Patrick425

I'll admit that I talk on the phone occasionally while driving, but I do it hands free through blue tooth and can control everything through one or two buttons on the steering wheel. I know that can still be a distraction, but I really do not do it that often and my conversations are usually with my wife and last perhaps a total of 2 or 3 minutes tops. Generally it's something like telling her I'm going through the drive through on the way home and asking her if she wants something. What I find curious is that many cars made in the last 3 or 4 years come with bluetooth as standard equipment. I see so many people in newer cars (BMWs, Lexus, Accura) that I know have to have bluetooth and they still continue to have a phone up to their ear. Why not learn how to use this convenient feature of this car if you plan on using your cell phone while driving. The texting thing really is kind of like driving with a bunch of drunks in rush hour. Cars that can't stay in their lane and leave unreasonable spaces between them and the car in front of them (basically because they are looking down instead of forward). As turborickey stated, very easy to spot.

Basically what fondybrewfan stated is what I'm talking about. I think I know how you are going to respond to this Casey....that's it's illegal to go around someone and "off the road". You don't have to go "off the road" to go around someone. I'm not talking about some country road in the middle of nowhere. Even if it is "illegal" (which I question), I highly doubt that a cop would stop you if your car partially goes into the unoccupied parking lane for 2 seconds for the purpose of trying to ease traffic congestion. I'll agree with you on the people continuing to make left hand turns long after the green arrow has ended as well as the people not going one speed on the freeway...which is mostly an open highway issue. I'm not sure why more people don't make use of cruise control in light traffic areas of the freeway.

At one point I think there was a thread dedicated to things that bug you while driving. It was an interesting thread. I would say that 90% of things that bug me throughout the day occur as I am driving. So much so that I probably bring it up in this forum once every year or two. Probably my biggest pet peeve is left hand turns and how so many people do not know how to properly execute them. Four biggest things I see: 1) Light turns green without an arrow. Person making a left hand turn does not get into the intersection to wait for the traffic to flow through instead they stay back behind the crosswalk and do not pull into the intersection at all (until oncoming traffic has cleared). Sometimes, because of this, they are the only car making a left hand turn that is able to get through before the light turns red. I have seen more and more of this. Is this something new that they are teaching in drivers school?...not to pull into the intersection when making a left hand turn?? You are turning into the right hand lane, not the left hand lane. It just makes sense that you would pull out far enough so that when you actually complete your turn, you are in the correct lane. 2) This is somewhat related to #1 above, but people who cut their left hand turns and basically turn into oncoming traffic. How hard is it to round off your turn so that you are in the correct lane as you are completing your turn? I see this mostly on side streets. I'll be coming to the end of the street and a car will be making a left hand turn on to the street in such a manner that I basically have to come to a hard stop to avoid getting hit by this person who does not apparently have the coordination and/or sensibilities to make a proper left hand turn. 3) People who do not maneuver around cars that are waiting for oncoming traffic to clear as they make a left hand turn. 4) I'm in a line of cars waiting to make a left hand turn. The light turns green with a green arrow. Sometimes, I can literally count to 6 or 7 slowly before I finally see the first car making it's turn. Also, some of the gaps between cars that are turning (with an arrow!!) are way too big. Do people have any concept that there is a whole line of cars behind them that are also hoping to get through the green arrow? While left hand turning really bothers me it is slowly being overtaken by people texting while driving. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person on the road not doing it.

I can't believe this game is not on mlb network radio on xm. Really? MLB, if you are not going to take the WBC seriously enough to broadcast it on all of your outlets I'm not sure how you expect anyone else to.

Yeah, I have to say the writer of this article seems like somewhat of a buffoon who just wants to thump his chest.As Thurston Fluff pointed out, he really does not seem to have all the complete facts in regards to charges he makes against Selig and the history of baseball.

FYI - there is a lot of talk about the WBC in the "Axford, Braun, Gallardo, Lucroy, 8 others to play in 2013 WBC" thread, but I agree that there should be a separate thread dedicated to discussing the games.

The shadows look much worse on TV than they do in person inside that stadium. I've seen quite a few games there i that setting and it isn't that bad. It seemed like the mound was in the sun and the plate was in the shade for about 3 or 4 innings.

With all the complaining about the shadows at Miller Park, the shadows at Chase are horrible and they don't seem to move at all.

Not understanding Torres lineup. Mauer 4th? Stanton 7th? Huh? edit: Adam Jones 8th? Again..why is Mauer batting 4th?

I guess I didn't realize that Hellweg had started games in the minors.

Also, this from "The Warriors" Wikipedia page: President Ronald Reagan was a fan of the film, even calling the film's lead actor, Michael Beck, to tell him he had screened it at Camp David and enjoyed it. Reagan, a fan of "The Warriors"? Really? Who knew?

I really hope that Olmsted and/or Hellwig make the 25 man roster. However, my guess is that only one or neither of them will (they both still have options available...correct?). I'm a big fan of guys who can throw heat coming out of the bullpen. I also like those kind of guys as closers. Not sure about anyone else, but I'm not entirely comfortable with the Brewers closing situation.

This didn't dawn on me until today, but the guy who did the iconic "Warriors come out to play" scene in "The Warriors" and was also "weasly" bad guy in "48 Hrs" had the same character name in both films...Luther. I'm guessing there was some purpose to that and that maybe you were supposed to believe that it was the same character in both films. Those were two great and very similar roles.

Seems like the MLB Network has been showing a lot more games from FL than from AZ so far and it also seems like half of those games have been either Yankee or Red Sox games.

Kind of off topic but I believe you could figure out a players bat speed. ESPN has some stats for home runs with the speed off of the bat. You would just have to plug that into a formula and get the bat speed for that player off of that hit. Once you have collected enough data you will then have that players bat speed within a margin of error. http://www.hittrackeronline.com/top_sob.php Yeah..but is any of this data available from the 90's and early 00's?

A lot of great memories over my 40 years of being a Brewer fan, but defining the top one is pretty easy.. Storming the field at County Stadium on October 10th, 1982 from the left/center field bleachers with my high school friends. Followed by taking the bus downtown to join the celebration on Wisconsin Avenue. The post World Series parade was awesome as well, culminating at County Stadium with Yount riding his motorcycle around the track.

I guess it just seems like they always seem to find a way because the times they do it, despite injuries and setbacks, are so frustrating. Keep in mind, making the playoffs 3 out of 6 years is pretty good...much better than 4 out of 43 .

If I'm not mistaken, I believe in 2011 they had a number of injuries to key players like Pujols, Wainwright, and Carpenter and the Brewer fan base was elated by this. We all know how that turned out. They always seem to find the Berkman and Beltran type players who come in and have all-star caliber career revivals. Maybe this time the injuries and aging will finally catch up with them....one can only hope!

What's your measuring point for this? Stats? Well of course pitching was awful if they were facing a bunch of roided up batters! While you may argue that the pitchers were on PEDs as well, I don't believe that those substances help pitchers nearly as much as they help hitters. Pitching is mainly about mechanics and location. PEDs do not help you with either of these. Of course when there is expansion, pitching is going to be thinned out and offense is going to see a boost. I don't know that anyone would argue that. However, in 1976 there were 24 teams and and average of 0.58 HRs per game and in 2000 there were 30 teams and an average of 1.17 HRs per game. There is no way that you can convince me that adding 6 teams would cause the HR rate to more than double. That's an eye popping increase and all you have to do is look at the size and condition of players in the 70s vs the "comic hero" size biceps of the players in the 90's and 00's to get some clue as to what was going on. Also, the HR rate went down one year before steroid testing began in 2006. The news and shame of steroid usage broke well before this. Many players were beginning to realize, before 2006, that the gig was up and the days of just doing whatever you wanted was coming to an end. While they may have not been tested in 2005, they were being watched and scrutinized a lot more closely by the media and the fans. Just as you think some of us are "overblowing" the effect of steroids on baseball, I think you are really overblowing the effect of expansion and the "juiced ball" (especially the juiced ball). While you should expect some increase in offense from expansion, it should not be anywhere near what actually happened.

On the other hand if, at the very least, you are in the Terrace Box or Lodge Outfield Box by the time the StL game rolls around, you are sitting in $34 or $40 seats (and, depending on the status of the pennant race, there is a good chance of no discount promotion on that night). What I never understood is the dates of their promotions, especially Bobble heads. Bobble Heads are the promotion that seems to attract the most fans. I don't get why these promotions are ALWAYS on Sundays? Seems like there would generally be a better crowds on Sundays anyways. Why mix up the days they give away bobble heads? Have some during weeknight games when you are struggling to attract fans. Mix not up the days a little? My only guess as to why they do this is that they need to place large orders for the bobble heads and they don't want to chance be stuck with a bunch of extra bobble heads....but isn't the idea of a promotion to attract fans?

The Florida vs Arizona discussion also too place earlier in this thread, but I'll reiterate that I really hope they never move from AZ. We just got back from our 10th trip to spring training in AZ last week. Our family has also done 2 or 3 trips to Florida (mainly Orlando/Disney). I will take Arizona any day over Florida. We went to the Grand Canyon for the first time this year (can't believe we never did that before!). It was a very scenic drive from Phoenix. I know that Sedona is also a very beautiful place to visit. I really like the fact that no matter where I stay in Phoenix it is a reasonable drive to any of the ballparks. This was the first year in 10 that we did not go to a game every day (since we went to the Grand Canyon one day).

Ok, sorry, not much of a gamer (not any more anyways - my wife and I had a short lived addiction to Mario when we first got married 20 years ago). However, can someone please explain to me why they release multiple games on the same day? My son has always loved MLB The Show and he always wants us to get it for him as an early b-day gift (his b-day is in April). I pre-ordered it and went to get it last night. I had to wait in line with everyone who was picking up SimCity.

Yeah...I can't agree more. Also, just look at guys like Sosa, Bonds, and McGwire. Look at how their bodies looked early in their career and how they looked in their 30's. It was almost comical. It's also funny now that baseball has expanded it's drug testing that you don't see anyone hitting 50 or 60 HRs, or even nearly the amount of players in 40 HRs as you had at the height of the steroid era. There is no way you will ever convince me that steroids did not have a major effect on the statistics during that period.

Follow up story from the guy who initially tweeted this. http://daps.tv/more-info-about-the-rumored-suspensions-of-mlb-stars-cano-rodriguez-granderson-and-braun/

Thanks again for bringing this book up. I purchased it a while ago and just really started reading it during our family vacation last week. I'm not a huge book reader. I read 2-3 books a year (I always say I'm going to start reading more, but then never make the time to do so). However, this book really struck a chord with me. I'm roughly the same age as the author and baseball cards were a huge part of my life during the same period he covers in his childhood. I completely understood his discussion about "Free to be you and me" and how big that was for a period of time in the 70's. I actually played William (of "William wants a doll") in our grade school play about "Free To Be You and Me". I also loved his description of Reggie Jackson and what a larger than life icon he was in the late 70's.