Ernie Harwell was a Hall of Fame broadcaster for the Detroit Tigers, below is an section from his hall of fame speech:

Baseball is the President tossing out the first ball of the season and a scrubby schoolboy playing catch with his dad on a Mississippi farm. A tall, thin old man waving a scorecard from the corner of his dugout. That's baseball. And so is the big, fat guy with a bulbous nose running home one of his (Babe Ruth's) 714 home runs.

There's a man in Mobile who remembers that Honus Wagner hit a triple in Pittsburgh forty-six years ago. That's baseball. So is the scout reporting that a sixteen year old pitcher in Cheyenne is a coming Walter Johnson. Baseball is a spirited race of man against man, reflex against reflex. A game of inches. Every skill is measured. Every heroic, every failing is seen and cheered, or booed. And then becomes a statistic.

In baseball democracy shines its clearest. The only race that matters is the race to the bag. The creed is the rulebook. Color merely something to distinguish one team's uniform from another.

Baseball is a rookie. His experience no bigger than the lump in his throat as he begins fulfillment of his dream. It's a veteran too, a tired old man of thirty-five hoping that those aching muscles can pull him through another sweltering August and September. Nicknames are baseball, names like Zeke and Pie and Kiki and Home Run and Cracker and Dizzy and Dazzy.

Baseball is the cool, clear eyes of Rogers Hornsby. The flashing spikes of Ty Cobb, an over aged pixie named Rabbit Maranville.

Baseball just a came as simple as a ball and bat. Yet, as complex as the American spirit it symbolizes. A sport, a business and sometimes almost even a religion.

Why the fairy tale of Willie Mays making a brilliant World's Series catch. And then dashing off to play stick ball in the street with his teenage pals. That's baseball. So is the husky voice of a doomed Lou Gehrig saying., "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth.”

Baseball is cigar smoke, hot roasted peanuts, The Sporting News, ladies day, "Down in Front", Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and the Star Spangled Banner.

I had a chance to thumb through the media guide for the 1999-2000 Wisconsin Badgers and I found following statement:

THE WISCONSIN WAY

The University of Wisconsin Basketball Program is built upon the following principles...

Humility - "Know who we are"

Passion - "Do not be lukewarm"

Unity - "Do not divide our house"

Servanthood - "Make teammates better"

Thankfulness - "Learn from each circumstance"

Kohl Center - I'm watching Trevon Hughes and the Badgers take on the Hoosiers of Indiana and while watching Hughes I'm starting to be reminded of former Bucks guard Sam Cassell. 

Both players are scoring points who have some East Coast playground to their game, both were productive in college, neither is/was very athletic but have the basketball IQ to score anyways. I think both players are leaders and find a way to be court leaders without playing the role of a true point.

Cassell averaged 18PPG his last two years at FSU meanwhile Hughes is averaging 15PPG as a Senior for UW. If you take style of play into account then I'd say that the numbers are even.

Cassell was the 24th overall pick in the 1993 NBA draft, although I don't see Hughes getting drafted in the first round it doesn't mean he won't have NBA success. I think if he can join an established team with a good coach like Cassell did, then Hughes can have success too.  

Madison Office - Former MLB All-Star Lenny Dykstra is an awful financial adviser and thanks to SportsByBrooks.com it sadly came out that he may have lost all of his son's signing bonus from the Brewers. Below is an interview from BrewCrewBall.com (2008) with Cutter Dykstra:

BCB: You got a pretty hefty bonus–did you dad have any sage financial advice for you?

CD: (laughs) I just gave him my check, and he will invest some of it for me.

BCB: It’s a good thing your dad knows a little bit more about money thanPrince Fielder’s. Did you hear about that?

CD: No, I didn’t hear about it. What happened?

BCB: Cecil took $200,000 of Prince’s signing bonus and most likely gambled it away.

The story is from SportByBrooks.com and they are not alleging that Lenny has lost his son's money. 

From Bruce Feldman's mailbag: 

I certainly do think there's the potential for this team to make a BCS title run. Scott Tolzien has developed pretty nicely at quarterback. He still has to cut down on the turnovers, but he had only three interceptions over the final six games of the season, and the Badgers averaged around 36 points per game in that stretch.

Better still, this will be a very solid, senior-led team with talented O-linemen and good receivers. RB John Clay is a force and a legit Heisman contender, and the D returns playmakers at all three levels. They should cruise through four nonconference games -- the toughest is a visit from Arizona State, a team that went 4-8 in 2009. Ohio State has to come to Madison, and there is no Penn State. Besides the Buckeyes, the trickiest game is the week after OSU, when the Badgers have to visit Iowa, which I also expect to be very good. But as I said, I like the experience on this Wisconsin team.

Thoughts from ESPN's Todd McShay on O'Brien Scholfield

 • Wisconsin's O'Brien Schofield is expected to move from end to linebacker in the NFL and he started making the transition this week in practice. Quickness and straight-line speed do not appear to be an issue. He can close quickly in the short area and he ran with TE Andrew Quarless on one play.

On the other hand, Schofield stumbled once when asked to change directions during bag work and looked stiff in space during the team period. In fact, the East coaching staff lined him up on the inside at times. Additionally, he's clearly a raw linebacker. He is taking too shallow of an angle when asked to drop into the flat, he doesn't time his jumps well in coverage and is taking a split-second too long to locate the ball in run defense. It will be interesting to see how he progresses during the week.

01/23 - Update on OB - LB O'Brien Schofield, Wisconsin
We've talked all week about Schofield's transition from end to linebacker here and it looks like he's getting more and more comfortable in the new position. He's reacting and just playing now instead of needing that split second to think about what he's supposed to be doing. He has good, quick feet. Maybe the quickest feet on anyone here and that will help him. Give him lots of credit for hanging in there in what had to be a frustrating week at times and for getting better and better as the week went on. Coaches have to be looking at this and thinking they saw the worst part of his game but he continued to work and get better and better and ultimately he has a chance to be the best linebacker from this group.