Patrick425

The Cubs. My dad was born in 1932 and lived in Adams County until he was 13 or 14. The only team he could pick up were the Cubs, so he became a Cubs fan. Also, when we first got cable in the early 80s and Wrigley did not have lights I watched a lot of day Cub games during the summer on WGN with Harry Carey announcing (those were great days). The Brewer were in the AL at the time and didn't have a rivalry with the Cubs so didn't really have a reason to hate them. Most of my friends also followed the Cubs an Cable. So we enjoyed talking about the cubs (Ron Cey, Baby Bull Durham, Jody "A boy named Sue" Davis, Sandberg) and laughing at Harry Carey as you never knew what kind of incoherent non-sequitur would come out of his mouth next. It always seemed like Steve Stone was ready to erupt having to politely correct all the misinformation that Carey would dish out. However, we still loved him..not like his son, Skip Carey, who was broadcasting for the other "cable team" at the time, the Braves on TBS. They were so obnoxious with their "America's team" claim and Skip's smug way of broadcasting..."Hot shot, Ramirez has it, Braves win"....ugh. So, long story short...as intolerable as Cubs fans can be when they visit our park...I will always have a place in my heart for that team (but always a very distant second to the Brewers!).

My niece has a birthday for her daughter every year and invites the whole family. We went to the first one, but not to any after that because A) we felt that there were gift expectations and B) just felt in general that it was unnecessary to have a party every year that involved the entire family. We have one son who will be 18 in a few months. We had a family birthday party when he was 1 and I think his grandparents visited and gave him gifts when he was 2, 3, 4 (?), but not aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. In regards to friends, I don't remember the first birthday party he had with friends (3 or 4 - daycare?), but we limited it to about 7 or 8 kids and then we only allowed him to have birthday party every other year (usually at a bowling ally, lazer tag, the Y) or something like that. What I'm not looking forward to is his grad party this summer. My wife and I are not good at planning things like that. We don't do a lot of hosting.

^^^ I think this pretty much sums it all up.

I don't think anyone "loves" the rebuilding process. Its called planning for the future. People don't "love" taking money out of their paychecks to put into a retirement account, but it's something they do to prepare for the future. People don't love saying no to unhealthy foods or going to the doctor for an annual check up, but they do it so that they will be healthier in the long run. It sounds cliche, but good things do come to those who wait (and have a plan for the future). If you don't plan, that future never comes (see Brewers 1985-2005) As others have pointed out, what other options are there for a small market team like Milwaukee? It's not a "love", it's a necessity. Now, what I won't understand, is when we get to the point where all the planning is starting to pay off and we are a piece or two away from being a solid playoff team and some will argue that we should not sacrifice any young prospects to go out and get those needed pieces.

This, I get. With the snow and wetness it's sometimes not easy to completely take them down until the weather improves a little. I just don't get the leaving them plugged in and turned on. What does it take, a minute to walk over and unplug them from the outlet when you get home from work or the grocery store (or just put your shoes on and go outside for 30 seconds)? Even if the outlet is in an inconvenient, snowy, wet location...maybe it takes an extra minute or two to put on boots and get to the outlet.

It's one thing to still have your Christmas lights up on January 31st, it's another thing to continue to have them plugged in and lit every night!

National Weather Service statement as of 6:15 am this morning (filled with many disclaimers): http://www.weather.gov/mkx/winterstorm020316 4-7 day out look map. Hover over the days on top to see precip probabilities: http://www.weather.gov/mkx/winterstorm020316

Please no. I'm done with snow and I have no where else to put it. Jericho, I'm guessing you live a littler further north of Milwaukee (and got dumped on earlier this week). I live in Waukesha and work in Milwaukee. There is probably about 3 inches of snow on the ground in both locations. Other than the storm that dumped about 5 or 6 inches of snow during the last week of December, we really have not had much snow this season. This morning on TMJ4 I saw a prediction for 10-15 inches by the time the snow ends next week....but they emphasized that it's an early prediction and if the Low tracks farther north than currently predicted, then it could be mostly rain.

Oh yeah, the music industry that tried to sue their customers rather than admit the inevitable. At least MLB is smart enough to avoid calling people thieves just for wanting to watch their content. Funny how nobody steals music anymore now that it's available for a fair price. And the number and quality of artists/genres is better than ever. No one steals music any more because they started cracking down and handing out severe penalties. Fair price or not, if people thought they could get away with getting something for free they would. I'm with "502 to Right". ...but hard for me to express my opinion about this without delving into politics.

High school baseball also allows metal bats, courtesy runners, and re-entry of starters that were taken out of the game (at least in WI High School baseball). That doesn't mean those rules should be carried up to college and professional baseball. The DH is allowed in HS baseball mainly to allow more kids to play. I'm a fan of the pitcher batting for the same reasons stated by others in this thread and would be sad to see it disappear. I'm in the crowd that prefers to see a well pitched low scoring game with nice defensive plays over a slugfest. I don't agree with those who want to pretend that there is no additional strategy involved in having the pitcher bat. Just look at the in-game threads and other rants about Brewer managers on this board and you will see a lot of discussion and hand wringing about why a pitcher was or was not allowed to bat in a certain situation. Every day during the season there are situations in the NL when a pitcher is due up the next inning and is allowed to try to get out of a jam where in the AL the pitcher in a similar situation would get pulled. I think extra decision making revolving around the pitcher batting makes the game more interesting adds to the post-game "what if" discussions between fans.

I pretty much agree with this thought instead of instituting some sort of arbitrary salary floor. I don't agree with the "splitting equally" idea because not every small/mid market team is the same. I think all the revenue sharing or lottery tax money should go into a central account. I don't think players should be paid directly from this account, but that every team should have access to a portion of that account (based on whatever that team's "share" is). So instead of just transferring the entire revenue sharing amount to each team every year, each team would basically have to submit "expense reports" in order to get "reimbursed" for expenditures. While the hope would be that these expenditures would only be for retaining current players, new player acquisition, and player development, I do think that if a team can show they need money to meet other "non-player related" ongoing expenses, then the funds can be used for that as well. Although, I would hope in cases where a team is constantly asking for withdrawals to pay operational bills, that the league would take a closer look at that teams viability (perhaps an audit of some sort).

My top 3 include the two mentioned here by MrTPlush (I also really like the cream city one) and the Brewcrew one as well. My two least favorites is the one with all the Milwaukee "icons" (too busy) and the white one with the circle and two bats behind the logo (to close to the 90's logo with the bats)

Not to take this too off topic with the lottery, but one of the reasons there may have been 3 winning tickets (other than the fact that sales were high), was that people who pick their own numbers tend to pick lower numbers (birthdays, jersey numbers, etc). These are usually lower numbers and the numbers drawn last night were on the low end.

My son is a senior and plays baseball and golf, but attends as many other of his HS sports as he can. He loves going to the games and being in the student section with friends. So, I can't wait to here his reaction to this and if these rules will really be enforced. If they started in December, my son has been to several boys and girls basketball games since then and I have not heard anything from him about it. I'm sure he would have said something. I will say that some of the chants that my son tells me about seem to be a little over the line, but still, seems like a somewhat of an over reaction by the WIAA. Edit: Now that I'm looking into this a little more and talking to other people, I don't think this is a new rule. More like maybe a memo that the WIAA sent to schools to remind them of these rules that already existed on the books (but have never really been enforced)

Not as well known for this, but he was also an innovator in the investment world: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/how-david-bowie-changed-finance-171245475.html

I know that he recently released a new album and the critics loved it. However, I had no idea he had cancer. Was this common knowledge? I was always a fan of his music.

Purchased 5 Powerball lines today. Got home, looked at the numbers and 13 was the powerball number on 3 of the 5 lines. Was not happy about that until I just found out that the powerball actually ended up being 13!. On one of the lines with 13 we also matched 3 of the numbers. So we won $100 (plus $4 each for the other two powerball matches). So, I guess that's not bugging me. However, on the line where we won $100 our numbers were 18,19,32,34,55 the winning numbers were 16,19,32,34,57. So close to winning it all (or even $80K if we would have matched one other number)!

With the exception of 2 or 3 years, our family has gone to ST every year since 2002. We go for a week and we go to a Brewer game just about every day we are there (home or away). Not sure when you are going, but we have normally gone during the first week of ST and crowds are not as big then. Tickets are never hard to get at Maryvale, but there will be somewhat bigger crowds when they play teams like the Cubs, Dodgers, Giants, Angels, and Diamondbacks. If you go to a game at the park of one of these teams, you should still be able to buy a ticket at the gate, but the selection may not be great and the price will be a bit higher than Maryvale (still, prices at all parks in AZ are a bargain compared to FL spring training games). Most stadiums have grass OF berms and that is were we buy our tickets for a majority of the games. -In regards to autographs, we are not huge autograph hounds, but my son has done some autograph seeking at some of the games we have gone to. Some hints for autographs at Maryvale. Stake out the first base line before a game. If you can get front row tickets there - even better (we usually sit there for one game each year - and this is where my son has received most of his autographs). Other than that, the most popular spot to get autographs is on the concourse down the first base line next to the fan zone shop. There is a gated area there where player enter and exit the clubhouse. The starting players usually leave the game around the 5th inning (especially in early ST games), and it's best to beat the crowd and head up there an inning early. Just a warning though that some of the autograph seekers are really aggressive, grown adults that carry around books of trading cards to be signed and will not think twice about nudging a young kid to the side to get an autograph. - As for places to eat. The Phoenix locals that post on this board can probably give you better ideas, but we have a few favorites. Most years we go to Don and Charlies. Very popular restaurant with lots of sport memorabilia. Players and coaches often eat there as well. However, I will admit that it's a bit pricey and the food is good, but not great. You will need a reservation. We also like to go to Fridays in Chase Field. Similar to Fridays at Miller, depending on the weather (don't count on it always being warm and sunny in March!), you can sit outside and take in views of the stadium. If the outside seating is not available, you can always request a seat by a window. Last year when we went, we discovered Zin Burger in Scottsdale. Great burgers and shakes. - I would also suggest going to one of the Maryvale games a couple of hours early and taking in some of the minor league practices on the auxiliary fields. The first time you go back there you may feel like you are in a restricted area because you are basically walking among the players as they move from field to field. I would suggest getting familiar with some of the Brewer prospects or even bringing a list when you go so that you have an idea of the players you are watching. The batting cages and field that is basically attached to the main field is were the MLB players warm up and practice (south of the main field). You won't be able to get into this area, but there are gaps in fences where you can peer in and watch. Last year as we were leaving a game we saw Braun and Lucroy doing wind sprints with resistance bands on the small field. It was pretty cool, since there was no one else around and we could stake out the gap in the fence and take pictures.

I think there are just some who don't vote for obvious first balloters just for whatever stupid reason. http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/First_Ballot_Hall_of_Famer Who didn't vote for Henderson? Or Johnson? Or heck, Ruth or Aaron??? Nobody's ever been unanimous. Which begs the question: If somebody didn't vote for any of these obvious hall of famers, what business do they have voting to begin with? Are they just not smart enough to fill out a ballot correctly or what? I think the argument for a handful of voters is that if guys like Ruth, Aaron, Johnson, etc were not unanimous first ballot HOF'ers, then no one ever should be voted in unanimously on the first ballot. Not saying that I do or do not agree with this, just saying that this is what I believe to be the thought process.

Don't think I was aware of this award until now. First sentence reads "In professional sports, the health of a team can go a long way to determining the success of a franchise.", yet when you look at the list of previous winners there is not a whole lot of evidence that fewer injuries = success (other than maybe Philly in 2009 and Cleveland in 2007). http://www.rotowire.com/baseball/showArticle.htm?id=26229

I enjoy most Christmas movies. Unfortunately, with all the cable channels now they get way over played. There are some that I will always still watch at least once during the season. The ones that come to my head are It's a Wonderful Life, Charlie Brown Christmas, Scrooged, & A Christmas Story. I have not watched Rudolph, Year without a Santa Clause, Frosty the Snow Man (the original) in a while. With our son grown up, feel a little odd watching those shows aimed at kids, even though I think they are awesome. Will always watch Charlie Brown..no matter how old I am or what season it is. A note regarding "It's a Wonderful Life". Does anyone remember when that use to pretty much only be shown on public television? It was shown a lot on public television in the 80's. I swear that there were times that it would be playing on both Channel 10 and 36 at the same time in Milwaukee.

Was close to putting this in what's bugging me...but not sure it's really bugging me, I'm just curious about it and am trying to make sense of it. Over the last couple of years I have read articles and have come across words where they use an "s" in a word where I always assumed a "z" belonged and I'm wondering if this is a trend of some sort. I just got done reading an article on Yahoo (the byline had "Geneva - AFP", not sure if what AFP is...Associated or American Free Press?) and the word "organisation" was used in the article several times. Isn't it organization (or is it a noun vs. an adjective thing..even then, I always thought is was "z" either way) ? I can' think of other examples off hand, but I know that there was another article I read within the last week with the same issue, where they used "s" in words in that I thought should have been "z".

Weighted GPA's - I don't see the point. Things were very different when I graduated from HS in 1984 and I don't recall any discussion about weighted vs. unweighted GPAs. When my son started HS over 3 years I was unaware that the weighted GPA would mean absolutely nothing in regards to what colleges look at. So, I don't understand why High Schools feel the need to have weighted GPAs. The school my son goes to bumps up each AP class grade by 1 (so, for example, if you get a B in a class, it becomes an A - a 3 turns into a 4, or 4 turns into a 5 for GPA purposes). However, they never explained that when it comes time to apply for college, that the schools don't look at or care about weighted GPA. They look at course rigor, but they want the unweighted GPA. So, I wish schools would stop weighting GPAs. Seems like a pointless exercise to make students (and the school) feel better about themselves....until they start applying for college.

So, I'm driving EB 94 through the Zoo Interchange construction on my way to work on Friday and I come across an orange construction barrel sitting in the lane (far left lane). I manage to swerve just in time to avoid it. However, about 1/3 of a mile later, there's another one. This one I clip and it takes out my side view driver's side mirror (about $375 worth of damage). I contact the DOT. The person I talk to is very friendly and helpful and I get a feeling that there is a reasonable chance that I will be compensated for the damage to my car. There are 3 contractors on the project and she directs me to start calling them and explain the situation. When I call the first company, they transfer me to the company attorney who is also very friendly and helpful and tells me that there is a owner controlled insurance company that is handling all claims in regards to construction related accidents in the Zoo interchange. He gives me that number which I call. This is where the friendly,helpful stops. I basically told flat out, too bad, but they never cover driver collisions with orange barrels because all barrels are placed where they should be placed. OK...so barrels are supposed to be placed in traffic? So, I once again call the original person that I spoke to at the DOT because she told me that if I run into any issues or need any additional assistance that I should call her back. She emails me a form to fill out and gives me another number to call. I call that person someone else takes my information and tells me that they will get back to me. About an hour or so later I get an email telling me to fill out the form that was sent to me (basically just an accident report form) and then I get another email telling me that I should talk directly to the company that rents the orange construction barrels. I call them and they direct me back to the OCIP (where they told me that don't cover incidents with construction barrels). I told them that I already spoke to them and he suggests that I call my insurance company and see if they can do anything for me. So, that's were I currently stand and I now have little faith that I will get one cent from anyone to help me cover the cost of the damage. I guess I'm just glad it wasn't worse, because it easily could have been.

There was a guy sitting about two rows in front of us and a little to our right that was also vaping. I guess I assumed that it was allowed. I'm fortunate enough to be able to go to one Packer game every year (and an occasional playoff game) through tickets that we have at work. I know that there are people that would love to have that same opportunity. However, to be honest, because of the obnoxiousness of many of the fans I would prefer to watch in the comfort of my home. The main reason I take the tickets is because my 17 year old son is a die hard fan and lives for going to Lambeau every year. As a father I really enjoy that and I enjoy spending that day with him every year. I'm not expecting the crowd to act like it's a Polo match or something, but for the life of me, I can't understand the actions of grown adults and the need to get completely inebriated at sporting events like this. Does that really make the game more enjoyable. Can't you just limit it to 2 or 3 beers (at $8 bucks a beer!), enjoy the game, have respect for other fans, and still have a good time?