The excitement sinks in.

There has been much written about the arrival of reigning A.L. Cy Young award winner CC Sabathia and with good reason. The future is now, and excitement surrounding the Brewers is overflowing. So much so, that there is a good chance that there will be a sellout crowd tonight to take in Sabathia's debut -- on a Tuesday no less.

A far cry from the "Buckethead Brigade" Tuesdays of the past. (Not to take anything away from what was a good idea to push Tuesday's years past attendance over the 10,000 mark.)

Now playoff baseball is filling the stands.

The fans are sure doing their part. There is a good chance that the season attendance total could crack 3 million. That total is absolutely amazing for a market of this size and it proves that this is truly a baseball town if there is any sort of a product in which to view.

Also doing his part is owner Mark Attanasio. One of the aspects of the trade that is being a bit overlooked is that besides trading away Matt LaPorta and a cast of others, the Brewers also took on Sabathia's remaining contact pushing their payroll over $90 million.

Yes, that is correct. The Brewers have a payroll of $90 million; a distant cry from the $27.6 million payroll in 2004 -- the year before Attanasio took over the club.

If you ask me, Attanasio himself would have never believed that 2008 payroll would reach this level, but he probably never foresaw attendance reaching the 3 million mark and birth of the "Brewer Nation."

Many kudos to Attanasio for being the kind of owner that not only is a good business man, but is willing to push the envelope for a chance at a championship.

Welcome Richard Jefferson

Isn't there some sort of saying about a tree falling in the woods and not making a sound or something like that?

Yesterday, the Bucks also introduced their newest all-star in Richard Jefferson. GM John Hammond quietly began his reconstruction of the Bucks roster with an absolute steal of a trade. In order to get the NBA's ninth leading scorer and a very solid defender, they had to give up one of the league's worst contracts in Bobby Simmons and a much older than advertised Yi Jianlian.

Doug Melvin, you may have some company in this town.

Add Joe Alexander and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute to the mix and the roster takes on a much tougher and defense-oriented look.

Also don't be surprised if Hammond is not done molding either, but it will be interesting if there will be anyone there to notice.

Coincidence?

Watching umpire Tim McClelland call balls and strikes on TV can be difficult. Watching his nonchalant style from the booth proved to be even more difficult as it showed last night during the FSN broadcast.

That wasn't the most disturbing part of the game and McClelland's performance, though.

While he was inconsistently squeezing both starters, he started taking some heat from both dugouts. McClung didn't exactly help his cause by visually showing his displeasure on the hill, because the zone turned into a mailbox and contributed to his short performance.

McClelland then upped the ante when he basically escorted Ryan Braun backed to the dugout after he barked about a called third strike on a curveball that was obviously high, especially for his small strike zone.

The kicker came in the eighth when Gabe Kapler took two called strikes that appeared to be outside and again McClelland began to take some heat from the stands which was picked up on the FSN broadcast audio. Like a pro, he didn't even acknowledge the very verbal fans giving him the business other than itching what appeared to be a very irritated ear with a certain finger of his left hand.