bani1717

I thought it was pathetic that they built a stadium with fewer seats. The Brewers did the exact same thing. Yes, it's a completely different situation and it's not like they were filling County Stadium as the Yankees were filling the last Yankee Stadium, but I'm just sayin'. If the Yankees' smaller ballpark leads to higher ticket revenue that they can use to overpay players and not win a World Series, more power to them.

I only actually live in Madison during the school year, but Lucky's (right by Camp Randall Stadium) might be a decent option. They have a small parking lot (just a few spots), but there is also lots of free street parking available within a block or two for those that aren't going to drink too much to drive. There is also a bus stop within half a block for people who want to go that route. From my experience, Lucky's also has pretty good food (although I am slightly biased since Lucky's is very close to my house). Lucky's is mostly a college bar, but I don't see it being overly loud on a weeknight during the summer. Once I was there on a Thursday night during the school year between 8 and 9:30, and it wasn't crowded at all - because college kids usually don't go out until 9 or later. So even on a weekend, the game would probably be just about done by the time the handful of college students in Madison for the summer hit the bars. Finally, and most importantly, you can bet that Lucky's will surely have the Brewer game on multiple TVs.

Only full season ticket holders and 20-packs that didn't include opening day. My brother didn't have the chance for extra opening day tix with his FC 20-pack.

Would it even affect the left fielder? Does that little "sun spot" from those windows ever even make it to the outfield (other than for games like today's 3:05 start)? The left fielder won't have an issue unless we have a long game late in the season, where that light spot makes it all the way out to left field. The sun coming through the windows could, theoretically, affect the batter though, since for a time he will be in sunlight and the pitcher in the shadow. And if the game does go long enough, the batter will reach shade again while the pitcher is still in sunlight. In any case, the major issue with the shadows is clearly when the roof is open. Idk if/how much players (as opposed to visitng announcers) complain about the shadows, but if they are complaining they just need to get over it and play ball. Every park has its weird quirks (look at the flagpole/hill in the outfield in Houston, the Green Monster and then the very short RF fence in Boston, etc.) Miller Park just happens to have shadows that move across the field for day games. Big deal.

I was there and fell asleep for pretty much the whole second movie while my girldfirend just stayed awake and saw all of Major League. I didn't have the sound issues, since I was listening to both in my car and everything seemed normal - we even had to turn it down at one point. Of course that did cause my battery to go dead though (although they were obviously prepared, as I let one of the parking security guys know and he radioed someone who showed up with a battery jumper within about 2 minutes). Other than the fact that I fell asleep for the movie I wanted to see more, it was fun.

What were the block parties like last year? I was at the one right near Miller Park in 2007 when Braun was there, and the line was long early, but it wasn't total chaos or anything. The tables were all set up early and they all had sheets of paper on them to say who was signing where. I just got there plenty early, got in the Braun line right away, and waited... Did they do things differently last year?

Yes he did.

Wow, what a dumb move by Coghlan.... Happy Youngster should be at this game because of the tickets he got from his negotiations with the Marlins, so maybe Coghlan looked up in the stands and saw him among the 7 people there and got rattled.....

Yeah - I would get there closer to 8 or 8:30, or you might get shut out. As was mentioned, people do always save spots for friends and stuff, so you want to make sure you are no more than 50 back or so when you get there. There are 106 total Uecker Seats sold, one per person, at Window 12. Another thing to keep in mind is that the Brewers sell tickets in loge bleacher section 238 on gameday too. They go on sale the same time as the Uecker seats for $10 each (half of the normal bleacher price). I'm not sure what ticket window that is (might be 11?) and I don't know if they still limit that to one per person or not. But the Uecker line will be mostly people who already have tickets and want an extra bobble, whereas the bleacher section will probably be mostly people who actually want tickets to see the game. Plus, there are more of these than Uecker seats - something like 186 I believe. Otherwise, if for whatever reason neither of those options works, SRO is $17 each or you could try to buy from scalpers (although they will likely be selling terrace tix for no lower than $25-$30 each until gametime gets close).

The way I understood the retesting of past samples is that you could retest for drugs that were banned at the time the samples were taken but that just weren't detectable at the time. You're not retesting for additional substances - only for illegal substances that could not be detected based on the technology at the time. Maybe I am misunderstanding it though.

I thought the exact same thing when they played Free Falling - and ironically, the first time I remember hearing it last year was during that horrid 1-6 homestand at the end of July. It was after one of the Houston losses I believe.

A couple filler songs that I'd like to add: Swinging Strikeout: "Sugar We're Goin Down" by Fallout Boy After a Loss (Yes, it's kind of sad): "Wonderwall" by Oasis Before a starter comes back out for the 9th to finish off a complete game: "My Hero" by Foo Fighters (aka Sabathia's second song from last season) Trailing heading into 9th inning: "I Like To Move It" by Crazy Frog; Shrek version of "I'm a Believer" by Smashmouth

Just wanted to say that I got mine in the mail as promised today, carefully packaged and in great condition. Thanks brewcrew!

I said that umpires can factor into games - they just aren't the only influence on games. The original statement that "The umpire controlled the destiny of that game" makes it sound as though the umpire and only the umpire controlled the destiny of the game. Maybe I'm just reading into it too much though. I just think that to blame an umpire for a loss is completely foolish - the players are far more to blame than an umpire. I can name about 30 players and coaches whom I can blame the loss on too. Basically, I guess I feel it is more of a "team" thing - to blame a loss on any one person (a manager, a player, or an umpire) isn't totally accurate IMHO. And I do believe that umpires should be held accountable for their mistakes. However, there never has been a game called completely perfectly, nor will there ever be. Plain and simple. Umpires make mistakes like everyone else. To expect a perfect game out of an umpire is unreasonable, just as it is unreasonable to expect a player to be perfect and mistake-free. I believe that umpires, like players, need to work to get better at what they do. Also, I agree with you TooLiveBrew - I have no problem with the end call, I just didn't like the way in which it was reversed.

Yeah, but at the same time, the teams know the rules and it's not the umpire's job to check everything over for the coaches.... Let's put it this way: I see your point that the umpire could use common sense, but I don't have a problem with a team getting punished for mistakes like that.

So if the last guy off the bench on a team gets caught, that team should forfeit 10 wins? Yeah, drug use is a serious issue that I in no way condone, but that kind of a penalty, to me, destroys the integrity of the game just like drug use does in the first place. The one thing I do like about that is that the player, the owner, and the player's teammates and coaches all have a stake in not having anyone on the team use PEDs. However, even if everyone in the world encourages a guy to not use drugs (except of course the supplier), a player will still use drugs if he feels he has nothing or very little to lose and much to gain. There isn't a really easy and fair way to punish others besides the user. Personally, I think that regardless of the rules, guys that want to use PEDs will find a way to do that with a good chance of not ever getting caught. Like TooLiveBrew said, the only language these guys understand is money, so I think the best way to lessen drugs is to make it so that the expected costs of using drugs (ie fines/lost salary) far outweigh the expected benefits (salary increases). As far as testing players' old samples for drugs that are only recently detectable, the only real effect it has is to tell people that MLB is serious about the issue. But I think you undoubtedly have to worry about laying down the rules for the future before you worry about testing old samplesa again.

This is exactly why I don't even bother voting. I used to fill out random ballots at games when they were available, but now I've stopped doing that because my vote means nothing compared to people who vote for their favorite players hundreds or thousands of times. And nothing against you personally at all, because it's fans like you that help get Brewers into the all star game. I just don't want to spend tons of time to vote for guys just to make my vote actually mean anything at all. That said, last year I did vote for Hart a couple hundred times in the final vote because the text message voting was way too convenient to pass up. Other than that, I don't vote for all stars.

My theory is that you can only say the umpire controlled the destiny if your team plays a perfect, mistake-free game and gets screwed on a bad call. Seeing as that will never happen, an umpire's call(s) may factor into a game but will surely not be the only thing that affects a game. Also, using the argument "Would that grand slam have occurred had the umpire not gave Joe Mauer 1st base as a pity gift?", I could say that the reversed call wouldn't have occurred if Stetter had controlled his pitch better and not let it get close to Mauer. It's just not a good argument, because you can keep going back to every single play in the whole game and say, "If that would (or wouldn't) have happened, then the whole outcome would have been different." The fact of the matter is that you have to play the hand you're dealt, and whether the call ended up being right or wrong and whether it should have been changed or not, we got completely outplayed for the rest of that game and for the rest of the weekend. Having said all that, there is no way I thought the umpire should have changed his call in that situation. What I think happened is that he doubted his original call right from the start. However, you can't just change your mind on the field for no apparent reason at all, so he let things play out. Then, when Gardenhire showed him the bruise, he decided he had enough evidence and a good enough reason to overturn the call that he doubted in the first place. I know he doubted it in the first place because if he didn't, he would not have changed the call. (And I'm not saying that it's bad that the ump doubted his call, because it was a tough angle. I'm saying it's bad that he let everyone see that he doubted his call.)

4 @ FLA (3-1) 3 @ ATL (1-2) 3 vs COL (3-0) 3 vs CWS (1-2) 3 @ CLE (1-2) 3 @ DET (1-2) 3 vs MIN (1-2) 3 vs SF (3-0) 3 vs NYM (1-2) 15-13. 14 HR.

Just thought I'd update this thread.... They redid the fences yet again, although the tarp still remains where it was. The fences you used to be able to jump have been lowered to the point that they are still jumpable again. Whether you will get into trouble for jumping it when a player says he'll sign I couldn't tell you, as I didn't try it today. Additionally, the fence where you used to be able to attempt "drop-downs" has been raised and covered with the black tarp. Also, it actually seems like they extended that little garden (in between the lot and the fence you can now jump again) so that it goes down farther to the south (or maybe I was just imagining that). In any case, I had absolutely horrible luck a couple weeks ago when I went before a weeknight game - I got only Riske, Brad Fischer, and Bill Schroeder. But today after the game, despite the fact that there were literally easily over 100 people there basically lining the entire fence for a while, I managed to get 3 auto's - McClung, Coffey, and Counsell. It's not the greatest, but I thought it was somewhat decent (relatively speaking) considering there were a ton of people there.

Looked to me on the replays as though the ball did hit his hand. That said, even if it did, if I'm Macha then I am pissed about the changed call. Just because they come out and show you a bruise doesn't mean that bruise wasn't there before. (Judging by the way he reacted, it seemed to me as though it was clear the bruise did just occur, but seeing as I have never played baseball since like first grade t-ball, I'm not sure whether it may hurt if the ball does just hit the knob of the bat right below your hand.) On another note, I don't know which announcer it was, but one of them said that if he was a Brewers player he would ask Macha after the game why he didn't get tossed for the team. That, to me, seems like a dumb comment, because if the players expect the manager to get tossed and know situations in which he should, then the idea of getting tossed to fire up your team is kind of pointless, isn't it?

Well, it is a quick and easy way to divide the population in a way that probably fairly accurately describes the population's tendencies. Maybe it's not exact (ie, in any one market, maybe 60% are fans of one team and 40% are fans of another), but unless you polled everyone who lived in that area, you wouldn't know for sure what the percentages are. Also, the study is meant to show revenue generated per person in that market (whether any one person is actually a true "fan" of that team is irrelevant to the study - if everyone in each market were "true fans", then the average revenue numbers per fan would be much, much higher). So, theoretically, in cities with 2 teams, each team has a "market" of about half the city's population. Basically, the study shows how much a team capitalizes on its POTENTIAL fan base (all fans in that market), and in 2-team cities, the potential fan base is essentially half the population. I think the study has a fair measurement, I just think that the claim about Attanasio not having to complain about payroll/salary issues is a bad point. If anything, the fact that the Brewers capitalize on people in the Milwaukee market so well and STILL couldn't afford to match the Yankees' offer to CC says that we need a salary cap even more.

Didn't it say that they divided the populations for those greater metro areas in half to account for that fact?

yeah tell me about it... how about showing those clips during times when the game isn't in progress? EDIT: I guess maybe I shouldn't be complaining, because at least I got to watch that clip of Rock in HD....

I think that's kind of the consensus among a lot of people - at least that's how I feel. Hardly anyone minds the Cubs fan who wears his jersey to Miller Park and actually wants to enjoy the game. People get upset when Cubs fans (or even other Brewers fans) become loud obnoxious. I would obviously rather see only 5% Cubs fans as opposed to 20-40%ish depending on the game, but it's not like I am gonna get pissed at those Cubs fans who are there just watching the game (and I really can't, considering the fact that I plan on going to 4 games in Chicago over 4th of July weekend). As for the talking on the cell phone thing, I think some people (not necessarily you, BrewCrewRising) get too worked up over little things. One game I was at (with tickets right behind home plate, in about the 8th row) the people behind me were complaing about the guy next to them who was apparently on his cell phone. Now, this game was a while ago, but I don't recall hearing him really talking in anything louder than a normal voice. And, he was behind me, but I don't believe he was standing up to try to get his friends to see him or anything like that either. Therefore, my brother, for the sole reason of ticking the people behind us off, called his friend. He wasn't shouting into this phone, being obnoxious, or standing up - just simply sitting in his seat and talking on the phone. As I glanced out of the corner of my eye, the people behind me gave each other looks like "what is going on here?" Basically, I thought they were getting irritated just because the guy wasn't watching the game, even though he (from my perspective) didn't seem to be bothering them, or anyone else, at all. I think some people out there need to lighten up about some things. That said, there are those who stand up to take a picture or whatever and then just stand there and block other people's views of the game. There were a couple people like this at the last game I was at. The fans behind one group of people literally had to ask this one guy multiple times to sit down (the last time, they literally had to yell at him...). Of course, when everyone stood up for Trevor Hoffman's intro, the guy started talking crap back to them. (And of course, this guy and his group remained seated for the last out of the 9th inning, when absolutely everyone was standing, simply solidifying the fact that the people who are annoying and get in your way of enjoying the game don't care much about the game.) At the same game, there was another guy who took a pic of Hoffman during his first pitch, but then he remained standing after my dad and the people in front of us asked him to sit down. He clearly was doing this for the sole purpose of being a jerk about it - and he made a comment too when everyone stood up for the last out. To sum all this up and bring it back to the point of the thread, I don't really have a problem with drunks or other people at games until they get in my way of enjoying the game. If someone wants to pay for a ticket, then drink to the point that they're ready to pass out in the concourse during the 5th inning, who cares? It becomes an issue for me if/when they start puking on me, start stumbling into me, start trying to start fights, etc. I don't even mind the dumb comments I might hear from them in the stands during the game - it gives me something to laugh at (at least until they start screaming their heads off, standing up and blocking my view, or something along those lines).