Death Match: Brewer v. Packer

I've been wondering for a few weeks now what would happen today when Packer training camp opens and the Brewers open their biggest series of the year so far against the baby bears. Well, I can tell you from listening to local radio that it was a beating of epic proportions. If you had just landed from an alien planet, you would have no idea that a baseball team even plays in Wisconsin, much less is in the middle of a pennant race, with a legitimate shot at the playoffs for the first time in 26 years. The only time the Crew even got mentioned was when the hosts forced it in. If there had been completely free reign on phone calls, there would have been no mention of the series that starts tonight. And I'm not even talking about the Favre thing. Of course it was discussed because there is a federal law that mandates that if you have any idea what a football looks like, and you host a show, you must discuss Brett Favre for at least 25% of all on-air time. But most of the talk was about other things, Ryan Grant's holdout was a big one. It is incredible to me that overnight, the Brewers were vaporized by grown men discussing other grown men practicing a game in 90 degree heat.

I guess I just wanted to point out how far the Brewers have to go to garner even remotely close to the obsession that Wisconsin fans have for the Packers. Myself included probably. If the Packers played at the same time as the Brewers I wouldn't think twice about what I would be watching.

Retailers Have Spoken, Aaron Rodgers Sucks

I wish I had myself a digital camera to carry around, but I don't, so you'll have to use your imagination. I was walking around the mall in GB yesterday and popped into the Finish Line because I was thinking about getting a Brewer jersey. As I'm walking through the store I notice a rack of Packer jerseys. Not unusual. Packer jerseys probably do double the sales of Brewer jerseys even when they are in the offseason. Anyway, this particular rack has two jerseys on it facing the outside. On the right is the #4 Brett Favre jersey, still selling for regular price, and probably still doing pretty well in sales. Again, not unusual, he could run for supreme dictator of Wisconsin and win. He is a hall of famer, and his jerseys will be bought and sold forever. The interesting thing was the jersey on the left side of the rack was #11 Brian Brohm......I want to let that sink in for a minute....OK. That should do it. Given a choice of which jersey to sell apparently, Finish Line went with Brian Brohm over Aaron Rodgers. There were no #12 jerseys in the store. And as far as most Packer fans are concerned, they aren't used to the idea of anyone but Favre at QB, so it wasn't because the #12 was sold out.

If we were in the Packer Pro Shop, seeing a Brian Brohm jersey wouldn't be that wierd, because you could probably pick up a Matt Flynn or Patrick Lee jersey just as easily. Also, there would be plenty of Rodgers jerseys. Finish line is the kind of store that only sells popular items when it comes to jerseys: i.e. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, LDT, etc. So to see a Brohm jersey and no Rodgers jersey is bizarre to say the least.

My point here is that major U.S. retailers are firmly behind Brian Brohm, and assuming Rodgers will splinter his femur in training camp. Or there is some type of conspiracy to assassinate him, that has been cooked up by the retail industry and Brian Brohm's people.