GAME05

In the 90's he was instrumental in keeping out any salary restraint mechanisms. The ownership was fractured and he was the leader of the group of "haves" in baseball that worked very hard to make sure the system remained in the have's favor. That was not good for baseball.... the "not good for baseball" points are debatable. only if you replaced "baseball" with "the Brewers" would you be so absolutely right. i'd be curious about the ratings and general interest in a KC/Milwaukee World Series. Steinbrenner also was never responsible for the betterment of baseball as a whole--that's Selig's job. Steinbrenner's responsibility is to make the Yankees better, and he absolutely did--namely through the policies you mentioned. so of course he opposed those things. what person in his situation wouldn't?

Harvey Pekar died yesterday. people keep complaining about what he did to baseball as a whole, but he only represented one team--a team that owned the 90s and is the team to beat every year. he wasn't alone in making baseball what it is today, he only represents the extreme of what it was allowed to be. but that said, noting that his teams of the 90s were mostly home-grown talent doesn't mention that he spent considerable money to resign them all. Milwaukee would be a different team if we could just write a check to keep Fielder and Hart and CC despite the costs.

is it the biggest tree of some sort? i'm not familiar enough with trees to know what brand it is.

i don't blame Leno all to much. it's understandably hard to stand on principles when the option is unemployment or to keep doing a job you love for $50 million a year. and in the end, Conan will end up just fine--talented people always do. I'm a Conan fan, but he was fairly constrained and not nearly as funny on the Tonight Show, so his move to TBS will be better for us. Then he can work for 10 years in relative obscurity until Letterman retires and Conan takes his show to CBS.

i used to get Stubbs all the time when i was in North Carolina. but i've since become a fan of making my own--really pretty easy.

I'm sure the Bucks are pretty happy about that, too, since they can get the insurance money if he's not on the active bench. not like he was ever going to play, anyway. doesn't Diener shoot 3s? don't we still need a guy who can shoot 3s? (I ask out of ignorance) it's pretty neat how it seems like Hammonds was about the only GM around building his team as soon as FA started and not just sitting on his hands like everyone else for one of the big-name FAs to make their announcement. glad we're not scrambling for scraps like Cleveland is going to be doing now.

But that is a lot to send for 1/2 a season of Cliff Lee. ...made a little easier to bear when you'll be getting a first-rounder and a sandwich pick when the Yankees sign the Class A FA in the offseason.

i'm job-hunting in the Parks & Recreation field right now and i see baseball-coaching openings on city sites every once in a while. just google the city's webpage to get to job and volunteer openings. any area YMCA would be a great place to look, too.

would he actually accept a backup/teaching role or would he still want to be the star of the team? he'd be an ideal teacher for Jennings to show him how to drive the lane.

i like the idea of Dwight taking over. everyone else seems to have something of a normal personality, and that wouldn't work in this series--everybody tends to feed off Michael's character. without a boss doing something crazy, there wouldn't be a need/use for the Jim and Pam 'reasoning' characters. although how about Andy as the boss? maybe he'd be so wrapped up with his relationship that the inmates would run the asylum and make for some comedy.

we know not to put too much creedence into what DM tells us, so there's no reason to think that MA is giving away all his secrets, either. the best possible answer to keep fans coming to games is to say "we're keeping Fielder and Hart." why do some have to be so defeatist that Milwaukee couldn't land a good 1/2 pitcher? Milwaukee's money is as good as anyone's, and we'll have a decent amount to work with, especially considering we don't have any FAs or giant arbitration increases on offense, and our bullpen is set for next year.

i'll second Straw's comment about the immersion programs. i had a coworker take a two-week one in Mexico--she said she had fun and really learned a lot in the short time.

i watched it, too. that was the Ken Burns documentary he did some years ago. there's a lot of baseball- and brewers-related books in the "What are you Reading" thread, including one i just finished called "9 Innings" about a 1982 game between the Brewers and the Orioles.

thanks for the advice. i'll start turning in my long-distance applications just as i would local ones. in the end, this is going to be rough going. i'm already over-educated/under-experienced. plus i'm going for Parks jobs, and most all government agencies are cutting budgets.

I'd go with: 1. Which would make me the most money 2. Which would I use most 3. which would be easiest to learn. German is at least in the same language family and wouldn't be as confusing.

an additional question, then: If I kept my WI address, should there be some sort of mention of it in the concluding paragraph of the cover letter? Right now I'm adding '...i'm a distance from Austin, but i hope something can be worked out.' and i'm also using that space to say that i'm planning on relocating to Austin soon, and that if hired, i can move down there on short notice. or maybe i should just not mention anything like that at all? i have the feeling that maybe if my resume is good enough, they'll end up calling to see what's up regardless. phone interviews must be a new trend. which stinks, because i developed a very slight stutter maybe five years ago and it tends to show up over the phone.

why move Gamel to 3b when McGehee is already there? isn't that like replaceing McGehee with McGehee? why not let Gamel play 1st and then you've only got one guy learning a new position instead of two? (maybe that's slightly off-topic, though, when this is more about personnel and not positions.) that could be a pretty bad offensive lineup if you replaced Hart and Fielder with only in-house people. not that Lawrie and Gamel don't have a ton of talent, but in 2012 Gamel is only going to have maybe 500 total ABs and Lawrie will be a total rookie--hard to expect either of them to have the production and consistency you'd want from a 4 and 6 hitter. makes me think that'd be a good reason to pay Hart what he'll demand as a FA, plus then you can ease Cain in more as the 4th OF.

if you knew for a fact that the Brewers would never again make the playoffs in your lifetime, would you still root for them? considering Joe Montana was arguably the best QB to play the game yet was drafted fairly late, how many superstars in any sport have we never seen because they weren't drafted?

just finished grad school and a little vacation, and i'm broke as a joke. i'm back in WI looking for part-time work to save up enough money to eventually move out of state to look for work. in the meantime, i'm applying for jobs in Austin and Asheville and a few other cities that I like. question is, what is the best way to go about applying for a job that is a long ways away? do you put on your cover letter that you'd hope for a phone interview first and then you could come down there? or do i use a local address on my resume and pay to drive down there every time i land an interview? i've also considered using a local address, and if they call for an interview, telling them that i'm in WI visiting family and would prefer a phone interview before i head back for a face-to-face interview. just not sure how to go about this all. it's tough knowing that i'm probably going to get ignored for some interviews because the employer doesn't want to deal with someone who lives 1,000 miles away. i figure on moving to Austin once i save up about $1,500, but i'm just not there yet.

wow, that's awesome. i have shunned Leno, too. i wonder how many fans of Conan have done the same thing if that's causing the ratings drop, or even just people who disliked what NBC did. although i kinda think it's a temporary thing, that if Leno was #1 once, he will be again once people start forgetting.

isn't there insurance for the cost of rescues? and isn't that also why we pay taxes (globally)? i doubt the fishing boat had to go too much out of its way to pick her up. a friend of mine had to get helicopter-rescued off a mountain. the people said the first one was free, but if they had to do it again (he was debating going up again), they would bill him $10,000. he decided not to go up again. if this were an idiot who needed rescuing i might have more reason to say he should pay, but she had the experience and knowledge to do this, so i don't mind so much that the cost was covered. i think for the vague price of exploration and adventuring for its own sake, this was a price worth paying for.

i think Weeks is naturally an early-pitch swinger, and i'd love to see how he does in the 6 hole. i understand he's the best leadoff hitter we have now, but i think his numbers will improve if he's dropped down in the lineup. i'm a bit Weeks fan. seems really early to be deciding anything on Weeks based on Brett Lawrie.

definitely agree that it's way too early to let loose of Gamel. i we made any Fielder/Hart trade and picked up any AAA-type batter, we'd basically be trading for someone just like Gamel. what'd be the point, then? it's obviously the way of baseball, but Gamel is suffering from being the next-greatest prospect after Braun. everyone is expecting Gamel to be great right away like Braun, and we forget that guys like Molitor, Yount and Braun only come along ever 25 years or so. it'd be nice if Gamel got a good number of ABs with the Brewers to see how good he really might be instead of being so quick to let him go.

ah, so THAT'S why i recieved a bill from Blockbuster. that place is more expensive than most but i patronized them specifically because they didn't really have late fees. beyond what was said about Netflix, Hulu doesn't have a ton of movies worth watching (mostly garbage), but a few are decent.

if any are particularly interested, i read a book called "A Voyage for Mademen" that's about this very thing--sailing around the world. the first time it was done it was turned into a race. it's actually a somewhat recent thing; the first time someone did it was around 1965. the book also details the particular dangers people face while doing this sort of thing. having weather satellites certainly adds to the safety of the whole thing, but it's still very dangerous going around the horns of South America and Africa and just hitting general storms and waves. one person in the book didn't like to wear his safety harness when he was on deck because he felt it was too restricting. so granted, i don't sail and my knowledge comes from this book, but i do think that it's still pretty dangerous to sail around the world. despite not making it, i think this is still something she can be very proud of. making it i think matters a lot less than just going for it in the first place. i lean toward not letting my hypothetical 16 y/o daughter sail around the world, despite her experience. i'd prefer for her to wait until 18, but then i wonder about sponsorships, if she would have even been able to raise the money to do this if she were 18 and not 16 and trying to be the youngest person to do this. was someone really worried about her missing school? really? i can assure you with some degree of personal experience that she has gained a great deal of wisdom, maturity and introspection that she wouldn't have built in the same amount of time attending school. what i've gained from my own adventuring no time in school has ever replicated.