Patrick425

I live in Waukesha 3 miles south of Country Springs. I've been there 3 or 4 times when my son was younger and attended b-day parties or other gatherings there. The water park has actually been there for a while (at least 10 years I believe?). I don't think it would be overcrowded in July since it's an indoor water park. A couple of thoughts regarding food: - Just north of Country Springs, off of Hwy 16 and Merton Ave (near Arrowhead HS) is a burger/ice cream joint called Sweet Dreams. Nothing really great, but a little bit of a throwback burger joint. - On Hwy 83 & I94, not too far West of Country Springs there are some eateries, including Water Street Brewery. There is Marty's Pizza about a half a block south of I-94 on 83. Pretty decent pizza, popular with families. - There is a beach front area on WI Ave in Pewaukee that is very popular during the summer. There are 3 or 4 restaurants there including a Chocolate Factory and a Mexican restaurant. - There is also Wisconsin Cue Club on Grandview in Waukesha (basically just on the other side of the freeway from where you are staying). It's a bar and doesn't sound like a place for kids, but they have a good (and increasingly popular) fish fry and if you go during supper time, I do see families in there. It's well lit (not a dive bar) and many times I'll see kids playing pool (they have a dozen or so pool tables) or foosball after the family has had dinner. To be honest with you, we have lived in Waukesha for 15 years and have found that there are not of ton of "mid-priced" places to eat out there. There are the fancier, more expensive places in Pewaukee and Lake Country and then there are chain restaurants (Chilis, BW3, Friday's, etc.). Nothing really unique in the middle. If you find something, let us know! If you are going to Betty Brinn, you may be better off finding a place to eat in downtown Milwaukee. I have worked downtown for 20+ years, but am not terribly familiar with all the eating establishments since I tend to go to the same places for lunch every day (I'm sure others on this board are). If you are downtown on a weekday, you can try the "Downtown Kitchen" (I think that's what it's called?) run by Bartalotta's in the U.S. Bank building. Decent selection and reasonably priced, but I don't think it's open at night or on weekends. Or possibly Real Chili. If you never heard of it, it's a Milwaukee mainstay (even Jerry Seinfeld has eaten there when he was in town).

I don't know, perhaps that's true, but while I personally would not listen to music that promotes a lot of violence towards others or is widely misogynistic, I don't necessarily choose my music by how "wholesome" it is. The Wiggles and The Partridge Family were pretty wholesome, but not music I'm going to put in my play list. A lot of what turned me on to rock when I was a kid was the rebellious side of it. May be a bit hypocritical of me, but even if I may not entirely agree with the message of the rock or alternative genres, I enjoy lyrics that have some sort of thought put into them and are not just about blue jeans, pick up trucks, warm summer nights, cold beer, and patriotism. Also, not a lot of bass in most country songs (unless maybe you are talking about fish ), I enjoy a good underlying drums and bass line in my music. Edit: Someone will probably reply with someone like Johnny Cash and how rebellious he was. True, possibly one of the most rebellious musicians of all time. I like a lot of his songs and I don't know that I completely classify his songs as country. If you listen the Jack White station on Pandora, a lot of Johnny Cash comes up.

I guess I didn't realize that MLB was that restrictive regarding jerseys. I knew that there were some rules, but no former players? But you can put your own name? What if your last name is Yount? Is it team specific? If there was current player with the last name of Yount that played for San Diego and wore the number 19, could you get that? Anyone know the reasoning behind these restrictions?

Wow Dean...we must have been sitting just to the left of you guys! Unless you guys just took that as you were walking by.

The first time we did this before a ST game we were waiting for someone to tell us that we couldn't be back there. We were amazed at the access we had. This year when we were walking around back there we walked right past Don Money...practically ran into him! Sad thing is that I know someday, next year or 5 years from now or whenever, they will move to a new facility. I'm sure the new facility will be very nice, but it won't stop me from lamenting about Maryvale.

Yeah, over the last 10 years or so, there seems to be general assumption in this state that everyone like country music. I don't get it. I can maybe see if we were in Texas or Wyoming or something, but I don't get the overwhelming presence of country music in Wisconsin.

I pretty much agree with this. Not only do I snicker at the guy with his own name on the back of the Jersey (although, perhaps it's from a fantasy camp...which would then be completely understandable..but how would you know?), but I also snicker at the guy with the Turnbow or Sabathia jersey/t-shirt. That's why I too tend to go with the generic Brewer garb sans player name. I guess if I were to get a Jersey and felt the need to put a name on the back it would probably be someone like Yount or possibly Molitor. Afterall my license plate is 19 HOF. Speaking of names on Jersey, get this....Last week we were at Thursday's ST game at Maryvale vs. the Rockies. We were sitting out on the LF berm. In front of us was a guy wearing Brewer Jersey with the name "SATAN" and the number "666" on the back. He also had a tattoo of a pentagram on his left forearm. I didn't get a picture, but my son did. If I remember I'll have him email it to me and I'll post it here.

It should be noted that Tickets at Peoria Sports Complex are pretty cheap as well. I scored two tickets behind the brewers dugout for Fridays game against the mariners for $60. Tickets for the Brewers games in Goodyear against the Reds and Indians are also on group for cheap. It's the Scottsdale and Mesa facilities that are ridiculous in price. I'd be very happy with a future west valley stadium. It's great to sit behind the Brewer's dugout, but I still find $30 a ticket (I'm assuming that's what you meant) to be a bit much for an exhibition game where all the regulars are not going to start and those who do will leave the game after the 5th inning. For $30, you can get decent tickets at Miller Park for a regular season game. In general, I have seen the popularity of spring training go up over the last 12 years. The first year we went (12 years ago), I felt like we were some of the only Brewer fans there (at least during the first week of games when we usually go). It was almost like the players would look at us in surprise to see someone wearing Brewers clothing. With the rising popularity of ST, the ticket prices have also risen...but, in general, AZ still is much cheaper than FL. One odd item. Every year we ask our season ticket rep to see if he can get us front row, first base line, next to the dugout (the outfield side of the dugout) tickets for one game. He is usually able to do this. So, when we were there last week we had front row tickets to the Brewer/Royals game on the 9th. At the start of the game, as usual, a lot of people come down to the first row to get autographs. Once the game started and everyone went back to their seats, there was no one in the front row except us!? I felt like people were looking at us as if those were not really our seats. My wife ended up not feeling well and we needed to take her back to where we were staying. My son and I went back to the game and got back to our seats at the start of the 5th inning. A couple of people had taken our seats, but other than that there was still no one in the first row. We just took seats next to them. The 2 or 3 rows behind us were full, but not the first row. I had never seen that before and I can't understand why they did not sell those tickets.

Your high school students work 40+ hours per week? Seniors with enough credits (in AZ) to be on a path to graduating only need to take 4 classes. So they are done at 11:40 AM. Some also take online classes, so they may actually only be in school for 2-3 hours. Most of them have jobs starting between noon and 1 pm, lasting until the night. My student working at Costco works over 40 hours per week. He loves that he gets paid overtime AND Costco pays extra for working Sundays. My sophomores tend to work more like 20-25 hours. I thought there was a restriction on work for a 16-year old during the school year, but the students won't complain since they like money. I guess I can see that, but then you can not be involved in any other activities or sports. My son plans on doing the same thing next year with a "co-op" class (he's a Senior next year), but I don't think he will work any more than the minimum hours needed to get the credits because he will have a couple of AP classes, is on the golf and baseball teams, and is also involved in other activities (FBLA and Model UN).

The only thing I know about either of these guys is that I once saw the severed head of the guy on the left on a turtle in the dessert somewhere outside of El Paso (and he's also in a commercial featuring the Brady Bunch). So, I'm going to go with the guy on the right. Is that Vin Diesel (spelling?)...is that who that is?

Awesome...another blow to my already pathetic fantasy team.

Your high school students work 40+ hours per week?

Rickh, as soon as I read your post I knew you were going to get a lot of opposition on this board. Especially when you complimented the cards in a follow up post. Complementing the cards on this site is a no no even though they have had far more success than the Brewers. Guess it's just luck...right? I agree with a lot of the things that you stated. I don't think being aggressive and being smart are two mutually exclusive concepts.

Not sure where else to put this, so I'm posting it here. Anyone else see this commercial. Is that supposed to be Ryan Braun batting? http://youtu.be/CJYSR5tbKu0

Saw on the news the other night that this February was the 6th coldest on record (for Milwaukee). The last 2 or 3 weeks have reminded me of just about how every week was last Winter. More than 10 days away, but Accuweather.com is predicting 50's by the end next week...keep your fingers crossed!

I think people that read a statement like this (and I have seen similar statements on this site), and have never been there, think "geez sounds dangerous!" and picture driving through a neighborhood where there is constant gunfire and gangs roaming everywhere. When we go there, we generally take I-10 and get off at 51st street, taking that straight to the park (a little less than 3 miles). With the exception of maybe 1 or 2 games, all of the games are day games and I have never felt at all in harms way driving to or from the park. To me it's no scarier than driving through West Allis (where I grew up) or down Capitol Drive in Milwaukee during the day. And once you are in the park, there is zero thought of being in any type of "bad" neighborhood. The really nice thing about the park is the easy access to the practice fields. I don't think all the ST parks have this. This is me being a bit selfish, but I do fear that if they move to a "nicer" community that the crowds will get bigger and the prices will increase a bit. The crowds getting bigger would be puzzling to me, because that would mean people were avoiding Maryvale because of the neighborhood...which is silly. I guess I can understand the complaint about the neighborhood if you don't plan on getting a rental car. Otherwise, there really is no reason to stay near the park. Even if the Brewers moved to Mesa, or Scottsdale, or wherever, we would always just stay at a place that offers us the best value for our money and drive to where ever the Brewers happen to be playing. Edit: I guess the analogy I would use is if the Milwaukee area was a ST site (ignoring the weather), it seems like it would be similar to a park being in West Allis, or 76th and Capitol when all the other parks are in places like Mequon, Elm Grove, and Germantown.

It's not about the importance of the games (ST vs regular season games). It's about taking a week off of work. Paying for airfare. Paying for lodging. You want to have an enjoyable experience and most people are looking for value. I guess if I were to make an argument about it just being a ST game, then I would argue that people don't want to pay a ton to watch a meaningless game where the starter only play for 5 innings. On average, prices for FL ST games are a lot more that AZ ST games. We have gone to ST in AZ just about every year, save 1 or 2, for the last 12 years. We go for about a week and our general MO is to go to every Brewer game, home or away, while we are there (other than a day we might take to go to the Grand Canyon or Sedona). We like to sit in the berm because it is generally the cheapest ticket and it's nice just to spread out on a blanket in the grass and soak in the nice weather. Several fields in FL do not have berms, or have limited berm space, and of the FL games I have seen on TV, when they show the berm area, it usually just looks like quilt with a mass of people. Does not seem very "relaxing". I did a quick view of AZ and FL ST prices. First I looked at teams that have lower demand and looked at games where they play other teams with lower demand. Here is what I found: FL: Minn - lowest price $12 (when they play the Yankees or Boston it's $14 - if you can get a ticket) Pit - lowest price $15 (when they play the Yankees or Boston it's $17 - again, if you can get a ticket) Toronto - lowest price $17 and they don't have a berm AZ: Milwaukee $8.00 Cleve $6.50 for kids, $10.50 for adults Higher demand teams: Tor @ NY: Lowest price $21.50 (no berm from what I could see). Minn @ Boston: Lowest price $27 (only available seats left for this game - RF Grand Stand). AZ: Mil @ LA Dodgers: $14 Mil @ SF: $16.50 Mil @ LA Angels: $18.25 If your team plays in FL and they happen to be playing NY, Boston, or Washington good luck getting tickets and if you do expect to pay through the nose. Even if they are playing a team where tickets are less in demand, you are going to pay inflated prices compared to AZ. Lastly, in regards to travel time between parks. FL is clearly more spread out than AZ. According to Google maps if you stay in Orlando and want to go see your team play in Fort Meyers it's 2 hours and 47 minutes, Clearwater: 1 hour and 40 minutes, even Lakeland (which would be one of the closer sites) is 45 minutes. In AZ the greatest distance between two sites (Mesa to Surprise) is 1 hour and 6 minutes and if you centrally locate yourself, you probably have no more than a 40 minute drive to any park. AZ Spring Training >>>>> FL Spring Training

In fairness, the tweet stated that a baseball executive said "worse", not Rosenthal. I don't know that it's irresponsible reporting to report what a baseball executive stated.

Wow..lot of cynics on this board. I love living in this country.

I'm with you. Not sure how old you are but games were a lot shorter when I was in my teens (late 70's and early 80's). One article I found stated that the average time of a game in 1981 was 2:33 vs. 3:02 in 2014. I went to retrosheet.org and picked 5 random 9 inning games from 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984. This is what I found: 1978: 2:32, 2:37, 2:27, 2:29, 2:13 1980: 2:53, 2:21, 2:08, 2:23, 3:20 (10-12 score) 1982: 3:23, 2:16, 2:44, 2:51, 2:20 1984: 3:11, 2:50, 2:39, 3:03 (11-10 score), 2:21 5 random games from 2014: 3:05, 3:05, 2:41, 3:17, 3:16 The average game time has increased about 1/2 hour (not 10 or 15 minutes), since the late 70's/early 80's and I'm guessing if you went back another 20 years or so the increased time would be about 40 minutes. It's not that I don't enjoy watching baseball. I just don't want to spend 3+ hours watching something that should take no more than 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete. Just because I enjoy an activity or a form of entertainment, doesn't mean I have unlimited free time to enjoy that event. What really bothers me is the post-season when games routinely end after 11pm central time. I get up at 5:45 every day for work...it gets to be 10:30 or 11:00 and I have to start fighting off sleep. edit: Perhaps if you are talking about the last 5 or 10 years or so, this is true. However, if you ever get a chance to watch a video of a game from 30 or 35 years ago notice how much quicker the pitchers work and how seldom batters step out of the box and walk around. Most of the pace of play slow down over the long term is because of the players (and I'll also put part of the blame the extra commercial time in today's game) People are unhappy about the prospect of a pitching clock. However, this rule is really already in the books (with no one on base), but not really enforced. Rule 8.04 - 12 seconds for a pitcher to get rid of the ball: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/pitcher_8.jsp

I think the coach staying in the dugout will shave a little time, maybe not much. I always found it interesting how baseball was one of the only sports where the manager is allowed to actually come onto the field of play and dispute a call without any fear of penalty or fine (unless the umpire eventually ejects him). If a football coach walked onto the field (not just 2 or 3 feet onto the field) and started arguing a call, it would be an instant penalty and probably a decent chance of an ejection.

It will be interesting to see how they implement this. For example, what's the penalty if a batter takes both feet out of the box? Is it a called strike? I remember several years ago (15? 20?..more?) where they decided to tighten up the rules on the definition of a balk. If I remember correctly they decided to be more strict on the enforcement of having to come to a noticeable set position before beginning your motion. There were an insane amount of balk calls on opening day that year. I want to say there were 4 or 5 balks called during the Brewer's opening game.

Agree as well, even at the risk looking like the old codger that it constantly reminiscing about how things were "back in my day". Unfortunately, I fear that money will drive baseball's desire to appeal to the masses. I know this will sound condescending to those who feel the games needs more offense, but I can't help but think of the movie "Idiocracy" when it comes to these kind of topics. I guess maybe I'm just turning into my dad. Last year, at age 84, he finally decided that it was time for him to stop going to ball games with me and my son. Just too much "commotion" for him. Most times he would just shake his head and roll his eyes at all the in between innings "entertainment", walk-up song music, and just sound bites in general (after every foul ball, walk, strikeout, etc). I could see the disdain on his face as we walked by the half drunk (or fully drunk) tailgaters on the way in and as he saw all the people staring at their phones during the game. I could count on him always uttering something like "Does anyone actually come to the ballpark to watch the game any more?" The older I get and the more I see traditions dying (not only in sports, but in other areas of life), the more I feel his pain.

The graphs would be a lot more meaningful if they superimposed the rule book defined strike zone over the plotted area (Although, I guess it might be hard to do this because it depends on a batter's height). Just because the umpire called strike zone has grown does not mean that its wrong. In fact, I would not be surprised if the current called zone is still smaller than the strike zone that is defined in the rule book.

I couldn't agree more. Not only for the reason's you mentioned, but the average cost of going to a ST game in FL is much higher than in AZ. Deviated from our annual AZ ST trip last March and decided to go to FL (mainly to go to Disney). Never again!