MJLiverock

Looking at the posts claiming the marching band or military band play it the correct way just makes me think they play it the way you like. What is a correct way? It is a song and like all songs it is and should be open to the performer's ability, style, or situation. Not every military band plays it the exact same way, nor "good marching band." I've heard military bands throw an extra long drum roll at the end after land of the free but before home of the brave and others that didn't. When is the appropriate time for the wooosh of the jet overhead? What about signing the rest of the verses, the song/poem doesn't end where it is usually cut off. How does one decide which military band played it right if they play it differently? I think it comes down to personal preference and there is no "correct" way.

I missed the beginning but my wife thought it was pretty good. I thought the Destiny's Child appearance was a good touch. Definitely better than the McCartney, Tom Petty versions (and I like Tom Petty, just not as a Super Bowl halftime). I can't believe people complain about the Keyes version of the Star Spangled Banner, claiming it needs to be sung the proper way or the right way, etc. And what way is that? It's a poem that was set to drinking tune years after it was written. What in the the world is the "proper way" it is supposed to be sung. Drunk maybe? In beatnik poetry slam style? Commercial wise I was pretty disappointed again. There just weren't really many that stood out and none that I felt the need to rewind to watch again. I probably like the Taco Bell, the Hyundai kids Football, the Oreo Library, the Mercedes deal with the Devil and the GoDaddy model/geek kiss the best. The soldier one could have been up there but I found the insertion of the Jeep logo as often as they did it to be offputting. The Bud horse set to Fleetwood was OK but haven't they basically done this before?

owbc, I agree the sharing portion mutes some of it but the absolute effect is still pretty strong. The sports cost points you added are very true. I have seen the same numbers elsewhere that the sports content is around 50% of total cost of the cable bill. There is already some push back on the providers part by trying to segregate out the cost of the sports on the bill so people will be more aware of why the rates are going up. I know DirecTV has some sort of sports surcharge they are showing on some new customer's bills'. There will likely be a fight about tiering some of the sports channel off basic cable but the channel themselves will fight it very hard and customers won't like it either. ESPN has gone from $3.30/sub in 2006 to $5.01 in 2012 as they've paid up for national broadcast rights to MNF, MLB, NBA, etc. Fox is about to up the anty when they create Fox Sports One in the near future. It is expected they will shift their national stuff from FX, Fox, some RSNs and rebrand Speed Channel into this ESPN competitor. Of course they will have to bid against ESPN for sports which may drive prices up again. The top ten priced cable channels now are ESPN $5.01, TNT $1.18, Disney $0.99, NFL Network $0.95, Fox News $0.89, ESPN 2 $0.66, USA $0.62. CNN $0.57 TBS $0.56 Nickelodan $0.54. To get premium pricing there is usually some sports content or news, or kids. Just as a reference on how fragmented the baseball market must be, MLB is only at $0.22 and is actually cheaper than the Golf Channel at $0.28,NHL Network at $0.28, NBC sports $0.31, NBATV at $0.26 and Big 10 at $0.37 (national it is higher in B10 markets). One only has to look at advertiser revenue to see why the channels can charge such premiums. The ad dollars are substantially higher on these channels indicating they get a lot of viewers. It is also worth noting that advertisers like the audiences of these channels as they pay up per impression compared to say HGTV. Which again points to the power of the sports view demographic and why the carriers/channels keep paying up to get content. Finally, a few years back the trend was to predict all this cord cutting was going to happen with Hulu, Netflix, etc. and to date it hasn't really happened. The pie of pay TV subs as a percentage has stayed pretty stable, cable has been losing while satellite has been gaining until flattening in the last year or two but the telco's (Verizon ATT, etc.) have been gaining at cable's expense as well resulting in a pretty stable pay TV market. Here is a nice article on TV use. Interesting that non Pay TV or Over the air only households declined from 16% in 2003 to only 9% now. http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/07/nielsen-tv-still-king-in-media-consumption-only-16-percent-of-tv-homes-have-tablets/

My estimate of the reality for the Brewers going forward is that things will get a whole lot tougher on the financial front in the coming years. We have just been through a period where the teams on the low end of revenue spectrum had caught up a bit through revenue sharing, big time revenue clubs deals getting long in the tooth, and money from national deals kicking in but now the cycle has changed to re pricing the big markets' deals and Milwaukee is going to get left in the dust on absolute dollars. I just read a report this morning written by Goldman Sachs discussing the costs to the cable co.'s and channels/Regional sports networks for the new deals. In addition to the the trend for teams to get an ownership stake in the channel carrying their games the straight up prices are doubling or tripling in some cases. Recent Deal examples Astros went from $40 million to $80 million in 2013 with 46% equity stake in Comcast Houston Rangers went from $32 million to $80 million starting in 2015 with 10% equity in Fox Sports Southwest Angels went from $50 million to $147 million in 2013 with 25% of Fox Sports West Padres went from $16 million to $60 million in 2012 with 20% of Fox sports San Diego contract Team expires Current Channel channel owner U.S. TV Rank [list=]Baltimore Orioles 2012 MASN (Orioles 82%, Nationals 18%) n/a 27 Washington Nationals 2012 MASN (Orioles 82%, Nationals 18%) n/a 8 Los Angeles Dodgers 2013 Prime Ticket NWSA 2 Chicago Cubs (1) 2014 WGN, 70 games n/a 3 Colorado Rockies 2014 ROOT Sports DTV 17 Philadelphia Phillies 2015 Comcast Sportsnet CMCSA 4 Arizona Diamondbacks 2015 FOX Sports Arizona NWSA 13 Seattle Mariners 2015 ROOT Sports (2015 opt-out option) DTV 12 Cincinnati Reds 2016 Fox Sports Ohio NWSA 35 Tampa Bay Rays 2016 Sunsports, Fox Sports Florida NWSA 14 St. Louis Cardinals 2017 Fox Sports Midwest NWSA 21 Detroit Tigers 2018 Fox Sports Detroit NWSA 11 Chicago White Sox 2019 Comcast Sportsnet (Reinsdorf 40%) and WGN CMCSA 3 Chicago Cubs (2) 2019 Comcast Sportsnet, 80 games (Ricketts 25%) CMCSA 3 Kansas City Royals 2019 Fox Sports Kansas City NWSA 31 Pittsburgh Pirates 2019 ROOT Sports DTV 23 Milwaukee Brewers 2019 Fox Sports Wisconsin NWSA 34 Minnesota Twins 2020 Fox Sports North NWSA 15 Miami Marlins 2020 Fox Sports Florida NWSA 16 Houston Astros 2022 Comcast Sportsnet CMCSA 10 Cleveland Indians 2022 SportsTime Ohio (Fox) NWSA 18 Oakland A's 2023 Comcast Sportsnet Bay Area (2023 opt-out option) CMCSA 6 New York Mets 2026 SNY (Mets 65%, TWC 27%) TWC 1 Los Angeles Angels 2028 Fox Sports West NWSA 2 San Diego Padres 2031 Fox Sports San Diego NWSA 28 Atlanta Braves 2031 Fox Sports South, Sports South, PeachtreeTV NWSA 9 San Francisco Giants 2032 Comcast Sportsnet (Giants 33%) CMCSA 6 Texas Rangers 2034 Fox Sports Southwest NWSA 5 New York Yankess 2042 YES (Fox Sports 49%, Steinbrenner 51%) NWSA 1 Toronto Blue Jays n/a Rogers owns 100% of team and RSN n/a n/a Boston Red Sox n/a NESN (Red Sox 80%) n/a 7 We already know the Dodgers are getting a huge deal. MLB is negotiating a split of the Baltimore and D.C. TV deal and you can expect a big raise going to Washington. The Cubs have two deals coming due in the next few years as do the Cardinals and Reds prior to the Brewers getting a new deal again. The problem the Brewers have is even with doubling their take to estimates of $30 million that figure pales in comparison the increases other teams are getting with increases of $30 Million to over $100 million compared to the $15 million or so extra the Brewers are getting. The expectations are that the Phillies, Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Seattle are all set to double their deals if not more. The Phillies could be looking at $70 million more. Places like Cincinnati may not be all that different from Milwaukee in TV terms (but the Cin. TV market doesn't include Columbus at #32 and Dayton at #63 which may also be interested in the Reds) but with multiple channels expected to bid for the carriage rights the price will be driven up. The RSN is currently controlled by News Corp. but Time Warner is the largest distributor in the area and covets that channel. Time Warner also knows that 17% of their total sub base is in Ohio, in other words they want the Reds and will outbid News Corp. for the carriage. Cable Co.'s have been bidding up the prices because sports programming is a major portion of their ratings draw, people want it live or semi live, it isn't on Hulu or Netflix, and other channels cant' offer substitutes. So the TV revenue landscape is going to reset with the Brewers at around $30 Million/year while a lot of their competiton is going to be in the $60 million to $100 million per year putting the Brewers $30MM to $70 million behind every year in terms of ability to spend on payroll. The inflation rate estimated for the TV deals going forward is at 8.5% annually so when the Brewers deal resets in 2019 they could expect around $53 million. But the competition that is at $60 Million today can expect to rest at $110 to $135 in 7-10 years. That puts the Brewers $50 million to $80 Million a year behind in just the TV deals from middle of the road teams, let alone the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cubs, Angels of the world. Everytime a post about how a team like the Nationals overpaid for a reliever because of $9 million or something I think back to how $9 million is going to mean so much less to them or the Yankees or the Dodgers than the Brewers. With TV deals 3x and up the size of the Brewers that $9MM contract is like a $3MM deal to the Brewers. Over the next 5 years I bet there is an explosion in average salary as the new TV money floods in for some of these teams. Some may have already started spending it knowing what is on the horizon like the Angels, Dodgers, Nationals, Reds. But with teams like the Cubs, Astros, Padres, Rangers, Phillies, Rockies, Diaamondbacks getting big raises the Brewers competition just got a whole lot tougher for free agents or retaining players.

To answer the question about the hate the Bucks get. I don't hate the Bucks, I just don't really care about the Bucks which probably worse. The Bucks should hope and expect people like me are interested in them and be very concerned when potential fans that fall into the holy grail of stereotypes are apathetic towards them. I love sports, have high disposable income, spend lots of money on sports, watch lots of sports and yet have little to no interest in the Bucks. Why? As a kid in the 80'sI watched the Bucks and I watched the NBA. I can even remember listening to Bucks games on the radio in the car with my Dad. Even in college during the 90's I watched the NBA with Jordan even though the Bucks weren't good. Along the way my interest in the NBA in general waned. Looking back on it my opinion of the league fell as the league seemed to be more about marketing and hype and the games took on some poor aspects with terrible officiating, especially in the playoffs. The Bucks being terrible hasn't helped draw me back in. I view the Bucks as a lost franchise, hoping to compete for the last playoff spot in a league where half the teams make the playoffs isn't interesting. The team has drifted aimlessly for years, seemingly treading water and trading one group of ok players for another group of OK players every year. As a casual fan I look at the Bucks every year and laugh when the inevitable rearrange of the deck chairs on the Titanic occurs. Jennings is the first young player since Big Dog that has had any star appeal and he isn't even a star in NBA terms. I look at their roster and offseason moves and wonder are they just trying to see how many front court players than can assemble? Then the coach gets fired early in the season but the GM gets an extension? The same GM whom I read was probably on the hot seat for having no discernible plan? I realize Sen. Kohl may not be the best owner and nowadays getting any talent to come to Milwaukee or any city not named, NY, Boston, Miami, LA, Chicago, Dallas is a challenge but that again plays into why the NBA just doesn't interest me as much. The league looks to rigged to reward just a few teams. The Brewers were terrible for a long time too but I still enjoyed baseball, the Brewers as a team usually at least had a guy or two that stuck around for a few years and were fun to watch. Eventually with Taylor then Melvin (and new owners) a legitimate plan was formulated and followed, I could see that the team was getting better from the ground up. There really isn't a minor league system to get too excited about in the NBA but I don't have any idea what the plan is for the Bucks to improve beyond just being some team that isn't the worst in the league but also is no better than mediocre which is boring. My expectation for the team is to make some sort of trade at the end of the year that doesn't really improve the team but moves some guys around, flirt with the playoffs, maybe get in maybe not, lose right away if they do. Sign some mid level talent and make some draft moves that leave people wondering what is going on and go into next year with the same, "Hey we aren't worst team in the league!" motto. I'll scan a few articles about them, but won't buy a ticket, a shirt, and generally won't care if they stay or go, which isn't a good place for a sports franchise to be in. They don't seem real concerned about the apathy towards their team which isn't helping the situation and leads me to believe that if Kohl ever sells the team it won't be in Milwaukee for long.

If you get the searching for signal on some channels but not others it is usually either a transponder issue, meaning basically the positive or negative side of a feed isn't being received (not exactly the technical terms but the general idea), or the dish isn't aimed properly. As mentioned, brushing off the snow or ice if some built up and froze on the dish. Also try a red button reset, sometimes the system just needs a reboot to clear some transponder issue that may have occurred and the system just can't seem to clear it from the memory. You can check the signal strength of each transponder on each satellite in the menu and see if there is a specific problem. Even during that wicked snow storm before Christmas when I was trapped in my house for 2 days I never lost my signal for a second. Although some neighbors with charter were without cable for a couple days.

Anyone see the Hobbit in 3D? I am going to see it tomorrow evening and debating which version to see. I am intrigued by the HFR but was wondering how much is in 3D and if the 3D is done well. I thought the 3D in Avatar was done very well, but plenty of movies just have annoying 3D effects. Any opinions on this film's attempt? Don't worry about spoilers for me, I've read the book plenty of times.

Kinda of a funny article about the real conversations when managers charge out to argue with umps. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20121214&content_id=40650956&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

Driving home last night from work I noticed three different people walking alone along the side of the road on the back side of my office park in dark clothes, no reflectors, no lights. There aren't any street lights, nor sidewalks and at 5-5:30 the road is pretty busy with cars going 40+ mph through this stretch with just fields or woods along the road. Are these people trying to get killed? My car has the extremely bright headlights that get me flashed from drivers thinking my brights are on and I barely saw them walking until I was right on top of them. There was even one bicyclist in dark clothes and no reflectors, just a dim headlight that I couldn't see until I was already past him. If these people do this very often I guarantee there will be tragic story in the paper about a pedestrian being killed and some poor driver is going to get blamed and have to live with it.

As of this morning the BSU AD said Peterson hasn't informed the he is interviewing anywhere and is still in Boise. I think he is still a big longshot. I also saw Mel Tucker said he is not interested at this time.

I have been hearing that Alvarez knew Bielema was gone after the season, just didn't know where, from multiple people with connections to the program so I am not surprised he was quick with names and ideas, not to mention they all keep a short list of guys for such occasions. Peterson would be a pretty impressive get, but as others have said he has turned down offers before and may be biding his time for something bigger like Oregon, USC, Texas. I have my doubts WI would get him and even then be able to keep him for very long unless they are willing to really open up the pocketbook for he and assistants. As for Tressel I believe he has a "show cause" from the NCAA attached to him, meaning something like that the sanction Ohio State got follow him to any school that hires him for X amount of years unless the school can show cause as to why they shouldn't. I seriously doubt Barry wants to bring in a new coach that causes a bowl ban for a couple years and scholarship restrictions.

RockCoCougars, you may be right about BA but I really hope he doesn't come back for 1 season, the Rose Bowl game, fine but not a one year and name a coach in waiting thing again. For whatever reason a certain segment is to up in arms about not posting the job according to State rules, like it was an opening at the DMV counter. I just don't want to listen to that lame gripe anymore. I really hope they stay dynamic and avoid the guys like Childress, his offense was run Dayne 40+ times a game and not real imaginative, he was lucky he had a once in a lifetime back that could carry that load. At MN wasn't he viewed as kind of a joke as a coach? Not a lot of control and or good game management?

Chryst was the play caller not BB.

This morning a co worker whom I know knows a number of former Badger coaches and has some decent connections in the athletic department said he was hearing there was a bit of a falling out, mainly over assistant coaching salaries. He said he heard that BB was tire of losing people to other programs for bigger dollars and then trying to replace them on a shoestring budget. The effort of replacing the 6 guys last year and missing out on targets over money was a problem, and that the O-Line coach was sort of forced upon him by BA as an example of a guy who would come here for the money that BA liked. Since he was a BA guy and not necessarily a BB guy this is why he was let go so quickly and replace with essentially a grad assistant. Guys like Bostad were gone even if Chryst hadn't left because the money was too much elsewhere for him. This jibbed with a Tweet I saw from the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the the money being raked in by the B10 needs to spread around to the assistants who make about half what SEC counterparts do. Now I see after work today that there are quotes from Bielema that assistant pay was a problem. A Wis. State Journal article also says Bielema could have gotten a bigger bump in base pay but he wanted to be sure there was a good pool of money to pay assistants. All of this leads me to believe my friend's comments are getting close to the mark for at least some of the reasons for his leaving. As far as leaving before the bowl game, this is standard practice for any college coach, the new school wants them on campus and recruiting ASAP as do they because signing day is in late Jan./early Feb. The old school wants them gone so they can get the new coach on campus to try and hold together whatever verbals they have and salvage something of a recruiting class. This is my big fear, defections will come fast and furious leading to a bad class and then taking the new coach a couple years to get his act going unless he already has a big name or contacts so there isn't a lull in recruits which snowballs into WI being back to just another mediocre school competing with MAC schools for talent. I also saw on blogs that Arkansas offered the Boise State Coach and the TCU coach deals but were turned down so I think you can cross them off the list. Peterson at Boise is rumored to be just waiting for Chip Kelley to leave Oregon and he will head there while the TCU coach may just want to stay in Texas or has eyes on the UT job if Mack Brown gets canned soon. As for the Bevell comments I just don't see any excitement for that hire. He may have been on the staff when Favre was QB but I don't think he was coaching him. Seattle's offense now is either run or have Wilson do a sandlot scramble to make something happen and isn't exactly consistent or viewed as high powered.

It seems pretty obvious reading Manny's quote that even he acknowledges some mental issues which so many seem to vigorously deny can have effect or played a role for him. He freely admits to baggage, things gnawing at him, not letting things go, beating himself up, and trying to grow up. The whole Fielder thing was a perfect example of his needing to grow up. He wanted to pout in the clubhouse, got called out for it and in his own little hissy fit, accidently whipped Fielder in the back of the head with his towel when Fielder was walking away after giving him a talking to. That towel whip is what set Fielder off, Manny had a good shaking coming.

So after losing two coordinators in 2 years, losing much of the offensive staff with one of them, coming off a Rose Bowl team that was one of the best in WI history an 8-5 season winning the Big 10 championship game impressively with their 3rd starting QB is a down trend? They may have won a few more of those games if they just had a decent kicker or the actual need to beat PSU (which is why I still think they should have just went for 2) I seem to recall a number of stinker years much worse under Alvarez including the year after the first Rose Bowl when much of the team was back. I'm not sure how barely wins means anything, Ohio State barely beat such stalwarts as Indiana, Cal, Purdue and had no impressive wins either if WI didn't. For a downswing they sure look pretty talented and I'll take a Rose Bowl in a rebuilding year with new QB's, new offense, new O-Line, etc.

Wisconsin was hardly on the downswing. Bret has been building a very good program here, drawing more talent than has ever come through the door at WI and raising the profile of the program. Remember a coach has to appeal to 18 year olds not grumpy old men who want a cliched professor on the sidelines winning 10-0 with a plodding game plan and "good fundamentals". The team has the 2nd fewest seniors in the Big 10 behind only Indiana. The freshman class this year was very good, with a top 10 QB from CA who unfortunately got hurt, then another Freshman, Stave stepped in and looked pretty good for a freshman. A couple of Freshman O-lineman were pushing for playing time and along the D line they have some highly regarded young talent. Gordon showed a bit of why he was a highly recruited back out of High school and according to many has looked stronger and faster than even Ball in practice. Next year's class would have started out on paper as the highest rated class in WI history. The state player of the year from MN decommitted from the Gophers and was in, a DB/WR no less. A DB decommitted from FSU and was in, a top RB had his final choices down to ND and WI, guess where he picked? WI over ND not to mention offers from Ohio St., PSU, Nebraska,WVU, FSU, Rutgers, etc. A top safety out of CA who was down to Oklahoma and WI picked WI. It doesn't take long to look at the other schools recruiting the players WI was starting to get and see the step up in talent, they weren't beating out MAC schools and bottom rung B10 schools for weaker talent and hoping to "coach 'em up". They were a finalist for Jacoby Brissett year who picked Florida at the last minute and many thought he was going to WI. Players like that wouldn't even have given WI a look in the past. Even for 2014 they already had a verbal from a 4 star QB from Michigan. I always got a kick out of the complaints people had about Bielema, we scored too many points, he's too young, the job wasn't posted properly (I think some people must have the delusional idea that it would on the state job board and they might have had a chance at it or something.) The reality is WI was a football backwater for years and was just starting to move up to the next level and the wrong hire here could be devastating. WI doesn't have a deep pool of in state talent compared to Ohio, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and much of the SEC country. It is hard to lure a 18 year old from the warm climate and programs that have nicer facilities, even more rabid fanbases, longer history of success and easier academic standards in some cases. Look how many people gripped about Bielema's salary over the years, and yet it still wasn't enough to keep him around because there are some programs out there willing to pay top dollar. Arkansas is still paying out the nose for Petrino and they nearly doubled BB's salary. Arkansas has competed in the past with LSU and Alabama, prior to Saban in LSU they weren't churning out top 5 finishes, nor was Alabama, all three have good history, Bama better than the others but Arkansas is no poor step child there, if BB can recruit top talent to WI he will get even better at Arkansas. I really hope WI goes for a younger coach who can recruit, meaning both having the personality to do it, the connections, and the style of play that makes kids want to play here. In college it doesn't matter how great a X's and O's guy a coach is if he doesn't get the talent to come. Saban was always a good coach but didn't start winning championships until he was put in a situation like LSU and Alabama where the talent would go, same with Urban Meyer. I'm not sold on Darrell Bevell as a name I would be excited about. His offenses in the NFL have never seemed all that great and most of the time he has been more of a figurehead coach, in GB he wasn't coaching Favre, in MN Childress was the offensive mastermind of a rather unimpressive production. And I don't know that he has any recruiting connections.

Thanks for posting that dlk9s, I probably haven't seen that video since I was about 10, I forgot about the San Diego Chicken being a regular on the show too, for some reason I always thought he was so funny as kid.

It was still on the air in 2011, the host for the last few years was Buzz Brainard. I couldn't find any references to 2012 episodes and did find one blog that said it was cancelled after the 2011 season due to poor ratings but I don't have 100% confirmation of that. The show ran from 1977 to at least 2011. I DVR'd a few episodes to watch over the last few years, I caught one episode where they talked about the Brewers rise and their stint on Days of Our Lives, also remember a segment on Fielder getting to 50 HRs. I watched that show many Saturdays as a kid after cartoons but prior to the game of the day along with the Baseball Bunch with Johnny Bench. I still remember Ozzie Smith on the Baseball Bunch showing how he threw a tennis ball against a wall to work on his fielding so being a little league SS I immediately starting firing tennis balls against the side of the garage driving my Dad who was working out there a little nuts.

I moved once with DTV and it was free, they just asked that I leave the dish behind and bring my boxes to the new house. They even gave me a free SD DVR which worked well with the only non HD TV in my house (kids play room). There were no install charges or trip fees, they just showed up put up a new dish, I helped them run some extra cables and hooked up all the receivers. Paul, I'd call them back about the signal issue. I had them come out a couple months ago to replace a HD DVR they gave me when I upgrade to whole home DVR last year about this time. They usually ask if you have the service protection plan, I said no but because I had been a customer for a long time they waived the $49.99 fee. I don't think I've ever paid a trip charge or anything for the to come out, if I did it was severely discounted or credited back on my bill over time. The other option is sign up for the service protection plan, then call about the signal, I think the service protection plan is only a couple dollars per month and I know of people who have just signed up for the plan when a problem arose then called about the problem shortly thereafter. As for your bill being $150 a month you must have every single premium movie channel. My bill is $125/month including $11 in taxes for 4 TVs, 4 DVRs, HD Service, Whole Home DVR, HBO, and Choice Xtra for channel package (basically every channel anyone would want including all the MLB, NFL, NBA, Golf, NBC sports, all the ESPNs except classic, CBS College sports, VS, FSN North, FSN WI, Comcast Chicago, Big 10, all the Discovery, History, Science, channels, all the kids channels, all my local channels in HD via sat, plus the subchannels via antenna run through my DVRs) The on demand stuff is free other than PPV movies. The entire HBO series, documentary, shows library is available on demand for free as part of the HBO sub and also available on iPad for me as well as is the ability to watch DirecTV on my iPad anywhere I'm on wifi. YouTube content is also searchable and playable thru the box as is Pandora and a bunch of other webstuff I don't use. Basically there is not a single channel I wish I received that I don't and all are in HD plus the DVRs are extendable via external hard drives which increases recording space by 100's of hours (hence the DVR is full commercials poking fun at cable DVR boxes with absurd limits like 30 hrs of HD space which I know some Charter boxes have) while making the receivers last longer because I don't use the internal hard drives which are usually the culprit when a box doesn't work. I've been running 1 HD DVR for 5 years now. The one discount is a $5/month credit they give me for being a long time customer as well as every spring they give me Showtime free for 3 months, which we use to download a bunch of their shows to the hard drive for viewing and catching up the year in those 3 months.

Signing a bunch of project guys for cheap is fine but remember somewhere there is someone commenting on how glad they are to see so and so gone that the Brewer's will pick up. Also someone will pick up a Loe or Parra and say how they can't believe the team let a lefty with 95 MPH heat go or a big guy with sink, etc. If we can just tweak this or that he'll be a great find. Seems a lot of shuffling and hoping to fix someone else's problems or a grass is greener hot stove that always happens with bullpen guys. Someone the Brewers find will turn out decent, someone they let go will reappear as a decent player.

But in 1-3 everyone already knew how it was going to end, Anakin was going to betray the Jedi and become Darth Vader. 1-3 was really just the backstory since there really wasn't going to be some amazing plot twist or unknown bad guy to confront, the story was already too well known. There could have been some side bar story about the life of Han Solo by the time the third movie story line picked up which probably could have been pretty cool. Who was going to be the hero of 1-3 Darth Vader? Everyone already knew the Emperor was the ultimate bad guy. The good guys were the Jedi and I think he tried to make the audience sympathetic to Anakin. The genesis of the Storm troopers, Emperor being granted authority over the Republic, destruction of the Jedi, and birth of Vader were all explained.

So basically a guy whose minor league numbers mirror Loe's major league numbers vs. RH batters. Other than maybe saving a little bit of money doesn't look like much of switch unless they are just trying to clear room on the 25 man roster.

I think there is and was a segment of the population that was never going to be satisfied with what Lucas did when 1-3 where released. Too much time and nostalgia had been built up in the fans' memory banks. I'm just old enough to have gone to see Star Wars in the theatre when it was out the first time, I was only 6 or 7 then but I thought it was the coolest movie ever made, had the action figures, loved the whole trilogy. I think the memory of the movie for many was such a sense of wonder and the character's so beloved that anything new was going to have a tough time capturing that feeling again for people that have seen countless SciFi movies since and knew the originals by heart always holding that childhood memory of them. It isn't like Mark Hammill wasn't a whiny petulant Luke Skywalker or that the dialogue in all the originals was some tight Aaron Sorkin script, or the Ewoks, but nobody cared because they were kids and the effects/story were so cool and original. Now 30 years later people judge the films as an adult and compared other SciFi films that have since had cool effects and story lines. I actually don't mind episodes 2 and 3. Phantom Menace was a bit of a downer because they spent so much time on child Anakin and the whole Jar Jar character. I think Lucas thought he had to specifically target young kids with the relaunch to draw their interest in the series rather than trusting that young kids were already hooked by their parents or themselves via watching the movies despite their age. Sort of like Tolkien, a story that beloved and followed for so long was never going to live up to the expectations of some members of the fanbase. I read all the Tolkien books in grade school and many times since, and thought Peter Jackson did a fantastic job bringing them to the screen. Sure there are quibbles with some things but given the scope and scale of the books he did a good job and thankfully was given the runtime to do good job. Yet I still see blog posts and complaints about him ruining the books. I guess I don't really know what people expected the 1-3 episodes were going to be like, he followed a similar formula to the other films, but he had to use different actors and the wow factor from the effects couldn't be the same because everyone had caught up.

Gomez's wOBA at .329 puts him right in the middle of CFers with 450 plate appearances in baseball last year. Once source lists .320 as an average wOBA player and .340 as above average. Gomez looks about average offensively and is above average defensively, I'll take that production. They can keep Logan S. as the 4th guy and working him as a soft platoon with Gomez next year and re evaluate as the season plays out. I definitely don't want to jettison Gomez at this point to just hand over the starting CF to Logan S. right away leaving no back up plan for a rookie who has had injury problems.