A plethora of loose ends

Lots happening in the last few weeks and I haven’t had a lot of blogging time. When in doubt, break out the bullets:

• As the recently departed David Halberstam pointed out in his classic book, “Summer of 1949,” there is a small army of admen on Madison Avenue who number among their duties coming up non-sequiturs that sound like something Yogi Berra might have said. One of my favorites faux Berraisms is “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” And, as a fan of the Milwaukee Brewers, that’s what I’m thinking. My beloved Brew Crew was off to a 24-10 start and now stand, three weeks later, at 28-23. Suddenly the hits aren’t falling, the pitching stinks and the hot young team is wheezing. The good news is that the rest of the NL Central is even worse. Still, it’s troubling to see. Meanwhile, the Twins seem to be waking up again and now the pitching reinforcements are starting to arrive from Rochester. Are we looking at a reprise of 2006? Could be.
• Closer to home, my children continue to participate on hard-working but unsuccessful squads. Ben’s Brewers now stand at an unsightly 0-7, following a merciless 18-2 thrashing at the hands of the Mets on Friday, while Maria’s Rockies are 0-5. Lots more games this week and we’re hoping that both teams get off the schneid soon. On a positive note, both kids are improving their individual play; young Maria has been hitting the ball better and Ben continues to have an on-base percentage of well over .400 and has stolen 10 bases already this season. This is a very odd thing – our clan is not known for possessing great speed. If you look up the word “lumbering” in the dictionary, there’s a reasonable chance that Mr. Dilettante’s visage will provide the illustration. I remember getting timed in the 50 yard dash with a sundial. Okay, enough with the lame jokes or else this blog will need a two-drink minimum. Anyway, it’s disheartening to see the kids work so hard and see so little success. It’s become pretty apparent that there’s a competitive balance problem within the leagues; the top teams have been beating the tar out of the not-so-good teams. Ben’s team has only been close once all season; all the other games have been beat-downs. Something I’ll have to address with the league in the end-of-season evaluation, and at some length.
• A while back I said I’d address the Packers’ draft, which I termed “puzzling.” I’m still stumped, but the recent contretemps involving Brett Favre would indicate that I’m not the only person who was puzzled. While I too believe that Randy Moss still possesses tremendous talent and that it would have been a lot of fun to watch a green-clad Moss catch touchdown passes over befuddled defensive backs, especially ones wearing purple, he’s demonstrated repeatedly that you cannot rely on him when it matters. Those of us in Minnesota saw a lot from Mr. “I Play When I Want to Play” and even the tremendously talented Vikings squad of 1998 could not win the big game. While I know that it’s hard for ol’ number 4 to get excited over the likes of Ruvell Martin and David Clowney, ultimately it’s gone badly for my beloved Packers when they’ve employed bad actors. Favre’s timetable may be limited, but Tradedown Ted Thompson does have to take a longer view. Things went much better in 2006 than I’d imagined was possible, so I’m prepared to suspend judgment for a while. Meanwhile, if Packer fans want to watch an anti-social wideout in 2007, remember that Koren Robinson may be back sometime in the fall, too. And who can think of a better place for a guy with a drinking problem to play than Green Bay, right?
• It’s hard to get too excited about politics right now. While I continue to enjoy the aftermath of the smackdown that T-Paw provided to Larry Pogemiller et al., the rest of it is really getting tiresome. After being told George W. Bush is horrible for the 5,000th time, the message starts to lose impact, no? Those who wish to succeed W. have already been out on the hustings for a long time and, not surprisingly, familiarity starts to breed contempt. You can tell that things are getting desperate when most of the buzz on both sides of the equation concerns hefty Tennessee dudes who aren’t officially running and who have been spending most of their time pursuing the entertainment market (i.e., Fred Thompson and Al Gore). When guys like that start looking like potential saviors, it’s really time to start turning your attention elsewhere.