Invader3K

I think this is hyperbole if I ever heard it, especially based on this re-signing of an injured player.

Ideally, Bud probably would have sold the team in the late '80s or early '90s when it became clear he didn't have the financial resources to field a consistently competitive team...however, more than likely some investor would have bought the franchise and moved the Brewers out of state in a few years time (citing low attendance and an outdated stadium, of course). Bud Selig was probably the only person with the connections and drive to ensure the team stayed in Milwaukee. Setting aside his tenure as owner of the team, he should have a statue based solely on getting Miller Park built in a caustic anti-sports/anti-tax environment and time period. People can whine about paying a minuscule higher tax rate, but it's no exaggeration that it truly is a "world class" stadium facility. I'm so appreciative of being able to buy tickets, knowing that when I make the drive out to Miller Park, I will be seeing a baseball game in a comfortable environment, without risking a rain out or freezing my rear off during an early April or late September game. I loved County Stadium too, but it was 50 years old when it was demolished. They couldn't keep it around forever. Now someday if they can add a Bob Uecker statue, the circle will be complete. Paul Molitor would be nice as well.

bj, I agree with you to an extent about the halftime shows. I think next year they should try to find someone a bit younger and still "with it" to perform. I would say The Who were at least better than the Rolling Stones were a couple years back (though that isn't saying much at all). Part of the problem is that there aren't that many bands around from the modern era that have a lot of mass appeal and are guaranteed to be family friendly, I guess. Oh, as far as CBS promos, I got a laugh out of the "Call Barney Stinson" one, but then again I enjoy "How I Met Your Mother."

Yep, without Selig, there are no Brewers. Period. He deserves it.

One of the jokes we had while watching was that maybe Budweiser should cut back their ad budget and spend the extra money on developing beer that actually tastes good. And also how instead of rescuing that delivery truck that had crashed, those people should have burned the thing. Nothing really stood out for me. I kind of liked seeing Mini Kiss with Kiss in that Dr. Pepper ad, but most of the people I was watching with just didn't get it. A certain formerly retired QB was kind of amusing in that Hyundai ad as well.

Get people you know to do stuff for you. We had our wedding at my wife's family's home church, and one of their neighbors was the organist, so that was basically free. We had her uncle who is a professional photographer take our pictures, and he gave those to us for free as a wedding gift. We had the reception at the local KC hall, and I don't remember the exact cost, but it was pretty affordable. The DJ we had was just starting his business, and I think only cost like $500 for the night. The iPod idea is pretty viable nowadays, too. Sorry if that is not so helpful...I do think it's kind of silly to overspend on a wedding. A lot of that money would be better spent on a down payment on a house, IMHO (like JumpinMacFlash said). I do recommend that if you do the traditional reception, keep the food options relatively simple. I would say to try and leave out some food during the entire reception (even if it's just cheese and crackers or something), and free tap beer is always a plus. At my sister's wedding, they took the food away shortly after the wedding party got there (which I was part of), and I was starving by the end of the night. At our own wedding, we had free open bar all night, but that was sort of a surprise present from my dad. As far as cake, we had the local bakery just make a fancy "top piece", and then bought several sheet cakes. Pretty affordable. I would also second not doing a formal gift opening. We did one, and I could tell by that point most people just wanted to get heading home, the day after the reception. It's kind of silly to sit there opening cards and thanking people, when most would rather just get a thank you card in the mail, I'd think.

Well, the big unknowns right now are how well Parra and Bush have recovered from their respective injuries. Hard to predict at this point without knowing more about those issues.

Ben's dad was a regular on the site and had a rep for being pretty opinionated, especially in regard to his son's talent. He let loose on a lot of people when Hendrickson was traded to the Royals. I think I remember his ex-wife (Ben's mom) even coming on here and apologizing for his behavior. I don't think too many people were sad when he left/got banned from here following that.

I tend to go with that line of thinking, kramnoj. I think with Prince and Braun anchoring the team for the next 5 years or so, they will be poised to be very competitive. It will force Melvin to be very judicious in how he allocates the rest of his budget, and I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. Another factor that could play in the Brewers favor if they are serious about re-signing Prince is that another potential suitor may be off the market. There are a lot of rumors that the Red Sox may try to trade for Adrian Gonzalez. Presumably they would be able to re-sign him. With Texeira at 1B for the Yankees, that possibly eliminates two favorite Scott Boras leverage teams.

My iTunes is all messed up. We got a new computer, and I was able to transfer all the mp3s from the old PC to the new one. However, it doesn't find certain songs in my iTunes library...they're on the computer, but I have to click the "locate" button after trying to play the song that's missing, and then manually search for it on the hard drive. Kind of a pain.

Why don't we make this a true high speed rail line that is at or over 100mph where it actually cuts down time on the trip, thus creating a demad? Why don't we make it an electric system instead of fossil fuel, going green is part of the point right? This is what I don't get, and no one has been able to address at all, even though I've raised the point multiple times. California is getting a new state of the art "green" true high speed rail system, and I guess we're getting stuck with a much lesser, seemingly somewhat antiquated one. I just don't get it.

If he counts, I too had high hopes for Jose Capellan. We gave up a really nice closer in Danny Kolb, who I really liked at the time, but it seemed like we were getting something really good in that trade. I guess the fact that the Braves were willing to give him up should have set off more red flags. Nick Neugebauer also sticks out as far as pitching prospects. Thought he was going to be an anchor for the pitching staff for years to come. Oh, and I wish that Hendrickson thread from when he was traded was still viewable on the site...that was a real fun time.

The only good thing about Mench was his debut with the Brewers.

The thing with Bedard is that he won't be available until May at the earliest, due to the shoulder surgery he had in August, but more realistically it might not be until June or even July.

That is nice to say, but 162 games hasn't resulted in clear cut playoff teams the past three seasons. 10 teams out of 30 would still be a much smaller ration than any other major sports league. I'm personally fine with your other ideas of cutting down the regular season a bit and possibly expanding to 32 teams in the future.

Yes, I think 10 teams total should make the playoffs. Have the two WC teams from each league face each other in either a one game shootout (like they've had the last three years anyway), or a best of five series with no off days. That would give an extra team from each league a chance to make the World Series, and eliminate some of the "You should have to win your division, the Wild Card is evil" type whining from the "traditionalists."

Well, that sucks.

I get "Directory Access forbidden" when I click the link in the article for some reason.

"BRAVO!!!!!! Honestly, I get accused of being so cynical and negative--I don't see how you guys can stay so positive when it's obvious that the system is at best broke, and at worse corrupt. W.B. Yeats said "the center cannot hold" and I really believe that without a major adjustment baseball will implode. Maybe not in our lifetime, but it has to. It's not a sport; it's a media agreement, a business demand. " Yeah, I pretty much accepted a while ago that the Brewers will probably never win the World Series in my lifetime, and I'm not even 30 yet. The odds are just stacked way too high against that possibility. I will just continue cheering and hope they can remain competitive and relevant, and hopefully at least make the playoffs on a somewhat regular basis.

Ouch. Keith Law not exactly showing the love for Hart at all.

Yeah, Dwight was basically a no show, and I didn't get what was supposed to be so funny about the hot dog thing. Why would he seriously just put them on the floor instead of the conference room or something? Just silly and not really in character for Dwight. The new character (whose name I've already forgotten) from Sabre seemed pretty dull and uninteresting so far too. Not really sure what to think of Kathy Bates' involvement yet. I also agree on the NBC promos for the episode. They have a habit of giving away too much in their commercials for The Office in general. I remember they did the exact same thing when Jack Black was on the show.

Tonight's episode was not quite as funny as usual, IMHO. One of those "plot advancement" episodes they have to do every once in a while. The Pam/Jim storyline seemed kind of lame and forced, but I did get some laughs out of seeing David Wallace again. I hope the next new one is a bit better.

I read that as of last year he was a top 20 prospect in the Nationals system, so he could be something yet, it seems.

That's a very valid point I hadn't quite thought of. The ideal would seem to be sharing all TV/radio revenue between all the teams. However, there is basically no incentive for teams like the Yankees to agree to this. And really, they built their own YES Network, I don't think they could be forced into it by MLB.

*shrug* Here's what you wrote: First, as disappointing as Hart has been the last couple of years, he is still worth millions of dollars to whatever team has his services. I doubt anyone reading this right now can say the same. FWIW, Fangraphs had his performance worth (in average free agent dollars), $3.2 mil last year and $4.6 mil the year before. If he was worth what a school teacher was worth to his employer, he wouldn't even be in the league. Don't know how I took that wrong, but it just seemd unnecessary to me. Whatever, no skin off my back either way.