Polish Falcons

Here is some information I beleive to have confirmed regarding Milwaukee to Madison project plans: - 110 mph max speed. WI DOT did a study on slow, medium, fast trains and found medium to be the most cost effective at 110 - stops in Madison, Watertown, Brookfield, and Oconomowoc. The Madison station is not final and there may be multiple stops in Madison. - $817M is the estimated capital cost paid for entirely with federal ARRA funds. \ Project Management Plan WisDOT: http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/projects/recovery/docs/rail-grant-11.pdf This is an older DOT study on the same project with some rosy projections but relevant info: http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/projects/d1/hsrail/docs/ea-execsum.pdf

Thank you for pointing out the gas tax. You are right on that and I am happy to realize that this gas tax revenue, along with registration fees, represents a little more than 50% of the State's transportation revenue. I do think that is fair and good policy. I don't however think that this reverses 50 years of transportation policy and funding that have heavily favored and funded roads while allowing mass transit to deteriorate to the pathetic level that creates this deep skepticism about train viability. Before we got to where we are with the roadways a massive scale capital investment was required. In order for transit to stand a chance something comparable needs to be provided; transit advocates are only asking for a miniscule fraction of the public investment that has already been made on roads. Despite the temptation to lump "Europe" into one big category to be disregarded in terms of transportation studies I do think there are examples that could relate to the Midwest. Sweden (and perhaps all of Scandanavia) is a place where the population is not very dense; there are vast stretches of land between cities; they don't have traffic congestion problems, and people are in general very well off financially. If they really wanted to they could just drive. But because a sound transit network is in place and because they find it more convenient a lot of people prefer riding trains and they have a successful transit system. If that is too Euro then you can look to the Pacific Northwest where there are a lot of studies showing that rail lines have in fact increased property values (and not just Seattle/Portland), sparked business development, thereby generating permanent jobs in construction, retail, etc. Also the fact that they have a train helps bring people to the region and attract a talented workforce. This is another region where the population is not incredibly dense, not more so than Chicago-Milwaukee-Minneapolis. Despite the fact that transit initiatives are relatively new in the Northwest they have already shown lots of signs of success. I disagree with the idea of pitting this transportation project up against sensative topics like sewer dumps in Lake Michigan, teacher jobs, or the Milwaukee Parks System. I don't see how they relate. This transit project was initiated by a competitive federal grant that WI won after putting together a solid proposal. If these funds didn't go to Wisconsin they would go to another State transit plan. Since I believe in the project I believe that it has the potential to benefit the State in the long term and therefore will not have a negative impact on something like Asian Carp. While the feds are picking up the capital costs the State will have to pay something like 50%? of operating costs after fare collections. Admittedly I don't have the numbers but I'm thinking that will still represent a rather small fraction of the State's overall transportation cost. I guess it comes down to personal preferance as well some as optimism and a desire to see some fundamental changes in our transportation system. I actually think that it is easier to be a skeptic on this type of project because Wisconsin doesn't really have examples of effective transportation systems. Where I grew up people got made fun of for riding the bus. It will be hard to change people's patterns.

To opponents who suggest this is a waste of money I just want to make one point. Yes this project will likely require operating subsidies but it's not like roads, highways, and interstates aren't heavily subsidized with tax dollars. If I'm reading the State of Wisconsin's DOT budget documents correctly I see that $407M or 6% of $6.6B goes towards transit while the vast majority of the remaining $6.2B goes towards roads. Those are all tax dollars; WI doesn't collect tolls. It's free to drive on the roads I help pay for. It seems like transit opponents always suggest that the only way a rail project can be viable is if it turns a profit on ridership, while not acknowledging the massive amounts of tax dollars spent on roads only because that is their preferred mode of transportation. Not that I don't want rail projects to generate as much revenue as possible, but this transportation financing dynamic seems like a severely inequitable double standard to me. Aside from ridership fare a lot of economic activity can be generated via Transit Oriented Development around well planned rail stations, which is why I agree with those who want Madison to have a station somewhere other than just the airport. As I understand that is likely to happen. All that said I don't especially blame people for discussing the demand for a rail link between Milwaukee because that is a legit concern. But as a person who prefers rail to car I would like to see a more equitable financing structure or at the very least put that into the discussions framework. The cost of roads is completely ignored when comparing road vs rail and that really gets my goat. Edited grammar

I agree that Lost was a good show for the first season or two but I lost interest after that as did many other people I know. Admittedly I'm not a TV guy so maybe I should stop commenting on this thread after this. But I guess I don't agree with this idea of judging a network on ratings knowing that something as god aweful as American Idol was the #1 show several years running. I haven't heard of half the shows you mention above much less seen them but the ones I have seen snippets of are bland at best (Scrubs, CSI) or incredibly lousy at worst (Grey's Anatomy and the Amazing Race). Are those supposed to be examples showing how we are supposed to judge a TV network in a positive light? Desperate Housewife? I am failing to see any value in that whatsoever.

In a way I actually think this report was below spreading a bogus rumor from an online blog. The reporter, or whoever writes for the reporter, clearly just pulled the idea out of the blue that "one team that could possibly relocate is the Milwaukee Brewers." It seems to me that this whole story stems from this political candidate who is vying for publicity. His committee has not advanced even beyond the very first stage of even exploring the possibility of what is required to bring an MLB team to Orlando. This seems like a classic example of bad local news coverage from the time they picked up the story to the time when the Brewers got roped into it. Pretty hilarious though, indeed.

I don't agree with this. First of all reality TV is not a relevant medium so that doesn't count for anything. Next, I give NBC credit for at least producing 30 Rock and the American version of the Office while both ABC and CBS have not produced any good shows at all over the last decade. Admittedly I don't watch a lot of TV so I might be missing something but I highly doubt it. My opinion is that all network TV landed in the trash can with the advent of reality TV but NBC has been slightly better than the other channels because at least they produced a couple funny shows that people can watch online without even having to own a TV set. I will say that Jay Leno is not funny and I will never watch his show, but Conan also wasn't a great fit for the Tonight Show.

Wow, if that's true this guy must be a real wackjob. $13M for one year of Johnny Damon? Is he even worth half of that? Anyway, I prefer Gerut to Edmonds for the 4th OF. He had an OPS above .800 in 2008 when he saw regular playing time and I thought he started to wake up towards the end of last season with the Brewers. I can't really comment on Gomez as I haven't even watched him play. I did just see a highlight video with him legging out a bunt that looked like it should've been an easy out, and even though it was just one snippet it got me pretty excited about his speed potential and how that dynamic could enhance the Brewer lineup.

I haven't seen Conan on the tonight show yet but it seems like what NBC is pulling with him is totally bogus. But I think his humor would be more well suited on Comedy Central or in some other venue anyway and he should just pursue that. I've always been baffled by Jay Leno. Leno has absolutely no sense of humor whatsoever. I mean I don't really like Letterman that much but at least I see some qualities in him and can understand why people like him. Leno has no redeeming qualities to speak of and his popularity is completely mind boggling especially for a guy who hosts a comedy show. What nbc is doing is garbage. Why didn't Leno retire anyway as planned? I haven't seen his new show yet either. I'm sure it's terrible though.

Hi, Does anybody on here have MLB2k9 for ps2? If yes can you tell me how to Resume a Season? This is so frustrating. Every time I start a season and then turn it back in to Resume it says something like "Entering season will cause loss of unsaved roster data. Do you want to continue?" If I pick yes the season starts all over again. I searched online for an answer and found that other people had the same problem. I have the memory card installed and my season is saved but I just can't get back into it. I'm sure there's an easy fix for this but apparently I haven't advanced far past Nintendo or Sega in terms of video games. If anyone can give a step by step that would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I am always an optimist about the Brewers but they will definitely be significantly better in 2010. First off they were pretty terrible in 2009 so the benchmark is rather low. The only downgrade I see from 2009 is Cameron's power at the plate and I don't even see that as a big loss. As far as the rotation goes Gallardo has the potential to go from good to outstanding. Wolf is a significant upgrade over Looper even if he regresses back towards his career average. Bush is Bush. I don't think Parra or Suppan could possibly be any worse than they were in 2009. Parra has substantial room for improvement and I see Suppan as a serviceable #5 starter. If people are willing to accept that as his role and drop unrealistic expectations related to his bad contract then he might be fine. I do however think there's a good chance the Brewers will sign another low cost back of the rotation starter to add some depth and healthy competition, bumping Suppan out of the rotation to start the year and requiring Parra to perform in order to maintain a spot. The bullpen is outstanding and that is a solid offset to this rotation. Braun and Fielder remain the heart of the lineup. Weeks has big time potential. Kendell and Hardy were absolute deadweight in 2009 whereas Zaun and Escobar will actually provide some benefit to the team. I don't really know what to think about Corey Hart anymore. Hopefully he is healthy and better in 10 which I believe is possible, but even if not then here is another guy who can't get much worse than he was in 09. If he does get worse then maybe we'll put Gamel out there to make the lineup better. I haven't seen enough of Gomez to know what to expect, but I have heard from Twins fans that he has great potential but makes stupid decisions in the batters box and on the base paths. That is the kind of thing that can and hopefully will change with experience. The NL Central as a whole seems to be getting worse although it does look like the Cards will sign Holliday.

Sorry to keep up the off topic stray but drafting Offensive Lineman Tony Mandrich #2 over Barry Sanders #3 was by far the worst Wisconsin sports move at least in my lifetime. First of all offensive lineman don't deserve to be drafted that high under any circumstance and second of all Barry Sanders an extremely high rated college RB to the point where nobody was surprised by his extremely successful career. The top 5 in that draft were Troy Aikman · Tony Mandarich · Barry Sanders · Derrick Thomas · Deion Sanders. Comparitively Suppan was signed as a free agent when the Brewers needed a SP and the market was not very impressive.

Josh Johnson is an ace. This would be a dream come true. Johnson, gallardo, x, bush, parra

And then what happened? The poor Orioles, such a great town and great stadium...

What does that mean?

I'm fine with this trade. Or at least I'm not going to make a judgment until seeing which pitchers we get because this is only a piece of the puzzle. I'll give Melvin the benefit of the doubt. Over the past month he was probably shopping Hardy to the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles and any other team We thought might be interested. He probably found that teams didn't really want JJ Hardy. Meanwhile Escobar is our SS, so why not salary dump and take a 23 year old guy who could have great upside if he can find control at the plate. I first found out about this on mlbtraderumors.com and over there the response was way different. Majority seemed to think that this was a good trade and a lot of American League fans seemed happy to know that Gomez won't be patrolling center field in the AL anymore. Some Twins fans were upset about it. Cam would've been nice to have back but realistically I didn't see the Brewers signing him And two starting pitchers. After doing the math it just didn't add up.

Oh I know about the "funeral" music. It's the musical ensamble that fades us to and out of commercial between innings when they want to try and add a dramatic flare. Last night I did the ole turn on the radio announcers while watching the game on tv, a move that in the past has only been reserved for my admiration of Bob Eucker.

I think that the late season schedule has as much or more to do with MLB accommodating Fox's playoff scheduling preferances than it does the WBC. For example the WS could easily start tonight, but Fox wants to start on Wednesday so that they could play two in NY and have an off day for travel on Friday. Meanwhile an off day for travel between NYC and Philly is not really necessary but convenient for TV because Friday is a low viewership day. I don't really mind this since I like watching the games. I would like to see games played a little earlier, especially on weekends. For example 8pm and later on a Sunday night seems kind of late when they could get the game in under much more favorable October/November daytime conditions. Then again there is the NFL schedule to consider...

I am going to be down there this winter traveling. By chance has anybody on here seen any Nicaraguan Winter League baseball games? If so can you make any recommendations? Like is this worth checking out and are there any particularly cool stadiums/ baseball atmospheres (in Managua, Granada, Leon or Chinandega)? I was able to find only limited information on this league (http://www.nicaragua.com/blog/nicaragua-baseball-2009-2010-season-preview#) and would love to get some insight from a traveler who has actually been there. Perhaps unlikely but if so thanks in advance.

I am going to be down there this winter traveling. By chance has anybody on here seen any Nicaraguan Winter League baseball games? If so can you make any recommendations? Like is this worth checking out and are there any particularly cool stadiums/ baseball atmospheres (in Managua, Granada, Leon or Chinandega)? I was able to find only limited information on this league (http://www.nicaragua.com/blog/nicaragua-baseball-2009-2010-season-preview#) and would love to get some insight from a traveler who has actually been there. Perhaps unlikely but if so thanks in advance.

Please post a correction if anything is known to be wrong or missing. Brewers 2010 Salaries $ in millions Player 2010 John Axford $ 0.4 Jason Bourgeois $ 0.4 Ryan Braun $ 1.0 Dave Bush $ 4.0 Josh Butler $ 0.4 Mike Cameron Frank Catalanotto Todd Coffey $ 0.8 Craig Counsell Mark DiFelice $ 0.4 Alcides Escobar $ 0.4 Prince Fielder $ 10.5 Yovani Gallardo $ 0.4 Mat Gamel $ 0.4 Jody Gerut $ 1.8 J.J. Hardy $ 4.6 Bill Hall $ 8.0 Corey Hart $ 3.3 Trevor Hoffman $ 8.0 Jason Kendall Braden Looper Felipe Lopez Seth McClung $ 1.6 Casey McGehee $ 0.4 Chris Narveson $ 0.4 Manny Parra $ 0.4 David Riske $ 4.5 Mike Rivera $ 0.4 Chris Smith $ 0.4 Mitch Stetter $ 0.4 Jeff Suppan $ 12.5 Claudio Vargas Carlos Villanueva $ 0.4 Rickie Weeks $ 2.5 Total Brewers 2010: $ 68.7 Notes Grey Shade means 2010 salary is unknown but player is under contract. 2010 value = 2009 as a placeholder. Yellow Shade is for free agents that could end up anywhere. Red shade is for player not on roster but under contractual obligation. Assumes Brewers pay $8M and M's pay $0.4 http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/frown.gif

I agree about the IBB being foolish there, but I'm definately glad the angels pulled out the win. Would've been a shame for them to lose that game on bad umpiring. Still seems like a severe longshot for the Angels at this point, but hey, the Red Sox cae back from 0-3 against the Yankees in 2004, so it's possible. I can realistically see Pettite losing game 6 against Saunders. But then they face Sabathia in game 7 and he's been amazing. Ouch

Great read even though my memories of Juden are rather vague at best. The interviewer has a knack for good questions. Given that, and my interest in the topic, makes me think that brewerfan.net could generate many great articles from all kinds of former brewers. I know I'd love to hear updates and reminiscing from Greg Vaugn again as well as guys like Cal Eldred, Jamie Navaro, John Jaha and etc etc etc. The 90's were a horrible but somehow glorious decade at the same time for the Brewers. Not sure what I mean by that. I'm curious how Juden was decided upon. vaccinator77: funny avator, made me laugh.

Wow, anyone see the top 7 of this Yankees/Angels game? What a load of BS. Lackey strikes out Jeter with two outs. But wait, the umpire calls ball 4. Scocia pulls Lackey who has a 4-0 shutout at this point, Lackey is furious, and the Yankees go on to score 6 runs off Oliver and Jepson. I'm not an angels fan but it's upsetting to see them lose because of clearly bad umpiring and seemingly terrible coaching decisions to take out Lackey who was flawless nearly all night. He was punished for a bad call by the ump. Hopefully they can come back. At least exhaust some of the Yankee arms before the WS

I love watching the playoffs even when I don't especially like the teams in it, as is the case this year. There have been some great games; as someone pointed out the Angels over the Yankees in 11 Saturday night was awesome. Even though I don't like the teams I am really looking forward to a possible Yankees/Phillies world series. that could be very entertaining. Even if the Phillies have a high payroll I give them credit for developing the majority of the talent on their own. They run a respectable team. I hope they repeat. To say the same big money dominant teams are the only ones who are in it and winning it every year shows either a short memory or not paying attention. Last year the Brewers made it and that was awesome, even though it ended with dissapointment and fast. But the Tampa Bay Rays made the WS and they are a very low budget team who have a spectacular farm system and continue to do so (e.g. Durham won the AAA series this year). In 07 the Diamondbacks and Rockies were in the NLCS. The 06 WS was Cards/Tigers and before that Astros/White Sox. The Marlins have won a WS more recently than the lowly Yankees for god's sake!! I understand your point about missing the opportunity to pick between 15 games on mlb.tv. It also sucks not being able to follow fantasy baseball. And I can't believe purple suit NBA color guy Craig Sager is a baseball color guy on TBS. But to say you don't like the playoffs, as a baseball fan, that strikes me as a real downer, especially to say not even when the Brewers made it last year. That just crosses the line right there.

It seems like this thread has really gone off track with lots of repetitive back-and-forth about resigning Cameron (or not) that exists on several other threads on top of the redundancy here. The idea behind the inital thread seemed more interesting. Let's assume Cameron is back (meaning the discussion is not about Cameron) and Hart is traded (because we need pitching and he might be a good bargaining chip). Who might be a good low-cost right field replacement or platoon partner for Gerut?