Electric Elf

It's really not worth it. I (foolishly) drove all the way from Minneapolis for it last year, expecting it to be a lot like TwinsFest. It wasn't. One of the things I enjoy about TwinsFest is that there are lots of things for adults to do that aren't getting autographs. When the Twins still played in the Dome they gave clubhouse tours (which, yeah, not expecting that in Milwaukee as the event's offsite) but they also had KSTP doing their radio show live for all 3 days and plenty of seating where you could sit and listen to the show. There were also kid Q&As. There was also a schedule for pictures with players, and pictures were free. I wasn't that interested in autographs but knew that there were picture opportunities at On Deck so I didn't bring any cards/baseballs to be signed. This was a mistake as they didn't publish a player schedule. I wanted pictures with specific players, not just any players (and, no, I wasn't looking for superstars; just Narveson and Bush) but of course without a schedule I didn't bother. I got their autographs instead which wasn't really the same thing. The Q&A and "game shows" looked interesting but it was hard to hear them standing in the back. My mother can't stand for long periods of time so she really didn't enjoy it at all. Sadly we missed out on TwinsFest tickets this year due to the venue change...doesn't mean that we're going to On Deck. (PS there are quite a few people on the MN/WI border who are fans of both teams. Having TwinsFest and On Deck consistently on the same weekend is less than amusing. Also, they have a 3-day event, the Brewers only have the 1...)

Ha, and after reading the Fingers interview...yeah, Zavada isn't looking that much like him yet. When Daniel Schlereth was up with the D-Backs last week, and Zavada pitched right after he did in an exhibition of awful, the only thing I could think of when seeing those two was "if they go out together after the game, what are the chances photos of them are going to show up on hipster-mocking websites?"

Mariano Rivera just has that one pitch now too, and although his skills have dropped a bit with age, he's still making batters flail.

Ugh. I hope that his son (and whatever money he's made from working for the Brewers) doesn't get taken up in all this.

I can't really blame the loss on McClung. There was that pointless intentional walk, and Hardy was not having an on night with his fielding. *sigh*

McClung doesn't do official photographs well. Always looks like "bad day at the DMV." Anyway, when did he start throwing a slider?

Yeah, they're showing the Angels in Minnesota too. Who's broadcasting for the Dodgers? Vin Scully? He's getting a bit Ueckerish, unfortunately, but I think he's seen Braun play LF before....

Gaaaaack, van den Hurk can't pitch. Wish he could have turned it on now so he'd be all nice and awful by the time the Brewers had to play the Fish during the regular season... http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/wink.gif

Twin Cities Comcast users: MLB is on channel 272, which makes it look like it's in the sports tier, but it's available to anyone subscribed to Digital Classic. If you live in the Cities and can't get it even though you have Classic, call Comcast...this shouldn't be working that way.

Joy Division and New Order, despite being essentially the same group, really don't sound that much alike. (Compare the Joy Division and New Order recordings of "Ceremony"--and those were made one year apart!) Part of that is, well, Curtis and Sumner having completely different voices, but New Order did change direction very quickly.

I watch lots of non-Brewers games during the regular season, but I just wasn't feeling it this year for the playoffs. I only watched them intermittently, mostly because I liked whoever was pitching for whatever team. The only WS games I watched were the Moyer start (because I like Jamie Moyer) and Game 4, because I wanted to see the Battle of the League-Average Starters (I was not expecting Sonnanstine to give an exhibition of Epic Fail, so I stopped watching.)

McClung is pitching like Daisuke Matsuzaka. This is a good thing, sort of. Dice-K walks the ballpark, but never seems to give up any runs or very many hits. The drawback is that he runs up a pitch count over 100 in less than six innings. Oooh, we can has runs nao?

I'm done with watching and listening to the games. I'll read the box score and old threads here but I can't pay attention to the games when they're going on because I'll know they'll end in fail. I'm on the Rays bandwagon...sort of...they have former Brewers who don't suck. Go Gross and Balfour!

I've been a Brewers fan for a long time, but I don't live in the area--the last time I actually attended a game in Milwaukee was at County Stadium. I was at Miller Park last weekend, and the environment there was discouraging enough for a fan. Most people really don't seem to be there for the game, it's all about the social scene, and they're expecting perfect baseball 100% of the time. I can't imagine what it would be like being one of the players. I'm seeing so much fannish entitlement going on in Brewers fandom these days that it makes me sick, and the booing is a lot of that.

The way acquiring a starting pitcher should be looked at is if that pitcher is a good replacement for the potential #5 starter in the rotation (whoever you think that is) rather than as the direct replacement for Sabathia or Sheets. At this point, it's probably going to be a mad spring training scramble for the 4 and 5 spots between Bush, McClung, Villanueva, and a couple of the AAA randoms (probably DiFelice, at least, I'd hope) unless another FA is brought in.