Are the Brewers still alive on September 21st?

After yesterday's comeback, I am starting to get excited for real about this

"September to Remember!"

 

Someone needs to blog about this!

The 2012 Milwaukee Brewers-a lost season

Okay, so we are up 5-1 over the Cincinnati Reds after 7 innings on a beautiful night at Miller Park.

 

Then RR puts in K-Rod for the 8th inning. What? What did he think was going to happen? Did he think it was August of 2012 when the Brewers were good and we could count on K-Rod and The Ax Man to finish things off? Well, obviously this put the game in jeopardy and he takes K-Rod out just in time. Now he puts in The Ax Man, OH my god, RR must want us fans to see another meltdown by this team!

 

So the lead was still 5-2 but the bases are loaded, I felt like leaving to avoid seeing the Brewers lose again but as I thought about it I saw a ball looking like it was going to be a base clearing double somehow caught by Hiroyuki Aoki. If not for great Defense all night by our Right Fielder we totally lose this game. The Ax Man survives the 8th with the team still up 5-3. Up 6-3 going into the 9th I was excited to see who might be the NEW Brewers closer (we need to try someone because it has been obvious for a month that The Ax Man and K-Rod can no longer do it) and what does RR do?

 

YEP, He puts the Ax Man back out there. Crap he really has lost it. RR is stuck in 2011. Well the Ax did finish it off and we did win 6-3 on my final Brewer game of this lost season BUT the credit for this save must go to Aoki and the win to the Home Runs the team hit and to the starting pitcher Yovanni Gallardo. The problem is that after The Ax finally did get another save, RR is sure to keep sending him out there, the Defense will not always bail him out so we can expect the final two months of this bad season to include many more losses.

 

The Brewers will finish about 72-90 in 2012. Why did things go so bad? Not having Prince Fielder surely hurt the team a lot. Many injuries early in the season made things difficult. The biggest problem was the bullpen that was better than average last season, especially K-Rod and Ax, and much worse than average this season, especially K-Rod and Ax again, but sometimes in life it is not what happens to you but how you react to it. Much like what happens to me in my own life, RR did not handle it well. In fact managing a major league baseball team is just to much for him to handle. We saw how he messed up the 2011 NLCS and now this season he and his team was never able to recover from things that happened to them because he is too resistant to change.

 

Ryan Braun cannot do it all by himself and some bright spots did emerge this season. It is too bad that we had to trade Zack Greinke away but we did add three good players in that trade and the new Shortstop just played his first game as a Brewer. It is hard to be real confident about what next season will bring but I know this:

 

In my opinion the Milwaukee Brewers need a new manager for 2013!

What do you think?

College Football Playoff in 2014 FINALLY!!!

After years of BCS criticism and calls for a playoff, we will finally have a four-team playoff in college football! Two semifinal games on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day and a final game about a week later. That’s the good news!

There are still many problems with the playoff plan. The primary problem, as I see it, is that rather than running like a regular playoff in any other NCAA sport, the two semifinal games will take place in the bowl system. This means that hundreds of millions of dollars per year that the NCAA could generate by bidding out the two semifinal games will instead go to the hands of the bowl organizations. Some universities, particularly ones that rely on state and student subsidies, could really use this money. So why give it away to the bowl organizations?

Other problems include the possible controversies that will erupt when the four teams are selected, since the selection criteria for those four teams has not been established. Obviously Wisconsin is still in a position where they need to schedule better competition for pre-season games OR win every game and win the Big Ten Championship game OR both to have any chance of being one of these 4 teams selected. Being part of the 12 team Big10 however is a great advantage. It is necessary to be in a power conference. We Badger fans can at least dream about a championship.

The “haves” will still likely run college football, leaving the “have nots” out when it comes to the playoff. Boise State and other teams from small conferences now have even less chance of winning a championship. They can go undeafted and hope but still get no respect. And then there’s still the basic problem of corruption within the bowl organizations.

At the end of the day, the four-team playoff is a good start but we are still far from a college playoff that is fair and equitable and benefits all rather than just a few, like the 16 team tournament I have been talking about for years. We finally have a college football playoff. I will become more interested right now but in the future, let’s hope they get it right!

What should the Brewers do now?

Cincinnati	25	19	.568	-	13-8	12-11	171	163
St. Louis	25	20	.556	.5	12-9	13-11	240	176
Houston	21	23	.477	4	16-10	5-13	182	170
Pittsburgh	20	24	.455	5	11-10	9-14	126	160
Milwaukee	18	26	.409	7	11-13	7-13	191	220
Chicago Cubs	15	29	.341	10	9-15	6-14	155	201

Obviously things are not getting any better for the Brewers so the question becomes:

Is it time to rebuild or do we still have enough talent to retool and make a run in 2013?

Ryan Braun is under contract for years yet so I say RETOOL, give Zack Greinke a long term deal NOW, it will cost a lot but without him the Brewers will not be able to contend in 2013!

My advise for Brewer fans!

Normally a record of 15-20 just 35 games into the season does not mean you are out of it. There are still 127 games remaining, that is 78% of the season! The problem is that Milwaukee has already lost 3 of the key players for the season due to injury and our new 3B Aramis Ramirez was a huge waste of money. It looks like 2B Rickie Weeks will never live up to his potential and worse yet, his best days might already be behind him. What do we have, really, as far as stars? Ryan Braun and Zack Grienke, and that's it! Maybe Jonathan LuCroy is on his way but does anyone else on this team excite you? Argue for Yo if you want, or Corey Hart but I don't see them at the same level.

Manager Ron Roenicke does not appear to be the right guy to lead this team. Not only did he totally get out-managed in the NLCS last season but he has failed to react quick enough to what has been happening. He has started to tweek the lineup a little but my god, he still has Aramis Ramirez hitting cleanup. This makes no sense. Don't keep guys who are not producing in production spots in the lineup, no matter how much they make. That is my opinion anyway.

Any expectations of playoffs this season need to be put to rest right now. They simply don't have what it takes. Doug Melvin will not be adding any more expensive players to this team. They need to have some cash to go into the off-season with a chance to re-load again while there is still some talent here. Even if later this season they do jell into a team with good chemistry and get hot a few times, it's a .500 season at best. If this team is not going to get better then what should we do?
Here is my advise:

I say watch just to watch and enjoy baseball and root for your team. Enjoy watching Ryan Braun continue his remarkable career. Support the team, enjoy the Miller Park experience when you are at the game but don't take the losses hard and celebrate the wins, every wins, even wins over bad teams like the Twins or the Cubs because we are not much better.
Take the pressure off of the players and yourself. Drink a few and have fun!

Injuries will be blamed for this poor Brewer season but...

remember...something was wrong with this team before the injuries became so devastating. See the previous post if you need a reminder of how bad it already was before Gomez and Gonzalez went down!

What is wrong with the Brewers? (5 players to blame)

When a team starts 11-14 it is never just one thing. Yes we do miss Prince Fielder but I need to place most of the blame on the the pitching. Yovani Gallardo has been the ace of this staff for years now and we are still waiting for him to reach potential. Up until this season he was progressing okay but I always felt like once we acquired Zack Greinke, Zack should be considered the #1 guy.
Yo is 1-3 with a 5.79 ERA...the only way to describe this is TERRIBLE.
Zack is 3-1 with a 3.94 ERA...also not as good as expected but still unbeaten in Miller Park.
Randy Wolf is 2-2 with a 6.84 ERA...he has not been worth his contract.
Shaun Marcum is 1-1 with a 3.19 ERA...he is better now than in the playoffs last season
Marco Estrada is 0-1 with a 3.71 ERA...solid in relief and now a starter because of a season ending injury to Chris Narveson...BIG LOSS... who is missed because the bullpen suffers from losing Estrada. I like Marco as a starter but the relief pitching has become a huge problem. part of this problems is because the starters are not able to go enough innings.

The bullpen overall has been HORRIBLE with the worst being K-Rod. Francisco Rodriguez came back to the Brewers this season because no team wanted him enough as a closer to give him the kind of contract he was looking for. Are his best years behind him?
Right now as the Brewers set up man he is 0-3 with a 6.57 ERA...he is second to Yo on my list of where the blame should fall.

John Axford is 0-1 with a 4.70 ERA...he is doing his job being 5 for 5 in save opportunities however.

Overall Brewer pitching is 11-14 with a 5.04 ERA. No offense can be expected to put up over 5 runs every night so the pitching is the biggest problem here. The Defense is still a problem as well but better than in past years so it can't be blamed for the poor start.

What about the hitting?

George Kottaras .304 with 3 HR and 9 RBI in limited action is the only bright spot.
Carlos Gomez .292 1/5...better than last season and I think he should be the regular CF
Ryan Braun .283 7/17...not what we expect but I am not worried about our biggest star.
Corey Hart .280 6/13...solid overall, we need him to become a .300 hitter
Jonathan LuCroy .279 2/8...just what we expect and need from him.
Norichika Aoki .269 1/2...he might be able to help us as he gets more playing time
Alex Gonzalez .263 4/14...this is what we expect and a little more
Mat Gamel .246 1/6...he was looking okay but is now out for the season...BIG LOSS
Aramis Ramirez .207 2/10...these are not clean up hitter numbers, he needs to get hot
Nyger Morgan .175 0/0...what happened to T. Plush, losing is not fun!
Travis Ishikawa .172 2/5...he will stay on club as he plays 1B but he is no answer.
Rickie Weeks .172 3/6...time to face it, he has become a solid second baseman but as a hitter, he will never be the star we hoped he would be.

Izturis .167 0/1...obviously the Brewers have a very weak bench.

Overall the Brewers are hitting just .229 with 32 HR and 98 RBI. The fact that we are 11-14 is actually hard to believe. These numbers look like a club than loses twice as often as they win.

Here are my top five under performers so far:

1. Yovani Gallardo
2. Francisco Rodriguez
3. Rickie Weeks
4. Nyger Morgan
5. A. Ramirez 

THINGS ARE MUCH WORSE THAN I THOUGHT!...all we can do is look for solutions. Manager Ron Roenicke really messed up in the playoffs last season but this lack of production can not be blamed totally on him. THE TIME IS NOW to do something about it. He has a lot of options here one month into a six month season sitting at 11-14 after 25 games with 137 games to go. There is plenty of time but is there enough talent? If things don't turn around I think Doug Melvin might be the one to go but maybe both of them. The question is...What lineup would you put out there given the options you have with this team. Please post comments with your plan.

Here is my plan:

First off, don't worry about any players feelings and bring up some other guys from the minors to replace the ones who continue to fail to produce off the bench. The five starters will stay the same for now but only Zack Greinke has a secure spot in the rotation. Gallardo is not going anywhere either but might need some rest and be later in the rotation. Only Ax is secure in the bullpen. Look to trade an outfielder and consider any offer for any player other than Braun. As far as the starting lineup I think a few things need to be tried here in May and I would start with dropping Aramis in the batting order and get Carlos Gomez and Norichika Aoki in the lineup every day and play more small ball:

1. Gomez CF
2. Aoki RF
3. Braun LF
4. Hart 1B
5. Gonzalez SS
6. LuCroy C
7. Ramirez 3B
8. Weeks 2B
9. Greinke P

Predictions are just for fun!

People make predictions all the time. Professional sports writers and bloggers, broadcasters, and various other people, on television, on the radio, in the newspaper or magazine. We all like to sound like we know what we are talking about but really we are just taking educated guesses. So why do we do this?

It's fun and it sparks debate!

My 9 year old son just won a bracket contest and claims he knew all along that it would be Kentucky over Kansas for the NCAA Championship in basketball. He knows his sports but lets face it, sometimes we just get lucky! Still, I will listen to what he says before making my predictions in the future. He told me not to go with Missouri and he never doubted Kentucky for a minute.

When I told him before the 2010 NFL season started that the Packers would win Superbowl XLV and then they did, he thought I really knew my stuff, it looks like those days are over. Anyway, we have been discussing major league baseball now that the season starts tonight. We have been trying to figure out why many experts expect the St. Louis Cardinals to win the NL Central division. Sure they won it all last year but playoffs are about who is hot at the time. Clearly the Brewers were much better than the Cardinals during the regular season last year and won the division, finally!

The Milwaukee Brewers won't be giving up the throne that easily and if they do Zach and I agree that the Cincinnati Reds are the team that might take it. Sure the Brewers no longer have Prince Fielder but look at what St. Louis no longer has: The best hitter in baseball, Albert Pujols, and a great Manager, Tony LaRussa. I feel pretty safe in predicting that the Cardinals will finish no better than 3rd place in the NL Central, of course I have been wrong before!!!

2011 NFL Predictions

I have gone through every game on the NFL schedule to come up with the most accurate predictions possible for each team. I have taken into consideration that the Jaguars are going in a new direction at Quarterback, the Colts will have to play this season without Peyton Manning and the fact that the new kickoff rules could hurt teams with a good return game.

Also the "dream team" in Philadelphia could go through a nightmare early in the season with that Offensive Line. Protecting Michael Vick and keeping him healthy is the key to this teams success.

I predict the Packers will beat the Chargers in Superbowl XLVI after a great NFL season!
Here are my regular season record predictions for each team:

NO 13-3
AT 12-4
TB 9-7
CR 3-13

GB 12-4
DT 10-6
CH6-10
MN 2-14

AZ 10-6
SL 8-8
SF 8-8
SE 3-13

PH 10-6
DL 9-7
GI 7-9
WA 5-11

HU 10-6
TN 8-8
ID 6-10
JK 5-11

BT 13-3
PT 12-4
CL 9-7
CN 3-13

SD 13-3
KC 6-10
OK 6-10
DN 3-13

JT 13-3
NE 12-4
MI 6-10
BF 4-12

Question for Wisconsin Sports Fans?

On Friday night August 26 when the Packers play pre-season game #3 at the Colts at the exact same time that the division leading Brewers play in Miller Park vs. the Cubs, which game will you pay more attention to and why?

Brewers Win with complete game shutout by Yo (4/5/11)

It is great to have that first win but now it is time to start scoring some runs. Yovani Gallardo not only pitched a complete game shutout but it was a 2 hitter AND it was Yovani Gallardo (YoGa) who scored the only run.

Yo twice had similar games last season but this was his best yet. I think he is a true Cy Young Award candidate. Zack Greinke, a former American League Cy Young Award winner will be able to pitch for the Brewers at some point. Shaun Marcum and Randy Wolf will be solid starters I believe but will have bad games like they both did the first time out this season. Chris Narveson had a very good first outing and the plan is for him to be the fifth starter.

The Brewers need to bring someone up from the minors to pitch tonight (4-6-11)because of the Greinke injury but I think this starting staff is going to be a great one. The key is to need the relief pitchers as little as possible. Nice job by Ron Roenicke allowing YoGa to pitch all nine innings last night. The pitching staff is good enough to be a champion but the sub-par Defense could hold this team back. When ever a pitcher is struggling, like all members of the bull-pen right now, they need a solid Defense behind them to pick them up but the Brewers don't have that.

Good hitting can overcome a lot of things but right now it is the Brewers biggest weakness. The amount of runners left on base game after game for the past few seasons is alarming. If the Brewers can find a way to score more runs that what they leave on base this team will have a good season. The fact that it did not take a Home run to score the run last night is a good sign but we need to do that a few times in every game to win consistently. The inability to score those two runners thrown out at the plate in the 8Th inning last night would have cost Milwaukee the game if not for the masterpiece thrown on 4/5/11 by Yovani Gallardo!

Brewers 0-4 (Even lost the home opener)

When will the first win finally come along?

Tuesday?

This Week?

Over the weekend vs. the Cubs?

Next Week?

Next Month?

Not until Zack Greinke can pitch?

Will the Brewers will set the record for most losses to start a season?

Please click on comment below and place your vote!

The Brewers 0-3 start, no need to panic yet but...

This is not how this "all in" Brewer season was supposed to begin. I think a rookie manager with more of a veteran ball club might not be the right match. This has me craving football but with the possibility of the NFL not coming to an agreement in time to start playing meaningful games in September, we need the Brewers to be good more than ever. This is the perfect season to win it all and have everyone in the state paying attention throughout this journey.

They look like the same Brewers as the last two seasons. Ron Roenicke needs to show us he is different from the most recent managers. You tell me, does this poor start already tell us that the Reds are much better than the Brewers? Should any hopes of winning the National League Central be adjusted to just hoping for a Wild card spot?

Playoffs? PLAYOFFS? What am I even talking about?

I JUST WANT TO WIN A GAME!!!

Who has a better chance at winning thier next Championship, Tiger Woods or VCU?

Well, the Final Four is set and are no #1 or #2 seeds have made it. Two Cinderellas, VCU and Butler, are there along with two other heavy tradional programs in Kentucky and Uconn. VCU has to be the most surprising team of the four. This team was on the outside looking in on selection sunday and when thier name was announced, Jay Bilas, Dick Vital and company were first in line to critize the committee for putting VCU into the field of 68. They argued that VCU had lost to teams like Georgia State, Northeastern, James Madison and Drexel in the regular season. But here we are, 2 weeks later, and VCU has gone on a remarkable and historic run by beating powerhouse teams such as USC, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and Kansas. How did this happen?

VCU, as a team, did not watch the selection show because they didnt think they were getting into the tournment but when thier name was announced, word spread quickly and the team was excited. They quickly turned on the TV and listened to so-called experts like Vital and Bilas rip thier team and calling them garbage! Hearing these experts say all of these things was plenty of motivation to go on this run. I even predicted that VCU would come out in thier first game with something to prove but I didn't think they would go on this furious run.

While VCU was pulling off this run, Tiger Woods was teeing off at Bay Hill. He was looking to win his first event in a year and a half. He started off well after shooting a 68 in the second round but tailed off in rounds 3 and 4, shooting a 74 and 72. He hasn't won an event since the '09 BMW Championship. Who would have thought that Tiger Woods would have not recovered from a scandal like this? Afterall, we hear scandals similiar to this all the time in sports and most athletes overcome the adversity, but I think Tiger Woods has fallen so far from grace that the greatest golfer in the game will never recover emotionally and mentally from the greatest mistake of his life.

So, when its all said and done, I think you will see VCU winning a Championship before Tiger Woods wins another event of any kind!

Bo Ryan lacks tournament success at Wisconsin

Bo Ryan has taken what Dick Bennett started at UW, turning the Badgers into a yearly contender for the Big Ten title and March Madness participant but now it is time to take the next step.

In 10 seasons the school has made 10 NCAA tournaments under Bo Ryan, advancing to four Sweet 16s and one Elite 8. Since the regional finals appearance in 2005 however, the tournament runs have been marred by hollow endings.

In 2007 the 2 seed UNLV bounced Bucky in the second round. Then came that stunning loss to Davidson in the Sweet 16 in 2008 and the 2010 loss to 12 seed Cornell after barely surviving 13 seed Wofford to open the tournament.

Now, here in 2011, the 8 seed Butler, who lost twice during the season to UW-Milwaukee, out-performed Big Red in the Sweet 16, leading to another premature exit.

The fact is that college basketball has changed. It is not the pure game that it used to be. As much as I love to see them play like a team, the problem this season was no star to turn to when times got rough. In the game today you need at least a couple of playmakers to go along with all the unselfish role players.

You could argue that Butler is much like Wisconsin and played in the championship last season and is in the Final 4 again this season. I think that is the exception,not the rule. Quite frankly their team has more heart than Wisconsin. The style of play used by these two teams is perfect for Butler but Wisconsin is a big-time program and needs to start acting like it.

Four of Wisconsin's last five losses in the big dance have been to teams seeded lower than it. As a fan I am sick of seeing my team ousted by inferior teams. To take Wisconsin to the next level, Bo Ryan needs to scrap his "system" offense and recruit some playmakers: watching this team throw up bricks on basketballs biggest stage is as frustrating as it gets

March Madness

It is that time of year. A week ago everyone was excited about filling out their brackets and now a week later everyone talks about how bad their brackets look. It is the same thing every year but fans like me still love it!

What makes the college basketball tournament so great is all the upsets. Picking the wrong upsets is what ruins everyones brackets. I had Pittsburgh and Notre Dame in my final 4 and they did not survive the first weekend. So yes, my bracket is a mess but so what?

Assuming that the top 4 seeds from each region are expected to reach the Sweet 16, lets take a look at who is left and who might win each region and qualify for the Final 4.

WEST REGION: This region has gone pretty much as planned. (5) Arizona is a small surprise but I picked them to take out (5) Texas and now (1) Duke. (2) San Diego State should beat (3) Connecticut and go on to win the region. The Connecticut Huskies have played 7 games over a 12 day period and now face a more talented opponent.

EAST REGION: (11) Marquette has played great and made it here along with powerhouse programs like (4) Kentucky, (2) North Carolina, and (1) Ohio State. I will continue to root hard for the Golden Eagles but the Buckeyes appear to be the best team in college basketball and should win this region and possibly the championship.

SOUTHWEST REGION: This is the crazy one with (12) Richmond, (11) VCU, and (10) Florida State taking 3 of the 4 Sweet 16 slots. Should be a cakewalk for (1) Kansas to get to the Final 4 now right? NOT, this is March Madness where anything can happen. The Spiders are looking real good and make a great Cinderella story.

SOUTHEAST REGION: Last years runner up (8) Butler is not nearly as good as they were last season but they did knock off top seeded Pittsburgh to get here. (4) Wisconsin should end the season for the Bulldogs on Thursday night but the (3) BYU/(2) Florida winner should win the region. The Gators have been this far often but the Cougars have JIMMER.

Obviously I am as excited as can be that two Wisconsin schools have made it to the Sweet 16 this season and if they would keep winning, could meet in the NCAA Championship game. Anything is possible in March Madness and in sports in general. The Badgers football team was in the Rose Bowl on the first day of 2011. The Green Bay Packers won the Superbowl. The Milwaukee Bucks have come to life and could qualify for the NBA Playoffs. The Milwaukee Brewers have a promising outlook with a solid pitching staff now to go along with a decent lineup. With all of that and the Golden Eagles and the Badgers doing as well as they are, what a great year in Wisconsin sports!

To recap here is my Final 4: San Diego State, Ohio State, Richmond, and BYU.

My dream Final 4 would be: Arizona, Marquette, Wisconsin, and Kansas (Why Kansas you ask? because I want the Badgers to win a Final 4 game as a big underdog to make it even better)

Las Vegas for March Madness!

I have always wanted to go to Vegas and it is finally about to happen. As a sports fans who knows enough about sports not to gamble on it, the time has come to gamble a little. My main focus will be college basketball. Some friends of mine and I will be betting on and watching many games of Rounds 1 and 2 of March Madness (Tuesday-Friday March 15-18) while we are there.

Do you have any Vegas stories and/or advise to share? This is the place to do it!

Collective Bargaining: Is it Just for Professional Sports?

I realize that this is a sports blog but the topic I am about to address touches on everything from sports, to law, to politics, to religion. In Wisconsin, sometimes it's very difficult to separate any of those four things from each other.

The term "collective bargaining" is normally reserved for professional athletes. It's almost impossible to turn on ESPN without hearing the latest update on the NFL's collective bargaining agreement (or lack thereof). Lately, however; in the state of Wisconsin, the term "collective bargaining" has taken on an entirely new meaning.

This past week, newly elected Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has launched an assault on collective bargaining by calling for legislation designed to strip the teacher's union of its power. At the same time, teachers throughout the state of Wisconsin have called in "sick" to protest the new legislation in Madison, essentially sacrificing the children they are responsible to educate in order to make a political point. I am very interested to see how many of these teachers will sacrifice their personal time and continue to protest in Madison over the weekend.

I actually think that both sides are wrong; however, one side is clearly more wrong than the other. First, I will address the lesser of the two evils. Each and every teacher who called in "sick" to protest the newly proposed legislation should first of all be ashamed and secondly should examine why they decided to become a teacher. If they decided to teach for the money or for the summer vacations, they should have given up the occupation long ago because teachers work way too hard for their salaries and the good teachers don't get a summer vacation because they are too busy improving their classrooms for the next school year.

More disturbing than the behavior of the teachers is the behavior of our Governor. For those of you who have supported him blindly because he ran as a Republican, Scott Walker is no conservative. Instead, he is one of many pseudo-conservatives masquerading a malignant political agenda around and calling it "fiscal conservatism." Politicians like Walker are the reason a smooth talker without any real substance, like Obama, can find a way to get elected to public office.

The barometer for every true conservative on any issue should always be "what would Reagan do?" The answer, in this case, is certainly not this. Although Reagan refused to compromise on his principles, always sought ways to unite the country by compromising on how his principles were implemented. Instead of chasing Democrats south of the border he reached across the aisle to develop diverse solutions that required a bi-partisan perspective.

Instead, Walker's tactics resemble the far left approach that Saul Alinsky advocates for in his book Rules for Radicals. Walker is attempting to use Wisconsin's economic crisis to force citizens to surrender their individual rights for the good of society as determined by Walker's ideology. More importantly, Walker has failed to account for the devastating effect his decisions will have on Wisconsin's children for years to come. Taking away rights from Wisconsin's teachers in an attempt to balance the state's budget will further divide the "haves" from the "have nots" in terms of education.

The most basic law of Economics holds that when any econimically motivated system is forced out of equilibrium it will always regain equilibrium when substitutes exist. In this instance, what that means is that the best teachers in the state of Wisconsin will find a way to regain appropriate compensation for their abilities and either leave the public school system or leave the state. Either scenario would devastate a public educational system that is already strapped for resources.

Similarly, the best and the brightest students entering college in Wisconsin will no longer consider an Education Degree as a viable option since it typically takes between one semester and one year longer to complete than other degrees due to Wisconsin's stringent student teaching requirements.

No matter how one dissects this issue, the conclusion is the same. Wisconsin is headed for disaster in terms of its public education system if Walker's legislation passes. I, for one, hope that it does not.

World Series or Bust!

As a fan of the Milwaukee Brewers for 31 years now, I go into every spring training with an excitement of maybe this is the year that the Brewers will surprise and contend for a world title. But every year, they some how find a way to let me down. As the years wore on, I began to lose faith and started to wonder if I would ever see my favorite baseball team play in October. Major League Baseball is set-up like no other sport. Only the teams with money can contend because there is no salary cap. It's an unfair system and I can't believe they haven't fixed it yet! Bud Selig has been given so much credit for creating the wild-card berth but I think his legacy will be remembered for the steroid era and not getting a salary cap for baseball.
With that being said, I'm putting all my chips into the middle on the Milwaukee Brewers playing in the fall classic and winning it! In my opinion, they have a one year window to make a run in the postseason because they added some critical pieces through trades. They added a 2009 Cy Young award winner in Zach Grienke and Toronto's ace Shawn Marcum, who was thier opening day starter last year. They strengthened thier bull-pen with the signing of Takashi Saito, who had a great year with the Braves last year after posting a 2.83 ERA! The Brewers took a lot of heat from the media because they thought adding Yuniesky Betancourt was a down grade from Escobar. But, if you compare thier numbers, Betancourt exceeded Escobar in almost every category. And lets not forget, Escobar was shaky at times on defense last year! The last piece to the puzzle that the Brewers added was Manager Ron Roenicke. It's hard to say wheather or not this guy will be a good Manager because there is no history to go by.
ESPN experts Buster Olney and Tim Kirchen have picked the Brewers to finish second and third in thier division and I think thats an outrage! I'm not sure what else the Brewers have to do to get some national respect because I give the Crew an A+, in terms of offseason additions. I truely believe that if the Brewers don't win it all this year, I will die an old man without ever seeing the Milwaukee Brewers win a World Series!

PACKERS WIN 13TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

We did it Packer fans, we really did it. Our Green Bay Packers just won the Superbowl without playing their best game. After the veterans Donald Driver and Charles Woodson went out in the second quarter this team did what they did all year and fought through it, fought through mistakes like all the dropped passes and some misfires by Aaron Rodgers. It was a 31-25 victory over the Steelers to win Superbowl XLV, that is all that really matters. Also Aaron Rodgers has now tied Brett Favre with ONE SUPERBOWL TITLE and just won SUPERBOWL MVP, something #4 never did. Aaron Rodgers is already the better quarterback in my book!

This is really just the beginning. This team is mostly young and will have many more opportunities in this decade to win championships. It is never easy to repeat but it looks like this team is still improving. They will continue to grow together and with the injured players back will have more great players on the roster than they can keep.

I think the 2011 Packers might just blow out a lot of teams when they learn how to stop making these mistakes. The first goal will be to win the NFC North division title that we failed to earn this year. Earn the home field throughout the playoffs and take an easier route to the next World Championship, this one in Indianapolis. I need to earn some money and go to Superbowl XLVI. I feel very confident that the Packers will be there and be a much better team than they are right now!