Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week To Quit Blogging

Badgers Rose Bowl?

2010-11-08T06:42:00.000-08:00

So if the Badgers can win out and MSU can somehow loss a game Badgers in the Rose Bowl. This much everyone knows.

However according to today’s projections from Rivals.com

IF the Badgers are able to get there they will face the very untraditional opponent in TCU.

From Rivals: “Under terms of the most recent BCS agreement, the first time the Rose Bowl loses a team to the national championship game and a team from outside the Big Six conferences is an automatic qualifier, that team will play in the Rose Bowl. That means if Oregon is in the title game this season, the Rose Bowl must take the highest-placed non-Big Six team, which likely will be TCU.”

Thoughts?

Readers Poll?- Are we dead?

2010-09-20T14:38:00.000-07:00

So maybe I don't like my job more then most, or maybe I just am board more then most. I understand that most of you have responsibilities at work and some even at home, but with the significant lack of material being posted or commented on just thought I would ask... Is anyone out there?

I check in:

a. Daily
b. Once a week
c. Every so often (Last time I check in was...)

Next question, What happened to everyone?

I know I quite posting mostly because I thought no one was out there anymore. I personally check i a few times a week just to see if anyone is posting.

Please feel free to leave a comment and talk amongst yourselves.

Trevor 600! & Fan ejected?

2010-09-08T07:19:00.000-07:00

Was at the game last night with the wife. As Harry Doyal would say “In case you haven't noticed, and judging by the attendance you haven't,” but Trevor Hoffman recorded his 600th save last night.

It was AWESOME! The fans (about 18,000ish) were great. Miller Park had a lot of energy starting in the 8th when Axford came out to preserve the save opportunity.

Then in the 9th Hells Bells came on. The place went nuts, everyone was on there feet. Including the Cardinals bench. After the game most of the Cardinals hung around to see Trevor and his teammates celebrate. It was a really cool moment for a really classy guy.

But on a side note 4 ejections last night including a FAN! Check out the ejections recap and wait for the end:

MLB Ejection Recap

Can't say I have ever seen that one before.

Season has been a long disappointment but very glad I was able to make last night game. Championship Season 2011!

Where are they now...

2010-08-31T07:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, when your job is basically make a few calls, leave a few voice mails, get kicked in the nuts, repeat. You tend to find the time to reach the end of the Internet a few times. Yesterday my search brought us Famous Mormons. Today a site totally dedicated to collage athletes post stardom. A real nice site keeping tabs on guys we watched growing up and some we didn't.

Hope you enjoy and I helped bring you some positive procrastination.

http://www.lostlettermen.com/

Huh, famous mornmons? Who knew.

2010-08-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

(Bet you didn't know I wear special under ware.)

This post is mainly for our good friend Barrett. Ever since Dental school he has been enlightening us all about the mainstream cult religion that is Mormon.

I guess like 2/3 of his class were Mormon, he didn't like it.

Anyway don't ask how or why but stumbled across this great website named Famous Mormons. They break it out by category, entertainment, lawyers?, politicians and yes by sport. They even have a list of infamous Mormons.

enjoy reading and finding some great names that may surprise you:

http://famousmormons.net/baseball.html

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments. Famous Mormons- Huh,

Ted Nugent called. He wants his jersey back.

2010-08-26T19:23:00.000-07:00

Got my NFL.com Shop catalog in the mail today - and bumped into this abomination while looking at the jerseys. Now, I'm a fan of alternate colors, throwbacks, etc., but this thing has got to be one of the worst looking jersey's I've ever seen. This model is what Reebok calls a "Realtree" Replica jersey. What its replicating I'm not sure - vomit on a burnt out lawn or some bad artwork from a motel room in Minoqua or Spooner are my first two guesses. Its also perfect if you want to look like the cover of every 'Field and Stream' magazine ever published.

Packer fans, explain this one too me, please. The blaze orange nonsense at Lambeau is bad enough (and has nothing to do with football). This appears to be the next step in the evolution of stereotyping Packer fans. Nicely done Reebok. You have made it possible for hundreds of Packer fans to come in from a long morning of hunting, and not have to change into their green and gold. Oh, and for those interested there is also a Clay Matthews #52 model. Blond mullet is optional.

I can't wait until they make one of these 'Realtree' models for Bucks fans, so I can promptly gouge my eyes out.

College football right around the corner- HATERS

2010-08-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

This worth a good 8 minutes of morning coffee drinking pleasure. Any blog that uses, nay coins the phrase "pantshittingly kickass" is worth sharing,

From Deadspin: Deadspin Top 25

Enjoy.

Goldy did you write this song?

2010-08-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

Sorry Chopp,

I liked your post but had to get this up here as soon as I saw it. Classic, Goldy i can see this coming out of your lionel richie i tunes library.

Great work enjoy:

Turning Lemons Into Lemonade

2010-08-08T18:09:00.000-07:00

I'm taking junior to check out Packers Training Camp tomorrow, some quality father-son time. As I dig into the closet to pick out a jersey, I realize the wife and I have the worst collection of Packers jerseys in the state. No doubt about it. Here's the lineup:

Robert Brooks #87

Dorsey Levens #25

Bubba Franks #88

Aaron Kampman #74

WTF garbage collection is that?? To makes matters worse, the AK74 is almost brand new. Bought it last off season about two weeks before GB switched to the 3-4, making Kampy very mediocre. Damnit all! And anybody notice a trend? Brooks, Levens, and Kampman all blew out their knees right after purchasing said jerseys. As for Franks, he turned into a glorified Tackle.

So what to do? For the sake of shredding more ACL's, buying a new jersey is out of the question. I'm desperate. Desperate, but also a genius! Duct tape and a sharpie can fix anything, right?

Before:

After:

OH, YEAH!!! It's the white-trash #88 Finley edition! You can't buy this sucker at the Rice Lake Wal-Mart if you tried! Does it look cheap, white trash, generic, and stupid? Yep, and that's the point! As for Finley's knee...technically it's still a Bubba shirt, so we're good.

Back to school means the retun of the coastie

2010-08-06T08:27:00.000-07:00

Sadly with Football training camp comes the end of summer. This sucks. another sign of the end of summer is the first back to school radio ad I just heard. So basically just needed to update the blog. So for Goldy and Gilkes thought I would kick'it Madison Coastie Style...

enjoy the weekend boys.

On another note Badgers picked 3rd in most polls for the big 11. thoughts? Does Bret need to make a major bowl or pack up his office?

I am curious what you guys think.

Cobra: Purdue will be a middle of the road none factor, sorry.

Gopher: whats the maroon and gold up to?

Goldy opens JS and instantly pukes....

2010-08-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

Not only did Doug not move Hart but he gave the d-bag a 3 year deal!!!!

Hart gets 3-year extension

Aug. 2, 2010 8:00 a.m.
*UPDATE: ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted Hart's extension is for $26.5 million. We're trying to confirm that before getting to Chicago and talking to Hart and GM Doug Melvin.
Corey Hart got his wish.

While his name was being bandied about on the trade rumor mill in recent weeks, Hart repeatedly said he wanted to stay with the Brewers and sign a contract extension rather than being dealt to another club.

That wish came true Monday morning when the Brewers announced that Hart agreed to a three-year extension through the 2013 season. The deal buys out the final year of the 28-year-old right fielder’s arbitration eligibility in 2011 as well as his first two years of free agency.

No financial terms were released but the deal is probably worth close to $25 million. Hart is making $4.8 million this season, and probably would have been in line for a $6-7 million salary in 2011 after a big 2010 season.
Hart bounced back from an awful spring training and irregular playing time in the early weeks of season to put together his most productive campaign. In 92 games, he is batting .288 with 23 home runs and a team-high 72 RBI, with a .565 slugging percentage and .346 on-base percentage.

Hart was selected to the National League all-star team in player balloting and also competed in All-Star Home Run Derby in Anaheim, finishing in third place.

The signing addresses one of the three core players on the Brewers’ roster headed for free agency after the 2011 season. First baseman Prince Fielder and second baseman Rickie Weeks also fall in that category.

The Brewers had no luck broaching a contract extension with Fielder earlier in the season and talks were shut down. It would not be surprising if the club trades him this winter rather than risk losing him to free agency after 2011 with only draft picks in return.

Like Hart, Weeks is having his best season and the Brewers could approach him with a contract extension before 2011 as well.

It has been a remarkable turnaround within the same season by Hart, who was in the doghouse after a terrible spring training, during which the Brewers made an overture to free-agent outfielder Jermaine Dye to join the club. The club was so down on Hart, it did not submit his name for all-star consideration in fan balloting.

Hart had to fight for playing time in the early weeks of the season but injuries to Jim Edmonds and Carlos Gomez eventually got him regular playing time, and he made the most of it. In May, he hit 10 home runs, taking the league lead for several weeks, and drove in 22 runs.

Hart hit .314 with 27 RBI in June, and .310 in July despite missing a week with a wrist injury. He put together a 21-game hitting streak during one stretch, becoming the only player in club history with two streaks of at least 20 games during his career.
Hart’s two-run homer in the sixth inning Sunday gave the Brewers their only runs in a three-game sweep by the Astros in Houston.

The agreement also means the Brewers and Hart, and agent Jeff Berry, finally agreed on his worth. They clashed on that subject in past negotiations, leading to an arbitration hearing in February in which Hart won his case and was awarded a $4.8 million salary.

I will be able to speak with Hart later in the day about the extension and I’ll post a blog with his comments.

Here is a comment from Brewers GM Doug Melvin in a release just put out by the club:
“The Brewers are very excited to have Corey signed for the next three years,” said Melvin. “He is one of our drafted and developed players and with his two-time All-Star performances, Corey deserves this contract that will provide his family security. We appreciate his wanting to remain a Brewer and a part of the Milwaukee community.”

Rollin' solo at Fifth-Third Park

2010-07-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

Traveling for work has its ups and downs, but one of the perks is the ability to check out the scene in other cities during your down time. This week found me on the beautiful west coast of Michigan with a free evening. I've meant to hit up a West Michigan Whitecaps (Tigers Single A affiliate) game for about 2 years now, as I travel to Michigan for work pretty regularly, but the Whitecaps and my schedule never seemed to line up until this Wednesday. So I made the short drive from my hotel up to Comstock Park, MI (a small town just north of Grand Rapids) to Fifth-Third Ballpark. Now, I haven't been to a lot of different Single A ballgames, but I am very familiar with the Beloit Snappers (formerly Brewers, now Twins Single A affiliate). The Snappers game experience is generally good, cheap food/beer, cheap seats, modest crowds, a fun dancing turtle mascot, etc. Relative to that, I was not prepared for weeknight Whitecap baseball.

As I approached the exit ramp to get to the stadium, I thought I was pulling up behind an accident. The ramp was backed up well onto the US-131 - but nope, no fender-bending jackasses impeded me. It was 'game-day' traffic! My mind immediately panicked with the thought that I might have to pay for parking. I only had $5 in my wallet, and had planned on getting raked for a $3 service charge at one of the many Fifth-Third ATMs I would surely find throughout the Park. How much could they possibly charge for parking at a Single A baseball game? Five bucks exactly, apparently. Whatever, a five-spot seemed a little steep (considering how far away I ended up) - but now I was intrigued, what with the crowd this team was drawing on a Wednesday evening. 10 minutes later, I'm up to the Box office, and had nabbed a padded seat behind homeplate for $13.

Pleased with my accomodations, I ran back up to the concession stand for a brat and a beer - my usual starter for an eve at the ballpark. I see they have two beer sizes, regular and 'Huge' - and being from Wisconsin, of course I go for the 'Huge' for $6.75, thinking this will be the usual equivalent of the Miller Park 24 oz. 'large' beer. Wrong. Near as I could tell, for just shy of 7 bucks, I now had 44 oz of beer in my lap. So back to my seat and time to settle in, as the top of the second was just about to close. First off, I notice how busy this place was for a Wednesday evening. I estimated there were about 4,000 fans there - far more than I've ever seen at a Snappers game, even on a weekend, complete with a Don Money bobblehead giveaway and post-game fireworks. No giveaways for the Whitecaps on this night, just great weather and, apparently, beers that could drown a basking shark. However, the coming Saturday was scheduled to be Larry Herndon bobble head night, a great draw for any of us who were fans of that magnificant '84 squad. Wish I could be around to make it for that one.

To my right, I realize I'm sitting next to the scout seats (always a good sign that your vantage will be excellent), as several fellows sat with their radar guns and laptops, charting every pitch. The Whitecaps were playing Appleton's own Wisconsin Timber Rattlers (Brewers Single A Low affiliate) this night, with righty and 2008 5th round pick, Maverick Lasker getting the start. He stood out right away (and not just because of his excellent baseball name), as he was dominating the 'Caps early with a low 90s fastball, and a nice breaking pitch (see vid below I shot of him chewing thru the Whitecaps in the bottom of the 5th). If you're a Brewers fan, this is worth the 2 minutes to watch, he seems to have pretty good stuff. There's also a freaking gigantic flagpole out in centerfield worth seeing at about 0:50, too.

All game the Baby Tigers seemed to have very poor plate discipline, frequently first pitch swinging into popups and soft groundouts. But Lasker was real good too. Just a first impression, but given the Brew Crew's pitching woes, I wouldn't be surprised in the least to see this kid tossing in Miller Park in a couple years.

At any rate, as the game progressed I found myself really enjoying the relaxed crowd, my spacious padded seat, and even the mediocre brat. What an excellent little corner of Americana I had found here. After the 7th, I took a little walk around the stadium, to see what my other food choices were. Again, I was not disappointed. BBQ, wraps, taco salad, and even elephant ears were all there for the taking, in addition to the now-famous 'Fifth-Third Burger'. If you haven't heard of this thing, do yourself a favor and locate the episode of 'Man vs. Food' where my guru, Adam Richman, takes that behemoth down. His pic is up there on the wall, so its all legit. For $20 you get 4,900 calories, and only 300 grams of fat. Talk about value - I saw a group of 6 or 7 kids a few rows down from me get one to split. That's probably the way to go.

So, in the end my Tigers in Training lost to the Rattlers, 3-1. But I have to say, I had a hell of a time, especially for flying solo. While I spent more money than I had expected for Single A ball, I had a much better time than expected too. It was nice to sit amongst fans who largely all adorned the Olde English D, and just wanted to enjoy some summer baseball. Grand Rapids has a good thing going with this team/stadium - so check it out if you're in the area.

One last interesting piece of info about the West Michigan Whitecaps - they used to be the Madison Muskies. In fact, they were selling old Muskies caps in the gift shop for $15. Cool, huh?

Where's Waldo - Minnesota Sports edition

2010-07-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

Since milquetoast Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress AKA 'Chilly' AKA 'Secret Squirrel' has made the pilgrimmage down to Hattiesburg, I thought it might be appropriate to play a round of "Where's Waldo - Minnesota Sports Edition", given this pic I've been holding on to for just the right moment. Apparently Chilly also visited Favre during his rookie years. See if you can find him in this pic... take your time, and check your background.

Ok - bonus round now. See if you can find Joe Mauer in his pic of his 4th Grade Basketball Holiday Tourney Team

Nice work everyone.

HAPPY FISH DAY WEEK!

2010-07-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

Stop on down to Port Washington this Saturday for only the BEST DAY EVER, ok that might just be for the townies. But if you want to be part of history stop down for the Worlds Largest ONE day, OUTDOOR, Fish Fry.

Tunes, Beer, and deep fried Fish whats not to love?

Hope to see everyone down here for some good ol' fashion random reason to be drunk in a small town before 10 am.

(feel free to mark your calendars for future reference, every third Saturday in July)

The Kid...

2010-07-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

No sign of performance enhancers here...

Just trying to put something up here again. But since the Crew right now isn't worth writing about (at least if we are trying to kee things positive) thought I'd take a look at the way back machine.

Geoff Jenkins to retire as Brewer....Obviously

2010-07-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

By Anthony Witrado of the Journal Sentinel

July 5, 2010

Geoff Jenkins will officially announce his retirement from MLB at a Friday press conference at Miller Park.

Jenkins played 10 seasons with the Brewers and played his final season in 2008 with the Phillies. Jenkins expressed his desire to retire as a Brewer and GM Doug Melvin and the organization found it fitting.

"Geoff indicated a desire to retire as a Brewer, and we were honored to accommodate the request," Melvin said in a statement. "He was drafted by the Brewers, made his Major League debut here and established many team marks on the field. As far as we’re concerned, Geoff will always be a part of the organization and we look forward to welcoming him home."

Jenkins ranks among the Brewers all-time leaders in several offensive categories. He is is second in home runs (212), slugging percentage (.496), fourth in RBI (704), total bases (2,188), extra base hits (521), doubles (287), fifth in at-bats (4,407), runs (661), hits (1,221), sixth in games (1,234), on-base percentage (.347), tied for seventh in batting average (.277) and eighth in triples (22).

Andrew Bogut's Squad 6: Wave

2010-06-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

Watch Moncrief Take out Ainge

2010-06-03T20:01:00.001-07:00

Milwaukee Bucks on TV18! [WVTV Milwaukee, 1985]

2010-06-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is hilarious

2010-06-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks Prince

2010-05-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

Remember when Lard Ass roughed up Parra in the dugout? That was on August 5th, 2008. Many think this was the downfall of the mentally unstable young lefty. Prince basically broke Parra’s brain. After hours and hours of intense research (like you expected anything less on this site), here’s the breakdown of Parra’s career:

Pre Brain Breakage:

9-6, 4.11 ERA, 1.489 WHIP

Post Brain Breakage:

13-17, 5.73 ERA, 1.72 WHIP

I miss advertising like this.

2010-05-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

I was never a big fan of GM's Pontiac line of cars from the 80s on up (with the exception of the mid-80s Fiero, and the more recent G8), but I was a big fan of their 'We Build Excitement' commercials. Murdock, you can keep your Barbosol ads - this is one has much higher production values, and fewer women who have an unreasonable fear of hirsute men. Catchy riffs and backbeat, glam rock band in silhouette, overly masculine female vocals, some couple arguing (presumably over who gets to drive that '88 Grand Am), a look of acknowledgement from the gay couple across the street. This ad has it all.

And to top it off, it looks like it was filmed on the set of Miami Vice. Crank up your headphones and enjoy.

Everyone's Drivers Ed Teacher?

2010-05-13T10:44:00.001-07:00

Something Amazing

2010-05-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

Davey Nelson isn't nearly as terrible on the radio as he is on tv. Not saying he is good on the radio, but just not as terrible as on tv.

That Ain't Good

2010-04-30T05:26:00.000-07:00

Against teams not located in Pittsburgh, the Brewers are 5-11 while being outscored 65-109. Ouch.

The 2010 NFL Draft - Round 1, A Few Quick Observations

2010-04-23T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Thursday broadcast of the NFL 2010 Draft first round closed out last night around 10:15 PM (CST), and I was left a feeling a bit sad. Not because of the picks my Lions made (I love Suh, and am okay with coming up to get Best), but because I wanted another round or two. There was something special about the football geekery of watching round after round after round and completely wasting a Saturday in April’s past. Now this thing is getting more accessible and friendly to the less than die hard fans, by breaking it apart into more palatable chunks. True the damn first round was still 4+ hours long, but we were just getting warmed up dammit!

I really wanted to see if the Vikings would indeed grab Clausen at #34 or if the Rams would deal, and let someone else jump up to #33 and take him in fear of the Vikings selecting the him. Personally, I’d love it if Favre nixes another year, and leaves the Vikings with T-Jack and Clausen to flutter passes into the turf all season. Now I have to wait until tonight.

Some other observations:

- I thought ESPN’s coverage was awfully awkward for some stretches. Some weird spans of silence happened a few times, and that pinkish-orange light they had Chuckie and Steve Young bathed in made it look like they spent too much time on the tanning bed.

- Speaking of Steve Young, that guy needs to do something about his hair. It’s clear that he’s nearly completely bald on top, and he looks foolish gelling up what he does have left up there. Get a rug, some plugs, or man up and don’t hide it Steve.

- Roger Goodell seemed extra huggy-huggy with some of the picks. He embraced Drew Brees at the end of the 1st round more than was probably necessary

- Although its happened in years past, I was more annoyed than ever this year with the camera being on the kid on the phone who is about to be drafted. It takes all the suspense out of the Commish’s announcement.

- The best drama of the night was when Denver traded up to get Tebow at #25. Mel Kiper looked like he was gonna have a stroke, Steve Young was irate, and Tom Jackson was beside himself. That’s the kind of reality TV I like to watch.

- I’m tired of hearing what a ‘class-act’ another player who wasn’t drafted yet is because he was gracious enough to acknowledge and congratulate someone drafted in front of him. Case in point, Jimmy Clausen texting a congratulations to Tim Tebow. Whatever – it doesn’t take much to do this, just a minor sense of decency.

- I’m also tired with the over-the-top ‘fan’ reactions to every pick. And its not just Eagles and Jets fans now either. They need to start screening who they let in there (or at least stop panning the audience), as every year it seems to be a larger and larger collection of assholes and miscreants. I found myself wishing Goodell would let loose a few of the D-lineman drafted early into the stands to clear out some of the riffraff. Seeing Suh and McCoy bounce some a-hole Pats fan out on a cold, hard New York sidewalk is an appealing image to me.

Pirates Cure What Ails the Crew

2010-04-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

Well, the Brewers appear to be righting the ship against their old punching bag, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Dating back to last season, the Brewers have won 5 in-a-row against the Buccos. You may remember that for a stretch from 2008 to the middle of the '09 season the Brewers owned the Pirates. A world famous Brewers blog called Chuckie Hacks (I have been told this site was awesome) detailed the 17 straight victories. Then after the All-Star break last year the Brewers somehow lost 6 out of 7 to the Pirates before closing out the season with a 3-game sweep of the perennial cellar-dwellers.

Well, the bats started coming alive on Sunday after the shutout and they have actually recieved two good pitching performances in a row. Prince had a great 11 pitch AB before he singled. I think he hit two shots that were HR distance, just pulled them a bit too much. Braun is playing up to his superstar level and our catcher position still can't hit, so at this moment, all is right in Brewerland.

In other news, I think it is time for everyone to Jump on the Dick Weeks bandwagon. Still plenty of room. Last week our good friend Woz talked about offering an extension. If the Brewers think his wrists are ok, I would be all for this. As long as they don't make him do uncomfortable pre-game interviews with Corey Provus. I think I got a headache listening to him before today's game.

Thank You, Nubs

2010-04-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

That was a fantastic link. Which prompted me to make a few stupid predictions on the NFL draft...it's an annual event. I watch way too much college football and read way too much draft talk NOT to make a few predictions. Delete this in two years when all this junk is wrong.

Random Guys I like:

DonkeyKong Suh, DT, Nebraska. If he's not a stud, I give up. I'll put all my football credibility (if there is any) that he's a monster in the NFL. Hopefully Detroit is dumb enough to pass on him, because he might throw Scott Wells into the bleachers next year.

Jerry Hughes, OLB, TCU - I'll do backflips if GB takes him at 23. Love this guy.

Eric Berry, S, Tenn - Ed Reed, Part II

OB Schoefield, OLB, Wiscy - I'd absolutely take a flyer on this guy in round 4-5. I like his game.

Rolando McClain, MLB, Bama - He's this year's Patrick Willis. Will get picked in the 12-15 range, but ends up as one of the top 5 players of this draft. Book it.

Mike Iupati, G, Idaho - He's a guard. From Idaho. What's not to like? Seriously, he's like the slow kid in high school who was a stud football player. Dumb as a box of hammers, but loved to maul kids. That's this guy.

Jermaine Gresham, TE, Oklahoma - Stud. He's Jermichael Finley all over again. Looking like a 2nd rounder, which is crazy.

Rennie Curran, LB, Georgia - I watch a lot of SEC football. This guy's always making plays. Steal in the 4-5 rounds.

Guys I don't like

Sam Bradford, QB, Oklahoma - I don't see it. I'll probably be %100 wrong, but he'll be a bust of David Carr-proportions.

Jimmy Clausen, QB, Notre Dame - He's from Notre Dame, so I'm obligated to hate him.

Bryan Bulaga, Beef, Iowa - Come on. Just watch the tape of Brandon Graham abusing him like Stryker on a Gin and Tonic. Maybe Graham is awesome, but still.

Jason Pierre-Paul, OLB, South Florida. The next Demarcus Ware, supposedly. Dripping with talent (6-5 and fast), he's a basketball player in cleats. Too bad he plays like, well, a basketball player in cleats. Watch the Raiders take him at 8.

Tim Tebow, You know The Rest - No way, no how, he's a good NFL QB. And I actually like him. He's a good guy, I love the SEC, and he was a great College Football player. If somebody takes him in the first round, they should be fired. He's just not an NFL QB. He throws like Allen Evridge. Plus, I heard Dickie Vitale on the radio a half-dozen times endorsing Tebow. Dickie V also said the Magic were crazy for drafting Dwight Howard over Emecka Okafer and thought Chris Bosh was a terrible pick....and Mike Dunleavy Jr was a future star. So there. If he can't get basketball drafts right, what the fuck does he know about football?

Dez Bryant, WR, Okey St - This guy's a greasefire.

NFL Draft Busts of the 2000's

2010-04-21T18:14:00.000-07:00

Emmit This is for you. Pretty good read and thought you would enjoy.

Draft-Busts-of-the-2000s-Where-are-they-now- From Yahoo's Shut down Corner

Things I learned This Weekend From Twitter

2010-04-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

Based on the photo above, I imagine hanging out with Ersan Ilyasova is quite entertaining.
One of the greatest Bucks players of all time, Jodie Meeks, attended Game 1 of the Bucks/Hawks series.
I don't think Andrew Bogut likes Kevin Garnett. Bogut posted something along the lines of, I see there was a fight in the Boston game. I wonder who could have started that. Hmm. Seems like Bogut has the same thoughts as Jakim Noah.
Jermichael Finley hung out at Brothers in Madison on Friday night. I would would have known this ahead of time, I would have grabbed Stryker and rounded up the rest of the college crew and headed up to Madison. I can only hope he was drinking swampwaters while listening to DJ Kool.

Poll Question

2010-04-17T05:13:00.000-07:00

If you had to bet your house on which of the following will happen first, what's your pick?

A) Prince hits a bomb, or

B) Gomez draws a walk

Your house is on the line...this is a tough question, isn't it?

Too Early?

2010-04-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

Is it too early to throw in the towel on the season? Here are the number of runs the Brewers has given up thus far: 5,5,4,5,7,7,9,7. That is not very good.

Exhibition Baseball Fever - Representin' Ye Olde English D

2010-04-05T20:14:00.000-07:00

Really, I should be spending my time this evening saying something about the Bucks, and their hard road now that Bogut is done for the season following his gruesome injury. If by some stroke of luck you haven't seen this injury replay - you may want to skip it altogether. It's bad, and nearly on par with the Theismann's leg getting destroyed.

But like Mr. Fitz-Hume, I also spent my time at Miller Park for some exhibition baseball this weekend and given that its opening day, I'd rather talk about that. I'm the resident Tigers fan here, but I enjoy the Brewers and usually go to Miller Park for 5-6 games a year. Given my aversion to travel in the American South, and the fact that the Brewers and Tigers don't meet in inter-league play this year, these exhibition games were the perfect way to get a preview of my squad before the season started. The price was right ($10 for seats everywhere in the lower levels) and being within shouting distance of Old Man Leyland is my idea of a fun evening. So I headed over to the ballpark with a bud of mine on Friday night, and we were disgusted to find that they were charging $10 for parking. Ugh. My seats in Section 113, Row 14 cost as much to park the damn car. Whatever, I just wanted to bust the Olde English 'D' outta my closet, have a few brews, and see Drinky Cabrera, Maggs, and friends. The seats were great. Close enough that I decided to break out my newest toy to shoot a few vids. See video below for a little taste of some nice Brewers bases loaded defense late in the game. Clearly, I'm not much of a cinamatographer.

Aside from a brief run in with the standard pain in the ass sawed off runt of a fan who felt the need to tell me the 'Tigers really suck, huh?' after the game, a terrific evening. I got to see the new Tigers I was curious about up close (Scott Sizemore and Austin Jackson) and caught a nice cross-section of what Max Scherzer is all about.

Then on Saturday, like many other Tiger fans - I was right back in my seats for another go, this time with the entire family in tow. It's not often I'll get a chance to bring the 4 of us down to sit in infield box seats for under $50, so I thank the Brewers for that. The wife and boys enjoyed themselves, and I got what I wanted again, but with lots more runs in the second go-round (Tigers hit 5 HRs). Nice to see that Austin Jackson's bat is hot going into the season, as he looks like he'll ease the pain I felt from losing Baby Grand (my favorite MLBer since Sweet Lou Whitaker). I was excited to see Joel Zumaya come out for some work, but disappointed once he started throwing. His control was dismal, at one point throwing 7 balls in a row. He never touched triple digits either (but did hit 99 mph a couple times). A far cry from the last time I saw him in person (vs. Milwaukee last year in Detroit) when he came in to strike out Hart in 3 pitches. All fastballs, going 99, 101, and 103 mph. Here's Leyland giving him the hook shortly after Santiago let the easy double play ball go through the wickets.

And speaking of Hart, I'm truly disgusted with the number of Corey Hart fans that were in attendance. Everywhere I looked there was a damn #1 jersey. Like Mr. Fitz-Hume, I also chalk it up to the low IQ fanbase in attendance more than anything. Hart jerseys and people who don't understand the value of OBP are one thing, but I also had to endure these two jackassess...

...who made it their obnoxious mission all game to be the center of attention by getting up and dancing between almost every pitch. Thanks guys. My moment of redemption came when they starting chanting "Jaaackson. Jaaaackson. You Suck!", after which Austin proceeded to hit a blast over the wall in dead center. And then there was the blond bimbo twenty-something female in my row, who wanted to come off as some kind of hitting expert by continuously shouting at Jim Edmonds to "Tighten up your stance! You can't run if you stand like that!!!" Gee, ya think a guy with 16 years of MLB experience and a career 0.284 average might know a little about how to hit a baseball and get out of the box? Just a thought.

Some other observations:
1) Tiger fans really did come out pretty strong. It was cool to see.

2) A tip for Gregg Zaun - if you're going to use 'Rush' for your AB music, 'Limelight' is not the best choice. 'Working Man' works much better.

3) Carlos Gomez seems like he has a new lease on life in Milwaukee. As a student of the AL Central, I've watched him play at Minnesota, and he almost seemed to have a cloud over him because he was the guy they got when they dealt Johan. He could be a real difference maker on the Brewers (and it looks like he had a stellar opening day against the Rockies)

4) The Tigers have a ridiculous amount of hard throwing pitchers. Verlander, Scherzer, Zumaya, Coke, Schlereth, and Valverde can all touch the mid to upper 90s routinely. For better or worse, that's the Dombrowski way - Power Pitching.

5) Brandon Inge remains one of the slickest fielding 3rd basemen in the game. He made several plays both games that should have been infield singles. His glove doesn't get enough respect.

6) The jumbo pretzels that Murdock turned me on to last season, are even better when you go with the cinnamon sugar option. Stay away from the garlic salt though (learned that the hard way in '09 - sorry Section 214).

7) My wife completed her collection of 'Racing Sausage Beanie Babies', purchasing '#4 Hot Dog' on our way out. If the Brewers want her to continue buying souvenirs, they need to add another sausage to the group eventually. My suggestion - some kind of smoked sausage. He can run with a stogie in his mouth or something. That or a little Vienna sausage, that is some midget in a costume roughly half the size of the others.

For those of you enjoying meaningful baseball today in person - I'm looking forward to your reflections on another opening day at Miller Park.

Exhibition Baseball Fever...Catch It!

2010-04-04T20:24:00.000-07:00

Random thoughts from Saturday's Brewers game:

1) I'm generally a straight Johnsonville brat guy, but I think I'm now a Klements convert. After all, when you've run out of Klements, you've run out of taste.

2) Detroit Tigers fans travel well. There were a TON of Tigers fans considering it was an exhibition game. Kudos, Detroit.

3) No matter what his bio says, we were pretty sure Gregg Zaun is from Rhinelander - just look at the guy? Maybe Antigo.

4) Somehow, someway, Brewer fans love Corey Hart. I was smirking in anticipation of the PA guy announcing his name....was eager to partake in the booing. Well, I was the only one! Seriously, after Prince/Brauny, Hart got the loudest ovation. I couldn't fucking believe it!! Maybe it was an unintelligent fan base because it was an exhibition game. Could be why...

5)...Jim Edmonds is the best free agent signing of all time. Well, at least that's what the surrounding fans were saying. It's like it's 1998 or something.

6) My Guy this year is the Brewers backup catcher, Cottaras or something like that. Why? Because his AB music is old school LL Cool J. Nice!

7) Phil Coke is one of the better names in baseball. I loved checking the scoreboard and seeing "Coke" in the pitchers spot. He got shelled.

8) Brewer pitchers were in 2009 mid-season form by serving up about 5 bombs. I thought Looper was gone?

9) It's official: Miller Lite is undrinkable. That shit is disgusting.

10) The game ended like only a Little League game could. The Tigers went Yakety Sax on a routine ground ball allowing two Brewers to score. It's something you'd only see in coed softball at UWEC.

Garbage Drafts From The Last 25 Years

2010-03-31T19:37:00.000-07:00

The NFL draft will be here soon. Time for a crappy NFL draft for the ages. How about 1992?

1) Steve Entmann - Was actually pretty good, but blew out his knee like 9 times. Unfairly gets the "bust" label.
2) Quentin Coryatt - Bust. But you still can't discount this highlight of him ending some poor TCU reciever's life. I'm not sure if that guy's come out of the coma yet.
3) Sean Gilbert - Fat POS
4) Desmond Howard - Helped GB win at Super Bowl. That's about it.
5) T-Buck - No explanation needed
6) David Klingler - Wow.
7) Troy Vincent - The Wisconsin product was a very good player for a long time. To think, GB passed on him for fucking T-Buck??
8) Bob Whitfield - Whatever
9) Tommy Vardell - Really? You're gonna take a white fullback from Stanford with the 9th pick? Really??
10) Ray Roberts - Bustola
11) Leon Searcy - Solid tackle for a while in Jacksonville.
12) Marco Coleman - Don't really remember this guy, but he did make a Pro Bowl at one point.
13) Eugene Chung - Kicked around with the Packers for a while....had no idea someone spent the #13 pick on this guy.
14) Derek Brown - a career total of 43 catches. Enough said.
15) Johnny Mitchell - Despite dubbing himself "7-11" because he was "open 24 hours," only peaked for about 2 years then shit the bed.
16) Chester McClocklin - Solid DT for a while
17) Kevin Smith - Slightly above Garbage
18) Dana Hall - Junk
19) Tony Smith - a great trivia question: was the Green Bay's pick in exchange for Brett Favre. Rushed for a grand total of 485 yards. Oops. Brett Favre, on the other hand, was quite a bit better than that.

I'll just stop here. You get the point. When looking for quality/deep drafts, 1992 was not one of those.

Happy Drafting!

5 days and counting!

2010-03-31T09:01:00.000-07:00

With Opening Day right around the corner thought I'd check in on brewers.com

what I found was they posted their new commerials.

Some are kinda clever others gavea big WTF? That honor goes to #3 Shotgun.

Looks like Hart likes riding Rickey from behind.

enjoy:

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?topic_id=8953570&c_id=mil

Random Rap Lyric I heard on the Way Into Work This Morning That I Really Enjoy

2010-03-30T07:19:00.001-07:00

"This Year Halloween fell on a weekend.
Me and Geto Boys is Trick-or-Treatin'."

Just a great song. One of the first rap songs I liked that wasn't a mainstream rap hit ("Bust a Move", "Parents Just Don't Understand", "Wild Thing""It Takes Two"). The video was solid as well. Plus it has a sweet Issac Hayes sample. I think this may have to make the Opening Day playlist.

Adventures in Bradley Centering-Bucks get by Grizz

2010-03-28T19:59:00.000-07:00

Ah, the Sunday afternoon NBA game. They don't come up that often, and there's something about walking out of the BC and into the bright sunlight that is different and appealing. For that reason alone, I was looking forward to this game. And so, given the 'easy like Sunday morning' feel the day had, my oldest son and I headed down to the BC for a pre-game lunch and a Bucks game versus the Grizzlies.

First stop - I decided to give 'Centercourt' (formerly 'Gametime') a try for some eats. Like many, I always loved the location of 'Gametime', but found their food to be reprehensible. I had heard earlier in the season that 'Centercourt' was not just a name change, but also completely new ownership, and that the food was surprisingly good. My son agreed to try it out, disappointed that he wouldn't be getting rockets filled with peanuts carpet bombing him at AJ Bombers, but willing to give it a go, since they assuredly had chicken fingers on the menu. After surveying their board of fare, I found several items that sounded appetizing, but ultimately went with the pulled pork sandwich, made with their own house BBQ sauce. It was messily good, and the bun in particular was outstanding. The boy had the chicken fingers, which looked terrific. I ended up snagging one from him in trade for a pickle and some candy to be named later. It was outstanding, and definitely not fried up out of some box Sysco pulled off the freezer truck. Hand-cut and hand-breaded most likely. To top it off, the service was fast and friendly. We got in and out in less than 30 minutes, and it coulda been faster were it not for the pace my son ate at. If you haven't been there yet, give it a try, 'Courtside' is significantly better than 'Gametime'.

On to the game itself. Knowing Bogut might be out for this game, and with Delfino assuredly out, I felt pretty sure that I'd be walking out of there with the Bucks losing their 3rd straight. Memphis is a better team than a lot of people think (but understandable, given their past), and have a nice core of players (Mayo, Gay, Gasol). Starting lineups were announced, and Bogut was suited up and in the lineup. Things are looking better now. Early on in the 1st, they get the ball to inside Bogut, and he quickly gets 6 points. He's looking healthy - no signs of that bad back, early anyways. The rest of the way its pretty much neck and neck, nobody leading by more than 8 the whole way.

While I didn't see the same menagerie of jackasses that Murdock and Stryker did (it will be hard to top that night I'm guessing), there was this old bag...

...who by 'hook or crook' (more hook) was gonna get herself one of those parachuting t-shirts (that she'd undoubtably never wear). Yeah, that's right - she was swinging that cane around to clip the 'chutes. And she nearly clocked at least 2 people in the row below her. Best of all, she didn't manage to get a shirt. What the hell is it about Bucks games and people with canes? I'm sure I don't know. Glad I brough the camera along (all blurry pics posted here courtesy of me)

Some other general observations from the game:

I LOVE the Memphis road jerseys. That metallic blue sheen just screams of the austentatiousness that more teams should exhibit. Its showtime baby! Dress like it.
Marc Gasol clearly didn't get beat with the ugly stick as hard as his brother on the Lakers (see pic below). He's downright handsome relative to Pau, and actually has a jawline. Both are still hair covered marshmallows though.
Rudy Gay is a very versatile player, with a sweet jumper. I enjoyed his game.
Hasheem Thabeet is up from the D-League. From the looks of things, he should head right back.
Jennings played a pretty nice offensive game (aside from a few ill-advised shots), but he made Mike Conley Jr. look like a damn All-Star at times. That 'foul' near the end of regulation he had on Conley was garbage though.
Salmons continues to hit big shots when we need them. Trading for him worked out better than I could have dreamed.
People started to line up for the 'shoot a free throw on the court' after the game promo with 2 minutes left in regulation of a tight game. They stayed there through the overtime. I wonder if any of them knew there was even game was on.
Overall a pretty good crowd at the BC - lower deck 90%+ full, and LOUD.
Jersey of the day - A kid with a purple #20 Gary Payton. Now that might just be a collectors item. Was he even on the team long enough for them to manufacture those?

Big win for the Bucks, against another quality opponent (don't laugh, Memphis is above 0.500 in the West, currently fighting for the 8th playoff slot). Let's hope we can stay healthy enough to hang on to the 5th or 6th seed (although I'd prefer the 6th if it means matching up with the geriatric Celtics).
Other than that, I'll leave you with this picture of Energee!, as a friendly reminder to get on down to the BC for some Bucks basketball.

Random Word a Friend Stood Up and Yelled after he got Blackjack in 3 Out of 4 Hands in Vegas Last Week

2010-03-26T07:29:00.001-07:00

"Bukakke!"

It was classic.

Stupid Shit I Once Said

2010-03-22T14:54:00.000-07:00

"I think I am going to like the Johnny Estrada Era."

I believe this was uttered at Opening Day 2007 when Mr. Craptastic went 2-3.

Fear the Deer

2010-03-11T22:09:00.000-08:00

Pay attention Wisconsin. Even though March Madness is nearly upon us, and conference tourneys are in full swing, the Bucks are still playing. And playing well. With all due respect to Bo Ryan and Buzz Williams, the best basketball in Wisconsin right now is being played by your Milwaukee Bucks. Hell, after beating the Celtics earlier this week, they are even starting to get some national attention.

They play hard and defend. Bogut's progression as a big man has been impressive, the Salmons trade has worked out better than I imagined, and although Jennings' scoring is down he's running the offense quite efficiently for a rookie. As a group, they've bought into Skiles system, and its paying dividends right now. It goes without saying that I'm really enjoying the season.

Then this evening, my inbox received a reminder email on some reduced ticket prices for some of the upcoming games. With it came the slightly modified Bucks logo graphic above, along with the slogan 'Fear the Deer'. While I can take or leave the slogan, the blood-red eyes are a nice touch. They're menacing and kinda bad-ass, without having to add a bull-snort to make the deer seem serious. I really hope the Bucks keep this look. Maybe flashing the eyes red up on the scoreboard during critical stretches of the game would get the fans fired up and feeling serious about their Bucks. Or maybe not, given some of the clowns that have been observed at the BC of late (see 'Fun Times at the Bradley Center'). Its better than some cartoon-style font that says 'Get Loud' or 'Make Noise' anyways. Point is - I like it.

Checking in on the pulse of St. Louis

2010-03-09T14:57:00.000-08:00

I would have thought Saint Looey would be into full bore NFL draft hysteria at this time of the year, but we all know how much they love their precious Redbirds! A quick jump over to the ~~Cardinals Marketing Department Home Page~~ St. Louis Post-Dispatch Web page, it was discovered beat man Joe Strauss recently had a chat with the puritan fans of all things baseball integrity. A few of note:

Jim Hency: Afternoon Joe, Would love to be there in person but not possible. I have a comment more than a question. I am really glad that Jim Edmonds is back in baseball, I have always been a fan of Jim and always will be but it was bad enough when he signed with the Cubs but even worse with the Brewers. Not because that will make them so much better but the fact that he may have to lower his professionalism to their low life level really bothers me. If he starts yanking out his shirt after a victory I don't know how much my admiration for him will continue. Do you think he will lower himself to that trick?
Joe Strauss: I would hope so, if only to feed the outrage many Cardinal backers have for the Brewers. Solution to being outraged: Win the game. The ChatMeister must admit, however, to being less than impressed with the Brewers' choreographed HR celebrations.

LLIPTWWTQB Reaction: Well James, you're onto something here. Now that Cammy has jumped to Bawstahn it would be very rude to continue the disgraceful and heinous untucking of the jersey's. What could make him sink to an even more Brewers low life level? Probably if Ken Macha got shit faced during spring camp and decided that despite making millions per year, it's a better idea to drive around town hammered, falling asleep in a running car at a stop light. But to recap, untucking jerseys after victories is a FAR worse offense. And Joe, what didn't impress you? They all fell over at almost the exact same time! They're not synchronized swimmers you know, cut them a little "human error" slack.

Jon: Given the look of the division, I think the Cards should win it fairly easily again this year. That said, who is the biggest challenger to the Cards? Is it the Cubs again, an up and coming Reds team, or none of the above?
Joe Strauss: I don't know how to quantify "fairly easily." If healthy, the Cubs are legitimate contenders. They addressed chemistry and outfield issues over the winter. If Carlos Zambrano is again "Big Z," this could be an interesting race. Even with Kyle Lohse's season-long struggles in 2009, the Cardinals had much go right with their pitching last year. Any hiccup only adds to a potential match race for the division. I'm bullish on the Reds but question if they have enough depth for six months. Aaron Harang is a wild card. If he should rediscover his form of three years ago, the Reds rotation suddenly grows teeth.

LLIPTWWTQB Reaction: You both have pissed off the Pirates Baseball Club.

Big Ten Men's Basketball Awards a Big Time Snub.

2010-03-08T19:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, I don't usually use this blog to vent on issues pertaining to my beloved alma mater, I generally try to leave that to my own Gopher-centric blog. But this is one time I'll make an exception, as I'm hot about this, and I'd like some non-Gopher fans' opinions. Preferably from those who actually watch Big Ten basketball.

Today the Big Ten revealed their Men's Basketball All-Big Ten teams, and for the most part it appeared they got it right. McCamey, Lucas, Turner, Hummel, and Moore got 1st team. Fine, a great group that seems right to me (maybe Shurna over E'Twaun?). 2nd team? Sims, Shurna, Battle, JaJuan, and Hughes. Yup. Seems OK. 3rd team? Harris, Green, Morgan, Buford, Bohannon. Whatever, things get pretty subjective down on the 3rd team but that's fine. Player of the Year - Evan Turner. Very good, definitely deserved it. So where's the snub you ask?

Gopher senior forward Damian Johnson, affectionately known as 'DJ Swat' in the Gopher blogosphere came up completely empty. Not making 3rd team or even honorable mention was one thing. But not making the fucking All-Defensive Team? This is a snub in the truest sense of the word. Damian led the Big Ten in steals (58 at 1.9 spg), and was third in blocks (57 at 1.9 bpg, and arguably inch-for-inch the best shot blocker in the conference, given his height relative to the other leading shot stuffers in the conference.

Members of this 2010 All-Defensive team include: Nash, Lauderdale, Jajuan, Kramer, and Hughes. So who should Damian have supplanted? Either Lauderdale, Nash, or JJ in my opinion. Damian is a better all-around defender than any of these guys, and his numbers prove it (at least in the case of Lauderdale and Nash). Both Lauderdale and Jajuan were slightly better shot blockers, but neither show up anywhere near the top 15 in steals. And while its true that DJ is not quite as good a rebounder as those two, DJ's ability to defend on the ball, in the post, or on the top of the zone makes him a far more versatile defender than either of these two. He's also probably the best help side defender in the conference. Damian's combined rebound, blocks, and steals per game average is 8.2, while JaJuan Johnson is at 10.0, but heavily weighted towards rebounds (7.2 rpg). Lauderdale is at an 8.0, with 3 times fewer steals per game. Nash is at a paltry 6.1, and probably played more zone defense than anybody else on the list. Clearly, DJ Swat's balanced approach to defense is not appreciated by the coaches or media. Which seems odd to me, because he causes all kinds of matchup problems for opposing teams.

What's even more frustrating to me though is that Larry Westbrook was the Gopher's lone representative on the awards sheet, as an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention. Not because Minnesota only got one award winner (I'm fine with that given the team's balance and depth), but because this award was clearly given to Westbrook because some media writer opened the Gopher's statbook, and saw that LW led the team in scoring (and only by a slim margin). Westbrook contributed little more than scoring this year, while Johnson did everything. Case in point, Senior Night was an analog for his entire career of filling up the stat sheet in ways other than just scoring - scoring 10 points while dishing out 11 assists, 5 boards, 3 blocks, and 3 steals. In 23 minutes. At least give him a fucking slight modicum of recognition.
Oh, by the way, 2 players from Iowa managed more accolades than Damian. Yeah, that seems about right.

Week 1 of Brewers Camp? Entertaining.

2010-03-05T20:53:00.000-08:00

It has been an interesting week for the Brewers in Spring Training, as they have finally hit the field.

1. The Giants are apparently a bunch of tender little guys...they have evidently been stewing for the last six months since the Brewers (GASP!) celebrated after a walk-off home run by Prince Fielder at home plate. The Ginas got back at the Prince by plunking him with the first pitch in his first at-bat of the Spring. I bet they feel better about themselves now! On a different note, I still don't understand the uproar over the bowling pin celebration after the walk-off. Every team celbrates a walk-off. Most teams do some variation of the "everybody jumps around at home plate and pounds the home run hitter in the head" celebration. Some home run hitters throw their helmet in the air as they jump on home plate. The Brewers decided to get creative and fall down. What's the difference? The pre-meditation? Whatever.

2. Mark Rogers, entering his 7th professional season but still just 24, threw his first pitch in a Brewers uniform today, coincidentally in the same game as another oft-injured starter (Ben Sheets) pitched for the first time against his old team. Rogers went two scoreless innings - here's hoping he can continue to climb back from injury.

3. The best news this week? Corey Hart can't see. He's going to go with prescription goggles this season. Sweet. Rec Specs! Hart continues down the path blazed by Bill Hall - remember when Lasik surgery was going to fix Billy? Um, yeah. As I have not been able to find a picture of Corey Hart wearing his prescription sunglasses during a game yet, the Wrong Week graphic design staff prepared an artist's rendering of what it will probably look like.

Enjoy.

Now THIS is a Poll Question I'm Down With

2010-03-05T16:51:00.001-08:00

From today's JS.

It's March, Bitches!!!!!

2010-03-04T20:06:00.000-08:00

A) I couldn't look at Lady Elaine anymore, and B) it's time to start thinking about March Madness. Here are a few teams I like.

1) The Big-12 second tier. Mizzu plays that hard-to-prepare-for full court press. Their coach (Mike Anderson) took friggin UAB to conscucitve sweet 16s using this style and also made a run last year. They'll probably be a 7 or 8 seed who'll spring an upset. I also like Baylor as a 9-10 seed, and can you believe Texas A&M has won a tournament game in each of the last 4 years? No joke - look it up.

2) Ole Miss. Yeah, I know the Rebels might not even make the dance. But if they do, they've got the 3 guard lineup to scare anyone. I see a nice 10-7 upset for Ole Miss.

3) Ohio State. I'm hoping for OSU to fail in the Big-11 tournament and get like a low 2, high 3 seed in the NCAAs. If they do, the Buckeyes will lay in the weeds and reach the Final 4. I could easily see Evan Turner beat a young squad like Kentucky to reach Indianapolis.

4) Cornell. Out of the Ivy, Cornell will probably get a terrible seed. Doesn't matter. They'll scare the shit out of whoever they play in round 1 and 2. Book it.

5) Vanderbilt. Just look at their records the last 6 years, you'll be stunned. It's a good program. They'll win two games and you'll be asking WTF??

6) The Golden Eagles of Marquette. Has anybody exceeded expectations more than Marquette? I have to give props to Buzz....coming in they had: Lazar Hayward, a couple JUCOs, zero size, zero depth, and were picked 12th in the Big East. MU has crushed those predictions. They seem to play to the level of the competition, so if they play a junk team or a stud in the tourney, expect the game to be decided in the final minute.

Warning: You should probably bet AGAINST these teams as I really don't know what the F i'm talking about. Thanks.

Striker, Murdock, and I will be Curling on Saturday - so expect an awesome post about that experience. The odds of me falling on my ass? Even.

I Take The Mad That I Feel And Use It To Destroy Freaky Puppets

2010-03-01T19:34:00.000-08:00

The boy and I watched a DVD that he got from the library the other day - Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. The episode was titled "What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel?" or something like that.

In an upset, Mr. Rogers did not teach me to suppress the mad that I feel until it eats away at my soul. Surprising, since I must have learned that from somewhere. Probably Sesame Street.

There were songs, there was a video tour of the plant where they make construction paper narrated by Mr. McFeely (made me want to be a factory worker making construction paper in the 80's all over again), and there was of course a trip to the Neighborhood of Make Believe.

I would like to know why the folks producing this show thought it was a good idea to use the above-pictured freaky puppet in a children's television show. Lady Elaine is a freak.

Steve Alford - The State of New Mexico's Highest Paid Douchebag

2010-03-01T10:49:00.000-08:00

Check out Alford’s latest d-bag level behavior, getting into a rather juvenile post-game argument with BYU player, Jon Tavernari, that is culminated with his calling Tavernari an 'asshole'. Nice to see the person who I would guess is the highest paid public employee in the State of New Mexico keepin' it real. The genesis of this moment comes from some chippy play in last minute of a very tight game, where Tavernari received an elbow for d-ing up a tad too long. New Mexico ended up winning, which makes Alfords behavior all the more ridiculous. Be the bigger person, and walk it off the court.

Granted, no player should be mouthing off to another coach before, during, or after a game, that's a rule we all learned playing team sports very early. But he’s 20-years old, for crying out loud. He doesn't have the judgement of an experienced Division I head coach, especially one who just won the game. Of course, if I were a player who knew anything about Alford's history at Iowa, I might also be disinclined to be a bit more respectful.

An Underrated Aspect of Rick Peterson

2010-02-27T12:59:00.000-08:00

Pretty much every story previewing the 2010 Brewers has mentioned the new pitching coach Rick Peterson, and generally these stories include the word "biomechanics".

There's no doubt that Peterson is critical to Milwaukee's chances this year given the piss poor pitching (alliteration - like it?) last season.

What these stories haven't discussed, however, is the biomechanics of Rick Peterson's hair.

It appears to be able to withstand moisture, at least on top.

It is really a good look.

I'm telling you, this is going to be something to monitor this season.

This Commercial is the Balls

2010-02-27T12:55:00.000-08:00

If you watch the Big Ten Network, and 60% of my winter TV viewing is the Big Ten Network, you see this commercial about 8 times a day. I love this commercial. It really speaks to the Republican in me. Makes me want to drive a semi across the country.

More Fun with the Bucks

2010-02-25T08:04:00.000-08:00

Went to the Bucks game last night with Gopher Bandanna Man and sat in the same seats that Stryker and I sat in on Saturday night. Unfortunately, maybe due to the insane road conditions, none of the characters that were in attendance on Saturday night were at the Bradley Center last night. Thus, I did not get to see overweight walking stick man, physics guy, Mr. beer spilling ass slapper, the worn out former Energee current hair stylist/admin assistant/dental assistant/fitness instructor girls, and last but not least, backwards v-neck Packers jacket guy.

What I did see was the Bucks kick the crap out of the Hornets. Bogut continues to dominate useless centers. A few nights ago he killed the undersized David Lee. Tonight he killed the appropriately sized but talent lacking Emaka Okafor. Bogut scored in the mid-20's and had double digit rebounds and didn't even play in the 4th quarter. That was the nice part about this blow out. With another game tonight and the Bucks playing 5 games in 7 nights, Bogut and Jennings sat the entire 4th quarter. Salmons and Mbah a Moute hardly played in the 4th. It was nice to be able to rest these guys. It was also a great moment when Primoz Brezec made his Bucks debut and picked up a rebound in 2 minutes of action. Some day I will be able to tell my children and their children that I was there the day Primoz made his Bucks debut.

One other highlight was listening to the Bucks pre-game show on the thrilling drive to the Fortress on Fourth. Our favorite local radio douche Bill Michaels was opining about if it was worth it for the Bucks to make the playoffs only to lose in the first round. Bucks play-by-play guy Ted Davis responded that people who feel that way are probably "too stupid to breathe". Pretty much sums up how I feel about Bill Michaels.

All in all a good game to attend. The Bucks are 6-1 at games I attend this year. It has been a fun season. The schedule isn't the easiest coming up, but we know this Bucks team always competes and it will be fun to watch them try to make the playoffs and maybe even get a decent seed.

Alternate Uniform Bonanza

2010-02-22T14:44:00.001-08:00

Fresh off the news that the Brewers will be sporting a new road alternate uniform this season that features the word "Milwaukee" comes word that the Packers might have an alternate throwback jersey this season. So says Uni Watch:

Based on something I saw earlier, I’m almost certain the Packers will be wearing 1929 throwbacks. Those are dark blue jerseys with a dark blue numeral inside a gold circle over khaki pants and dark blue socks. Of course, per today’s uniform standards, the circle and numeral on the front would be much larger, and I believe the style guide showed a solid brown helmet with gray mask to simulate the leather ones some players wore in 1929. It’s gone from the server now, however — I guess I’m lucky I saw it.

The Brewers jersey is nothing exciting but placates those who have been crying for years that the Brewers road jerseys don't mention where they are from. The packers jerseys, now those are a change from the usual. If the lose while wearing this jersey, I am pretty sure Ted Thompson will be blamed.

Fun Times At The Bradley Center

2010-02-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

Murdock invited me to a Bucks game on Saturday night, against the Bobcats. The tickets were courtesy of Gopher Bandanna Man. Thanks GBM - I can see why you picked these seats for your season tickets. Holy hell, what a series of characters, and what a show off of the court at the Bradley Center.

The first time that I thought something might be up was when some cockgobbler walked up the stairs towards the concourse and tripped face first on his way up, spilling his beer everywhere. He got up as graciously as he could, and then threw a solid ass-slap at his colleague as he continued up the stairs. What possessed him to slap an ass after the fall is anyone's guess, but it was terrific theater.

Right behind us was another character - a character with a walking stick. Not a cane. Not a walker. A walking stick. Gandalf look-alike in the house!

I tried several times to take a surreptitious picture of staff man, but every time I tried he seemed to be staring right at me. Finally I was able to grab this picture:

Yeah, that's right, staff man! With a lovely lady in white as well!

The picture also shows another excellent feature of our section - apparently, we were sitting near an entire row of Energee Alumni. We thought it was odd that there were a number of vaguely attractive, but sort of worn-out looking, ladies near our section, but once a smattering of current Energee dancers wandered into our section for some contest, and the Alumni made a ruckus to make everyone aware that they were friends with the Energee girls, it became clear that we were in an Alumni section.

Yet another random-ass fan experience had to do with some guy who was studying physics during the game. No, seriously, he was reading a physics textbook. At the game. It's the dude in the red, standing up in the picture above. He's standing next to a guy in a Packers windbreaker, who we'll talk about in a minute. Anyway, the guy in the Bulls shirt (yes, he was wearing a Bulls shirt (Salmons Fan), with an Oklahoma University hat) was honestly reading a physics textbook during every time out and stoppage in play. And he carried it with him as he went to the concourse to take a piss or purchase a fucking clue.

During halftime, there were a bunch of mascots that navigated this inflatable American Gladiator obstacle course. Meh, compared to the action in Section 218, this was nothing.

Here's a Packers fan who ended up at the Bucks game on accident. And he put his windbreaker on backwards. You can clearly (or blurrily - sorry about the picture quality) see that this clown has the v-neck of his jacket facing backwards. Now, I've owned a number of shirts in my life, but never has the v-neck faced backwards. I'm pretty sure this is just your average Packers fan in terms of IQ, however.

Anyway, as for the basketball game, the Bucks won, thanks to their three-headed monster of Bogut, Jennings and Salmons. (Should we call them the Big Three?) It was important to note that Charlotte started Nazr Fucking Mohammed at center, with the backup center (and first guy off the bench) being Theo Ratliff. Yes, Theo Ratlif is 50. Stephen Jackson scored about 50 points, but did not punch even one fan during the game. He is getting soft.

Worst Poll Question Ever

2010-02-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

Did the JS really just ask this question?

How You Doin?

2010-02-18T12:18:00.000-08:00

Help! I think I'm supposed to like the Olympics - but I don't.

2010-02-12T14:55:00.000-08:00

I like to think that I'm similar to most red-blooded American males who like their beer cold, their steaks rare, and their cars fast. Above these things though, I love sports. So why would I rather watch the Yogi-Yahooeys take the gold in the Laff-A-Lympics than the real Olympics?   Heavens to mergatroid already, what's wrong with me?

Maybe I'm overestimating the interest in the Winter Games this year, but it seems like people are into it in 2010. There are a wide variety events to watch, and the venues and facilities are generally beautiful, but I just can't get into this stuff. Even now with the last couple Olympic games being broadcast in full HD I can't get fired up.

I think my problem is rooted in the fact that I can't get excited over Olympic athletes in general - they're boring. Sorry Michael Phelps, Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn - you are. Usain Bolt seems exciting, 'cause he's fast, but then I realize if he was, he'd be doing something more exciting in the sprinting offseason (is there such a thing?) - like catching passes from Drew Brees or stealing bases off Yadier Molina.  The other problem? Your sports are boring. Running 100 meters down a straight level track? Boring. Running 100 yards down the gridiron, dodging 11 angry defenders. Exciting. Throwing a javelin 250 feet? Meh.  Gunning down a guy headed for home from deep centerfield. Thrilling.

Plus, I'm always skeptical that we're actually seeing the worlds best "athlete" in some of these niche sports. Some of these Olympic events are so freaking niche that it seems only a handful of people actually compete worldwide.  I'd never know if I might have a supreme talent for ski jumping or skeleton because hell if I've ever had the resources or wherewithall to try it. I could be the one of the world's best curlers in hiding, but you'd never know. Because I don't care. And events like figure skating and diving, where the winner is determined solely on the scores given by judges irritate me as well, since there are inherent biases (and corruption) built into each judges mind.

I know some people claim I should just enjoy the pure love for the sport some of these Olympic athletes show, because they aren't in it for the money. But to me it always comes down to the fact that the most of the worlds best athletes find some way to play American or International professional sports for TONS of MONEY. Admittedly, my hypocrisy shines through on this though, when I know that I'd rather watch a D-3 college basketball game, than the Olympics, knowing full well that 99.99% of those kids will never see dime one playing professionally.

And yes, I realize there are some sports in the Olympic games that I clearly don't find boring (basketball and hockey). But the problem is I already watch those in the context of professional sports, so I'm not really inclined to sit through more games with international players I don't know. Really after the original Dream Team, I lost interest even there.

So - to review I don't like the Olympics because:
1) the sports are boring
2) the athletes are boring
3) the niche sports are just that
4) the sports I like already play professional seasons

This is a plea. Straighten me out on this dislike of the Olympics. If there is a reason I should like them tell me. Apparently I'm not smart enough on my own to figure what that reason is.

Oh, and for the record the Scoobie-Doobies can suck it. What a bunch of losers.

College Footbal, Circa 2015

2010-02-11T20:15:00.000-08:00

Texas to the Big-11? Supposedly the powers-that-be are in discussions. It’s not gonna happen. Texas does want out of the Big-12, no doubt. They’re too high and mighty to travel to outposts like Ames, Stillwater, and Manhattan (the Kansas version) on a consistent basis. Why not join the Big-10? Too cold. The Horns want no part of visiting Minneapolis or East Lansing for late November football game. Yes, the TV money would be nice, but soon every conference will have similar deals. So, where will big, bad, Texas end up? They’re about to set off a chain-reaction that will destroy the current NCAA landscape into Megaconferences. Fast forward to 2015 and enjoy the “1-800-Flowers Rose Bowl Sponsored by Hyundai Brought to You By Apple On Your 6,00i 3D HD LCD iPad.”

Pac-14
Instead of heading north, Texas stays warm and heads west. Yeah, Pullman, Washington isn’t any better than Ames – well, actually, everything’s better than Ames, Iowa. Plus, Texas can bask in the glow of Los Angeles twice a year, travel to Seattle, hit the Bay Area twice, and relax in Phoenix. That’s a better lineup than West Lafayette, State College, and Bloomington by a country mile. And with Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas A&M tagging along with UT, the Pac-14 owns pretty much every TV eyeball west of the Mighty Mississippi. That equals a pretty sweet TV package. Your new Pac-14 is:

East: Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA
West: Washington, Wazzu, Stanford, Cal, USC, Oregon, Oregon State

Big-10
Ten, fourteen, who’s counting? After losing Texas, they scramble to grab Nebraska (a premiere football program), Missouri (St Louis-KC eyeballs), and Kansas (a big-time hoops name brand). The Big-12 is officially deceased.

Flat: Illinois, Penn St, Ohio State, Michigan, Indiana, NWestern, Michigan State
Really Flat: Iowa, Minny, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Purdue.

Mountain West
The Mounties are more than happy to pick up the Big-12’s scraps. First, they have to rid those with limited fan bases. Wyoming Cowboy fans are a die-hard bunch, there’s just not enough of them. Wyoming, Air Force, and Colorado State get demoted to the WAC, which now has about 37 members. Texas Tech, Iowa State, Baylor, Oklahoma State, and Kansas State come over from the Big-12. Boise State makes the leap and is also added.

North: Boise State, Utah, BYU, Iowa St, Kansas St, UNLV
South: Baylor, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, TCU, New Mexico, San Diego State

SEC
Never to be outdone, the SEC says “Dangummit – if I’s knowns we can have more than twelb, we hab fouwrteen longs times ago!” Because some conferences have 14, the SEC jumps to 16. They pillage the ACC for: Florida State, Georgia Tech, Miami, and Clemson.

West: LSU, Ole Miss, Miss State, Auburn, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Georgia Tech
East: Florida, Florida State, Miami, Tennessee, Vandy, Clemson, South Carolina, Kentucky
(I know this doesn’t make sense geographically, tried to even the playing field while keeping same-state schools together)

Northeast
What’s left of the ACC merges with the Big East to create one hell of a basketball conference.

Old ACC: V-Tech, North Carolina, NC State, Wake Forest, Duke, Maryland, Virginia, BC,
Old Big East: Louisville, WV, Pitt, South Florida, Rutgers, UConn, Syracuse, Cincinnati

There you have it. Go ahead and throw some sweet action on this 74 team parlay and watch the money roll in – it’s gonna happen.

Dick Vitale pulls a Mike Hunt

2010-02-11T08:13:00.000-08:00

I have always found Dick Vitale to be over the top, but I have put up with him for years. This has been the season where I just can't handle watching games he broadcasts anymore. He adds no insight and is just too intent on pushing his agenda across no matter what is going on in the game.

Last night I watched the end of the Carolina Duke game. I love to watch Roy Williams lose. That guy is a first-class d-bag. I feel that way ever since he said that the Wisconsin-MSU Final Four game set back basketball 50 years and that that style of play should be outlawed. This deeply hurt Bennett and was one of the big factors leading to his retirement.

Anyhow, towards the end, Vitale mentioned that Carolina was obviously way overrated at the beginning of the season and the only reason they were ranked so high was that they were North Carolina and that they had a ton of young players who had great high school resumes. About two minutes later he said that people who are laughing about Carolina struggling this year better enjoy it because next year they have some of the best high schoolers in the country coming in and they will be a force.

Hold it. What? Didn't you just say that you can't base how good a team is going to be based on guys coming in from high school? Seriously, just retire.

I am Highly Entertained by This Photo

2010-02-10T09:10:00.000-08:00

Spring training is right around the corner. Time to pack up the sausages and ship them to Arizona. I am also hoping that between now and when pitchers and catchers report the Brewers sign another old random player. Would Jesse Orosco like a second go around with the Brewers? I am also hoping Corey Harts head falls off before Spring Training.

Goofy Thing You Come Across On Baseball-Reference.com

2010-02-09T21:01:00.000-08:00

I love how they show a guys full name on Baseball-Reference.com, as in: Richmond Lockwood Sexson. Lockwood? Ha. They also often have a player's nickname in parenthesis.

How about: Todd Helton (The Toddfather).

The Toddfather?? WTF? You ever hear someone call him "The Toddfather?" Me neither.

Big Red you will be missed...

2010-02-09T09:34:00.000-08:00

This is AWESOME!

Still trying to get over the fact that Big Red won’t be with us this summer on our Championship Season 2010 Run.

I guess I will be following the Marlins a little bit at least this year.
If you have some spare time check out this interview with rightfieldbleachers

And Seth…

http://www.rightfieldbleachers.com/?p=6046

Just always liked the EA Sports photo of Seth and had to repost...

HOF Rant

2010-02-08T11:24:00.000-08:00

The NFL announced who will be in the 2010 Hall Of Fame. My first response was echoed by Stryker via text message: "John Randle, really? John Randle, first ballot HOF - REALLY?" I know, he's got a bunch of Pro Bowls and the like, but never once was I watching a game and thought "That's a hall of famer." But who cares what I think....I swear I never heard ANYBODY refer to him as a "Future HOFer" during his playing days or immediately after he retired. Did you remember reading: "Now that Randle hung up his cletes, the next stop is Canton." Nope. A first-ballot guy, no less?

And to show this isn't just an anti-Vikings rant, Cris Carter ABSOLUTELY belongs in. How is this guy not in the HOF already?

Can't leave without a Packer pledge - Old School edition. If you think Carter is getting the shaft, how about Jerry Kramer? In 1970, a NFL 50th Anniversary All-Time Team was selected. Kramer was one of the five O-linemen selected. Actually, he was the only Guard to make the team. Thus, he was voted as the best Guard in the first 50 years of the NFL's existence, but he's not in the Hall of Fame. W. T. F?

Bogut and Assie ESPN

2010-02-08T06:38:00.000-08:00

This is long (25 minutes) but find the time to watch it. It is pretty good. Actually makes me like Bogut.

To be fair never hated him.

Enjoy ESPN Australia's day with Bogut.

Yeah that’s right there is an espn Australia.

Did you know that Milwaukee was the capital city of the state of Wisconsin?

Another Horrible Draft - 2006 NBA Draft

2010-02-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

Following up on the shit show that was the 2002 NBA Draft, let's move forward in time a couple of years to the 2006 NBA Draft. I think this draft was actually worse than 2002, which is incredible - but you be the judge.

Here are the top 20 picks in the 2006 NBA Draft. Keep in mind, this was 3.5 years ago. How many of these players have you even heard of?

Andrea Bargnani - This is a serviceable player, a 7 footer who has a lot of Brad Lohaus in him. Likes to load it up from distance. But #1 overall?

LaMarcus Aldridge - A good player. Drafted by Chicago, and immediately traded in a deal that netted them Tyrus Thomas. Whoops!

Adam Morrison - The winner of the Bobby Hurley Award from the 2006 NBA Draft. Now on the Lakers, he played in 8 games in the 2008-09 season for L.A. Career average of 7.8 ppg.

Tyrus Thomas - He pretty much sucks - the only thing he's good at is getting suspended.

Shelden Williams - In any other year, he would have been a lock for the Bobby Hurley Award. A top 5 pick who is on his 4th team in 4 years.

Brandon Roy - A stud. Unquestionably the best player in this draft. Minnesota drafted him and then traded him for Randy Foye. Double oops.

Randy Foye - Meh.

Rudy Gay - A fine player. Giving Gay a good name.

Patrick O'Bryant - A complete disaster. Averaged 5 minutes per game in his 86 game NBA career. Joe Alexander thinks this guy sucks as a top 10 pick.

Saer Sene - Um. Yeah. This is the only player that is more terrible than Patrick O'Bryant at the top of this draft. I think he was the last straw that caused the Supersonics to move to Oklahoma.

J.J. Redick - Yet another strong contender for the Bobby Hurley Award. Shockingly, has not been able to create his own shot in the NBA.

Hilton Armstrong - A poor man's Dan Gadzuric.

Thabo Sefalosha - He played for 3 teams in the 2008-09 season. Probably not a good sign.

Ronnie Brewer - A pretty decent player. Compared to the rest of this draft class, he's a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Cedric Simmons - Although not a good professional basketball player, he is fine stand-up comedian. Wait, he's not Cedric the Entertainer? In that case, he blows.

Rodney Carney - I'm running out of synonyms for the word "sucks".

Shawne Williams - No idea.

Oleksiy Pecherov - He has actually played 100 games in the NBA. Is quite tall. I've not heard of him.

Quincy Douby - Already out of the league.

Renaldo Balkman - Another Isaiah Thomas special. Averaged 7.4 ppg. In college.

On a re-draft, this draft probably goes like this:

1. Brandon Roy
2. LaMarcus Aldridge
3. Rudy Gay
4. Rajon Rondo
5. Paul Millsap

Seriously, this draft was such a debacle that Paul Millsap would have been a top-5 pick if it was held today. Or Andrea Bargnani might have slipped in there at #5. Either way, holy hell.

I'm not sure this can be topped. But I hope one of you guys tries to beat it.

Garbage Drafts From The Last 25 Years

2010-02-04T18:09:00.000-08:00

The 2002 NBA draft definitely makes First Team All-Shit for this topic -which hopefully becomes a regular feature post on this fine site.

Top 20 went like this (Editor's Note: I haven't followed the NBA closely since Reggie Lewis died, so please correct me if I'm wrong):

Yao - Good, but injury prone
Jay Williams - Career a car wreck, literally
Mike Dunleavy - Gay
Drew Gooden - Eh
Nikoloz Tskitishvili - WTF? Really?
Dajaun Wagner - A whopping 28 career starts in the NBA. His middle name is "Marquett," so that's a bonus. Yes, sans "e" at the end.
Nene Hilario - Pretty good player, but how would you like to be Nuggets fan...with the 5th and 7th picks you get Tskitter and Nene? LOL. Now THAT'S how you excite a fan base!
Chris Wilcox - I was HUGE on this guy coming out of Maryland. Fail.
Amare Stoudemire - Good
"Racine's Own" Caron Butler - Good
Jared Jeffries - Somehow, he's still an NBA starter
Melvin Ely - I believe he got shut down by Andy Kowske in the NCAA's. That's all you need to know about Melvin Ely.
Marcus Haslip - OUCH!
Fred Jones - He could jump...that's about it.
Bostjan Nachbar - I think he's Tskitishvili's cousin
Juri Welsh - Was he a Buck at some point?
Juan Dixon - Wins award for "Most Predictable Good College Player Who Will Get Drafted Too Early And Suck In The NBA" from this draft. Former winners include Mateen Cleaves, Kirk Haston, JR Ried, almost everybody from Duke, and Marcus Fizer.
Curtis Borchardt - A modern-day Loren Meyer.
Ryan Humphrey - I have zero recollection of this guy in College. He played at Notre Dame. Was he black? White? Center? Guard? Anyone?
Kareem Rush - No clue about his NBA exploits, but I do remember the Brothers Rush always being in hot water with the NCAA. We'll just assume Kareem smoked his way out of the NBA in three years.

If there was a re-draft of this greasefire tomorrow, It would probably look something like this:

Amare
Carlos Boozer
Yao
Tayshaun Prince
Nene
Butler
Gooden
And the rest of the teams would forefiet their picks to save cap space.

So there it is, the 2002 NBA draft...it's SHIIIIIIITTASTIC!!

Can You Lower That to 9 Feet?

2010-02-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

JR - where have you gone?

I went to the YMCA to take the boy to the pool last weekend.

After he was sick of the pool, we stopped in the basketball gym so he could run around chasing basketballs for a few minutes, while I worked on my three-point shot just in case a three-point contest ever broke out at work or something. I have to work on hitting the money ball.

As I shot to one of the side hoops, I noticed that I had either grown taller or the hoop was lowered for some reason. Ran up to touch the rim, and sure enough - I grabbed iron. Definitely short. I then proceeded to change my focus from three pointers to throwing down monster dunks with a mini ball that was conveniently laying on the court. I started with some warm-up two handed rim rockers, then proceeded to throw it in reverse for a couple. The boy was duly impressed.

Finally I tried the J.R. Rider dunk contest put-the-ball-between-the-leg-and-then-slamma-jamma dunk that I had perfected in high school.

Fail.

Now it's Wednesday, and my fingers still hurt, and my back hurts. Being old sucks.

It's all about the W.

2010-02-03T14:32:00.000-08:00

Not going to lie, I love to watch the Badgers beat the Spartans. As painful as it is to watch the Badgers offense sometimes, last night's victory was pretty sweet. It was nice to build a 15 point first half lead even though the badgers were sans their two best players (Luer - injured; Hughes - 3 miutes, foul problems). Tough break for MSU with Lucas going down. They can join the parade of Wisconsin, Ohio Stat, Purdue, and Northwestern in sustaining an injury to a key player. This opens up the Big Ten race. Oh, and it gives me an excuse to post this Erin Andrews photo.

Packer fan returns to drinking....

2010-02-02T13:52:00.001-08:00

embeded

Packers Fan Announces He Will Return To Drinking For Another Season

Just to Remind Everyone, I Hate Corey Hart

2010-01-31T09:39:00.000-08:00

From today's JS blog post it sounds like the Brewers are willing to go to an arbitration hearing with Corey Hart. This would be the first time a player has gone to a hearing in the Melvin reign. I think the Brewers are fine with this because they know it is a slam dunk win on their part. Hart is awful. No way does he even deserve $4 million. I really wish this hearing was on tv. I would love to watch it. The Brewers could bring me in to show how much the fan base, outside of those living in Union Grove, dislike Hart. At the very least, they need to release the transcripts form this thing.

My Saturday Nights are Lame

2010-01-30T22:36:00.000-08:00

So, I am sitting at home tonight drinking beer and watching random basketball games. My first question is, why doesn't Hakim Warrick get more playing time? Next question is, who thought it would be a good idea to have Casy McGehee in cowboy boots be part of a jump ball instructional on the Bucks post-game show. Third question is, how come the Miss America competition doesn't have throwing a baseball as part of the competition? I would immediately get rid of all the chicks that have no clue, except the ones with big tits. Last question is, how come I don't eat breakfast at the Comet Cafe at 3 PM more often?

Anyhow, I'm putzing around on the internet and the following are the first dozen random illegaly downloaded songs that popped up on my music player:

Finding out True Love is Blind - Louis XIV
My Dick - Mickey Avalon
Rainbow in the Dark - Dio
Moore Street Girls - The Elders
Go With the Flow - Queens of the Stone Age
Ride Wit Me - Nelly
Everyday People - Arrested Development
I Don't Know Anything - Mad Season
America, Fuck Yeah - Team America World Police
If you Want to be a Badger - UW Band
This Modern Love - Bloc Party
If I Ruled the World - NAS

What does all of this mean? I don't know.

Sorry, One More

2010-01-26T20:53:00.001-08:00

Last football post until the draft, I promise. My hatred for all things Minnesota (sans Twins, I actually like them) runs deep....that loss was just too beautiful. Here's an impressive list of bumble-fuck Vikings events throughout the years. They've suffered more than Cubs fans...I heard Czabe list a couple of these the other day.:

0-4 in Super Bowls

0-5 last 5 NFC title games with three heartbreaks: on Sunday, 1998, 1987. I really don't recall 1987, but I read an article that says it's worse than 1998 and 2009 combine. Whatever. Throw in a 41-0 whitewash in the 2001 NFC Title game.

The Love Boat

Moss' shenanigans

Dimitius Underwood

The Hershael Walker trade

Mike Tice

Korey Stringer (not funny, a tragedy)

Drew Pearson

Jim Marshall running the wrong way.

The Metrodome

Finally - the Brett Favre interception. The savior. The guy who was your mortal enemy for 16 years was now the Messiah. Minnesota media voted Favre coming to the Vikings as the biggest sports story of the decade. Not Favre leading Minny to a Super Bowl trophy...just him signing with the Vikes. And in the end, the player you despised more than anyone was welcomed in like a God failed when it mattered most. Karma's a bitch.

Enough Favre, Let's talk Crew

2010-01-25T07:15:00.000-08:00

Yeah Favre tossed another INT, is he coming back? Is this it? WHO CARES!!!!!!!

Let's talk Crew....

(Let's start with some great Crew staches from the past)

Now to the Present...

Tommy H’s take on the Prince contract situation. He gives a nice perspective with the Rangers and Teixeira.

The short version is it doesn’t look good for the crew’s chances of Keeping Prince long term. And if they do it will inevitably handcuff them from a payroll stand point in fielding a competitive team.

My take: in Doug we trust. I’m sure he will make a great offer to Prince so that he can tell the fans “we tried”. And then I hope we get some great value for him to refill the system’s pipeline.

Besides yes Prince will be 27 but his weight will always be a question mark. How much deferred money do you want to tie up long term in him if he becomes unproductive, injury prone and basically untradeable. (Not that he has any history of injury, but can he continue to be big and productive into his 30’s?)

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/82521377.html

Your thoughts?

Only The Facts

2010-01-24T20:57:00.001-08:00

How Brent's last 6 playoff seasons have ended:

2009: Crushing INT with 7 seconds left in regulation - Vikes lose in OT in NFC Title game

2007: Crushing INT in overtime in a home loss to the Giants in NFC Title game

2004: Throws 4 picks during a blowout loss to the 8-8 Vikings in a home Wild Card game.

2003: Crushing INT in overtime to the Eagles...throwing it up to no one in particular.

2002: Throws two picks (for a 54 QB rating) in a blowout loss to the Falcons...the Packers first home playoff loss in team history.

20o1: Sets an NFL record with 6, count 'em 6, Interceptions against the Rams.

Make no mistake about it, Favre's a great REGULAR SEASON quarterback.

My tribute to the Vikings

2010-01-24T20:25:00.001-08:00

My Thoughts on Favre

2010-01-24T09:04:00.000-08:00

Gumbo filling up on ammo so he can drop a deuce on Favre.

I hope that at some point during the game today Favre gets sacked. During the sack, his leg breaks in half and the part the breaks off gets impaled in his ass. While he is being tended to on the field, I hope the Saints' Saint Bernard mascot walks over and takes a dump on his face. That would be a fitting end to Favre's season.

Digging Through My Old CDs

2010-01-23T12:55:00.000-08:00

Tupac sampling Bruce Hornsby? How could it not be awesome?

Alternate Brewers 40th Anniversary Bobbleheads

2010-01-20T18:29:00.001-08:00

Although quickly buried by the news of the Doug Davis signing, the bigger announcement today had to do with the unveiling of the Brewers' 40th Anniversary Celebration.

And the best news coming out of this celebration? Was it the fact that the Brewers are going to wear those hideous 90's uniforms for a game against the Nationals?

Ben McDonald was totally awesome.

No. Amazingly, that's not even the best part of the celebration.

The best part is that they are going to do some sweet bobbleheads commemorating a great moment in each of the past four decades:

1970's - "Hall of Famer Hank Aaron hitting his 755th and final home run as a Brewer"

1980's - "Cecil Cooper’s base hit that was the tying and winning runs in Game 5 of the 1982 American League Championship Series"

1990's - "Yount recording his 3,000th base hit"

2000's - "CC Sabathia getting the final out of the final regular season, playoff-clinching game in 2008."
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Now I'm not old enough to quibble with the 1970's bobblehead choice, although Hank Aaron is probably not best remembered as a 42-year-old Brewer. And frankly, I don't remember much of the early part of the 80's either.
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But how about some other great moments in Brewers history in those other decades that were left on the cutting room floor?
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1980's:

- 1988: Dale Sveum breaks his leg in a gruesome collision with Daryl Hamilton, wrecking his professional career. That would be a sweet bobblehead.

1990's: .

- 1990: Brewers and Mariners participate in an epic baseball brawl which lasted about 30 minutes, involved the bullpens emptying twice, and is recounted in some detail here. A perfect commemorative bobblehead opportunity. I think a bobblehead of Tom Trebelhorn trying to avoid getting spiked during a brawl would make a super bobblehead.
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- 1991: Sal Bando is given the General Manager job.

- 1997: Mediocre, light-hitting CF Chuckie Carr swings through a take sign, and then explained his actions to manager Phil Garner by saying "that's not Chuckie's game. Chuckie hacks on 2-0." A similarly mediocre blog later celebrated the event.
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- 1999: Rafael Roque is the Opening Day starter for Milwaukee. Let's read that again together. Rafael Roque is the Opening Day starter for Milwaukee.
. .

2000's:

- 2002: Reliever Mike Dejean freaks out on manager Jerry Royster when he tries to pull him, arguing with the skipper for nearly 30 seconds and refusing to give him the ball after loading the bases in the 9th inning. Royster and Dejean, nose to nose? I'd like that bobblehead.

- 2002: Jose Hernandez is held out of the final four games of the season, in order to avoid setting a major league record for most strikeouts in a season.

- 2003: Brooks Kieshnick becomes the first player in MLB history to hit a home run as a pitcher, a pinch hitter, and a designated hitter in the same season. The toolbox needs a bobblehead.

- 2004: Chad Moeller hits for the cycle.

I think these were all bobblehead-worthy moments for the Brewers in the last 3 decades. What did I miss?

Corey Hart SUCKS but asks for a raise?

2010-01-19T14:23:00.000-08:00

Not going to pile on here but hey Corey read a paper, or least watch the news. If you did you might have picked up on a few things like;

1) The country's economy is in the toilet bowl

2) The unemployment rate seems to be increasing every day (unless you ask Obermann)

Oh yeah and if you read the sports section or watched a sports center highlight you might have noticed;

3) You SUCK.

AB R H RIB SO BA OBP

2008 612 76 164 91 109 .268 .300

2009 419 64 109 48 92 .260 .335

Hart filed for $4.8 million with the club coming in at $4.15 million, a difference of $650,000.

Last year Hart made a modest $3.25 million.

Baseball (sports) salaries sometimes seem to be laughable. Not that the owners need to hoard all the money I just don’t like paying $7.25 for a beer and $5 for a luke warm brat.

That’s all I digress.

It's Mongolian Time

2010-01-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard lately, the news coverage over Mongolian restaurants has been off the charts. So I thought it would be the perfect time to make my very first post and resturaunt review for Genghis Khan Mongolian Barbecue located on Highway 100 in Wauwatosa(apparently). I have eaten at Genghis Khan many times and have quite the handle on it's pros and mostly cons. Let's get to the meat of it.

As I had mentioned before I have eaten at Genghis Khan's multiple times in the past and therefore my views are pretty much what you could say, right on. Some immediate themes come to mind. Hideous service, dirty, congested, lack luster food presentation, but great food. The service is almost unbearable but the taste of the food really makes up for it, well barely. The initial reaction when you walk in is slightly dark, dingy, and dirty. I don't think they've ever cleaned the carpet. As it is Mongolian style you prepare your own bowl by walking through a buffet style line where you first add in your hearty meats, then vegetables/noodles, and finally the sauces that bring the meal together. The frozen meats are strategically placed in a large bin and it's a free for all. When you get to the sauces you wonder if anyone actually got sauce in their bowl. They use a durable grade 2 saran wrap system to wrap around the sauce presentations. It's a joke, seriously as it's easier to shoot a bird down in Duck Hunt then it is not spilling the sauce all over the durable saran wrap and brown carpet. But it's to be expected as you see the surroundings. There are about 10 sauces to choose from ranging from mild szechuan sauce to cooking wine to garlic sauce. It's definitely a wide variety but very difficult to maneuver the ladle into the presentation canister to scoop out your favorite sauce. You will spill and you will make a mess and you will realize it doesn't matter. A side note about the sauces. It seems that no matter what mixture you use for your sauce it ALWAYS tastes the same. I wonder how much of it is due to the fact they cook your food on the same grill and don't really clean it from person to person. Finally hand off your bowl of goodness to the cook. Wait! Don't forget to add some peanuts or sesame seeds as needed located at the cooks counter. The cooks use a traditional circular Mongolian grill and walk around it in circles pushing your food until ready. They finish and hand it back to you steaming. Tip as needed. As you finally take your seat in the booths or the elegant round tables you realize there isn't much space when it's busy(Lunch hour). The backs of the chairs are very close together and gets real suffocating. What I call the second course meal would be the second buffet which has the likes of your typical sweet and sour chicken, egg rolls, and fried rice, etc. It is bottomless for lunch so eat up!

Lastly let's talk about the service. It's just turrible(as Sir Charles would say) and really just down right embarrassing. Realize that as soon as you walk in the staff will hate you as a human being and want you to leave as soon as you are almost done eating. I had an experience where some friends and I had just finished up eating and who I believe to be the owner came by our table looked at us uncomfortably for a few moments and then tapped the table twice and exclaimed "you done!?" and then scurried away. We got the hint, payed our bill and single filed out the door. So don't ever think you will be treated with respect there.

If you want great tasting food, sauce stains on your light blue, button down, short sleeve work shirt, and some good old belittlement, eat at Genghis Khan Mongolian Barbeque.

P.S. Don't forget the complimentary fortune cookie!

Tournament > Deciding Champions By a Poll

2010-01-12T10:40:00.000-08:00

Here is another reason why polls in general are a joke.

Buried in Seth Davis' weekly tome about college basketball is his AP ballot from this week. He lists where he ranks teams, as well as where he ranked them last week in parentheses.

The one that jumped out at me was:

13. Wisconsin (NR)

Wow! Jumping Wisconsin from out of the poll entirely all the way up to #13, on the strength of splitting conference games against top 10 opponents (losing at MSU, beating Purdue at home)? Huh?

Not so fast. Explains Seth:

Elsewhere, not surprisingly Georgetown made the biggest jump this week due to its impressive comeback win over UConn. (I'm not counting Wisconsin because I only left them off last week by mistake.)

Now this is the most knowledgeable of pollsters - he's constantly writing about college basketball, he's one of the faces of CBS' Road to the Final Four studio show, etc. etc., and he omitted a team by "mistake" on his poll. Imagine what the writers who follow very little college basketball, and yet get a vote on this poll, do with their polls?

This isn't about Seth Davis leaving Wisconsin off of a poll in January - it doesn't matter and I'm not trying to bury him for an innocent mistake. What it does indicate, however, is that it's a good thing that a tournament, and play on the court (as selected by a selection committee, and not polls or computers) determines the champion in NCAA basketball.

In other news, the Jon Leuer injury sucks. That's what happens when you decide to play above the rim, Jon! Stay on the floor, stay healthy, that's my motto.

POLL QUESTION TIME!

2010-01-12T08:18:00.000-08:00

So which camp are you in come Sunday?

Wisconsin icon Brett Favre (isn't his face on the wisconsin quarter)

or

Wisconsin native Tony Romo

Would have liked to see the pack play next Sunday up in the dome but oh well.

Let me hear your thoughts. As a Bear fan I find it hard to root for the Vickings but I have to say a favre Superbowl would be nice.

Some Statistical Research That Will Shock and Awe You

2010-01-11T10:19:00.000-08:00

Anyone who watched yesterday's Wild Card Game turned Holiday Bowl between Green Bay and Arizona would be surprised to learn that Green Bay's defense was the #2 ranked overall defense in the NFL during the 2009 regular season.

Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised by that stat, given that the media trotted it out there with regularity when previewing the game.

How do they do those rankings? By counting the number of players who have hair spilling out from under their helmets? (In that case, Green Bay would be the #1 defense).

No, the official stat in determining "overall defense" in the NFL is yards per game by the opponent. Green Bay gave up an average of 284.4 yards per game, which is impressive.

However, if you dig a little deeper into the numbers, it's pretty clear that these stats are skewed pretty heavily by a couple of dominating defensive efforts (or pathetic offensive efforts, depending upon your point of view).

Since the NFL is a quarterback's league, I thought it made the most sense to divide the season between opponents with Pro Bowl quarterbacks (i.e. QBs who have made a Pro Bowl) and opponents with non Pro Bowl quarterbacks. This isn't perfect, because, for example, it puts Seattle in the Pro Bowl QB category and Baltimore in the non Pro Bowl QB camp, but it still works in proving the point.

Green Bay played 8 games against Pro Bowl QBs: Jay Cutler (2), Carson Palmer, Brett Favre (2), Tony Romo, Ben Roethelisberger, and Matt Hasselbeck.

Green Bay played 8 games against non Pro Bowl QBs: Rams QB, Detroit QB (2), Cleveland QB, Tampa QB, San Francisco QB, Baltimore QB, and Arizona QB (in a meaningless game in which Warner hardly played).

Yards per game against Pro Bowl QBs: 340 yards

Yards per game against non Pro Bowl QBs: 229 yards

Included in the non Pro Bowl QB games were a couple of masterful offensive performances by Detroit (149 yards gained in the game at Green Bay) and Cleveland (139 yards gained).

If you want to look at points per game, Green Bay gave up almost 23 ppg against Pro Bowl QBs and just under 15 ppg against non Pro Bowl QBs.

So what the hell does this prove? Jeez, Ted, you're telling me that Green Bay's defense has a harder time stopping offenses with competent quarterbacks than incompetent ones? How surprising! Time to submit this sucker to the Blog Post Hall of Fame!

No, all I am saying is that sometimes statistics like "#2 overall defense" can be misleading, especially if you are dealing with a small 16-game sample size. Was Green Bay's defense better this year under the 3-4 as compared to the horrible defense of the year before? Absolutely yes. They caused a ton of turnovers, were dominant at times, and seemed to have a clue for much of the year.

Does Green Bay's defense have a lot of work to do? Absolutely yes. The injury to Al Harris didn't help (in that it caused Jarret Bush to see the field again) but you're going to have an injury to deal with now and then. It's pretty clear that this defense is very vulnerable against the more elite quarterbacks in the league...it's just lucky that Green Bay didn't have to face more of them this year.

Anybody want to give Charles Rogers a lift?

2010-01-06T16:30:00.000-08:00

He's gonna need one in about 3 months, given his latest tale of unfulfilled NFL-caliber talent. This poor fool. Caught drinking at a Mexican restaurant in suburban Detroit, Rogers passed out and had to be hauled out by 911 emergency response. The use of alcohol of course was a violation of his probation and the substance abuse program he was in. So its off to the slammer for a few months now, with a suspended driving license to boot.

Oh ye of the porcelin collarbone, how far you hath fallen. Once the #2 overall pick in the 2003 NFL Draft, now back to being Oakland County jail inmate (he did some time earlier for drunk driving in '08). This dude had so much talent coming out of Michigan State, and I remember being so excited about getting him to be Joey's #1. Things looked real good early in his career too. He even caught 2 TDs in his first NFL game. Then the collarbone broke (twice), and things were never the same.

All I can say is, kids - drink your milk.

Congrats to The Hawk

2010-01-06T11:07:00.000-08:00

Andre Dawson makes the Hall of Fame. One of my favorite players. One of my first crappy Rawlings had Andre's signature in the palm. Great glove.

Also, be ready for 5,000 articles revolving around Bert Blyleven in the coming days. I am kind of glad he didn't make it. You shouldn't self-promote yourself for the Hall.

Random Pair of Shoes I Once Wore

2010-01-04T13:59:00.000-08:00

Holy crap. It has been a while since I posted anything on this site. So many good Wisconsin sports stories have taken place over the past few weeks (Badger Bowl wins, Badger Basketball starts out 2-0 in the Big Ten, Packers on fire heading in to Playoffs, Brewers deferring money on Wolf's contract to sign Washburn, etc.) however I have had no drive to post anything. Well, I figure I might as well get the ball rolling again with the latest installment of "Random Pair of Shoes I Once Wore". This installment brings you one of my favorite pairs of shoes ever. The Air Force 180's from 1991. Also known as the Charles Barley shoe.

These things just looked awesome. They were a little bit heavy but not as bad as the David Robinson Air Force V's I previously discussed and wore a year earlier. These were also the shoes that I wore while getting cut from the Freshman basketball team at Case. There was no need for a slow, good passing, OK shooting guard at that school. So these shoes became my inter-mural/wear to school shoes. Even though they didn't get a lot of basketball use, they were sweet shoes to wear around. Unfortunately my feet grew out of these before I could wear them out.

I still get an Eastbay catalog about twice a month. Looking at the basketball shoes thay have out now, I would still rather purchase a pair that loked like these. Seems like basketball shoe styles peaked in the early to mid 90's and have just gotten very strange and ugly since then. Doing a quick search, I noticed someone is selling a size 8 of these bad boys for $180 bucks on Ebay. Who the hell wears a size 8?

Pure Awesomness!

2009-12-30T11:10:00.000-08:00

The U Laid an Egg

2009-12-30T09:28:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure that the 2009 Champs Sports Bowl will not be featured in the next ESPN 30 for 30 on the Miami Hurricanes.

A team deserves to lose when it wears white on white uniforms. I always hate when Wisconsin goes with that combination. My wife asked why the numbers were two different colors - I had no answer other than "Nike makes shitty uniforms." She then said that Orange and Green is an even worse color combination than Green and Red. She is not a fan of the Bucks colors.

I legitimately think the "cold" weather in Orlando bothered Miami. It was 50 degrees, but they had heaters on their sideline and everyone was rocking the hand warmer pouches.

I have seen Jacory Harris play some pretty decent games, but he was awful in this one. That boy has no interest in running from the pocket, even when a first down is readily available.

By the way - nice job with the playing surface, Orlando! Guys were ripping up pelts of turf at every cut they tried to make. Penn State and LSU better hope they put in some Field Turf between now and their bowl game in a couple of days. If not, that game favors Penn State, especially if it's "cold".

Good win for Wisconsin, and the Big Ten. See if the other sorry sacks in the conference can manage to win a bowl game.

What's with the 5 layers?

2009-12-28T11:17:00.000-08:00

Just in case any one was wondering, after a weekend of TV watching and getting pounded on the head every commercial break with the new 5 Layer T-Bell creation I decided to check it out.

5 layers for only $.89 what's the catch right?

The catch is don’t assume theses guys are skimpy and order 3.

1-Bean
2-Beef
3-Chedder Cheese
4-Sour Cream
5-Nacho Cheese
rolled up and stuffed in 2 shells

in a word….. AMAZING!

So next time you are thinking outside the bun go ahead and feast on 5 layers of south of the boarder heaven for just $.89.

- Too early to report on the pass through. Just got back from lunch.

- Other catch it should be noted that the Saukville T-Bell thinks they are located in the high rent district and do to Saukville's inflation rate an $.89 burrito will cost you $1.09

Barry Needs To Open A Calendar

2009-12-16T19:31:00.001-08:00

Discussions of the Big-11 adding another team are heating up. Why? Money, of course. Well, unless you ask Barry Alvarez. He states:

"We're irrelevant for the last three weeks of the football season because we're not playing."

Three weeks is a stretch. Technically, there's only one weekend of football in between the last Big-11 conference games and the SEC/ACC/Big-12 Championship games (sponsored by Dr Pepper!). If Barry thinks this is such a problem, why doesn't the Big-11 push their schedule back? I don't get it. Here's how the schedule played out:

Saturday, November 21
-The Big-11 ends conference play, highlighted by Ohio State vs. Michigan.
- The other big boys also play conference games.

Saturday, November 28
- More conference action for the big boys including numerous rivalry games (Oklahoma-Okey St, Georgia-Georgia Tech, USC-UCLA, Florida-Florida St, etc)
- Where's the Big-11? Idle.

Thursday, December 3
- The Nation watches Oregon and Oregon St not only play the "Civil War," but play the Civil War with a Conference title on the line.

Saturday, December 5
- The ACC, Big-12, and SEC stage their conference championship games.
- The Big-11 features Fresno State-Illinois and Wisconsin-Hawaii. Yawn.

So, there you go. If ending the season too early is why "the conference is irrelevant," why the Hell doesn't the Big-11 push the final weekend of conference play to November 28th?? Or even save their showcase game (Michigan-OSU, in most years) to December 5th, or even Friday, December 4th?

Barry's right, his conference is irrelevant, but it's not because of the calendar. It's because: A) They haven't won a big time regular season game since Colt McCoy was a Freshman, B) they're 0-6 in the last six Rose Bowls with 4 blowouts, and C) The Big-11 is 0 for their last 6 BCS games, including 5 blowouts.

Sorry, Barry. If adding a 12th school is all about money, just say so. Don't insult our intelligence.

Those Glorious 9 Games

2009-12-15T07:33:00.000-08:00

"We want to thank Jeronne for his contributions to the team while he was here and wish him the best of luck in the future," coach Buzz Williams

Truer words have never been spoken. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, will forget the contributions of the great Jeronne Maymon. Here's the top 5 moments of Maymon's illustrious Marquette career:

5) Maymon scores 4 points in a tight victory over Maryland-Eastern Shores. I mean, if he didn't hit those two buckets, MU only wins by 22. Clutch.

4) Who could forget that one time Jeronne brought his school books home and actually studied? Academic probation? No chance.

3) Maymon shows efficiency against UW-Milwaukee by going 4-4 with 8 points and 4 fouls in only 13 minutes of action. Maybe he has a future in the Horizon League? Hmmmmmmm.

2) During a trip to Kopps with the fellas, Jeronne shows serious dedication by settling for a triple scoop of chocolate fudge custard instead of the usual 4 scooper.

1) Heading back to the Kohl Center, Maymon excites the hometown crowd by scoring 4 points, grabbing 5 boards, setting a bunch of nice screens, and shooting 2-6 from the charity stripe. Yes, this was the highlight of the Jeronne Maymon era at Marquette.

P.S. Please stay away from Vander Blue! Thanks.

A Michael Doleac Reference

2009-12-13T17:09:00.000-08:00

One of the thrills of watching sports over at Ted Stryker's house is the random sports facts that get bantered about. Yesterday brought us a viewing of the sloppy Wisconsin-Marquette game won by the good guys, the Heisman ceremony, Ted Stryker Jr. showing off his truck collection, "The U" on ESPN's 30 for 30, and the Bucks-Blazers game. I must say that "The U" was must see tv. It had a terrible FSU rap video, Dan LeBatard trying to look gangsta, some bad dancing, and a segment dedicated to the 2 Live Crew. Just great stuff. I would highly recommend watching this. Along with the tallboy Pabst cans I picked up for the evening, this probably would have been the highlight. However, once the Bucks-Blazers came on, we started talking about Andre Millerand the guys he has played with. I threw Michale Doleac out there. Honestly, it was a hit. Probably the only conversation in Wisconsin yesterday where Michael Doleac was mentioned. Thank you for existing Michael Doleac.

Bucks' balanced scoring no match for burlesque balancing act

2009-12-09T20:50:00.000-08:00

Flew solo tonight at the Bucks game - as nobody wanted to join Gopher Bandanna Guy at the BC this evening. Such is life. Won't be the first time I attended a live sporting event on my own, and it won't be the last. All seven of you guys I offered the other ticket to, you suck. But enough of my self-pity.

The Bucks played well in front of a very sparse crowd (I essentially had section 218 all to my self), and had a very complete game on offense, getting everybody into the mix, with 7 Bucks in double figures. Roko Ukic (pronounced 'Oooo-kich') had his coming out party, scoring 17 points in 25 minutes, and not during cleanup time either. He boldly asserted himself into the offense, at one point forcefully waving Bogut to clear out for him. Bogut later appeared to reprimand Ukic after he drew a foul in the lane, but Ukic continued to be aggressive. I like this kid. I think he and Jennings could develop into a nice point-guard duo for the Bucks for years come, since we all know Ridnour and his bloated contract will be jettisoned as soon as possible, despite some admirable contributions to the team.

But I'm not fooled by this Ukic performance either. The Raptors have no defense whatsoever (give up an average of 108 ppg). And when guards Jarret Jack, DeMar DeRozen, and Sonny Weams are on the floor no one defending them is too worried they'll go off. Not sure if Bell was just being rested, or Skiles wanted a different look, (or if he knew he could get away with playing Ukic tonight) Hopefully we'll get to see a bit more of Ukic after this performance though, so we know what we have with him.

But let's talk halftime. They trotted out the scantily clad Lilia Stepanova, who proceeded to put on an seductive burlesque-type dance, combined with a couple contortionist archery stunts thrown in. No question it was hot. Very hot. (see her performance in PHX here). Probably too hot for the kids in attendance. And it didn't help that the BC camera men caught every crotch shot possible. But hell if I cared, as my son was sound asleep in his bed 40 minutes away. Damned fine entertainment. Well done by the BC events staff.

The best part though was just as she completed her performance, and started walking off the court, Luke Ridnour comes streaking onto the court from the opposite end, and then pulls up about 5-10 feet short of her and shoots a jumper. Either he wanted to get his warm up shots in a hurry, or just wanted a closer look at Ms. Stepanova's posterior. I'm guessing the latter, since he beat the rest of his teammates onto the court by 20-30 seconds.

The Bucks then dominated in the 4th quarter, and blah, blah, blah.... just check out Lilia.

Finna Follow Brandon Jennings aka YungBuck3

2009-12-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

If you are on Twitter, you need to follow Brandon Jennings from the Bucks.

http://twitter.com/YUNGBUCK3

I don't know what the hell he's talking about at least half the time, but there is comedic gold in there every once in a while.

Some hints to increase your enjoyment:

smh = shaking my head, as in that's so stupid that all I can do is shake my head
finna = I'm going to, as in "finna go shovel my driveway again"

I don't listen to enough rap anymore to know what those tweets are all about, but I'm sure Murdock could fill you in.

Bucks finally won tonight, by the way.

A Lot of Stuff Happened Today for the Brewers

2009-12-09T19:41:00.000-08:00

So far this off-season, the Brewers have made the following changes to the 25-man roster that they ended the season with:

Add:

Go Go Gomez
Bring Your Z Game Gregg Zaun
Randy Wolf
LaTroy Hawkins
Rickie Weeks (coming off of injury)

Subtract:

JJ Hardy
Jason Kendall
Mike Cameron
Braden Looper
Felipe Lopez
Mark DeFelice (broken)

Probably Gone as Non-Tender Candidates:

Seth McClung
Jody Gerut

Do we like this team better now than where it ended last season? I'd have to say yes. Jason Kendall slugged like .300 last year. And he "managed the pitching staff" to a 5.50 ERA, so that's addition by subtraction just getting him off the roster.

2B is a huge question mark, as it has been every year that Rickie Weeks has been penciled in as the starter.

At SS, JJ couldn't have been productive at the plate if he played his home games at Helfair Field last season. Plus with apologies to Tom Brady, he's the slowest person on the planet. Escobar I'm sure will struggle some at the dish, but he's fast as hell and makes silly plays at SS. I'm good with the move here.

In CF, Cameron was a guy that I liked a lot more than most Brewers fans. But he made $10 million last year. Gomez is a plus defender who hasn't figured out how to steal first base yet, so they're probably gaining some defense while losing a lot of power. Overall probably a bit of a downgrade unless Gomez figures things out at the plate - it's hard to compare the players since they're so different.

Adding Wolf, while they overpaid, gives the Brewers a bona fide major league pitcher in the rotation behind Gallardo. I can't say I love this deal, because I think 3 years is too long, but it probably had to be done considering the backup plan in free agency was Jon Garland. Pass. Plus this will close off any Doug Davis talk - I seriously can't sit through another season of Doug Davis nibbling his way through a series of 3 and a half hour starts. Wolf has also been good against NL Central teams recently.

Finally, Hawkins got two years from Milwaukee, which is a bit of a surprise to me. His numbers look fine, and I recall he was pretty nasty when the Brewers faced him last year, but like Murdock said to me today, I can't get too worked up about a middle reliever. Coffey/Hawkins/Hoffman is potentially a pretty good 7/8/9 in the bullpen.

All in all the team is better than it was at the end of the year, if only because Wolf replaces Looper and his 97 home runs allowed from last year and someone other than Jason Kendall will be doing the catching. The Brewers still need another starter, and hopefully they're not depending on a Mulder type. What would it take to get Javy Vasquez from Atlanta? That's the guy I would target in the trade market.

Glimpses Of My Life

2009-12-09T19:11:00.000-08:00

My vacuum cleaner has been working like a turd. Just blows shit around instead of sucking it up. With it resembling Planet Hoth outside, I felt it was a good time to look at that bad boy. Flipped it over, took it apart and found the problem. It was being clogging it up by - no joke - a Bill Hall baseball card. One of those free ones they hand out at Miller Park. Yep, that sonofabitch is still giving me headaches months after leaving the Brewers. Damn you, Bill Hall!

Marquette V. UW Saturday

2009-12-09T08:15:00.001-08:00

Saturday at 4 the Hilltoppers/ Warriors/ Golden Eagles/Gold/ Golden Eagles head down I-94 to take on Bucky.

My thoughts? Depends on witch MU team shows up. Right now they are not looking good. Struggled early with fouls last night against UWM and prior to that got blown out in the second half FSU/ NCS games.

Bucky: Playing better then expected right now. That was a big win against Duke. Gives this team some much needed confidence.

In the end I think Bo and the boys grind out a win. If Buzz can get them running MU has a chance. But not in a half court game.

Jerry Rice Fumbled

2009-12-08T20:37:00.000-08:00

That was the chant directed at Steve Young during the post-game show last night. Awesome. That game was one of the most difficult defeats for me as a sports fan. It was the end of the Pakers run. Holmgren's last game. Plus it made the drive from San Diego to Vegas really suck.

The strong get stronger

2009-12-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

Granderson To Yanks, Edwin Jackson To D'Backs, Scherzer To Tigers

By Tim Dierkes [December 8, 2009 at 1:24pm CST]

As chronicled here, a three-team blockbuster trade has been agreed upon between the Yankees, Diamondbacks, and Tigers. The players:

The Yankees receive center fielder Curtis Granderson, who turns 29 in March. Granderson is owed $5.5MM in 2010, $8.25MM in '11, and $10MM in '12, with a $13MM club option/$2MM buyout for '13. That's $25.75MM guaranteed over the next three years. Melky Cabrera could now be expendable for the Yankees, and the Cubs are one possible suitor.

The Diamondbacks receive a pair of starting pitchers: Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy. Jackson, 26, is under team control for '10 and '11 and is owed an arbitration raise on this year's $2.2MM salary. Kennedy, 25 this month, missed most of the '09 season due to surgery to remove an aneurysm near his shoulder. As far as I can tell he is under team control for another six seasons. This is the second year in a row Jackson has been traded at the Winter Meetings.

The Tigers receive four players: starter Max Scherzer, relievers Daniel Schlereth and Phil Coke, and center fielder Austin Jackson. The Tigers get five years of Scherzer, six of Schlereth, five of Coke, and six of Jackson, potentially 22 years of control in total. Scherzer, 25, and Jackson, 23 in February, are probably considered the prizes of the haul.
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How did the D-Backs get Jackson? That is huge. I really don't care about the Yankees. But the Tigers picking up Scherzer is a nice pick-up well.

Too busy at work to keep up with the rumor mill, hoping the Chuckie hacks disciples could help get something going on here for my quick pop in procrastination.

So there is your task Hack-Heads. Fill-up the rumor mill in the comment section....

What Happened To The Running QBs?

2009-12-07T21:26:00.000-08:00

Watching the Packers game, I was stunned to hear Aaron Rodgers leads all QBs in rushing. Sure, he's quick and pretty athletic, but he's certainly not considered a "running quarterback."

I remember in college (1995-1999) there was this huge movement that you HAD to get a QB who could make plays with their hands and feet. "Today's defense are way too fast," was the mantra. Thus, all sorts of "duel-threats" were the "future" of the NFL. Guys like: McNair, McNabb, Culpepper, Couch, McNown, Vick, Quincy Carter, Carr, Kordell Stewart, Harrington, etc were the future of the league.

Well, what happened to those guys? Those duel-threat guys didn't do crap. Sure, McNabb and McNair had really good careers....but only after they learned how to throw from the pocket. Even today, take a look at the best QBs in football:

Manning - Basically a statue
Warner - Makes a statue look fast
Brees - Classic pocket passer
Favre - Hasn't left the pocket since about 1998
Brady - The slowest guy in the NFL. Ryan Pickett would beat him in a footrace.
Rivers - Has two left feet.
Big Ben - A Sherman Tank. Just stands there and lets guys bounce off of him
Rodgers - Decent wheels. Probably just running for his life.

Anyway...just thought it was funny how the "future" of NFL QBs were guys that had to make plays with their feet according to all the experts in 1996...Fail.

The Iron Sheik And Twitter - A Perfect Match

2009-12-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

Looking for insightful commentary on sports biggest topics? The Iron Sheik has you covered: