Patrick425

I know a lot of people just hate this event. I've always gotten a little enjoyment out of watching it. I don't really take it that seriously and I'm not really looking to turn this into a rant-fest for people who despise the HR derby for whatever reason. Sounds like they are putting players on a clock this year instead of 10 outs. http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/25227589/home-run-derby-format-changed-now-involves-a-clock Interesting concept, but unless they are using a pitching machine (which I always thought they should do), it seems like this would put some pressure on the "pitcher" to throw quickly and be accurate. I guess, if anything, this may force the batters to swing at less than perfect pitches.

I actually did not think Joe Buck was that horrible. Also, I did like that there were times that the announcers just went silent and let the action speak for itself. It seemed like there were a lot more times where you could here golfers and caddies conversing with each other about how they want to approach a shot or a putt than you would normally hear on a CBS golf broadcast. I enjoyed that and wish there were more of that in golf broadcasts.

Agree 100% with this. Wang was not a "mop-up" guy. Even mop-up guys can pitch effectively once in a while and be trusted to pitch an inning or two in an extra inning game. A "mop-up" guy can at least eat up innings. Wang pitched a measly 17.1 innings over the course of 4 months because he was completely ineffective, which meant other pitchers had to pitch more innings than they normally would have. There is no way to measure the effect this had on the pitching staff or how many possible games this may have cost the team. Way overrated imho and I would be very surprised if he ever sniffs the majors again in his career (which will probably be a short one).

Yes I am. Sorry if you walk away from a team every time they are not doing well, then, as far as I'm concerned, you are not a fan.If someone says to you "Hey did you see the game last night" and you respond with "I don't watch the Brewers. They suck", then how can you call yourself a fan? Great things can still happen within games that make it fun to watch even if they lose a majority of their games. So easy to love a team when they are doing well. I don't cheer for the management, I cheer for the players on the field.

Seriously? Pretty much stopped reading your long post after this statement because apparently you were never really a fan to begin with. I've been a Brewer fan for close to 40 years. I've seen much worse than this.

A) They couldn't all become all stars. There were not enough openings for all of them. B) You only know they became "all-stars" because you have the power of hindsight. They could've turned into nothing and had zero trade value. If you really knew that Brantley and Cruz would be all-star caliber players..then yes, you should be the GM.

Or...the prospects we traded for may not have panned out and we would still be looking for our first playoff birth in 33 years. Prospects are unpredictable. Cy Young caliber pitcher generally are not. Wait...isn't that what they did?...but you are still complaining about it. I'm pretty sure I gave my answer in the beginning of the post you referenced here. Hindsight is fun. Brantley was a 7th round draft pick and the Brewers 24th ranked prospect at the time they traded him according to Baseball America. Nelson Cruz was a 26 year old outfielder that had been bounced around to different organizations and had an inconsistent minor league record. Cain was a 17th round pick and a fringe prospect...and we probably would have never gone after Aoki if we did not trade these guys. Now, we are shaking our head at how the Brewers could have ever let these guys go? Man, I'd hate to be your broker..."Hey..why didn't you tell me to buy Apple stock 10 years ago!?!"

Are we seriously going to keep rehashing this argument over and over again in various threads. The Brewers did this in the early/mid 2000's (drafted and developed a core of young players). They had Fielder, Weeks, Braun, Hart, etc. However they had no pitching. By the time they waited for their system to develop pitching, they would have lost other components to free agency. Also, not every prospect that is drafted is gold, many don't pan out (even the "can't miss" guys). You say "augment" the system with the occasional Veteran. How should they have "augmented" their pitching staffs in 2008 and 2011 without trading away prospects? They are not a team that is going to compete in the FA market for pitching arms like Grienke and Sabathia. Name a pitcher, other than Gallardo, in the Brewers system between 2006 and the present that was going to help them get to the playoffs the way Grienke and Sabathia did? To me, under your plan, it seems like would be competitive every year...but just always miss the playoffs because we are missing key components because we are unwilling to make the necessary trades. Yes, all those former Brewers you mention on one team sound like a great team, but if you think the Brewers have the payroll flexibility to keep all of those guys together you are fooling yourself. If I'm calculating correctly, the combined 2015 salary of just those players is $54 million and growing and again, just one pitcher in the bunch and 4 outfielders (where do Braun and Gomez play??). Also, we didn't offer Fielder enough?? We should have offered the $24Mil per year that he's currently making? Funny how over the last two seasons everyone was thankful how we dodged a bullet with Fielder and now that he's having a good year, we should have offered him more. Ah, the power of hindsight. I'm all for rebuilding for tomorrow, but when tomorrow comes, you have to go for it. You can't endlessly build for tomorrow without the willingness to trade of those "tomorrow" pieces for today.

I really don't get overly excited about many prospects unless they are top picks that are highly regarded nationally, not just among Brewer fans. Harper, Strasburg, and Trout type guys. Weeks and Fielder were those type of prospects. So, I guess the only "miss" I can think of is Weeks...but at the same time, not sure that was a total miss. He had some decent years and was an All Star. Possibly LaPorta was a miss for me as well although I was not terribly upset when they traded him (not at all trying to start that debate again!!!!). I know that the prospect "gurus" are going to point out that the Brewers have had several other failed top nationally regarded picks, but those were not guys that you could bring up to a casual fan in another city and expect them to know who you were talking about. Weeks and Fielder were top ten or twenty Baseball America prospects for multiple years. The Brewers have not had many of those.

See my reply to similar suggestions above. It's a $5 product. Do they really think this is some sort of scam? All they had to do was say Sorry about the issue, here is a $5 voucher for your next purchase. $5!!! My wife and I went shopping on Monday night. We purchased a completely different brand and will not be using that brand of trash bags again. $5 or lose a customer....seems like a no brainer to me. Edit: I think Casey had the best thought in that we should just bring the bags back to the store. Sentry probably has a much better understanding of customer service. We still have the defective bags and I meant to do that when we went on Monday, but forgot.

Absolutely. I wonder if there is any film of him. He was the Pistol Pete of Wisconsin. That's a really interesting idea. Reason I ask all this is that I'm involved in the film industry and have a connection to a connection to a connection to a guy at ESPN that is influential in green lighting the 30 for 30 ideas. It's a super, duper lottery type long shot to actually get it made but I think I might have a decent shot to at least pitch the idea to the guy. Ok, ashamed to say that at age 49 and a life long resident of Wisconsin, I don't know who Mickey Crowe is, so I had to look him up. Gotta say, after reading a few articles, that does look like it would make an interesting 30 for 30. Not only his HS basketball stardom, but his life path afterwards (at one point it sounds like he was basically stalking President Regan and he ended up witnessing the assassination attempt). Not sure if you are aware, but there is a book about his story called "Over and Back/Mickey Crowe".

I was browsing through the Brewer franchise history page on Baseball-reference and noticed that in 1977 and 1978 the Brewers used a total of 13 pitchers (starters and relievers) in each of those years. 13!! Man, I miss those days.

I guess I'm always thinking about my memories growing up watching the Brewers with these kind of things. - The late 70's early 80's blue collar Brewers might make a good story. Harvey Kuehn tailgating with fans before games. Stormin and Vukes tavern. The close ties that many of those players still keep with the organization and the state. Outside of the Detroit Piston's "Bad Boys", there were not to many teams that reflected the culture of the city they played in like the Brewer teams of that era. - The 87 Brewers team with the 13 game winning streak to open the season including the No-Hitter and miracle Easter Day game. The subsequent 12 game losing streak in May. Molitor's 39 game hitting streak and the ironic way that it ended. The abrupt end to Cecil Cooper's career...he was basically benched after not performing in the first half of the season. In fact, I remember seeing a "Cecil Cooper sitting streak" t-shirt being sold at Merle Harmon's Fan Fare. Edit: Just noticed Louis Ely's post regarding "The curse of Gorman Thomas". Even though Thomas was traded in 83 (when he was batting .181), this could also be tied into the 87 team as Rick Manning, one of the players received in the Thomas trade, was the guy with the game winning hit that ended Molitor's streak. Thomas was one of those guys that from that era who kept close ties with the team and even ended up making his home here (I actually see him occasionally at the Sentry we shop at in Waukesha).

If UPC codes don't change, then they should know the UPC code by the picture of the product I sent them? Also I realize you are not as "close to it" as I am, but that doesn't mean my judgement is clouded by emotion. I just means I have a different opinion of what good customer service entails than you do. Why would a company risk loosing a long time customer (I told them that these are the same kitchen trash bags we always use and have not had this type of issue in the past) over something where they could easily satisfy the customer by just sending them a coupon or voucher? A little over 15 years ago had an issue with a Nestle product we purchased (Juicy Juice). Nestle never asked for any "proof of purchase" they just sent us a refund and coupons (this was before wide spread use of emails...I think we called them). Now, in fairness, I sent them the reply email today with the picture of the product I purchased. I have not heard a reply back yet, so perhaps they will just say Ok, no problem, we will send you a voucher/coupon anyways. We will see.

I sent them a picture of the product (same one as above). I would assume they would know the UPS code of their products. Does the UPS code change based on when it was produced? If that's the case, taking a picture of the UPS from the store is not going to help. Regardless, I think you are missing the point, wouldn't it just be better customer service to just send me a coupon and not interrogate me regarding the purchase? If that's what it comes down to, then I'll definitely be switching brands. I understand that they may want that information to track if there was some sort of issue when the product was manufactured. However, if I'm unable to provide it, it should not effect them compensating me in some way.

As I mentioned in my post, we threw away the packaging after we opened it and didn't notice the flaw until a few days later.

We normally purchase this product for our kitchen garbage bags: http://edge.shop.com/ccimg.shop.com/240000/248300/248366/products/766418154.jpg We purchased a new package about a week ago and put the first bag in our kitchen trash can. Went to go empty it a few days later and realized that there was no bottom (it was open at both ends). So we went to get a new bag to transfer the trash into and that bag was the same way. I ended up checking about 20 of the bags (out of a roll of 70). They were all the same (open at both ends)! It had been over a week since we purchased the product and we threw away the receipt and the packaging. So, I send Reynolds/Hefty a complaint email (with the assumption that they will send us some sort of coupon or voucher) and I get this response: We apologize for the fact that you had a problem with Hefty Consumer Product. In order to report the issue and replace the product, the following information is needed: 1. The proof of purchase number from the product, i.e., UPC or bar code. 2. The embossed/imprinted numbers from the small end of the carton beginning with a 4 or 7. (To make the stamp more readable, it may help to tilt the box slightly or color over the embossing with a marker.) We will wait to hear from you. Seriously? Yes, this is all just an elaborate story that we are making up to try to scam Hefty out of some free garbage bags. It's probably easier to get a fraudulent tax refund from the IRS!

Every comedy uses the set up line, punch line formula to some degree and I think Big Bang Theory fits into the sit-com company that uses that formula too much as a crutch. Seinfeld didn't rely on that nearly to the degree as most other sit-coms. It also didn't drag out and try to re-invent old tired contrived situations that were uses many times by other sit-coms. The scenarios in each episode were clever, creative, and new.

Maybe there truly were not any owners that wanted to deal with the nightmare of Barry Bonds. As someone stated, he probably was down to a DH role at age 42 and so that eliminates half the teams right there. Of the remaining 14 teams (Hous was still in NL at that point), probably at least 4 or 5 teams could not afford to pay him what he thought he was worth. I don't think it's inconceivable that the remaining 9 or 10 teams just did not want him (despite his continued productivity). That's not collusion. That's a player that dug his own grave based on his personal decisions.

People always say that, and I never understood. I think people were just expecting too much. They pretty much had every character that ever appeared on the show in the finale and it was somewhat clever how they closed it with the same topic that the first show started with (the 2nd button). I think people were expecting the last episode of the series to be the best episode...that's a pretty tall order.

I feel the same way about Seinfeld. Never watched the show, I would tell people that and they would tell me that I had to watch it because it was so funny. So I went online and looked for what were rated as some of the best episodes and then a few random ones and it wasn't funny at all to me. Now I'm not a professional comedian or anything. The thought of having to write jokes bores me and the thought of having to perform them in front of people terrifies me, plus I'm much funnier when I don't have time to think and I just say what I'm thinking. But yeah, count me in the crowd that doesn't find Seinfeld entertaining, funny or any other positive adjective that could be used to describe that show. So, I just saw something today that stated that Bill Murray has only seen one episode of Seinfeld (the last one) and didn't find it funny, and I'm also a big bill Murray fan. In fact, if someone told me that they didn't like Bill Murray or didn't find him funny, I would be suspicious of that person as well. So......go figure.

The Players championship had such a great finish yesterday. Too bad it had to be marred by this ugliness. http://www.sbnation.com/golf/2015/5/11/8584877/sergio-garcia-hecklers-taunting-players-championship-2015-tpc-sawgrass The apparent insensitivity displayed by the announcers and fans is concerning enough, but I'm just getting annoyed overall with some of the obnoxious "golf fans" that you hear more and more at some of these tournaments. I can't understand for the life of me why there is this need for some to be heard. Why they get such a kick out of trying to time yelling something like "Baba Booey!!" as soon as the golf ball is struck (and many times don't time it well at all). Do they think that's funny? Do the other d-bag buddies that they are attending the tourney with laugh hysterically at this? I'm guessing these are the same cigar smoking morons that you can here laughing and yelling 3 holes away when you are golfing at your local course. "Hey everyone, look at me! Hear me! It's all about me!". The 16th hole at the Waste Management tourney is one thing. It's expected there and the golfers know what they are getting into, but this desire to turn every sport into a pro wrestling event is getting on my nerves.

Is Rick Honeycutt the permanent pitching coach of the Dodgers? Seems like he's been there forever.

So, last week my son got in his first car accident (one year and 4 days from the date he passed his drivers test). It was not a big accident. Happened right after school on the road in front of the school. Involved 4 cars - all high school drivers and the first car was a "Drive Right" car (driving school car). The first car panicked and slammed on it's breaks when a school bus stopped in front of it. My son was the third car. There was no physical damage to his car and he has stated that he has not noticed any alignment problems since the accident. The cops came, took a report and from what I remember my son telling me every driver stated that they hit the car in front of them first and then they were hit from behind. So, today I get a call from an adjuster with our insurance company. Sounds like the 2nd car is filing a claim against our insurance. The guy started asking me what happened and I stated that I was not involved in the accident it so I don't know for sure, but I repeated what my son stated in regards to what everyone told the police. He asked if he could call my son and ask him. I said sure, but why don't you just pull the police report because he's not going to tell you anything different than what it says there (because I'm not going to tell my son to lie). So, I asked the adjuster what happens if car #2 all of sudden changes their story (now stating that they were hit from behind first) and its now different from what it states in the police report. He said they have to collect all the information and then make a decision. To me it seems likely that car #2 is going to change their story (after talking to their parents) and is going to say that my son pushed them into the first car (even if that's not what they told the police). To me, it's clear that if this is the case that they are just trying to avoid paying a deductible and/or having their premiums increased. Seems like insurance fraud to me. The adjuster just called me an hour ago so perhaps I'm making too many assumptions and worrying about nothing, but if my assumptions are correct, what, if any, recourse do I have?

Thanks for the support! Probably not the fairest of polls/contests as it appears that every time you refresh you can vote again. Why do I have a feeling that there are classes of students in Pewaukee and Brookfield spending part of the day just dedicated to voting for their teacher. Hey...at least she's up to 2%! (was at 1% when I looked at it last night).