The View From Wisconsin

When I was driving home from my dentist appointment on Wednesday, I noticed that there was a car in the lane ahead of me on Bluemound that was driving a bit slow. It appeared that the gentleman who was driving the car didn't quite know where he was going. When I saw the license plate, I knew exactly why:


He was from "Cudahy, dere hey."

On to less important things:

• The circle is complete. Since defeating the Red Wings in the shootout at JLA on the 21st, Nashville has dropped four straight games - the last to the Wings at the GEC. In those games, the Preds have allowed 21 goals - though they have allowed fewer goals with each game. Unfortunately, the Predators have scored fewer and fewer goals with each game. This would indicate to me that they're going to get beat 3-1 by the Blues, and then blanked 2-0 by the Jackets.
  
• The city of San Antonio is apparently torn between two sports franchises: the Saints of the NFL, and the Marlins of MLB. The Bexar County council (San Antonio's county) apparently are discussing how to use a 1/8 of a cent sales tax to pay for a new stadium - but the question is, who would they build the stadium for? As much as south central Texas could use a MLB franchise, the Marlins don't look like they're going anywhere. Bud "War And Peace" Selig is used to taking his time with stadium deals, so don't think that the Marlins will go anywhere unless south Florida tells them to take a hike.
  
• We've had our share of athletes and teams doing bad stuff, but let's be honest: anyone who actually thought that lacrosse players were likely to pull a stunt like what happened with Duke University's squad would have been laughed out of the room. Either that or they would have put George Mason in the final four.
• Speaking of the Patriots: only four players in ESPN's Bracket Challenge got the final four correct - and one of them admitted that it was a mistake (he thought he was choosing George Washington University). Over in Yahoo's Challenge, no one got it right. Neither did anyone on Sportsline. If GMU wins their semifinal over Florida, there will be a LOT of screaming and cursing out there.
  
• George Mitchell hasn't even held the job of "independent investigator" with MLB for a few days, and he's already being raked over the coals. The argument is that he's about as independent as a plant in the lobby of MLB's headquarters in New York. He is on the board of the Disney Corporation - the parent company to ESPN - and is also a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox.
  
• If that ain't bad enough, Victor Conte - he of BALCO fame and just recently released from jail - is planning on presenting evidence that refutes most of what was written in Game of Shadows. His contention is that the book is essentially a "character assassination" of Bonds and himself. Not sure if that's true, since there's not much character to be assassinated with Conte.
  
• Two more days until Opening Day. Meanwhile, it's been 14,213 days since the Toronto Maple Leafs last won the Stanley Cup.