jaybird2001wi

So to sum up my previous post: Gary Sheffield in 1992 gave us: 1) Pitcher Ricky Bones for 4.5 years (1994 Brewers All-Star rep) 2) Jose Valentin for for 8 years (Once touted by Sal Bando as our "future" SS) 3) Matt Mieske for 5 years (His best year was 1996 when he went .278, .324, .471 with 14 home runs) 4) Bob Wickman for nearly 3 years (Our All-Star in 2000 and saved 37 games in 1999) 5) Paul Rigdon 6) Mike DeJean 7) Gerald Williams 8) Kane Davis 9) Richie Sexson 10) Marco Scutaro 11) Chad Fox 12) Mark Leiter 13) Elvis Pena 14) Mike Crudale 15) Jamie Navarro 16) John Snyder 17) Junior Spivey 18) Tomo Ohka 19) Craig Counsell 20) Lyle Overbay 21) Dave Bush 22) Gabe Gross 23) Zach Jackson 24) CC Sabathia (Jackson part of deal) 25) Josh Butler (minors) 26) Chad Moeller 27) Chris Capuano 28) Jorge de la Rosa 29) Tony Graffanino So after 17 years, we still have players on this team affected by that one deal in 1992. After I put this list together, the Sheffield trade indirectly effected the Sabathia deal. We still have players in this transaction chain and Sheffield lead to pretty much 30 current/former Brewers. Any stat heads want to combine the stats of all 29 of these players and compare them with Sheffield? Now that is what I would love to see.

March 26, 1992: Traded by the Milwaukee Brewers with Geoff Kellogg (minors) to the San Diego Padres for Ricky Bones, Jose Valentin, and Matt Mieske. Ricky Bones Tree August 29, 1996: Sent by the Milwaukee Brewers to the New York Yankees to complete an earlier deal made on August 23, 1996. The Milwaukee Brewers sent a player to be named later, Pat Listach, and Graeme Lloyd to the New York Yankees for Bob Wickman and Gerald Williams. The Milwaukee Brewers sent Ricky Bones (August 29, 1996) to the New York Yankees to complete the trade. Pat Listach returned to original teams on October 2, 1996. Bob Wickman Tree July 28, 2000: Traded by the Milwaukee Brewers with Jason Bere and Steve Woodard to the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later, Paul Rigdon, Richie Sexson, and Kane Davis. The Cleveland Indians sent Marco Scutaro (August 30, 2000) to the Milwaukee Brewers to complete the trade. Gerald Williams Tree December 11, 1997: Traded by the Milwaukee Brewers to the Atlanta Braves for Chad Fox. Richie Sexson Tree - Been discussed more times than any other. Kane Davis Tree April 4, 2001: Traded by the Milwaukee Brewers with Juan Acevedo and Jose Flores to the Colorado Rockies for Mark Leiter, Mike DeJean, and Elvis Pena. Mike DeJean Tree August 27, 2003: Traded by the Milwaukee Brewers to the St. Louis Cardinals for players to be named later. The St. Louis Cardinals sent Mike Crudale (September 10, 2003) and John Novinsky (minors) (September 10, 2003) to the Milwaukee Brewers to complete the trade. Jose Valentin Tree January 12, 2000: Traded by the Milwaukee Brewers with Cal Eldred to the Chicago White Sox for Jaime Navarro and John Snyder. So all in all, Sheffield's transaction chain has essentially almost continued up until perhaps the trade with the Diamondbacks when we received Johnny Estrada. So this trade alone tells you that it lead to a total chain reaction from the trade in 1992 all the way up until the mid 2000's

Just thought I would mention this, but this guy was just traded yesterday to San Francisco for Wisconsinite Jack Taschner and then subsequently traded to Florida for a prospect. What is more weird is that when I opened this morning's Racine Journal-Times, they ran two articles: One on Taschner's trade and then another involving Racine native Jason Jaramillo being traded to Pittsburgh in December for... you guessed it Ronny Paulino. So not only was he traded twice in 24 hours, but was also traded for two guys with ties to Racine. How weird is that? So in a span of less than 4 months Paulino was: 1. Traded from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia for then-Phillies top catching prospect, and Racine native, Jason Jaramillo (Dec. 10) 2. Traded to San Francisco for a guy with Racine ties, Jack Taschner, yesterday (March 27) 3. Traded to the Florida Marlins for a right-handed pitching prospect (today, March 28) This has to be as unique as the Rob Ducey debacle in 2000 when Ducey was traded to Toronto from Philadelphia for a Player to be Named Later, then was sent back to Philadelphia as a Player to be Named in a separate deal. There was also a guy who was traded for himself in history, I believe it involved the Indians.

Every Spring Training all of us get a glimpse of what our top prospects can do as non-roster invitees or as 40-man roster participants and we always zero in on our top prospects and what they can do for our Major League club within a year or two. This has reminded me of the so-called AAAA players that continually tear it up in AAA and we become excited to see them in Milwaukee as soon as possible, only to realize they are going to post OBPs of below .300 and barely crack a .250 batting average. That is Laynce Nix. Pretty much every team has a Laynce Nix on their team and every year these teams continually boast them as "the future" only to realize they can't cut it in the Majors, either due to less than ample playing time or they just don't have the right tools as Major Leaguers. During the 1980's when I watched the Cubs on WGN, they always had a "Gary Scott watch" in Des Moines, Iowa and basically called him the "answer at third base" after so many years of stopgaps since Ron Santo last played that position. Scott only ended up playing a handful of games between two seasons with the Cubs. I also believe they did the same with Jody Davis, now Davis was a bit more successful than Scott. Every year, we as Brewers fans, always kept an eye those one or two guys we absolutely can't wait to see. I think this year's guy is Alcides Escobar. Most recently I flipped through some old Milwaukee Brewers yearbooks from the 1980's and there were a ton of these "can't miss" guys in these programs (ie: Mike Felder, stealing 92 bases with Stockton one year; Brad Komminsk, "can't miss player" according to Hank Aaron) But what causes these guys to totally tear up AAA only to falter worse in the Majors than players "below" them in the minors? Ben Hendrickson comes to mind, I also seem to remember Kevin Barker "being our guy at first." Can anyone help me fill in the rest? C: 1B: Kevin Barker 2B: Juan Castillo SS: 3B: OF: Laynce Nix OF: Brad Komminsk OF: Mike Felder SP: Ben Hendrickson RP:

Paul Lukas, the Director of the Uniwatchblog had some nice things to say about Milwaukee in one of his more recent blog entries. I have never seen the photos he has posted in this link before, which is kind of cool. He also mentions UW-Milwaukee.

Is that Miss Elizabeth of 1980's WWE fame?

It's amazing what people do in these types of distressing situations. I seem to remember Cooper's father stating his son was a "fighter" and would not give up. Makes you all wonder what could happen when we are stuck in these situations that even the strongest of people can become vulnerable. I did read in one of the articles they found a life vest and a cooler nearby floating. The doctor who checked Schuyler's condition stated he probably would have perished within 5-10 hours due to his body temperature being 89 degrees. At the state they found Schuyler, he was so dehydrated he was semi-conscious. That makes it harder for the remainder of the victims family to hold out hope for survival of their loved ones. I would not be surprised if Schuyler began recollecting more and more as the days progress because it takes time for someone with a traumatic experience to remember all of the events leading up to the rescue. At the time someone is rescued they are in recovery mode and then once they physically recover, then they mentally begin to restore themselves.

Before this gets locked and/or I get reminded there is a Lambeau Leap forum for this subject since it involves NFL, the missing players at sea reminds me of a situation which happened almost 16 years ago to the day involving the Cleveland Indians. Steve Olin, Tim Crews did not survive a boating accident while Bobby Ojeda survived the boating accident. It happened in Spring Training, which just opened less than a month ago. In my humbling opinion, it reminds us all that no one is immune from tragedy. No matter if you wear a suit to work, a hard hat to work or a football helmet to work. This tragedy has brought diverse people together as well, a pair of NFL players who befriended one another and making friends with lesser known former college football players. It reminds us all that these NFL players likely never forgot where they came from or who there friends were. They also remind us that no matter who you are, these men enjoyed life like we did with there love of fishing, etc. Comments?

Ever since "Driving Force" came out on A&E, I have been intrigued by the NHRA. But I just don't get it. What is so exciting about a 3-second race? Sponsors pour money into allowing their logos on these Hot Rods that will only be seen for a mere 3-seconds? Plus, as a couple of you know I am intrigued by the younger Force which one of you thought was a "space cadet" but is Courtney Force in the so-called "minor leagues" of NHRA? I am still trying to figure out the classes of this racing circuit. And is John Force supposed to be the "biggest legend" in this racing juncture? Is he like the "Hank Aaron" of the NHRA? I don't get it. With some people viewing NASCAR fans as "hicks," does it make NHRA fans look stereotypically worse? What are your opinions on this league?

As a guy who used to go on a few road trips to visit baseball stadiums, basketball arenas and a former budding journalist who has covered news and sports events as far south as Springfield, Ill and as far north as Oconomowoc, Wis. and as far west as Orfordville, Wis. I have wondered if there are any cool map applications out there where I can "thumbtack" my travels on a map of the United States are just the midwest region. Does anyone know of a map program online that can do this?

During my first stint of college at UW-Whitewater, it did seem like half my professors/teachers gave me credit just for showing up and handing in the work on a timely basis and the other half were at the opposite end of this spectrum where they valued actual performance in the class. I have had a handful of grade disputes, but for the most part my professors/teachers clearly defined the expectations in the class with the syllabus so numbers did not lie to me at the end of the semester for 90 percent or more of my grades. But I did have some issues with certain teachers where they made the grade standards much higher than expected. I received a D grade for achieving a 75 percent for one class this last semester for my Art History Class because apparently the cut off point between failure and passing was 69 percent. I had that disagreement with him via e-mail that the amount of material we covered was far too much for such a small exam. We literally, and I am not lying, went through 400-500 pieces of art for an exam that had just 11 pieces we had to identify (it was a fill-in-the-blank exam where we had to identify the Name, Time Period Created, and Culture). This class was a 200-level course just one notch up from the ever-so-easy Gened Course and the Prof made it about as hard as a 400-level course. In my experience, the 100-level and 200-level courses were I showed up on a consistent basis and kept up the reading, I earned a B about 75 percent of those classes. Its the classes in the 300 to 400 level that really challenge you to do work beyond the classroom. It also varies on what you study, Business Majors have a tough curriculum. I was a Public Relations Minor and absolutely disliked and managed to get every professor in that department mad at me at least once in my entire time in school. I now regret choosing that as a minor due to the very strict standards, I recall having a PR professor who docked us a full letter grade for the given assignment just for stapling our papers in a 90 degree angle instead of a 45 degree angle. Every professor in that department also docked us a full letter grade if we did not have our paper in the pile with the others when class resumes, even if we simply need to staple our paper and hand it in, it is still a full letter grade because we did not hand it in with the others.

Apparently Oil Can Boyd believes he can make a Major League comeback at the age of 49. I wonder what will happen with the guy, probably just a mere showcase for a small market team. But doesn't he run an inner-city baseball league? Excerpt:

Vladimir Guerrero as an Indian? Jose Reyes as a Dodger? Gary Sheffield as a Long Island Duck? I have noticed some of the brewerfan.netters have made cool photoshops of players wearing Brewer hats, the most notable I have seen is Scott Rolen as a Brewer. Has anyone had any fun with photoshop by putting players in different jerseys or hats? Once upon a time back in 1998 I remember creating a primitive headshot of Kenny Lofton in a Brewer hat during my excitement he may have gone to Milwaukee but he ended up going back to Cleveland and we got Marquis Grissom. Since I don't have the actual photoshop program, I am stuck using "Paint" as a program and it is hard to trace around the images to create a perfect photoshop image. Here is one of Ken Griffey Jr that I made a few years ago: http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z317/jaybird2422/Griff.jpg The undershirt alteration was the hardest part as was the forehead underneath the hat. My tracing abilities with my mouse is tough. Anyone wanna show us their creations?

The thing about Frank Thomas is the skeptics who would accuse him of roiding up don't ever recall he was once a College Football Tight End for Auburn. The guy was always big and according to this wikipedia entry, he is known to be an advocate for drug testing: I never was much of a fan of Frank Thomas when he was with the ChiSox because he always killed the Brewers, but one of my buddies from back in the day always loved him. Ironically, my buddy grew up big fans of both Frank and Junior Griffey and he didn't like anyone else.

Manny Ramirez, Adam Dunn and Jason Varitek are still on the Free Agent market. SI.com's Tom Verducci just did a story on this a bit ago. Has there ever been a market as slow as this so late in the offseason? There is less than three weeks from pitchers and catchers reporting to their respective camps and some of these guys would have been scooped up by mid December if it were any other offseason. I know there are a lot of factors for teams not signing these guys, I noticed the bigger names are Type A or B free agents and teams do not want to lose their draft picks. But does anyone believe the MLBPA will attempt to file a collusion case against the owners because it seems like none of the teams have touched these players with a ten-foot pole this offseason? This could go down as the most bizarre offseason, with the Dodgers and Andruw Jones "mutually" agreeing to end their arrangement and teams basically bidding against themselves (Yankees) and agents artificially creating a market for their clients (Oliver Perez). Its like nothing is going on. It makes me wonder if we will picture Ramirez, Dunn, etc. waiting at home by their phones while watching ESPN's Spring Training Coverage and seeing their peers gear up for the season. Aside from all of this, it seems like the past two or three winters have been either slow moving or players have been forced to play on one-year deals. Following 2007, it was Barry Bonds not being looked at and there were whispers that all teams were colluding together to not sign Bonds. Then this winter when the only major spender is the Yankees. In prior offseasons, you would see teams overspending on guys like Ben Sheets and Ramirez going to the highest bidder. Is it really the economy? In an industry where the Commissioner has touted a flourishing revenue stream, you would think teams can sign players. But this winter is not the case. I wonder what is really going on behind closed doors.

When I returned as a student last fall, the Lechner talk was not nearly as prevalent as it was during my first stint as a student (2001-2005). I had to take this spring semester off due to family circumstances so I will return to UWW next fall for a FOURTH stint (2001-2005, Spring 2006, Fall 2008, Fall 2009-?). Anyhow, some of the newer students I talked with last semester told me he still hangs around UWW. Not entirely sure what he has been doing, but the media hype has fizzled a bit apparently.

Braun seems like a top 5 candidate for both triples and doubles. His 8 triples per season average is the most overlooked stat among his many other accomplished feats so far. Doubles Rank Player 2B 1. Robin Yount 583 2. Paul Molitor 405 3. Cecil Cooper 345 4. Geoff Jenkins 287 5. Jim Gantner 262 6. Jeff Cirillo 217 7. Don Money 215 8. Ben Oglivie 194 B.J. Surhoff 194 10. Charlie Moore 177 12. Bill Hall 165 22. Prince Fielder 104 27. Corey Hart 93 39. Jose Hernandez 72 Rickie Weeks 72 44. Ryan Braun 65 Matt Mieske 65 After the 2009 season, the Top 10 will look like this: Rank Player 2B 1. Robin Yount 583 2. Paul Molitor 405 3. Cecil Cooper 345 4. Geoff Jenkins 287 5. Jim Gantner 262 6. Jeff Cirillo 217 7. Don Money 215 8. Bill Hall 200 9. Ben Oglivie 194 B.J. Surhoff 194 Concluding 2010 season: Rank Player 2B 1. Robin Yount 583 2. Paul Molitor 405 3. Cecil Cooper 345 4. Geoff Jenkins 287 5. Jim Gantner 262 6. Bill Hall 235 7. Jeff Cirillo 217 8. Don Money 215 9. Ben Oglivie 194 B.J. Surhoff 194 Braun will not emerge in the doubles top ten until after the 2012 season as like all his statistics will make a major jump. Pending a Brewers' contract option decline on Bill Hall following the 2010 season and if they pick up the option, the after 2012 leaders will look like this: Rank Player 2B 1. Robin Yount 583 2. Paul Molitor 405 3. Cecil Cooper 345 4. Geoff Jenkins 287 5. Bill Hall 270 6. Ryan Braun 225 7. Jim Gantner 217 8. Jeff Cirillo 217 9. Don Money 215 10. B.J. Surhoff/Oglivie 194 At the conclusion of the 2014 season when I believe Braun's contract expires, correct me if I am wrong he will be in the top 4 surpassing Jenkins. Rank Player 2B 1. Robin Yount 583 2. Paul Molitor 405 3. Cecil Cooper 345 4. Ryan Braun 305 5. Geoff Jenkins 287 6. Bill Hall 270 7. Jim Gantner 217 8. Jeff Cirillo 217 9. Don Money 215 10. B.J. Surhoff/Oglivie 194

Hits - Current Top 10 Rank Player H 1. Robin Yount 3142 2. Paul Molitor 2281 3. Cecil Cooper 1815 4. Jim Gantner 1696 5. Geoff Jenkins 1221 6. Don Money 1168 7. Ben Oglivie 1144 8. B.J. Surhoff 1064 9. Charlie Moore 1029 10. Jeff Cirillo 1000 At conclusion of 2011 season: Rank Player H 1. Robin Yount 3142 2. Paul Molitor 2281 3. Cecil Cooper 1815 4. Jim Gantner 1696 5. Geoff Jenkins 1221 6. Don Money 1168 7. Ben Oglivie 1144 8. B.J. Surhoff 1064 9. Bill Hall 1042 10. Charlie Moore 1029 Following Braun's 2012 season: Rank Player H 1. Robin Yount 3142 2. Paul Molitor 2281 3. Cecil Cooper 1815 4. Jim Gantner 1696 5. Geoff Jenkins 1221 6. Don Money 1168 7. Ben Oglivie 1144 8. Ryan Braun 1104 9. B.J. Surhoff 1064 10. Bill Hall 1042 Following the 2013 season, there will be a three-place jump by Braun but he will fall just short of Jim Gantner to take his spot on the Top 10. Rank Player H 1. Robin Yount 3142 2. Paul Molitor 2281 3. Cecil Cooper 1815 4. Jim Gantner 1696 5. Ryan Braun 1300 6. Geoff Jenkins 1221 7. Don Money 1168 8. Ben Oglivie 1144 9. B.J. Surhoff 1064 10. Bill Hall 1042 Braun can be projected as completing his 2014 season with 1,692 hits... just four hits shy of fourth All-Time.

We don't really have a thread for this yet. But since some of our players are young and will no doubt creep up into the Top 10 All-Time team leaderboard, maybe we could make a "meter tracker" thread and utilize it during the season? Not sure about the percentage stats since I don't know what would be the "qualifying cut-off" for players. But according to baseball-reference.com, there are some alarming and welcoming trends to the players we currently have on the team. I will post each statistical category post-by-post to make it easier to swallow. I used the player's 162-game "average" and made projections based on these observations. Ryan Braun's home run average may increase and walk totals may increase, so it may be difficult to extrapolate this data. Also, some of Yount's team records may never be reached as he will probably be the last and only Brewer to play for 10 or more seasons in Milwaukee. Rank Player R 1. Robin Yount 1632 2. Paul Molitor 1275 3. Cecil Cooper 821 4. Jim Gantner 726 5. Geoff Jenkins 661 6. Don Money 596 7. Ben Oglivie 567 8. Greg Vaughn 528 9. Gorman Thomas 524 10. Jeff Cirillo 506 20. Bill Hall 348 25. Rickie Weeks 306 28. Prince Fielder 279 Bill Hall averages 75 runs per 162-game season Prince Fielder 88 runs per 162-game season Ryan Braun 112 runs per 162-game season After 2011 when Bill Hall (pending the club nullifying his team option for 2011) and after 2010 when Fielder's contract expires, here is what the Top 10 in runs will look like following the 2011 season: 1. Robin Yount 1632 2. Paul Molitor 1275 3. Cecil Cooper 821 4. Jim Gantner 726 5. Geoff Jenkins 661 6. Don Money 596 7. Bill Hall 573 8. Ben Oglivie 567 9. Prince Fielder 543 10. Greg Vaughn 528 Now Ryan Braun will not begin to emerge into the Top 10 until the conclusion of the 2012 season when he makes a major leap. It is my opinion that from the 2011 to 2012 season will be Braun's biggest leap in all statistical categories. Following his 2012 projected season which he will accumulate his 631st career run, the Top 10 in runs will look like this: 1. Robin Yount 1632 2. Paul Molitor 1275 3. Cecil Cooper 821 4. Jim Gantner 726 5. Geoff Jenkins 661 6. Ryan Braun 631 7. Don Money 596 8. Bill Hall 573 9. Ben Oglivie 567 10. Prince Fielder 543 Now these figures are assuming Bill Hall and Prince Fielder will be elsewhere following the expiration of their contracts. But the longer they play as a Brewer, the higher the marks they will create. JJ Hardy, Corey Hart and Rickie Weeks were not calculated into these figures because of possible rumors of them going elsewhere. But at the conclusion of the 2014 season, it will seem like Braun will "plateau" in the record books and stay in third unless he plays in Milwaukee longer. 1. Robin Yount 1632 2. Paul Molitor 1275 3. Ryan Braun 855 4. Cecil Cooper 821 5. Jim Gantner 726 6. Geoff Jenkins 661 7. Don Money 596 8. Bill Hall 573 9. Ben Oglivie 567 10. Prince Fielder 543 COMING UP NEXT.... Hits... By the way, according to the seasonal averages compiled by Braun and Hall, Hall could potentially place third All-Time in strikeouts. Also, Braun's low walk totals will not even project him to be a Top 10 candidate following the expiration of his current contract.

This thread is not a so-called "bashing" of old people, but rather an absurd look at how old people perceive even the most primitive technology that evolved into what it is today, such as computers, etc. Does anyone have any hilarious experiences with relatives old or naive enough not to understand technology most of us use on a daily basis? 1. About 12 years ago when my parents got their first computer and I was using it during a holiday get together, my Grandpa watched me type a simple word document and he asked me if I "could erase with it if I make a mistake." 2. My dad continues to tell people at work that I have a "website" but it is actually just my actual hotmail e-mail account. 3. A relative of mine turns his cell phone off when re-charging because he thinks you can't accept or call people when your phone is charging. 4. When I worked in a retail store in high school and as a sales associate I would sometimes have to work at the electronics counter. A father came in and asked me if we had the new Atari in that his son wanted for a birthday gift. I wanted to explain to him that it is not 1985, but it would have been rude. Then he finally found out the name and said, "He wants an e-box for his birthday." Someone think his son wanted an XBox? 5. I still have to explain to my parents what MySpace is all about. 6. Most recently a family friend came to me freaked out and showed me a pen that can be unscrewed to show a USB Flash Drive she received as a gift from work. She seemed scared that it was her work's attempt to spy on her. Then I tried explaining what a flash drive is an where it can be plugged into a computer and how it works. I basically explained it like this: "Picture those old floppy disks that stored information, only this can store more data." They accepted this explanation. Anyone have hilarious or absurd stories?

I would love to see Lou Brock's face as he is sitting behind Rickey Henderson during the speech. Does anyone believe Brock will start muttering, "I hate this guy?!" But Hall of Fame voters tend to vote very weird at times. Willie Mays wasn't a unanimous selection when he was inducted. There are also most of the voters who believe players are Hall of Famers, but not first-ballot, so they basically let those players sit on the ballot for a number of years (see: Ryne Sandberg). I think Andre Dawson will get in eventually, but he will probably be one of those guys who gets in on his last year of eligibility. Tim Raines will get in most likely when the ballot becomes less and less prevalent. But then again, some of the guys I saw that will appear in the 2010 ballot will be hard not to vote in. By the way this plaque is hilarious http://www.espn.go.com/photo/2008/0112/pg2_henderson2.gif

For some reason, this website is addicting to me now. I discovered Paul Lukas and his Uniwatch fantacism on ESPNs Page 2 and then went to his blog to check out what the deal was. I am not a jersey enthusiast or anything, but some of the stuff him and his readers submit are interesting. Now I feel like I need to scour up some interesting and useless uniform facts to submit to his blog. Anyone else check it out? (fixed link - I think it now takes you where intended - hawing)

I was looking at baseball-reference's all-time leaders by team and noticed the Reds have a significant amount of players on the top 10 single-season leaders from pre-modern baseball days (pre-1900) with records that may never be broken like 138 stolen bases in one season. How reliable are pre-modern stats when baseball statisticians usually utilized newspaper box scores to compile stats before we even had operable radios to listen to games (yes, radios)? Also, there is a great myth of Josh Gibson being the actual Home Run King by belting 900 home runs in the Negro Leagues, but due to the lack of newspaper coverage on Negro League Baseball during the pre-Civil Rights movement, we may never know. With all of these in mind, now I am starting to understand why media outlets only recognize the post-1900 stats. Will we ever be able to know or find out exactly how many homers Josh Gibson hit? Will we ever be able to validate the reliability of pre-modern era stats? Then again, one argument is the rules have changed since the turn of the 20th century. I believe back then, they called ground rule doubles home runs and had other situations where some offensive stats may have been bloated due to non-uniformity of rules.

As I mentioned in the initial post, he does seem like the guy who "takes his lunch pail to work..." In a sense, his attitude and upbringing does reflect the people of Milwaukee well, as indicated in his "untuckem" ritual. This untuckem ritual is based on what his father would do after work everyday. This can be reflective of what the blue-collar folks of Milwaukee do following their days of work, go on straight home, untuck their shirts and put on some relaxing clothes following a long day of work. This ritual did catch on and maybe it does parlay into a more relaxed environment following games in the clubhouse.

Since people are speculating that Mike Cameron's presence on the team helped us land Trevor Hoffman and his ability to befriend CC Sabathia quickly last year, it made me wonder if Mike Cameron really is a "social butterfly" in the grand scheme of MLB. Cameron seems like one of those guys who "goes out of his way" in the clubhouse to get along with all sorts of players. He also does not seem to be what you would call a "typical judgmental guy" you'd find in tightly knit cliques in Major League clubhouses. There have been nothing but positive reports from a diverse range of players throughout baseball, not just African-Americans, but also from Latin, Asian and White players. As much as some of us dislike his strikeouts and other statistical aspects, could just his presence outweigh these things? He does seem to have friends on all clubs since he played for the Mets, Padres, Mariners, Reds and ChiSox. Cameron also does not seem to be one of those "overly charitable" guys who insists on photo opps within the community. He just seems like the kind of guy who takes his lunch pail to work and does his thing on the field whether his play will be highlighted on ESPN or not. If he does participate in charity efforts, there have not been much reported. Does Cameron really have the pull some believe he does with his fellow players? Is he the "Kevin Bacon" of MLB?