Patrick425

ditto. However, my son has a swim meet the day after opening day this year, so I had to exchange my Saturday tix for Tuesday.

Are there any pitchers in MLB, besides maybe knucklballers, that don't throw some sort of fastball? Also, I would tend to believe that only a small percentage don't have a change up. Generally, in youth baseball, the first pitch you learn to throw after a four or two seam fastball is the change up.

There are obviously people who love golf and are addicted to it and others who detest it as being boring and snobbish. I think it's just a matter of personality. I love golf. I'm not as addicted to it as I was 5 or 10 years ago, but I still love to get out on the course as much as my time allows. I also think there are golfers that are much more easily distracted than others. I'm one that's very easily distracted. I could never play golf in front of a large group of people like the pros do. I think the quote about "being a TINY bit off on your swing can be the difference between a great shot near the hole and a ball chunked, skulled, or hit into the water" hits the nail right on the head for me. They say baseball is a game of inches. Golf is a game of small fractions of inches (although with the larger club faces now, it's a bit more forgiving than it use to be). I have always loved the fact that golf requires focus and concentration. It's not a fast moving sport like basketball that relies mainly on athletic instinct. It takes a lot more patience to play golf. The pros make it look easy. I know several people that thought it would be fun to take up golf and then went out and purchased some expensive set of clubs only to end up quiting after a year or two of frustration. Not everyone is cut out for golf and I find those who are not are usually the first to criticize it as being a stupid, boring sport.

So, all you people shaving your heads? Are you partially bald anyways or would you normally have a full, healthy, head of hair? As someone who is follically challenged, I have to say, I don't understand that behavior at all.

Not really the same. Escobar has been referred to as an excellent fielder by ML scouts. I have never really heard any "expert" refer to Prince as a great clutch hitter.

My sample size of 1 goes against this. At spring training this year, I was sitting next to a Brewer fan who lived in AZ. Alcides Escobar was playing SS. She was talking about him and how he also played in the Fall League in AZ. Baseball prospectus states that his glove is "Major League ready", so I said to her, "I hear he's a pretty good fielder". She responded, "Not at all, I'm nervous every time the ball is hit this way." So, either BP got some faulty scouting reports or the "wisdom of this particular fan" is pretty acute. Anyways, my clutch pick on the Brewers would be C. Hart and defintley not Fielder. I've seen Prince swing at some pretty bad pitches when he's ahead in the count in clutch situations.

Again, other than adding Fukudome, what have the Cubs done this off season to make the "experts" love them so much? I keep hearing about all their "off-season" moves. Huh? Who? They also got Lieber, but he's going to be in the bullpen. I don't get it.

Ok, I guess that makes some sense.

With the threads regarding mustard and BBQ sauces, I had throw out the random thought about how I am just not that much into food like many other people seem to be. The only time food really, really tastes good to me is when I'm really, really hungry. Otherwise, taking the time out and trying to figure out what I'm going to eat for lunch or dinner is just a pain.

One, I think..and it rarely gets used. Wow, you guys are really in to condiments. Once in a while, I might use some ketchup. Now, start a thread on how many different packages of cookies people have lying around...then we'll have something!

1) Cameron/Hall/Braun situation does not make much of a difference as Brewers again rank near the bottom of the league in fielding. 2) Poor fielding nearly costs the Brewers a spot in the post season as they manage to squeak out the division by 1 game. 3) Poor fielding and lack of patience at the plate causes the Brewers to get swept in the NLDS. oh, and sorry, one more... MLB teams continue to inexplicably ignore the importance of defense as they take hitting practice before all games, but never really take true infield practice or practice cut-off drills.

I don't understand why Hart would not bat 2nd. It's befuddling.

I have been trying to bite my tongue regarding the subject matter of this thread. It appears that there are some strong feeling regarding this situation. While it appears that Hence was clearly misinformed, I have no problem with writers and announcers being critical of athletes. When the media acts like a cheerleader it bothers me. Jim Powell is never afraid to make informed critical statements regarding certain MLB players. He's probably my favorite announcer. In regards to physical disabilities. As expressed by different posters here, there are clearly cases when a person who has a severe disability does not appear to be disabled. However, I am still convinced that 60% - 80% of the time when you see an able looking person exiting a vehicle parked in a handicapped spot that person does not have a physical impairment that would justify them parking in said spot. I know some people are strongly going to disagree with that statement. A year or two ago one of the local stations did a piece on handicap parking on the streets of downtown Milwaukee. They were approaching able looking people who where using handicap tags to get prefferential street parking. Of all the people they approached, I don't remember one person who claimed that they actually had a phyical handicap. Instead they all stared blankly or sheepeshly tried to avoid the reporters questions. I try not to get to angry when I see what appears to be an able-bodied person using a handicap spot, because I realize that there may be some impairment that I'm not aware of. However, it bothers me to no end that many people who do park in handicap spots really don't belong there.

Zero. I hate mustard

Yeah, some people without kids have a hard time understanding how hard it is to watch TV with young children at times. My son is almost 10 so it's not as bad as when he was a few years younger, but there no matter when you watch TV you can't get away from certain subjects. Watching sports and there are always Viagra and Cialis commercials. Watch TBS and your inindated with racy Sex in the City commercials. Watch just about any station and there is some reference to sex or riske scene promoting some upcoming program. There seems to be no guidlines in regards to when these types of commercials are run.

Wow. I was about to call you out on this, because I thought for sure that there were days when there was a 15 game night schedule with no games on the west coast. I had to go throught the entire schedule. I guess I'm wrong. There is always at least one West coast game (or there is always at least a 3 hour difference in starting times between the 1st game and the last game for any day with a 15 game schedule). So, as rosanne rosannadanna would say..."Nevermind".

I have XM radio as well. I would say 90% of the time I have channel 175 (MLB Home Plate) on when driving to and from work. However, I have heard these commercials where they talk about "EVERY GAME, EVERY TEAM, EVERYWHERE"; I don't think that's quite an accurate statement. Aside from the Spanish play by play station (174), they have 14 stations dedicated to play by play broadcasting (176-189). There are 30 teams ( as much as 15 games going on at once), so there are going to be times when they can not broadcast "every game". Dibble and Kennedy are interesting to listen too. However, Dibble drives me nuts sometimes. He's such a defender of the players. No matter how much money a player makes or how blatantly clear it is that they are taking some sort of PED (i.e. Bonds), he will find a way to defend them. And Kennedy is always in lock step agreement with him. They never disagree with each other about anything. It would make it a little more interesting if they did. I also find Dibble and Kennedy more interesting when they discuss something like their insight into the life of minor leaguers or discussions regarding youth baseball rather than when they drone on about the Yankees or Red Sox. Overall, I think I prefer Martinez and Patrick in the morning. They are willing to be a little more critical of players, although Patrick comes across as a bit pompous at times. Martinez brings a lot of insight into the discussions. (fixed code --1992)

I agree. I have gone to ST in AZ the last 6 years. The weather in AZ is generally more stable (less rain) than in FL (I don't think there have been any rain outs in AZ this year so far). Yes, there are areas of FL where some of the ST sites are close to each other. However, when I go, I really only have an interest in seeing the Brewers play. In AZ I can pretty much follow them around no matter where they are playing, this would be more difficult in FL. I'm not sure I would go to ST if they moved to FL.

Funny thing is, this web site states he was born in Maine: http://www.wcnet.org/~dlfleitz/cleve.htm

Lave Cross - Born in Milwaukee

I saw that msnbc article yesterday. Then I saw that the names were taken from the recent US Census. I'm guessing that most of those names are not real and that people were just putting fake names on the census as a joke.

Is the picture from a movie? A more recent player who played the part of an older era player? Seems like the quality of the picture is too good to actually be from that era.

Sometimes you guys speak in some cryptic shorthand that just loses me... Huh??

The main field gates open at 11:30, but you can pretty much go whenever you want if you would like to watch the workouts (mostly minor leaguers) on the auxiliary diamonds

Sorry, but every time this gets brought up, I have to give my 2 cents. Good grief, it wasn't a "sham". I was at the game, I enjoyed every minute of it and left thoroughly pleased and satisfied that I got what I paid for. It's was an exhibition game!!! Who cares about the winner or loser? Do you know who won the 1968 all-star game? How about 1973? 85? 94? Probably not. Most people don't. Know why? Because it doesn't matter!!