a big body that is in short supply, going 5-2 since he went down with a wrist injury. I suppose some of the credit could go to Bo Ryan and his staff, and I imagine that his steadiness is part of the reason that this year's team has been so solid. But this group, for whatever reason, seems to have more backbone and grit then Ryan's previous teams (which, it should be noted, rarely lacked for these qualities).

Whatever the reason, I have found myself getting more and more swept up with the 2009-10 installment of the Badgers. Maybe this is because I didn't see this coming prior to the season--they have certainly exceeded my expectations so far. The excitement is building for me, particularly when I wonder how good they might be should Jon Leuer be able to play later this season. This is a situation worth monitoring.

Brewers Looking Like a .500 Team

2010-02-06T18:00:00.001-06:00

At least that's how this site is seeing them. And it's hard not to disagree with the projection of 81 wins. Sure, they've upgraded the pitching to some extent. Well, at least the rotation should be more consistent. They lost some offense in the process, meaning that there will be even more pressure on Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun to produce at their past levels. So if one of them goes down for more than a few games and if one of those "innings eaters" they are counting on doesn't eat innings for whatever reason, I could see the Crew falling below sea level. Moreover, I expect the Cubs to be better than this projection shows. So I foresee it being very difficult for MKE to return to the post-season unless everything goes very, very well for them all year long.