A DESTINY OF MEDIOCRITY?

The Milwaukee Brewers had a clear and obvious problem entering the 2009 season. That's going to happen when you lose horselike pitchers from the top of your starting rotation. In the end, the Brewers decided to promote from within to replace CC Sabathia, and they took a flyer on free-agent Braden Looper, hoping he wouldn't be hurt all the time like Ben Sheets could suck up the innings Jeff Suppan can't pitch anymore could give them some quality innings as the fifth starter.

The Brewers also had to build a bullpen basically from scratch, and they had to survive the first couple weeks without closer Trevor Hoffman, who had a pulled muscle.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Twins stood pat this past offseason, hoping their young starters would continue to improve, pitch enough innings to make up for a thin bullpen, and that the offense would blossom into one of the best in the American League.

Little did they know that they'd have to survive until May 1 without All-Star catcher and franchise face Joe Mauer, who had back problems that were slow to go away.

All in all, both teams have done quite nicely. Milwaukee is 13-12, having endured an early slump and rebounded with a nice 9-4 run as they play in Pittsburgh Monday night. The Brewers are hitting much more consistently, which hopefully foretells a strong offensive season, as opposed to recent years, where the Brewers have been notoriously all-or-nothing at the dish.

J.J. Hardy is at .160/.225/.284, but he's about the only one not performing to expectations (Jason Kendall notwithstanding, and he's so good at calling games that I'll take anything he can offer with the stick). Once Prince Fielder starts hitting (he's still drawing walks like crazy, carrying his OBP over .400), the team will really get going. But I like what I'm seeing. I don't mind guys making outs, but there was never really any value put on those outs under the old regime. They'd bunt for the hell of it, and guys would be up there hacking when they should have been working counts.

Now, they're gassing opposing starting pitchers early in games, and they're getting people on base even when the hits aren't falling.

The pitching has been respectable, outside of Suppan's early meltdown and major depth issues in the bullpen. Hoffman stabilizes the back end of the pen, and it allows guys like Carlos Villanueva, Todd Coffey, and Mitch Stetter to handle lower-leverage roles.

The big keys to this team are the secondary offensive guys (Mike Cameron, Bill Hall, etc.) and pitchers like Suppan and Manny Parra. You know Fielder and Ryan Braun can swing it, but that won't matter if no one else is. Suppan and Parra have developed an annoying tendency to nibble around the strike zone, hoping to catch guys looking at borderline pitches. When it works, it's a wonderful thing, as you can sometimes force hitters to be overaggressive and stretch the zone a bit.

When it doesn't work, you walk in four runs in one inning (hi, Soup!).

The Twins are in a similar spot with regard to their record after one month. Minnesota sits at 12-13, but just two games out of first place in what's been an average division so far.

What's been surprising about this Twins team is the spotty nature of their starting pitchers. I expected more out of the group, and I think we're going to see it before too long. Scott Baker, Francisco Liriano, and Kevin Slowey are all carrying ERAs over 5.00, and the team WHIP is an unacceptable 1.43. The good news is that the bullpen hasn't been nearly as terrible as I expected, plus they get Jesse Crain back.

Plus, Mauer's return should solidify the middle of the order. As long as Alexi Casilla and Carlos Gomez fail to hit, this is a necessity. The Twins just can't handle a full season of Gomez OPSing .549 and Casilla .432 (yikes!). With few reinforcements available in Triple-A, they have to ride out the poor hitting as long as they can stand it.

Joe Crede (.225/.304/.408) has been a disappointment, but the Twins didn't sell the farm to sign him, and he's bound to improve. That said, the improvement may not happen right away, as Crede is notoriously terrible in May, for some strange reason.

Hey, at least his back has held up.

Reality suggests that neither team is much better than their records show at this point. They're both full of major holes, and while both teams are capably managed, it's hard to imagine Ken Macha (Brewers) and Ron Gardenhire (Twins) spinning enough magic to turn their capable-but-flawed clubs into 95-game winners or big-time October contenders.

They'd both do well to stay in division and/or Wild Card races well into September. The Brewers have more great young minor-league talent to look forward to, and the Twins have a new ballpark to get ready for. Both teams should continue to be just good enough to make fans think they can be better than they are.

IS OMAHA THE 12th TEAM?

There has been much talk this week about the future of the WCHA. Not only did the league vote to seek another team to join Bemidji State on the "We Want In" list, but we may have found out who that will be.

On Wednesday, Nebraska-Omaha strangely named former Nebraska football star and television commentator Trev Alberts as its athletic director, despite his complete lack of any administrative experience.

How the university chooses to blow $150,000 is none of my business whatsoever, so I will refrain from making fun of them. At least they only gave him a two-year contract.

Award-winning UMD hockey reporter Kevin Pates tracked down a report from Omaha on the hire, and it sounds like Alberts is going to start learning him some hockey right away.

Alberts has the responsibility of deciding the status of coach Mike Kemp and of helping determine where UNO hockey will play. Also up for discussion is UNO's conference affiliation.

With the right decisions, Alberts and Omaha chancellor John Christensen hope, UNO hockey can become the revenue-producing machine it was in the early years of its existence.

"It's non-negotiable, from my perspective, that hockey is successful," Alberts said. "It is a Division I sport that we must leverage. I'm committed . . . to finding and giving the necessary resources to make UNO hockey as strong as it can be."

Alberts said he wouldn't be quick to judge Kemp, the only coach in the program's 12-year history. Christensen issued a challenge for Kemp before last season, declaring that UNO should finish in the top four of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association every year.

UNO went 15-17-8 overall, including 9-13-7 in the CCHA to finish tied for seventh, and endured a program-record 14-game winless streak late in the season.

"I've told Mike Kemp that he is the hockey coach and I look forward to helping him be successful," Alberts said. "I told him to go out and recruit and tell recruits that he is the hockey coach at UNO.

"But the reality is, if you do understand how important hockey is, you can't just say it - you've got to take tangible steps to making sure that's in place. I'm not coming in here as athletic director and in two weeks firing a hockey coach. That would be disingenuous."

This all makes sense.

One of the arguments against UNO changing conferences is that the fans there respond to opponents like Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and Notre Dame, and the response wouldn't be as great when North Dakota and Denver come to town.

However, all of this may be moot.

What people have to remember is that hockey is the only Division I sport at Nebraska-Omaha. That means the program has to be a cash cow for the athletic department. Sports like baseball, softball, and tennis aren't going to bring in enough revenue to be self-sufficient, in all likelihood. They need hockey to turn a solid profit to help everyone else stay afloat.

If the decision is made that UNO can't do better than the 6,300 or so they averaged in 2008-2009, the revenue has to come from other sources. There may be no better way of boosting hockey revenue than moving to the WCHA. The CCHA just doesn't bring in the kind of cash for their league tournament that the WCHA does, and the difference in that revenue could make all the difference for the Mavericks.

Did the WCHA ignore UNO when the program was just getting started? Yes.

Should that be held against the WCHA now? No.

UNO has proven they can play hockey at a competitive level, and they make geographic sense (certainly more than Alabama-Huntsville does). The WCHA seems committed to moving to 12 teams, and UNO is the right fit at this point in time.

With a new administration in place, this might be the perfect time to make it happen. If it works out, it could turn out to be the smartest thing Alberts could possibly do as UNO athletic director.

The WCHA will go to a pod system for conference schedule. There would be three groups of four teams, and the rotation system would take five years to complete one cycle (it takes four years for the current WCHA schedule to go through a full rotation).

The perfectly-drawn geographic pods would look as follows:

EAST
UMD
Michigan Tech
Minnesota
Wisconsin

WEST
UAA
Bemidji State
North Dakota
St. Cloud State

SOUTH
Denver
Colorado College
Minnesota State
UNO

Hopefully, Alberts, Bruce McLeod, and all the other important parties can come together quickly and hammer out a deal. It's for the good of all of college hockey.

TRIPLE OVERTIME GOODNESS

Not a hockey game, unfortunately.

Even 24 hours after its start, the Bulls-Celtics game still reverberates. The triple-overtime thriller will be long remembered as one of the best NBA playoff games in eons.

The obvious issues with the NBA, including the assinine number of timeouts that are taken late in games and then in overtime. Officiating is inconsistent to the point that it makes the NHL look consistent.

None of that mattered on Thursday. The crowd in Chicago was as much a part of it as the players were, at least for this observer. Every great game needs a great crowd, and the 22,000 or whatever at the United Center did more than their share of the work.

Via TrueHoop, here's Rick Telander's awesome take on the game.

If the NBA could produce more drama on a wooden floor, it would have to use gasoline and gunpowder.

''Whatever overtime it was,'' Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said afterward. He was trying to describe some key play, some key shot, but it was all a blur.

There was constant seesaw basketball, yes. But there was also the adrenaline-pumping mayhem of a near-brawl, with tempers flaring so badly at the start, it seemed poor little Celtics guard Rajon Rondo might have to be escorted from the building with full Blackwater security.

Rondo is without question the most despised small man in Chicago since, hmm, Eddie Gaedel's evil twin?

The raucous chant from the fiery crowd, ''Rondo sucks!'' pretty much never stopped. Indeed, the noise was such each time the 6-1, 171-pound playmaker touched the ball that one was moved to notice a moderately clever sign in the mezzanine: ''RONDO SUCKSO.''

Game Seven is Saturday night in Boston. You'd be an idiot not to watch, even if you don't like the NBA.

Sometimes, teams meet that are just a perfect match for one another. This is one of those cases. This is awesome theater, and will probably not be repeated at any point in the playoffs.

MAY DAY!

Yes, hockey nuts, I'm fully aware that this goal didn't happen on May Day.

That said, Rick Jeanneret's call of Brad May's overtime game winner in the 1993 Adams Division semifinals against Boston (this game was on April 24) reminds me of this day.

AWESOMENESS

My feelings for the NBA are not well-hidden around here. In general, the Association has screwed up a ton the last ten years, and I don't watch nearly as much basketball as I used to.

A big part of the problem is that the NBA just can't produce enough compelling playoff basketball to keep me interested.

This year? Well, it's been a notable exception.

Derrick Rose went off in Game One. Ray Allen in Game Two. The Celtics then owned Game Three. Ben Gordon ruled Game Four. Then, with Ray Allen fouled out and Kevin Garnett still broken, the Celtics' other "big star" and its youngest, brightest star took over Tuesday night.

Paul Pierce hit the huge shots. Rajon Rondo set them up.

It was a magnificent display of up-and-down excitement that basketball needs more of. Quite fitting, actually, that it would come one night after that 121-63 disgrace. The irony of that? Well, the Celtics are the number-two seed and Chicago seventh in the East. Denver and New Orleans are - respectively - the exact same seeds in the West. Denver might not be 58 points better than New Orleans ever, ever again, but the Celtics and Bulls could play 100 times and not have a margin of victory bigger than 25.

For all the talk about how the Western Conference is superior, it's incredibly top-heavy, and I'm not so sure it's superior. Outside of Denver, Utah, and the top-seeded Lakers, I'm not sure I'd take any Western team to beat their Eastern counterpart in a best-of-seven series. I'd certainly think twice about locking on teams like Houston and San Antonio against teams like Miami and Philadelphia.

As for Chicago and Boston, it's been everything you could ask for in an NBA playoff series. Except boring, which too many series around the league have been in recent years.

Also, big ups to Dallas, who won twice in San Antonio, broke a three-year road playoff drought, and took out the undermanned Spurs in five games.

BREAKING: WCHA WANTS TO EXPAND

While this isn't immediately good news for Bemidji State, the Western Collegiate Hockey Association has taken a step forward toward admitting the Beavers.

The following release was just issued by the league.

The membership of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s men’s league, acting at it’s annual meeting today (April 28, 2009), has opted to pursue expansion of the league membership from it’s current 10-member team to a future membership of 12 teams.

The timetable for expansion consists of lifting the current moratorium as of today and continuing indefinitely. The lifting of the moratorium on expansion means the WCHA can entertain membership applications from any interested institutions who meet the league’s criteria for membership. Meeting the criteria for membership does not, however, guarantee admittance into the Association.

“The Western Collegiate Hockey Association membership today took a positive step forward in their decision to embrace possible expansion,” said WCHA Commissioner Bruce M. McLeod, “and we will continue to explore we may expand once we have completed further studies and once we have been able to identify potential members that fit the league’s criteria for membership. Obviously, there are numerous issues involved in expansion, just a few of which include the transformation from a 10-team, 28-game conference schedule to an expanded 12-member team format that would still enable us to protect our natural rivalries as best as possible, and to make certain we safeguard our successful flagship event – the WCHA Final Five.

“The WCHA has a proud history of being sensitive to the issue of expansion and the plight of other collegiate hockey programs and today’s development is a further indication that the Association will continue its tradition of assisting in the growth and development of collegiate ice hockey with an ultimate goal of expanding.”

The 10 teams that currently make up the men’s WCHA are University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), Colorado College (CC), University of Denver (DU), Michigan Technological University (MTU), University of Minnesota (UM), University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), Minnesota State University, Mankato (MSU), University of North Dakota (UND), St. Cloud State University (SCSU) and University of Wisconsin (UW). The last expansion in the WCHA occured in 1999-2000 when Minnesota State University, Mankato joined the conference as it’s 10th team.

The Commissioner’s office, in conjunction with the league’s structure committee, will head up the expansion effort with the goal of identifying potential member teams as soon as possible. The earliest the WCHA would be able to integrate new teams into the men’s league would be for the 2011-2012 season based on current contractual obligations.

“The WCHA also wants to note that Bemidji State University’s presentation to the league at the annual meeting on April 27 was very professional and well received,” said McLeod. “The BSU student body, faculty, alumni, and the entire community should know that the league membership came away impressed with the University’s commitment to the student-athlete, both on and off the ice, the long track record of success their hockey program has achieved, the breaking of ground for the new Bemidji State Regional Events Center, and the degree of excitement throughout the community and northern Minnesota for the future of BSU Hockey.”

Bemidji State University’s application for league membership will remain under active consideration.

Bemidji State is an original member of the WCHA’s women’s league, which was founded in 1999-2000 and this past season celebrated it’s 10th anniversary.

This tells me the league wants to go to 12 teams or stay at ten. At this point, expansion to 11 teams doesn't appear to be in the cards.

Check with FanHouse.com for more information, as we'll have a chance to hear from WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod later Tuesday.

THE BRILLIANCE OF COLBERT AND STEWART

Not nearly enough time is spent in this house watching Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart blow apart the "news".

The Comedy Central veterans each host a half-hour show on weeknights, and the idea (in part) is to pretty much make all the other news outlets look stupid.

With the swine flu OMG WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE epidemic in the news, both of them had a field day. We'll start with Colbert.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Days of Swine and Doses
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Gay Marriage Commercial

Now, on to Stewart.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Snoutbreak '09 - The Last 100 Days
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

I'm not here to trivialize sickness or death, but as the Stewart clip points out, we're going a little bit too far here.

Yes, educating the public is important, but non-stop coverage of this thing is not. We were also supposed to get ourselves or a bunch of animals wiped out by SARS, chronic wasting disease, mad cow disease, and bird flu.

We're. Still. Here.

By all means, cancel your trip to Mexico. Go somewhere else for vacation. If you come back, go ahead and lock yourself in the house for a month so you don't give swine flu to anyone but the mailman.

Just leave me out of it, okay.

CHILDRESS IS FULL OF CRAP

There's an old saying that goes something like this:

It ain't bragging if it's true.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm impressed by the athleticism of Vikings first-round pick Percy Harvin. At some point, personal demons have to be set aside, and you just marvel at what this kid can do with a football in his hands.

The Vikings took Harvin with the 22nd overall pick, and while many in the "experts" field were quick to scoff at the selection because of Harvin's myriad of off-field issues, the Vikings were quick to come to his defense.

Head coach Brad "Mr. Happy" Childress flew down to Gainesville himself to interview Harvin. Obviously, he enjoyed himself, as the Vikings appeared locked onto Harvin for quite some time before the draft.

Monday, Childress was interviewed for Grampa Sid's column, and he apparently thinks he outsmarted the outsmartable.

"New England was right in there. They were right behind us [with the 23rd pick]," Childress said. "No, they didn't think we'd take him [because of off-the-field] issues. Remember, they have our receivers coach there now. So they thought they could hold ... and he'd come to them.

"They were down there working him out the day after I was there. And [Harvin] wasn't supposed to tell anybody, and I was trying to pull that out of him, who that was. So, it was a little cat-and-mouse game that occurred."

Yes, folks, Childress is indeed expecting you to believe that the Patriots, extra picks and all, decided to stay put at 23 and hope Harvin fell past the Vikings, who had made no secret of their interest.

I totally can see this happening. I'm sure the Patriots employ this strategy all the time when they find guys they really like and want to be able to draft. That's why they've been so successful over the years. They find what they want, and then go after something else.

Bottom line: Childress is full of it, and of himself. There's virtually no chance this played out like he described. If nothing else, he's totally overstating any interest the Patriots may have had. Congratulate Sid, too, for buying - hook, line, and sinker - the preposterous story Childress spun him.

I'm also thrilled that Childress is bragging about talking a kid into going back on his word to a fellow NFL coach. That's beautiful.

(H/T: FanHouse)

'THE BIG ONE' TIMES THREE

I know there is a segment of the population that watches NASCAR to see the cool car crashes.

I don't like it, but I know they're out there. I guess everyone has their own tastes and such. Big wrecks can sure make things interesting, but they can also cross a line when cars are flying and such.

In this case, it's time for NASCAR to take some culpability. After all, the perception - when you've had two similar finishes to the last two Talladega races (trust me, they're similar) - is that NASCAR is going to have a dead driver and/or a dead fan on their hands pretty soon.

Let's first look at the videos. Three big wrecks in one unbelieveable afternoon. The first one came before most fans had even bothered to crack open their first beverage.



The second big wreck came late in the race, a more typical time for a huge wreck at Talladega.



Finally, there's the frightening and exhilarating finish.



Thankfully, Carl Edwards is okay. Thankfully, the injured fans should be okay.

Now, for what to do.

NASCAR has some options, some of which will help the problem, and some not so much.

For starters, they could change the restrictor plate and slow the cars down. This wouldn't change the packed-up nature of these races, only the speed at which the "Big One" happens. One thing that would probably go away is any measurable chance of a race car going flying like Edwards did Sunday. Drivers would hate it, because it would lead to more of this three- and four-wide high-stress racing, but fans would still be mildly entertained by the close races.

Another option is removing the restrictor plate. This would allow for more wide-open racing and fewer big wrecks. The problem is that the cars would be going much faster, meaning the big wrecks would be even bigger. And, yes, there would be the possiblity of flying race cars. Probably not a good idea.

NASCAR could also lower the banking at the superspeedways. It's a high-cost option that would definitely lead to improved safety.

They could also keep the status quo. The idea behind doing this was that it took a perfect storm of circumstance for Edwards to take flight. The argument against it is that Regan Smith could have easily done the same thing to Tony Stewart last fall. Instead, he went below the yellow line and improved his position, which is against the rules in the plate races.

So is the yellow line an answer? Well, part of the reason NASCAR went to that rule was safety, so I doubt they'll rule that removing the rule now is a good safety measure.

A kneejerk reaction is not the right way to go about things, but fans and drivers are going to want a ruling made by the time NASCAR hits Daytona in early July. Short-term, I'm not sure there is a good answer. Long-term, I'd like to see them explore the banking issue. Taking down those high banks does no harm to the racing, and it would be an improvement for driver and fan safety.

No matter what, it's quite a conundrum for motorsports' biggest governing body.

MONTREAL FANS EAT ANOTHER

It's amazing how self-absorbed Montreal fans are.

After running Stanley Cup-winning Patrick Roy out of town over a decade ago, then watching him win more Cups with the Avalanche while Montreal spent year after year either struggling to make the playoffs or stinking up the joint, they're poised to do it again.

During Wednesday's 4-1 Boston win that finished the Habs' overhyped 100th season, the fans decided to take out their frustrations on goalie Carey Price. Because, yes, it's the fault of a 21-year-old kid that the team had to fight through numerous injuries to key players. It's totally on Price that the Habs couldn't score and gave up way too many odd-man rushes.

Anyway, Price endeared himself to the population of hockey fans who are actually blessed with brains and common sense, because he wasn't just going to take the crap heaped upon him by the Habs "fans".



Congratulations, young man. Even if you get traded, you can hold your head up high and know you're probably better off. Most NHL teams' home fans avoid heckling the home goalie. They might boo the goalie on a bad night, but they won't heckle him.

(Tap of the stick: FanHouse)