hawing

I was told my my ticket rep last week that season ticket holders would still get a presale opportunity, and information on that would be sent out early this week. Good enough for me! I guess we'll see that information soon if it's being sent out this week.

Brewers.com announcement Starting January 25, fans can register online for the opportunity to buy up to four tickets to the April 4 home opener, as well as up to eight tickets for each of the other 15 marquee games at Miller Park in 2011. The lottery ends February 15, and winners will be notified by February 21. The press release does state the following: I don't know if that means the presale opportunity for season ticket holders is a thing of the past. I'll try to remember to check our 2011 season ticket mailing (the one from last fall) at home to see if it indicates the same. The starting date for single-game ticket sales (apart from the lottery) has not yet been announced, but the link above says "late February." I know a bunch of you are understandably in the kung fu grip of Packers fever, but I'm happy that yet another off-season benchmark is approaching.

I would have jeered Brett Valentyn extra (which is easy to do from the sofa) had he missed both 10th-assist attempts from Gasser, thinly disguised as three-point attempts. That whole game smacked of "let's get this done and on to football."

In the life of the brewerfan.net forum, Game 162 in 2008 would surely be the winner to date. This linked thread is one of my all time favorites on this site. 1982 was my first year following the Brewers, and for some reason I don't remember being nervous before the games. Of course, I also remember watching footage of the 1982 post-Series parade with 100% confidence that the Brewers would win in 1983. (The naivete of youth - catch it!) For me, it was 9/28/2008 as well, and I'd been semi-dreading it for months in advance, pretty much since the 2008 schedule was released and it was apparent that the last home game opponent would be the Cubs. Before that one swing in the bottom of the 8th, I didn't enjoy the game a whole lot.

TLB, run your DVR and take a photo of the TV. I didn't see the telecast because I was at the game, but I'll give it a try if I can see the shot. Another crowd observation from WI/IU: there were a bunch of IU fans about two rows ahead of us. We share "red sweater crowd" seats with a retired prof, and in 12 years of sitting there we've never had visiting fans in our section. It made me wonder if attendance is waning even outside the student sections.

NYCE Stadium Club passes were one of the perk options for partial season ticket holders who renewed for 2011 by a certain date in November, and are probably one of the perks for full season ticket holders. I would not expect the passes to be available already, but maybe the party/parties offering them on eBay intend to supply them once season tickets are mailed in March. madgrad is partly correct: The NYCE Stadium Club is what was originally the .300 Club, then the Metavante Club. You enter and then order food/drink. brewers.com link The Gehl Club is still called the Gehl Club and is near the NYCE Stadium Club, but separate from it. A Gehl Club ticket includes access to a buffet. brewers.com link jjkoestler is correct: NYCE Stadium Club passes do not get you into Miller Park. Theoretically I suppose you could buy a Uecker seat or other cheap ticket and then use the passes to enjoy at least part of the game you attend from the NYCE Stadium Club. You do not have to have a club level game ticket to be able to use a NYCE Stadium Club pass.

After returning home from the Wisconsin/Indiana game tonight, I am trying to figure out why looking at Tom Crean bugs me so much. http://blackchristiannews.com/news/tomcrean.jpg He's done something with his hair that I think is intended to make him look more intellectual, but he still just looks like a type A++++++ coach. Bleah. Once again, the students didn't fill up much more of their section than the first level. I wonder how much the football success this fall/winter has distracted the campus as a whole. I'm at best a casual follower of NCAA football, but even I was taken by the Badgers between that OSU game and the Rose Bowl. Tonight - until the Badgers finally took the lead back midway through the second half - the students seemed to be thinking more about the Packers/Bears than the game in front of them.

As the world champion of sending it, it's your job to educate the masses.

I read your post on a mobile device at the Kohl Center tonight and laughed out loud. Fortunately the people around us were too busy yelling about the game to notice.

It looks like the Brewers have been identifying the daily winner on Facebook first - which of course doesn't mean you have to start using it. There's a degree of healthiness to not using Facebook, I'd say.

I believe Bikeage77 would be the world champion of sending it.

The brewers.com On Deck event page now includes an autograph schedule. (Apologies if this isn't news to those of you who will be seeking autographs; the Brewers' Facebook page talked it up today as if it were new information.) I'll let you guys who are more into autographs comment, but I'm a bit surprised that Jonathan Lucroy's autograph will be free.

The Brewers have been posting daily updates on their Facebook page, so if you are (or choose to be) a Facebook user, you could "like" the Brewers page and see the updates as well. The John and Cait...Plus Nine blog at brewers.com had a post this week showing the Klements "sausage for a year" presentation at the winner's business. The winners to date are also listed on the Fan-tastic Forty page at brewers.com. The January 19 winner is Milport Enterprises, Inc.

All three winners to date look to be business seatholders. I won't begrudge them their good fortune and I'm glad they support the Brewers, but I hope there are eventually some 20-pack winners as well.

I'll bump this to report that the prize drawings began yesterday (Monday 1/17) and the Brewers appear to be displaying the name of each day's winner on electronic billboards. Like today's winner (photo is from the Brewers' Facebook page): http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/hs021.snc6/165160_10150089684430003_45083850002_6365478_6981033_n.jpg So, unless one of you is Derrick Iseler - and you don't have to say if you are - we've dodged the bullet of being photographed for a game ticket.

Is the Witrado departure confirmed?? Enough so I can post this? I'd also be way on board with Jim Breen taking over.? Edit: Though after the reception he got from the "mainstream media" when he broke the Greinke news, I could imagine his not wanting the job.

I think you mean sucking lefthanded. Lesson we should all learn. Thanks for the reminder to keep reminding my left-handed nephew of this. Here's hoping that Prince feels settled enough for 2011 to have a ginormous monster year. Heck, Manny too.

The ITT-Tech commercials that show guys talking about their successful lives - how they can support their families, play ball with the kids, pull into Mom's driveway on a motorcycle and give Mom a present...but they never explain what they do with their ITT Tech degree. You never see anyone working at their degree-fueled job. Also bugging me: FSWisconsin's relentless need to show Yo's 2008 ACL injury at the drop of a hat.

Madison's West Towne Mall has no shortage of Greinke shirseys and jerseys. The only other names I saw on Brewers gear there were Fielder and Braun.

In a competition for Christmas carol trivia, I would be world champion. I already rock the Christmas carol super quizzes every December.

They haven't done the Winter Caravan since Attanasio bought the team. IIRC, he put the kibosh on it because he wasn't comfortable with his players driving all over Wisconsin roads in the middle of winter. It's really disappointing, because I used to go every year, those were so much fun. I remember one year we got there early and we were waiting in the lobby while they were setting up the banquet hall. The place was empty, there was no one there yet. Ray King walked in, saw my Brewer jacket, and came up and said hi. You just don't get that with the On Deck event.Madison's Dug-Out Club, which used to sponsor/host the Madison stop on the winter caravan, still has an annual baseball banquet, which Doug Melvin has attended in recent years. Apparently, the 2011 banquet is this Monday, and Craig Counsell will be honored as a "Favorite Son" (though it doesn't actually state he will be in attendance). It's pricey to attend ($50 per head or $450 for a table of ten), yet I believe it has a history of selling out. Weird that I didn't see this in the State Journal, since it apparently ran on 12/10/2010 and I typically notice anything Brewers-related in the paper since their mentions in Madison have become so rare. Sorry for the tangent. Back to On Deck: I wouldn't say it's not good enough for the hawing party, just not a good match. I'd probably feel differently if we had kids, if we lived closer to Milwaukee, or if it wasn't $15-$20 per head. Unless the weather is top notch on the 30th and we are suddenly struck by the urge to get out of town, we'll probably save our money for 2011 concessions. It sounds like part of the appeal of the Brewer events of yore was the relative spontaneity - the chance to shoot the breeze with Jim Powell (which would be uber awesome) or have Ray King walk up and say hi. Unfortunately, as MLB becomes increasingly big-business, I don't know how you retain that quality. A subset of the autograph-seeking audience may have contributed to the business vibe, but that should probably be another topic for another time.

I think there's overlap between the "autograph seeking" audience and the "true fan" audience. However, molitor fan's post above helps me solidify the question that I've had since the On Deck event moved from MP to downtown and became pricey: I don't share the excitement for autographs that many of you here possess; so is the event worth my while? Since it moved away from the park, we have been reluctant to buy tickets in advance, because if it's snowing or icy between Madison and Milwaukee on the 30th, we're out $30, and if it comes down to it, I'd rather spend $40 on a sure thing. But I wonder what about the event makes it worth $40 (plus parking). I'd have to score a lot of rummage sale/vendor deals to make up for that. (For those of you who have cased out the rummage sale in recent years, how does it compare to the December clubhouse sale?) So far, since it ceased to be a ballpark event, we've bypassed it, despite being die-hard fans who aren't shy about spending on the Brewers. That doesn't mean it's a failed event; just not aimed at the hawing household.

JonLuc, on whether fan enthusiasm is justified: You know what? I'll tell you one thing right now. We, as players, are gonna come to the field to play, and we're gonna come to the field to win. I can guarantee you that, right now. We're gonna come to the field every day to win. We'll do whatever it takes to win, and we're gonna come, we're gonna work hard, and we're all gonna get better, and do what we can to win. I know that, OK? Good thing I listened to this at home, because squealing out loud in the library is bad form. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/ohwell.gif Can't we fast forward to April?

I just requested one of two library copies in the UW System, so sometime next week I should have a chance to read it.

The Dyson Airblade kind of freaks me out. The air speed is so powerful that it moves the skin on my hands around and makes me feel like I have skeleton hands.