AJAY

I also want to see Nyjer Morgan play instead of Mark Kotsay. Morgan at least brings some speed to the lineup and has better range on defense. He seems to have some energy and spark to his game. I have no idea what Kotsay offers to this team at this point in his career.

Happy Opening Day everyone !!! It's great to have baseball back. Looking forward to a fun season. Let's hope 2011 brings Brewer Nation a championship. GO BREWERS !!! http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b273/AJAY_02/brewers1-med.gifhttp://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b273/AJAY_02/mlb-sm.gif

I took the day off from work and will be watching at home. I am planning on watching as many games as possible.

Saw another photo on Twitter today . . . . http://plixi.com/photos/original/77643715

Just wondering if any Brewers fans are planning to go to Fenway Park this year to catch the Brewers series. I remember hearing and reading about how Brewers fans showed up at Fenway in huge numbers back in 2008. I was wondering if it will be as popular this season. I myself am thinking of possibly going this year. This was an article from 2008 . . . http://milwaukee.brewers....p;fext=.jsp&c_id=mil

More video from Fox 6 . . . . You can see that they completed the sign and added the top piece. http://www.fox6now.com/sp...-brewers,0,4391237.story

Not sure if this was posted already, but I just saw another photo on Twitter. This one gives a good spacial and size persepective. http://twitpic.com/3tcb4d/full

I really love the new sign very much. It seems like a huge artistic upgrade compared to the crappy sign they used to have. Adam McCalvy mentioned another portion would be added on later. I am assuming that will be the top half of the baseball shown in the original rendering. Can't wait to see the actual HD images on the video board. It should be awesome.

Andrew Wagner of OnMilwaukee.com just tweeted this photo. I am assuming it was taken today. http://a.yfrog.com/img619/3068/psgg.jpg Edit: It looks like they are about to lift the Miller Park sign into place. You can see the backside of it on the ground.

Great job 20fry !! Does anyone know if that new Miller Park sign will light up?

Like many of you, game #162 of 2008 was the most nerve-racking sports experience of my life. I was terrified the Brewers were going to lose that day, and I was completely dreading a long miserable winter of tears and disappointment. I guess when you are a Brewers fan, you kind of get accustomed to failure and maybe you expect it. I remember waking up that morning and I had to remind myself over and over that there was no relationship between all of the misery of the last 26 years and today's game. I must have stood in front of a mirror and reminded myself that many times. That helped me get over the losing mindset a little bit. I was feeling a little better. I remember going to the ballpark early and seeing the Brewers warming up on the field. I remember staring at each player and wondering what was going to happen that day. I remember yelling out "Get the Job Done . . . Get the Job Done". I remember pacing around in the concourse like a nervous wreck. I remember the Brewers trailing until the 7th inning. I was feeling sick. When Corey Hart struck out on a horrible pitch with the bases loaded, I went ballistic. 26 years of angst was coming out. When Counsell finally walked to force in the tying run, there was this incredible sense of relief. But what was going to happen next? Both the Brewers and Mets were tied heading into the 8th inning of their respective games. It was a scary feeling knowing that after 161 games and 7 innings, the entire fate of the whole era was going to come down to the last two innings. All those hours following the team for so many years, and now it was coming down to this. Never felt more nervousness when it comes to sports in all my life. Of course, you all know how it ended http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

Someone shared another photo on Twitter today . . http://a.yfrog.com/img620/2963/4mxhn.jpg

I was able to see part of the new video board from the Friday's restaurant today. Although I didn't have a clean view of the whole screen, what struck me the most was that it was not as wide as I had envisioned. However, the video screen actually had more height than what I had envisioned. So in some ways, it seemed more square in nature and was not as panoramic as what I thought it was going to be. Somehow it does not seem to have the 16 x 9 proportions that most people are used to. Maybe my impression might change if I get to see it from other angles. By the way, it looked like they had made good progress on adding the frame around the video screen. Hopefully someone can post photos soon.

Wishing him the best. I hope he gets invited to throw out the first ball at the Brewers home opener this year. That would be really nice.

In case you are looking for recent photos of the scoreboard construction, someone on Twitter sent out this link http://twitpic.com/3kaa1c

What great news to wake up to this morning. I really won't miss Escobar. I didn't see him hit too many balls hard last season, and I was privately thinking he should have been optioned down to the minors. I will definitely miss the other players, especially Cain. But I guess that is the price you pay for having a rotation that on paper looks to be the type of rotation that allows you to at least dream of a championship. Kudos to Doug Melvin and Mark Attanasio for making this happen. And thank you to all the fans that show up in droves (which allows us to take on this much salary).

I love this move for Milwaukee. After seeing Marcum's stats, I am pretty excited. My only question is why Toronto was open to trading him considering his numbers were solid and his salary was low. I can't help but wonder if there is something the Blue Jays know that the Brewers don't.

We all know Cliff Lee is not coming here, but it doesn't hurt to call his agent and just explore things. If anything, you get your team's name in the news and also maybe build a better relationship with his agent. Someday, that agent may represent another player who you have interest in and it would be nice to have some familiarity between the agent and the team. No harm.

The team will sell or not sell tickets based on their wins and losses. Nobody will care who the manager is by midseason. He will either be savior or goat based on how the team plays. Wins and losses are definitely important, but teams also sell tickets and build a fan-following based on their brand-image too. In my opinion, the kind of manager the Brewers just hired is generally more associated with teams like the Royals, Pirates, Rays, A's, etc. But having someone like Valentine, Pinella, LaRussa, Torre, etc. automatically creates more of the emotion and buzz generally associated with teams like the Dodgers, Red Sox, Mets, Cardinals, etc. I realize that brand-image, marketability, and national respect / relevance doesn't matter to everyone. But to me, I am very obsessed with it. It does affect my enthusiasm, passion, and motivation to buy tickets and get excited about Brewers baseball.

This is one of the most demoralizing days I have experienced as a Brewers fan. I can't tell you how heartbroken, devastated, crushed, and disappointed I am that Bobby Valentine did not get the job. For 40 years, we have been hiring the exact same type of "up and coming" nobody for a manager. Look where it has gotten us. We heard all the same nice things about ever other guy they hired in the past too. Why does the front office keep repeating the same thing over and over? The Brewers had a golden opportunity to hire the guy I have always dreamed of having for years, and I can't comprehend how they chose to pass on him. I feel sick to my stomach. I guess it's just another painful reminder that we are just the lowly small-market Brewers and that for some reason, we never get the special things in life. I wish the new guy luck, but this is very painful for me.

Nothing major, but the NY Post also had a little blurb . . . The Brewers have done a lot of background work on Valentine and have interviewed him twice -- once in New York and once in Los Angeles -- a sign of how serious they are about hiring Valentine.

Saw these two notes from Tom Haudricourt in the "comments" section of his latest blog post . . . (1) Doug Melvin is backing Bobby Valentine but he needs Mark A. to sign off on it. That means Valentine has to be considered affordable, which could be a point of contention. We might see how bad Valentine wants to manage. If he is offered the job and tries to break the bank, it won't happen. If he is offered the job and is reasonable with his salary demands, it will happen. Obviously, none of the other three candidates would quibble over salary. They'd just be happy to get the job. (2) Valentine is not using a representative, so you can forget the conspiracy theory that he is playing word games about talking to the Brewers. I'm not saying that Valentine will not be the Brewers' next manager. But I can guarantee you he has not been made an offer yet that is being kept secret.

John Heyman of Sports Illustrated is now saying that sources close to the team have indicated that Bobby Valentine is the top choice right now. Great news !! http://sportsillustrated....10/31/brewers.valentine/

Not sure if this was posted already, but Bill Scott (the guy who originally broke the news) is standing by his story. You can hear the audio here . . . http://learfieldnewsops.p...y-and-hes-sticking-to-it

I have prayed and prayed for Bobby Valentine to become the next manager of the Brewers. I can't tell you in words how badly I want this to happen. It would mean so much to me. I would be the most excited person in America if he were to come to the Brewers. Anyway, I should probably get back to praying some more . . .