The View From Wisconsin

The layoffs between playoff series in the NHL (and the AHL) is getting ridiculous. The decision by the NHL to start the playoffs Monday - nearly two whole years after the last Stanley Cup finals game was played - was just crazy. I know, OLN/Versus wants to showcase hockey on "its" night of the week. But come ON: don't they realize the old adage of "out of sight, out of mind" works here, too?

The AHL ain't any different. With the number of days the Admirals have had off this post-season, they could have gone on a Jamaican cruise and come back tanned, rested and ready. And right now, they've essentially turned the Calder Cup finals into a best-of-five series, with Hershey not only getting the home-ice advantage, but also getting a whole week to recover from that grueling back-to-back set in Milwaukee. All because the Admirals couldn't host a game six next Sunday (due to Stars on Ice), and Hershey couldn't/didn't want to host games three through five this week.

Speaking of the Admirals: anyone realize that there will be a LOT of changes to this team for 2007? Claude might not be there, either by choice or by hiring; Ray Shero won't be there anymore (since he's now in Pittsburgh); at least five guys on the roster right now will most likely be playing in Nashville full-time next year; and at least five more guys will likely be elsewhere - be it Europe or another NHL club. Maybe it's not a bad thing the playoffs are being extended, after all - we might not want this ride to end.

Speaking of rides: I happened to be thumbing through an old copy of Life magazine at work when I came across an advertisement for the "brand new" 1982 Cadillac Cimarron. My dad bought a 1983 version of this car - just in time for his only son to learn how to drive on it. Unfortunately, he had an accident with it that put it out of commission for a few months. A year later as I was on my way home from a youth group meeting at my church, a GMC Jimmy slid through an intersection and I ended up smacking it on the side. That next winter, a T-bird rear-ended me as I was trying to slow down to turn into my church parking lot. My dad got rid of that car shortly thereafter.

The Brewers finally, finally got off the schneid, snapping their eight-game skid with a 5-2 win over the Padres at PETCO. They did it without Geoff Jenkins, who got hit by a Mack Truck named Prince Fielder while trying to flag down a fly ball. That play, by the way, was the oddest I have ever seen - it was almost slow motion after the ball dropped and bounced into the stands. You see the two of them coming together, then trying to avoid each other, then Prince barrelling into Geoff. I don't know, but it just didn't look right. Of course, nothing about this losing streak looked right.

"Mr. Baseball" has had some issues of his own recently. Bob Uecker had to file a restraining order against a lady who he says has been harassing him. While it does sound like she's gone over the line, she does have some points about Ueck's behavior towards the common fan. Bob isn't exactly a "man of the people" when it comes right down to brass tacks. However, this lady apparently went a bit too far after getting the brush-off from Bob. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out - though I wouldn't anticipate any "fair reporting" from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about this. (Remember who owns the radio station Uecker works for.)