paul253

We are staying at a hotel in Deerfield for the weekend. I was looking at hotels in the area so we could just park at a hotel garage all weekend and walk everywhere but the hotels are ungodly expensive that weekend. There’s a Metra Station in Deerfield that we could use to get to Union Station but I’ve never taken the Metr before so I was a little leery of that. We aren’t 100% for sure going to the Shedd but we definitely want to walk around Navy Pier and that area.

I’m looking for some advice about parking in Chicago. My wife and I are going to visit on a Saturday in October. The plan is to probably start off at the Shedd then head a little north to the area of Navy Pier, park my car somewhere then spend 5-6 hours walking around. I’m trying to figure out the best way to do this. I don’t mind spending $40-$50 or so to leave it in a structure for 5-6 hours if that’s my only option but I don’t know how expensive garages are down there and the websites don’t seem to offer much help in that regard. Also curious about how safe it is to leave cars in structures all day like that as far as car breaks ins go. Anyone familiar with the area that has some advice?

I’m sorry if this was brought up in another thread but I wanted to get some opinions on this topic: With the latest snowstorm came the usual street plowing. As with the usual street plowing came the issue I want to ask peoples opinions on. And that is the inevitable plowing in of peoples driveways. I try really, really hard to not get upset about it because I realize that, for one, there aren’t many viable solutions, and two, it’s not really the plow drivers fault per se. But man, after spending 30-40 minutes snow blowing and shoveling on Friday night, I came back out Saturday morning to kind of clean up my driveway and front walk again since it had still been snowing when I last shoveled. I knew my driveway would be plowed in but I was so pissed when I saw how bad it was. I went outside at about 8:30am. I had plans to leave to take my kids to a friends birthday party at 9:40. There must have been 3-4 feet of snow and ice piled up at the edge of my driveway. The same area I had just cleared the night before. I shoveled my actual driveway in about 20 minutes but the edge of my driveway took me about 45 minutes just to get it wide enough so I I could my car out. I couldn’t even shovel it at first. I was literally picking up big snow boulders and chunks of ice and throwing them off to the side for about 15-20 minutes before I could start digging out. I was late getting my kids to their party and I had to finish when I got home. like I said I don’t know if there even is a viable solution but I’m lucky I’m still young enough where I can still clear this. I’ve seen posts from elderly people who don’t have the ability to clear their driveway when it gets plowed in like this. Unless you have a huge snowblower or a plow of your own you pretty much have to do it with a shovel. And had there been an emergency I literally would not have been able to get my car out of the driveway. Are there any plow drivers that can comment? I know the plow is angled to push the snow off to the side. Can they not angle it straight when approaching a driveway and push the snow past the driveway instead of directly into it? Am I just being a complainer who should just be happy the streets are even being plowed?

Wisconsin is now #1 in the USCHO.com poll. What an unbelievable turn around so far.

I’ve been a proponent of developing the area around AM FAM Field and I think it hasn’t been done yet for two reasons. First, plain and simple the Brewers want the parking revenue. The are very few legitimate alternative to parking in the lot, especially if you have little kids. If I’m going a game with my kids I’m not first stopping at a bar or restaurant and buying an item so I can get on a shuttle to take me to the game. Nor am I parking a mile and a half away on a city street and walking. I’ve done both when I’ve gone without kids and I’d never do either with my young kids. So I’m stuck paying the overpriced parking fee. Second, infrastructure to get there. There are no main roads that take you right past the lots. There will need to be a huge investment in getting roads to go there so people can actually get to a development. You can extend Miller Parkway but that’s already a parking lot most days around rush hour. You’d need roads to get there from other directions. Maybe you could even convince the Potawatomi to pay for an extension of the streetcar to run past their casino, through the new District and to the Stadium. Anyway, I think all you need for this to be successful are spaces that are open year round. Restaurants. A hotel. Apartments. Offices. A small dog park maybe. I’d love to see a Milwaukee or Wisconsin Sports Museum down there. Maybe a Gym. A small medical center. Things people go to even when baseball isn’t there. But they key is infrastructure and making it convenient to get to.

I agree you don’t generally draft for need but you also can’t constantly ignore certain positions year after year like the Brewers have at 1B and 3B. We probably have one legit prospect combined at those two positions, and that’s only if you count Tyler Black as a 3B when he gets could just as easily be considered a 2B.

I know prospect for prospect deals are rare but it always made sense to me to trade him for Elly De La Cruz. You want your young stud third basemen there he is.

I wonder if they are making this stadium in a way that is capable of expansion. The smallest MLS stadium holds 18,000 so this stadium would have to more than double in capacity. I can’t imagine if we get an MLS franchise they would play at the same stadium.

Call me spoiled but going from the best players in the World to players I’ve never heard of takes away a fair amount interest from me. And I’ll watch the World Juniors so it’s not like I won’t watch international hockey if it doesn’t involve NHL players. I’ll probably watch a Team USA game if I’m around and it’s on but I’m not going to go out of my way to watch it, or record it and watch it later, like I otherwise would.

Sounds like the NHL is opting out of sending its players to the Olympics. I am seriously disappointed. Olympic hockey with NHL players is probably the best hockey in the world. And it’s not like you can just wait until next year to see it again. I tried watching the Olympic Hockey last time but just couldn’t into it considering I had never heard of any of the players.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-illinois-ice-hockey-josh-whitman-20200420-3bmr6xzjjrdjfl4gu37bhb4m7e-story.html%3foutputType=amp Found this article from a few months ago. Apparently Illinois was all set to announce a D1 hockey program until the pandemic ruined everything. Hopefully this is just a delay and not a cancellation of the program.

Looks like K’Andre Miller is gone too. I can only assume Caufield will leave too. So much wasted talent this season. On a brighter note, the Badgers are coming back to Milwaukee for a Holiday tournament. I used to go to the Showdown when it was around. Hopefully I can make it to this one too.

https://247sports.com/college/illinois/Article/Illinois-Fighting-Illini-athletics-director-Josh-Whitman-increasingly-confident-in-adding-Division-I-hockey-program-118843301 Article on the possibility of the U of Illinois getting a Divison One men’s hockey team. This would be great news for the Big Ten.

Between the lack of NHL stars and the odd start times I’m really having a hard time getting into the Olympic Hockey. The USAs pedestrian results certainly don’t help. 4 goals in three games. Blah.

Sorry if I’m repeating posts but I don’t have time to go through six pages worth of posts. I think we gave up way too much. For a deal involving both Harrison and Brinson I think we should have been targeting pitching, not another outfielder, which is already a position of strength. Plus we sold low on Diaz. More moves have to be coming if this is a win now move because we have done little to address our biggest problem, which is starting pitching.

Wisconsin swept weekend games at Boston College and Merrimack this weekend. Still not sure how good this team is but they’re certainly off to a good start. It’s nice to see Wisconsin hockey winning some games again.

FYI 2017 IIHF World Championships are going on right now. USA-Sweden is on NHL network as I write this. USA fielding a young team but has some talented guys. I think they have theee or four more games in the preliminary round.

Outside of the Michigan-Ohio St college football game, USA vs Canada is my favorite sporting event between two specific teams to watch. I watch the World Juniors every year but there is really something special about a USA-Canada Olympic hockey game, especially when pros are playing. As far as the Admirals go, awesome job on making the playoffs. It's a bit of a long shot but I'm still hoping for a division title.

Not that I'm terribly against that, but they already have a tournament consisting entirely of college guys, at least on the US side. There's just something about a tournament with all the best players in the world representing their country. Unlike the NBA and MLB where most of the best guys usually sit out even when pros are allowed to play, the NHLs stars are always out there representing the US. It's a shame that money is preventing them from doing that. Alex Ovechin said he was going to play regardless. I wonder if enough players just said "screw it we're playing regardless" would the NHL owners kinda of have to take a break?

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nhl-will-not-participate-in-2018-winter-olympics-201941818.html It was announced the other day that NHL players will not be participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Very disappointing and as usual greed has everything to do with it. NHL owners want more money for letting their "assets" play. Meanwhile The IOC doesn't want to spread their wealth at all. So it's the fans, and probably the ratings, that will suffer. The NHL seem to be the only sports whose stars actually want to participate and now that isn't going to be happening. I'll still watch becuase I love international hockey but man this is disappointing. The US has some very good young talent like Eichel and Matthews that will miss out, as well as a few older guys like Kessel who likely will not get another chance to play in the Olympics.

Wisconsin and Minnesota are both 8-2 in conference and I don't think you can say the schedules are that big a deal. Really the only difference is Minnesota plays Michigan St one series and Wisconsin plays Penn St. I'd be surprised if Wisconsin wins the conference just becuase if how bad they've been lately but it certainly wouldn't shock me. They are 4-2 so far against Michigan Minnesota and Ohio St so those are certainly winnable games, especially since 4 of the 6 are at home. Either way though what an improvement Yeah but that was mostly to build a new arena. If a team already has an arena that can add hockey the cost wouldn't be nearly as much. I think Nebraska just built a nice shiny new basketball arena that has the ability to make ice so there was some speculation they were thinking of adding hockey but I think that speculation has died down a bit. I think conference expansion is inevitable again with the soon to happen demise of the Big 12. If or when that happens I wouldn't be surprised to see the Big Ten add two more teams and I think UConn would be a serious contender. They would shore up the East Coast, probably more so than Rutgers did. They also add traditionally strong basketball programs and although their football team is weak, as Rutgers showed that's not an automatic disqualifier like it would be for the SEC. Plus obviously they have a men's hockey program so with Notre Dame that'd make 8, a much more stable number than 6 for a conference.

Wisconsin has a very legit shot at winning the Big Ten. How amazing would that be after the past two seasons? Speaking of the Big Ten. I know Notre Dame is joining the conference next year. Any word on any other actual Big Ten schools getting teams any time soon? I can't imagine they stared this conference with the idea of only having six schools involved.

Ah the ole Bank One Badger Hockey Showdown. I went to that fairly often with my brother. That's how a became I fan actually. I was (and still am) fascinated with all the chants the students do, especially the Sieve chant after each goal. I really hope Milwaukee can get the Frozen Four back in town once the new arena is complete. I went to the 2006 National Championship game where UW beat BC. What an experience.

Former Badger coach Jeff Sauer has died. Only 73.

It's funny the different perspectives we have. I know lots of sports fans too and hardly anyone of them care about the NBA. One of my friends who is into sports said he wouldn't watch the Bucks even if the game was in his driveway. I've heard a lot of people say they wish they could trade the Bucks for an NHL team. I personally think an NHL team would outdraw the Bucks here but I doubt we ever find out.