A record setting day in the mobile child delivery system industry.  22 cars parked beat the record (of 21 cars set yesterday).  However to be fair, My-Sugar-Na and I made more money yesterday, as the "Demand is more than supply" theory set the pricing.  And to prove the free market works, today "Supply was more than demand", so pricing needed to be adjusted accordingly.  However as of tonight, we are 60% of what we made last year, with a full week to go.  My theory that more folks are taking local vacations seems to be bearing out. 

However, I did park two cars with Illinois plates today.  They were both good sports, however, none agreed to pay the "The Cubs can *** my *** tax.  They also wouldn't pay the $20 exit fee to leave my driveway.  Typical Cubs fans.

So my lovely bride and I park 22 cars (with a yard capacity of 12) from 11:00 AM through 6:00 PM, and I fire up the ol' grill for dinner.  We eat, I shower, then flop exhaustedly onto the couch with the intent of flipping mindlessly through the channels, while thinking of how I can get to a craps game with my parking take (before My-Sugar-Na blows it all on bills and school supplies).  The plan was to fall asleep on the couch around 8:00 PM, wake up when the missus goes to bed, then get on-line and make this blog entry. 

I start flipping the channels at 4.  Then 5.  Then 6.  Then I drop my remote control.  There is a camera pointed at some clouds in Green Bay, and within seconds, a private plane lands at Apple Struedel airport.  Brett Favre has made it to terra firma in Wisconsin.  But why in the hell are we now watching his car drive to his house?  Why is the camera in the helicopter (why is there a helicopter?) following Favre's SUV OJ-style until he pulls into his garage.  Did Favre kill his former wife and her current lover?  Does he have a gun to his head?  Does this mean the Houston Rockets are about to win the NBA title this week?

No.  It means three things.  It means that (1) it is raining in Green Bay and they are delaying the start of the Packers Family Night exhibition (which in it self is a reason to be upset... we are missing a Simpsons rerun); (2) that some TV station in Green Bay is justifying the use of their station helicopter, and (3) Brett Favre is God... actually bigger than God, as I don't ever recall a helicopter following God around as he puts the Virgin Mary's face on a tortilla in Mexico.

On Steve's blog, I joked that lots of people are currently better QBs that Favre.  In reality, I contend that CURRENTLY, he barely cracks the Top 10.  Whatever the case may be, I got sick of this drama a month ago while I first saw it while in a hotel room in Albuquerque watching My-Sugar-Na sleep.  Favre is a legend, check.  The Packers believe that Aaron Rodgers in 2008 is a better option than Favre, check.  Favre (whether coerced or not) retired, check.  Favre didn't make it through one off-season before unretiring, check.  Favre will be reinstated into the NFL tomorrow (Monday) morning, check.  Favre either will play the 2008 season for the Packers or not-the-Packers, check.

Everything else is garbage and speculation.

Yesterday, the NFL Network announced that Favre would accept the Packers $20,000,000 bribe personal services contract.  At the same time, ESPN's Ed Werder said that Favre would play again this season.

When the NFL's own mouthpiece can't get it right, you know that nobody knows what the F-bomb is going on.  Now its time to watch Law & Order: Criminal Intent.  Too bad its not a Mike Logan one.

That's when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training!

I mean, this football thing is very nice (notwithstanding the fact that the Packers got key-rushed last weekend in the NFC Championship game).  But baseball is, well, baseball.

The Brewers made some key moves this winter, adding a real centerfielder (Mike Cameron) and vastly upgrading third base (Bill Hall).  The "Catcher of the Year" Club has a new member (Jason Kendall), and the bullpen has been almost completely revamped (Solomon Torres, David Riske, Guillermo Mota, and Eric Gagne).

About the only thing the Brewers haven't done, yet, is rerack the starting rotation.  As I mentioned last summer, now is the time to trade Ben Sheets.  He is a free agent after this season, and hasn't earned his money over the last two or three seasons.  When healthy (a significant qualifier) he can be a shut-down pitcher.  But leaving 3 games early due to injury (13% of his 2007 starts) and missing another 9 starts does not equate to a pitcher that can be counted on, much less one worthy of a significant raise in free agency after this season.  His trade value is highest right now, when most of the top-shelf free agents have been signed and teams are hungry for making a splash heading into the new season.  Trade him now, before he blows out an abdominal muscle in PFP (pitchers fielding practice) on February 19th.

As for the rest of the rotation, keep in mind that a worn out bullpen was the general excuse given for the summer collapse from the 9-game division lead.  Keep in mind that the apologists for the now-jettisoned bullpen have said that it was because the starting pitching was getting hurt (Sheets) or not getting far enough into ballgames (Jeff Suppan, Chris Capuano, Dave Bush, Claudio Vargas, Yovanni Gallardo and Manny Parra).  So now after moving Carlos Villanueva to the rotation, who else is in the rotation?  Right... Sheets, Suppan, Capuano, Bush, Vargas, Gallardo and Parra.  In other words, the struggling bullpen was overhauled, but the rotation that caused the bullpen collapse is still intact.  Gallardo, Villanueva and Parra are young, and can be considered as having enough upside to hang on to.  But Sheets (as described in the last paragraph), as well as Suppan, Capuano, Bush and Vargas are what they are.  Decent pitchers that have reached the top of their game. 

What makes Doug Melvin (or anybody else) think that just because the calendar turned and everybody got older makes them better than the shipwreck that was last year?  Suppan is an innings-eater (and making about $33 million for the next three years), so I can understand why he isn't going anywhere.  Capuano is a lefty (a plus, which will keep him bouncing around the big leagues until 2042), but he struggled with more than four innings.  He couldn't shut down rallies (or keep the game close) when it mattered.  Bush is Bill Wegman all over again.  A lifetime .500 pitcher that will amaze you for periods at a time.  But then comes that game that is close in the 7th inning, he gives up four runs, the Brewers lose 4-2, and then everybody whines about him not getting any run support.  Bush's problem is that many times, his critical inning is the first inning, then once down 5-0 he cruises through seven innings then the quotes say "Except for that first inning...".  Claudo Vargas is the luckiest pitcher around... he set an MLB record for getting out of 274 bases-loaded-no-out jams in 2007.  He can't go more than five innings because he can't pitch less than 20 pitches per inning. 

You can't put Capuano, Bush and Vargas in the bullpen because there is no room for all of them, and also because they aren't really good.  Just trading or releasing those three guys, however, doesn't solve the problem that the Brewers pitchers in 2007 couldn't work deep into games, and there is nothing to make anyone think that bringing back the same crew in 2008 will solve that problem.

I look for a big year from the Brewers, but if the starting pitching isn't seriously addressed before (or early in) the season, look for that August/September collapse again.

In my third-ever post back in March 2007 (a brilliant post, by the way) I detailed how the NFL is vigorously defending its marks, and mentioned that the NFL had previously sent letters to Las Vegas casinos stating that the Super Bowl cannot be shown in “public on screens that, according to federal law, are larger than those 'commonly used in private homes'."

Over the past couple of years, My-Sugar-Na and I have become fond of watching Packer games (and a couple of Brewers games, too) from the Northern Lights Theater at Potowatomi.  That appears to be coming to an end with the NFL sending "cease and desist" letters to Potowatomi, the Rosebud Cinema and the Majestic Theater (of course, I am sure this didn't help).  To his credit, Don Walker (the MJS Sports Business writer) did a way better job of detailing this than I could have.  I have tried to find time for days to blog about it, but life is really got me chasing my tail. 

Walker does mention that the Fox Bay Cinema Grill once got one of these letters, challenged the league, and hasn't heard a word since.  They will be showing the game, and I will be down there this weekend, and I hope that Steve "The Homer" True can be there and to find a way to bring the cache of prizes that they normally had at Potowatomi.

But I have good news.  A major point of my blog entry from last March was that the NFL was trying to trademark the words "The Big Game" (used by many advertisers as a euphamism for the Super Bowl, which is trademarked).  As of June 25, 2007, the NFL had abandoned its trademark request.  So go ahead Bartz Display, Best Buy and Karl's Rental... advertise The Big Game on February 3rd all you want to.  Just don't show the game on a big screen in a tent.

Maybe a check into some of the lists (lower right of this page, but conveniently linked in this post) would give us an idea...

Al's Ramblings - This is my favorite Brewers info blog.  The updates are quick and an easy read, and usually the links contained within do the talking.  I like this blog even though I am in complete disagreement about the Brewers rise and fall of last season (Al says that the 24-10 start, or the slide in August are small cross-sections of a season, and the final record is almost always what it deserves to be.  I say that the 24-10 start shows how good the team can be, and the slide in August was a red flag that needed immediate attention.)

Professional Bowlers Association (specifically, the Message Boards) - These can be a lot of fun, like the discussion about the olden days, they can be serious, like discussion of the PBA Experience leagues, or (like 90% of the discussions), they can be a mystifying arguement where everybody will argue and contradict each other.  These are the most entertaining.

Pro Football Weekly - Simply, in my opinion, the best source of football news.  Not much hype, very few puff pieces, just football talk.  Quite a departure from ESPN.com, where they get off on being silly (Side note, great thing ESPN does, though, by publishing an ombudsman.  Too bad they don't pay attention to her.)

Wizard of Odds - Some people think I talk about gambling too much.  But I do it for two reasons; (A) I enjoy it, and (B) so do billions of other people.  Why are casinos going up and expanding faster than anything else?  With that said, if I am going to gamble my precious money, I want to go into a casino armed with as much information as possible.  The Wizard of Odds has more info on any game than any one can hope to digest (you've got to try to read the optimum Final Jeopardy strategy), but spend a couple of hours surfing this site and you are bound to find something to give you an edge the next time you go out to gamble.

Las Vegas Casino Death Watch - Just that... fans of "Old Vegas" won't be able to get enough of this.  Do a complete read.

Cheapo Vegas (and the related Cheapo Reno) - Even if you have only been to Las Vegas or Reno once or twice, it is fun reading these reviews of hotels, casinos and restaurants.

Big Soccer (specifically MISL and Indoor Forum) - For better or worse, the Milwaukee Wave and the MISL are hurting for media attention, and the best way to read up on the teams, players and the league are through the keyboards of othe fans.

Our Sports Central (specifically the Soccer portion) - Our Sports Central focuses on minor league sports, and links easily to the leagues and their websites, as well as linking to any and all related newspaper articles.  This comes in handy when the Wave plays a game out of town.  We might get a few sentences in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but this site handily links me to the opposing team's more complete game article.

Czabe.com - Steve Czaban has a morning show on Fox Sports Radio, does a 30-minute sports segment on the Bob and Brian show on 102.9 "The Hog", writes a weekly column on OnMilwaukee.com and has a daily sports blog which is a nice five-minute way to start each morning.

UniWatch - C'mon, what do you expect?  The subtitle for this site is "The obsessive study of athletics aesthetics".  For a small fee, you can join the club as someone who "Get's It".  I "Get It".

The Amazing Race Sucks - Actually, I quite enjoy the show.  So much so, that there are three sets of required reading each week.  First is the interview with that week's Philiminated contestants.  Then during the week, a "regular" contributor posts a comical (often hilarious) review of the previous show.  Then before the next show, a very thoughtful discussion of the racer's edits... and trying to gleen clues as to who might be elminated next.

The Baby Name Wizard - Great fun to type in name after name after name after name after name to see the rise in fall in poularity (try William, Mortimer, Dakota and Conner.)

The Transport Company - Why-oh-why am I fascinated with busses?  Trust me, I ain't a green freak.  I believe it was because my parents would send me on bus trips around town to get rid of me (and I had to walk to the bus stop, barefoot, uphill - both ways).  That got me used to them to the point where, if possible, I would take the bus to the next door neighbor's house to borrow a cup of sugar.  But really, who can resist looking at photos of busses over the last 40 years?  It is like a window to the past.  Quick, without cheating... where was this picture taken?  This one is a gold mine.  I am getting giddy just looking at the photos!

Game Show Convention Center - Game show news!  Granted, a recent site revamp made it more clumsy than it used to be, where where else can you learn that 1 vs. 100 is coming back soon, or that Regis Philbin has been signed on to host Million Dollar Password?

Industrious clock - More accurate than your watch, I assure you.

Adomiable Penguin Fungo - How far can you hit the penguin?  Keep trying.  My record is about 325.

Roadside Peek - This is along the lines as reading about old Vegas or old busses.  When I first found this site, I spent hours looking at old road signs of bowling alleys, motels, restaurants, gas stations, etc.

Keep checking the side links, as I add more as I find them.

It's very simple.  Take the modern helmet from the players and give them a leather helmet to protect from hair pulling and cuts.

What are some of the recent head injuries in pro football?  How about the Miami Dolphins QB Trent Green's recent concussion... Do you think that there was any way on God's Green Earth that Green would have attempted that block if he was wearing a leather helmet?  What about Buffalo Bills lineman Kevin Everett's spinal injury?  Would he have attemted to tackle the ball carrier by leading with his helmet if his head weren't protected?

Simply put, the NFL allows players to wear missles on their heads, and then appears to be surprised when the long range effect of concussions and head injuries were attributed to the deaths of former NFL players.  Leather helmets = safer players.

Of course, if you follow the money, there is no way the NFL can let that happen.  The sport thrives because of the speed and violent nature.  Take away the helmets, and players move a lot slower, they don't hit as hard, and the overall gameplay would suffer.  Gameplay suffers, and you don't have a 30-year waiting list for Packers season tickets, or men forking over $229 for the NFL Sunday Ticket packages on DirecTV, and so on, and so on.

Follow the money some more, and one of the biggest reasons that pro football is so popluar is because it is so condusive to gambling.  Sure, you have the obvious ways to bet (either legally in a Nevada casino, or illegally with an offshore account or with a bookie) by using point spreads, over/under totals and money lines.  Also, just about everybody is in an office pool... also illegal.  Fantasy leagues?  That $100 entry fee you pay, which results in prizes determined by the skill of professional athletes (and is not taxed) isn't legal either.  But betting, pools and fantasy leagues sure are fun.

Despite Norman Chad's point of view on Fantasy Football - and also now espoused by (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Official Father - if you are a fantasy footbal team owner (Side note, I am 4-2, and I've had over 100 points in three of my four wins), or if you do bet on games (I was locked in on Kansas City beating Cincinnati all week, and getting 3-1/2 points was a bonus), or if you have a square in the office pool (6 for the Packers and 8 for Washington won me squat), or even if you are in a 33 pot (I had a BYE this week?  How can my team score 33 points of I didn't have a team?) - don't tell me that watching an otherwise meaningless Titans at Bucaneers game trumps watching the Packers barely hold onto their lead.  Using that particular game as an example, why would anybody outside of Tampa and Nashville watch that game unless there was a little coin action going?  How many fans in, say, Death Valley watched the Rams at Ravens game on their Sunday Ticket package?  Answer... those with some sort of illegal bet on the game.

The NFL and their owners may say that they don't want concussions or spinal cord injuries, but eliminating them would be akin to killing the golden goose.  So those injuries are just a necessary byproduct of making more money than they did last year.  And with every nickel we spend to watch football, we are complicit in this.