What a week it's been. From the annual OnMilwaukee.com April Fool's edition to an anticlimactic Opening Day, I've barely had a moment to catch my breath -- and it's only Tuesday.
Still, there's plenty swirling around in my busy brain. Not surprisingly, most of it is Brewers-related.
Everybody settle down: Yes, the Brewers are 0-4, but they won't be in last place for long. A four-game losing streak isn't a big deal in baseball, it just feels that way because the season is brand new and the team is winless. But rest assured, the Brewers are good in 2011. Yes, their bullpen may prove to be a point of concern, and Yuniesky Betancourt has shown me nothing to prove that he's not the worst player in baseball, but it's a marathon, not a sprint. I'd be very, very surprised if the Brewers don't win tonight behind Yovani Gallardo. And you can quote me on that.
Zombie invasion: I've often remarked that Brewers games at Miller Park seem so entirely different when watching them from the press box, but walking through the concourse after the game was less than fun. Everyone who claims that Opening Day is amateur hour is exactly right. Between the glassy-eyed stumbling zombies, the weeping girls and the loudly swearing chatches, yesterday felt more like, I hate to say it, a Cubs game. As a baseball fan, I love game two so much more than game one. I wondered why the crowd was so quiet yesterday; apparently it's because it couldn't see straight. I respect the Opening Day tradition, but sadly, it's not Milwaukee's finest hour.
HDTV adds pounds: Score aside (but not the new HD scoreboard, which is amazing), I had an overall great time yesterday ... mostly because our media partners at Fox Sports Wisconsin included colleague Drew Wagner and me in their pre-game coverage. I've done plenty of radio but very little TV, and the moment was not lost on me as I sat next to the talented Craig Coshun: it was almost exactly 13 years ago to the day that I quit my job and launched OnMilwaukee.com from Opening Day at County Stadium. Had you asked me then, I'm not sure I would've predicted the day when the skilled TV analysts were actually asking me for my season prediction. But since they did, I predicted somewhere between 88 and 100 wins. Sorry, I was a Brewers fan long before I earned my media credentials. And ... I DVRed my segments and watched them last night -- I think I did OK, not great. But man, it's time to start running again. If TV adds 10 pounds, then HD must add 25. Who was the fat guy representing OnMilwaukee.com? Oh yeah, it was me.
Just vote: Vote your conscience today. Vote for whoever you'd like. Just vote. If you don't vote, you don't get to complain. Trust me, the lines will be short.
Annual foolery: I'm pleased to report that our April Fools edition went off without a hitch Friday. No one threatened to sue us, the site didn't crash, and most people found at least something funny in the dozens of stories we whipped up for one day, and one day only. I'm sad that they had to disappear into cyberspace for good when April 1 is over, but I'm happy that we set an all-time traffic record on Friday, too. It's wonderful when Milwaukee can laugh a little at itself.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
