Blogging Blue

A few years ago, former NBA player (and Milwaukee native) Latrell Sprewell turned down a three-year, $21 million contract extension with the Minnesota Timberwolves, saying, “I’ve got my family to feed.” Perhaps Sprewell shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss the Timberwolves contract offer, considering the financial difficulties he’s facing. On Tuesday federal judge J.P. Stadtmueller signed a judgment against Sprewell for nearly $613,000, a judgement which comes only months after Sprewell’s River Hills house was foreclosed and his yacht was repossessed and sold at an auction.

No house, no yacht, and now $613,000 in debt…something tells me Latrell Sprewell should have taken that $21 million contract the Timberwolves were offering back in 2004.

After defeating Mary Hardin-Baylor 39-13 this afternoon in Belton, Texas, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks will play Mount Union College in the NCAA Division 3 national championship game next Saturday at 10 a.m. central time in Salem, Virginia. The game between UW-Whitewater and Mount Union marks the fourth time the two teams have played against each other in the D3 national championship game, with Mount Union winning in 2005 and 2006, with UW-Whitewater prevailing last year. In defeating Mary Hardin-Baylor, UW-Whitewater was led by quarterback Jeff Donovan, who threw for three touchdowns, as well as running back Antwan Anderson, who rushed for 106 yards and a touchdown.

Go Warhawks!

As an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, you can imagine how proud I was when the Warhawks football team won the NCAA Division 3 Championship last season, defeating Division 3 powerhouse Mount Union in the national championship game, and with a win on Saturday against Mary Hardin-Baylor in the national semifinals, the Warhawks will be making their fourth straight appearance in the national championship game.

This year’s Warhawks are anchored by one of the best defenses in Division 3 football, a defense that has only surrendered 12.2 points and 265.3 yards per game, and in Mary Hardin-Baylor they’ll be facing an offensive powerhouse, so it’ll be interesting to see how the battle of offense vs. defense ends up.

I know I’ll be rooting for the Warhawks to win, because then it’s on to Salem, Virginia and another Division 3 Championship!

Just a few things that caught my eye as I was wandering around the intertubes…

• Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich and his Chief of Staff were arrested by the FBI today, accused of corruption charges. According to CNN, each man was charged with a count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and a count of solicitation of bribery. The corruption charges were in part related to the selection of President-elect Barack Obama’s successor, said the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois.

  Apparently, Gov. Blagojevich was trying to sell president-elect Obama’s now vacant U.S. Senate seat to the highest bidder, and Gov. is Blagojevich is alleged to have said he knew that the President-elect wanted Senate Candidate 1 for the open seat but “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation. [Expletive] them.”

  Being from Wisconsin, I’d love to know what’s up with politicians in Illinois. Didn’t anyone learn anything from the conviction of former Gov. George Ryan for corruption? All I have to say is while I understand Gov. Blagojevich is innocent until proven guilty, I hope he’ll do the right thing and step aside as Governor of Illinois so as to not serve as a huge distraction while his criminal matters get sorted out, and if he chooses not to step aside of his own volition, then I hope those politicians in Illinois impeach him. To be honest, I’m simply stunned at the level of hubris Gov. Blagojevich has demonstrated in choosing to (allegedly) engage in this kind of blatantly illegal behavior after succeeding a governor who was convicted of not entirely dissimilar behavior.

  EDIT: CNN is reporting Gov. Blagojevich was released on $4,500 bail after he appeared in Federal court this afternoon. What I’d like to know is what kind of bail is $4,500? I’ve seen bigger bails set in cases that seemed far less serious than this.

• In other news, Senator Larry Craig (R-Bathroom Stalls) has lost his latest attempt to withdraw his guilty plea in the Minneapolis airport men’s room sex sting that effectively ended his Senate career. The Minnesota Court of Appeals rejected Craig’s appeal to toss out his disorderly conduct conviction, but this may not be the last of Larry Craig, because he can still appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. You’ll recall Craig was arrested June 11, 2007, by an undercover police officer who was conducting a sting operation against men cruising for gay sex at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Sen. Craig, who did not seek reelection to another term in office, will be replaced in the new session of Congress by fellow Republican Jim Risch, Idaho’s Lt. Governor.
• Unrelated to anything political, am I the only Wisconsinite who doesn’t really mind the amounts of snow we’re getting right now? Sure, it’s hell to drive in, but it’s not as if driving in the snow is anything new for anyone who’s lived in Wisconsin for more than 10 minutes.
• One more thing. How bad is the economy right now? So bad that the NFL is cutting 14% of its staff due to the current economic downturn. When a cash cow like the NFL is cutting jobs, you know the economy’s in bad shape.

I’ve got a couple of thoughts completely unrelated to politics.

First of all, let me just say I hope the Milwaukee Brewers trade first baseman Prince Fielder this offseason. Prince Fielder has issues. He’s got weight issues and fielding issues and salary issues and attitude issues, and I think the Brewers as an organization would be better off in the long and short term if they traded Prince Fielder for some pitching before he eats his way out of professional baseball. Ideally the Brewers could soften the blow of losing CC Sabathia - if they can’t win a bidding war for his continued services - by trading Prince Fielder for some pitching. I can think of a few teams (Yankees, Giants) who have holes at first base and could use a left handed bat in their lineups, so a trade makes sense.

Unrelated to baseball, Mike Singletary is my new favorite NFL head coach:

I’m glad to see Mike Singletary call out his players - and I’m convinced the NFL could use more “old school” coaches like Singletary who aren’t afraid to call their players out.

My stepdaughter Alexis had her third Tae Kwon Do tournament today in the Chicagoland area. She entered two events - forms and board breaking - and in both events she won gold medals, and as great as that might sound, her day got even better. As the result of her two gold medals, Alexis got to compete in the tournament grand championships in both events, and what’s better than winning two gold medals? Winning a six and a half foot tall grand champion trophy for board breaking.

Here’s a few video snippets:

With a Mets loss and a 3-1 win over the Chicago Cubs, the Milwaukee Brewers clinched a spot in the National League playoffs as the wild card team, ending a 26-year post-season drought. There’s no doubt it’s been a long hard road for the Brew Crew, who went from leading the NL Central to leading the wild card race to being written off for dead, but at least they finally found the will to win. Now that the Brewers are in the playoffs, I expect them to do well, considering their rotation is built to excel in the playoffs. With two legitimate aces in CC Sabathia and Ben Sheets, the Brewers could potentially dominate a five or seven game playoff series the way the Arizona Diamondbacks did with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling a few years back.

Now I know that some folks are saying the Brewers really need to do well this postseason, because the loss of Sabathia and Sheets will likely mean a return to mediocrity, but I’m not convinced the Brewers won’t be able to rebound from the loss of both pitchers. The Brew Crew should expect to have Yovani Gallardo back for a full season next year, and he’s got the stuff to be a staff ace. Perhaps the Brewers will make a trade (Prince Fielder to San Francisco, anyone?) to bolster the rotation, and with nearly 20 million dollars coming off their payroll, the Brew Crew might be able to find a solid starter in free agency.

No matter what, it’s exciting to see the Brewers in the playoffs, and I look forward to seeing what they can do!