Jeff: The Monday Musings

* I took a great trip to Milwaukee and Chicago over the weekend with my buddies Kris, Luke, and Kyle. We went to the Brewers/Giants game Friday night, got the sweetest deal from a scalper named Rick (or was it Ron? Rob? Ralph?), and enjoyed a 13-12 Brewers win in a real ballpark. What was even sweeter, of course, was the fact all 4 of us had mustaches. Yup, each of us grew beards for the 2 weeks leading up to this trip, and then shaved Friday morning before we left, just leaving our glorious staches. Let me just say we fit right in in Milwaukee!!

I do have to say I've been too hard on Milwaukee. It's a great time, and has a really nice downtown. I had no idea. And they did a great job with Miller Park. Twins fans have to be excited to get a new park, although I've come to realize that the people who were whining about how the new place won't have a roof weren't whining at all-- they were right. How can you build a baseball stadium in the upper midwest without a retractable roof? Having been to Safeco and Miller Park, you can build a beautiful retro park and still not lose the ambience of the place when the roof is on. It didn't rain for the game Friday night (yet the roof was unfortunately closed. We blamed Barry Bonds because apparently he won't play if there's a chance of rain. More on him in a minute), but it poured at the Sox game Saturday, and anybody who's spent anytime in the Midwest knows how cold and unpredictable the weather can be in April and September, and how stormy it is the rest of the summer. Don't get me wrong, ANYTHING"s better than that gawd-awful Metrodome, but they dropped the ball not getting a roof on the new place.

* Speaking of Barry Bonds, baseball fans better get used to the fact he's going to break Hank Aaron's all-time home run record next season. Whether it's with the Yankees or Tigers or whoever, the man will play one more year as a DH and break the record before this time next season. In Friday night's game, Bonds had 2 doubles, a home run, and 6 RBI's. He's not the hitter he once was, but if he DH's a full season and doesn't have to run around in the outfield, he's still plenty good enough to hit 30 HR's next year. And frankly, baseball deserves to have him, and not the classy Hank Aaron, holding its most important record. Bonds used roids because baseball didn't test for it, and this is what they get. I'm not a Bonds fan, but he takes the brunt of everybody's steroid grief, but as we're finding out, he definitely wasn't the only one. Baseball wanted to win back fans with home runs and high scores, and to have Bonds, McGwire and Sosa holding some big accomplishments while they were "allegedly" on the juice is what you get for not testing. Also, if you're Barry and everybody already hates you, why wouldn't you try and get the record nobody wants you to have? It's not like people will hate the guy less if he doesn't hit 756. Ok, ok enough about Barry. I'm as sick of him as you are.

* Brewers SS Bill Hall is the most underrated player in baseball. What a hitter.

* The Sports Guy mentioned this a couple of weeks ago after his trip to Milwaukee, but it bears repeating: the old school ball & glove Brewers logo is as good as it gets in sports. The number of people wearing that logo and the old color scheme were at least 3-to-1 at the game. They need to go old school ASAP. And of course i bought a t-shirt.

* It's interesting that there was a time in human history when the mustache was a sign of manhood and class. Now? 4 dudes in their mid-late 20's with mustaches just looks weird. When you're wearing one, you will occassionally forget you have it. After the Brewers game, we went in search of an Irish pub. We found one and went in, but discovered almost immediately they were cranking techno music, so we walked right back out. But not before Kris and Kyle had this exchange:
Kris: "That place was terrible, but at least I made the cute waitress do a double take."
Kyle: "Um, that's because you have a mustache."
Kris: "$%^&&#*!!"

* We left the staches in Wisconsin and went to the White Sox/Mariners game. One thing you should know: we all generally hate the Sox. I wore Mariners stuff, Luke wore Twins stuff, and Kris took it to a whole nother level: a red Twins hat and a bright red Twins Johan Santana T-shirt. I can just tell you that apparently Sox fans really don't think Santana or the Twins are that good. And that's putting it kindly. I'm sure they're just bitter because their team won't be going to the playoffs this year.

* And really I'm surprised by that. They've got 2 guys with 40+ HR's, and 5 overall with at least 20. How in the hell do you not make the playoffs with that lineup? How? Their pitching, both starters and relievers, have to be terrible to allow that to happen. They'll be back with a vengeance next year.

* Finally, we watched the 2nd half of the Notre Dame/Michigan State game at the ESPN Zone with a very pro-Notre Dame crowd. Did I miss something? Was State coach John L. Smith working for Notre Dame? He certainly won't be working in East Lansing next year, I can tell you that. It's beyond me how you blow a 31-14 halftime lead when you're running the ball down ND's throat.

* Finally, I just have to say that I LOVE Chicago. I might want to hold hands with it. If you haven't been in awhile, it's well worth your time. And if you want to wear a stache while there, well, it certainly won't hurt your experience. Hell it may even help it.