As a starting MLB pitcher, you’ve got to figure that if you go 7 innings, strike out 12, walk 2, and give up just 1 run, you’ve put your team in position to win the game.  Especially when the guys who came in to pitch in the 8th and 9th innings from your bullpen didn’t allow any hits or walk anybody.  That’s got to go in your win column right?

Most of the time, yes.  But, not today.  The Brewers dropped the final game of their 3 game series with the Mets by a score of 1-0.  The offense failed the young pitcher today.  The Crew got 7 hits and the Mets were nice enough to commit an error on top of that.  But, the team went 0-7 in batting with runners in scoring position.  Kind of hard to win games when you do that.

My brother sent this link to me about one of the latest obesity studies.

Wow.  The best state out there has a ratio of 1 in every 5 adults being overweight.  Think about that.  1 in every 5 is the best we can do.  And if you look at kids, the numbers are even uglier.

So, my question for you is this: What does this mean to our trillion dollar health care reform initiatives?  It means that as everyone gets older — especially all those baby boomers that are starting to retire — it’s going to cost a lot more than that.  And if it costs more than that, it’s going to fail.  Of course, I’m making a big assumption that it would succeed in the first place.  Comparing the costs to the taxpayer, obesity makes smoking look like pocket change.  Can’t wait until the government decides to levy 25% tax rates on bacon and butter only to find out soy is worse for you.  Then they’ll offer tax breaks to folks who buy new fitness related items only to realize that Americans already spend more money on fitness than anyone else but I digress.

It means that until this country gets up off our asses and stops shoveling crap into our pie holes insurance premiums will be so high that no one will have any health care coverage.  And before you get all up in arms, I put myself in there as well.  I lost 20 pounds 10 years ago and since then have put it all back on plus an extra 5.

Which brings me to my training update.  Since starting 5 weeks ago now, I’m down a measly 4 pounds.  On top of that, I failed to listen to my body and pushed harder to try to lose more weight.  The results?  Running too far, too fast has led me to cramping calf muscles and signs of developing shin splints.  So, now I’m using the exercise bike instead.

Why no real success yet?  I failed to accomplish my number 1 goal.  Do you remember what it was?  The one thing I said would prevent any of the other life changes from being successful.  I was going to get more sleep.  On top of that, I really haven’t watched my eating because when I’m tired and wore down I lack the wherewithall to say no to bad food that tastes really good.  So, I pushed the training harder and harder and now have to dial it way back.  So, my personal health care reform plan seems to have hit some snags as well.

Yet, I’m still hopeful.  Why is that you ask?  You were asking that weren’t you?  Anyway, I’m on vacation next week.  So, I should get caught up on some much needed rest.  I also tend to eat worse the more stressed I get.  Less stress should mean less eating.  And I’ll have plenty of time for exercise.  With some planning and maybe a little luck, I’m hoping to replace some bad habits with a few good ones and they will hopefully carry on after my time under the stars in the northwoods.

That was quite a rambling post.  I must really need that vacation so my brain starts working again.  Thanks for reading to the end.

You know, when it comes to the Milwaukee Bucks its hard to get too excited about anything.  However, the Bucks managed to stay under the luxury tax by dealing Richard Jefferson for 3 other players.  They can now re-sign Ramon Sessions and Charlie Villenueva.  Plus, with the draft tomorrow, we should finally be able to answer the question of which point guard the Bucks are going to draft.

Unfortunately, Richard Jefferson was the only guy who showed up all year long last year.  Redd went down hurt.  Bogut went down hurt.  Ridnour went down hurt.  Sessions would be there one game and gone the next.  CV didn’t show up until the end of the season.  I think both Sessions and CV are starting to get more consistent as they get more mature, but neither has shown up for an entire season yet.  Makes me feel a little less excited.  Throw on top of that all the rumors that the Bucks don’t think they’ll be able to give Sessions what he wants and he’ll go elsewhere and I’m even less excited.  Which means we’ll live with rookie mistakes at the point and Redd taking as many shots as he feels like.  That will leave Bogut and CV to fight for offensive boards if they want to do any scoring.  Makes me feel even less excited.

I wish I could get behind this team.  I want to get behind this team.  Scott Skiles is a good coach.  John Hammonds seems to be a decent GM.  But, this team has had too many problems for too long, and Hammonds is still cleaning up the mess Harris left.  I’m just going to have to wait for another 1-2 years before I can finally stop talking about lottery picks this time of year.

Why is it, whenever you see someone in politics these days standing at a podium offering and apology to their family for certain “indescretions”, they always seem to be members of the party that promotes family values and is backed by the “moral majority”?  I know that’s not true.  Their are plenty of Democrats running around behind their spouses backs (i.e. John Edwards) and the Libertarians advocate legalizing drugs and treating marriage like a business partnership.  Those are hardly things people who buy into the family values mantra would think of as a proper.  But it sure seems like the majority of these guys are Republicans (Ensign, Swaggert, Gingrich, Limbaugh, etc.).  Plus, the Democrats and Libertarians have not put a stake in the ground claiming “family values” and “morality” are the sole property of their party.  If you’re going to cast scorn on everyone else and be so high and mighty, then you might want to try to act the part.

Or perhaps it’s just your definition of family values and morality.  Since morals and values are a rather personal thing, perhaps their values and morals permit that sort of behavior.  That’s not what I get from them before they’re caught screwing up, but maybe I misunderstood.  All I know is that next time I screw up — being human, I’m pretty sure there will be a next time — I better not have to turn on the TV and listen to some reactionary right wing nut job, blathering on about how superior they are over everyone else.  Just remember — unless you’ve recently mastered walking on water, your day is coming.

Just for the record – I don’t want to turn on the TV and listen to some revolutionary left wing nut job, balthering on about how their going to make the world a more fair and homogenized version of itself that everyone will want to play nice-nice in while the government does everything for them either.

Now that Greg Jennings has gotten a new contract, perhaps the Packers can focus on a new deal for Pro Bowl FS Nick Collins.  Collins showed up for the mandatory minicamp, but clearly is not excited about the $3 million he’ll be making this year.  Now, if my boss came to me and said I had such a great year that I’m going to get a 600% raise over last year, I’d being doing backflips down the hallway.  Unfortunately, in the wide world of sports, that’s just not enough money.

I’ll grant you that a Pro Bowl free safety is worth more — we’re talking professional football players reality now, not the rality most of us live in — than $3M a year.  So, I can see why he’d like to have an extension done.  But, look at what Jennings did to get his.  He showed up and worked his arse off doing what he said he’d do when he signed his contract.  Thompson rewarded his good little soldier with a deal that is front loaded with guaranteed millions.  Other people who were unhappy with their contracts or other things in the organization and complained publicly (Brett Favre, Javon Walker, Mike McKenzie, Corey Williams, Ryan Grant, etc.) are either not there, or they came up short of what they were looking for.  People who showed up and did their jobs (Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings, Aaron Kampman, etc) all got their extensions for the money they wanted (granted we’ll see if Kampman gets a second extension or not).

I sure hope Nick is taking notes.

What a lovely sound — the beeping of your emergency backup sump pump telling you it had been activated.  Unfortunately, I had been so tired as the thunder and lightning made it difficult enough to sleep earlier in the night.  I went downstairs and was trying to reconstruct what happened.  You see, we hadn’t lost power, so why did the emergency pump kick in?  I was also dissappointed to see that some water had made it’s way out of the sump crock to meander it’s way to the floor drain on the other end of the basement.  There were no high water marksand most of the basement floor was dry, so things never actually flooded.  The extra scrap pieces of carpeting that I slip under my wieght bench were soaked, but they were also in between the sump crock and the floor drain.

So, I cranked up both of our dehumidifiers (during last year’s flooding we had bought an extra to dry things out) and went upstairs trying to figure out why the emergency pump had even run.  Then I looked out my front window.  Our neighbors are getting their drive way re-paved and yesterday the asphalt company had removed the old driveway and placed a new gravel bed and steel culvert in place for the paving they were going to do today.  I say going to do because the steel culvert was halfway down the block and the compacted gravel was washed down the street.

My yard has a hill down to the street, so our house sits about 12′ in elevation higher than the road.  You would think flooding shouldn’t ever be a problem for us.  At least that’s what I thought but Mother Nature has proven she can pretty much do whatever she wants whenever she wants.  The high water mark — as evidenced by every last piece of my neighbors’ mulch making a line across my yard — was about 1/4 of the way up my driveway.  So, at some point in the night, my street was really more of a river.  I turned on the news to find out that Captial Drive, Greenfield Drive, Miller Park Way and many more streets were also flooded.  Video of stranded cars with water rushing haflway up their windshields.  That video was followed by live shots taken a mere hour later of the no longer flooded street and a tow truck taking away the same car.

So, my latest hypothesis is that the regular pump couldn’t keep up with the amount of water rushing into the drainage tiles.  The emergency pump kicked in as the water level rose.  Since some of the water still found its way out of the crock, that wasn’t quite enough.  Given that amount of water that was rushing outside the house, things worked out pretty well.  I highly recommend the emergency battery backup pump.  But, I might go to one of the big box stores and buy the biggest damn sump pump they sell in hopes that I don’t have problems with the pump keeping up in the future.

Perhaps hanging on is a bit of an exaggeration.  However, despite MIP award candidate Ricky Weeks going down with a season ending injury, they are still in first place of the NL Central.  They had to come from behind twice against the Indians and pull one out in 11 innings to get the sweep this last series.  But, they did it.  And they’ve done it with unlikely heroes.  Casey McGehee, Mitch Stetter, Mark De Felice?  Hell, even J.J. Hardy, Bill Hall, and Corey Hart have got out of their slumps a bit lately.

Perhaps this is what’s different with this team.  Everyone understands the importance of each game, and people are stepping up when the opportunity presents itself.  The results are 8 games over .500 after 66 games.  If they keep up that pace you’re looking at 91 wins this season.  If they only manage .500 ball the rest of the way, you’re looking at 85 wins.  The way the Central is going, that might be enough.  I don’t know how LaRusa has the Cards winning, but I don’t think they’re as good as they’re record.  The Cubs are…well…being the Cubs.  They look great on paper, but not so much on the field.  The Reds are still a year or two away and the Astros and Pirates are farther out than that.  So, 85 might do it.  I’d much rather have the 91 since at worst that should be a wild-card.

It sure is nice having a team I care about actually winning some games!

I’ve been busy lately, and thus the month long absence of posts.  But, leave it to the players of the NFL to provide some tragedy in the off season to be post fodder.

I ripped Michael Vick when he was caught with the dog fighting and the interstate gambling.  And you know what?  He deserved every bit of it.  Now he’s done his time and wants to play in the NFL again.  Fine.  You did your time and served your debt to society.  If you can find a team that wants to endure the media circus that will follow your re-entry into the NFL, go for it.  Let’s face it folks, their will be a media circus.  The President swatted a fly and PETA is calling it an “execution”.  What do you think they’ll do to Mr. Vick?

Which brings me to Donte Stallworth.  Can someone explain to me how you can be responsible for killing another human being and you get 30 days in jail?  Michael Vick got a couple of years for his crimes, and he should have been.  A love dogs as much as anyone, but Stallworth killed a human being and has to serve 4% of the time Vick did?  A father, brother, son, friend, etc. was taken out of this world because Stallworth was too stupid to get a driver, call a cab, walk home, or not drink so damn much in the first place.  That equals 30 days?!?!  I’ve heard people say that he did the right things afterward, like staying on the scene, dialing 911, apologizing to the family and his insurance company came up with a monetary settlement for the family.  So, to sum things up, apparently if you have enough moneyand fame, you can kill someone but as long as you say you’re sorry and part with some of your money, you don’t have to do any real time.  Remember he’s going to jail not federal prison.

Dogs vs. people?  Perhaps Lady Justice really should take off that blindfold once in a while.  Fortunately, Rodger “The Hammer” Goodell has the opportunity to bring a small bit of sense to this whole thing.  He kicked PacMan Jones out of the league.  He suspended Tank Johnson.  He’s tried very hard to clean up the image of football players and the NFL by making them responsible for their actions off the field.  Vick got what he deserved, and Stallworth deserved more than Vick.  My only hope is that Goodell sticks to his precedent and Stallworth doesn’t see a football field for a while.  He shouldn’t be a free man, but some punishment is better than none.

The Milwaukee Brewers are currently the hottest team in baseball.  That would be quite a surprise if I made that statement in August or September, but is it really much of a shock in May?  There’s a different manager in town, Rickie Weeks is actually hitting the ball with relatively low amounts of errors, and a starting rotation that looked mediocre at best is pitching very well.  But, is it really a different year?  This is a team that has historically done well before the All Star break only to collapse as the dog days of summer wear on.  So, should we be surprised that the Brewers are 16-5 over the last 21 games and haven’t lost a series since the April 17 – 19 Mets series?

The cynic in me says no, but I do think this is a different team.  They’ve been in a pennant race before.  They’ve made it to the playoffs.  Now they know what it takes.  But, most importantly, they’ve been winning games differently each time out.  Different players have been the hero. 

They aren’t relying on Ben Sheet’s pitching (remember he started for the NL in the All Star game last year for a reason) or Fielder and Braun hitting jacks over the fence.  Some days its great pitching.  Some days like last night, it’s Rickie Weeks swinging the bat, or Craig Counsell, or Mike Cameron getting on base rather than striking out.  And some days Gallardo shuts down the opponent and rips his own HR to win the game by himself.

Granted Fielder and Braun are still there and Braun’s got a sick OBP and slugging percentage — he gets on base roughly every other trip to the plate, and when he does hit the ball more than half the time he’s got extra bases involved — to go along with a very nice .333 batting average.  But the HR’s have been nicely spread around.  Fielder’s got 7.  Braun’s got 8.  Weeks has 9.  Cameron has 7 and even Hardy who was in a prolonged slump to start the year has 5 and his average has gone up to .221 after slugging .591 over the last week (at one point this season his average was .125).

So, while it seems like more of the same, the season has all the makings of being different.  We’ll check back in July and August and see if its any different or not.

A friend of mine set me this link to a New York Times story on the Dutch social welfare system, including health care.  It’s a very interesting read (it might take you a little bit of time), and it makes you wonder if we truly could meld public good with free enterprise.

The idea of having the state provide for all of those things that fall through the cracks in the U.S.A sounds kind of nice.  Everyone gets access to housing, health care, vacations, etc.  People work when it’s time to work and the pager rarely goes off when you’re not working.  Why?  No one else is working either.  Who wouldn’t want such a paradise?

The problem, as I see it and as the author illudes to at the end of the article, is the American culture itself.  Americans pride themselves on individuality and the entrapaneural spirit.  The idea of upward mobility is the most American of notions.  We are pioneers settling the wild West.  That rides smack into the face of the social welfare state of things where conformity is prized and individuality a no-no.  The idea of being a lemming is one most Americans bristle at.

But, wait, isn’t that what the Moral Majority and evangelical right wing conservatives actually want?  They want you to behave within a set of parameters they’ve prescribed when it comes to personal behavior.  Yet those same folks begin wailing when you suggest anything in the economic realm that differs from Adam Smith’s view of the world.  They’re already trying to create a strange dichotomy that contradicts itself, aren’t they?  Or how about the left wing liberals who want to help out those less fortunate and are okay with taxing you to do it, yet scream bloody murder if your personal freedoms are impeeded upon to to make sure everyone stays honest.

We seem to be a nation of contradiction.  Why is it that the party that is against abortion is for the death penalty and vice versa?  Who knows, maybe the Dutch are onto something.  Maybe we wouldn’t really be giving up much more of our freedoms than our ruling parties want us to.  Just trading them for different ones.  On the other hand, our government seems to have a nasty habit of taking new things away without ever giving back the things they’ve already taken.  We may just end up with the worst of both worlds.  Maybe that’s not such a good idea.