4,000 Post Extravaganza

[jerichoholicninja]

I've been on a lot of message boards that have users post "milestone threads" when they reach a certain number of posts. I don't think I've ever seen one here before but I have nothing better to do at the moment so here's mine.

 

My baseball fandom story is probably different than most. I didn't come from a baseball family or even a sports family. My early experiences with baseball were with the old Manitowoc Skunks Northwoods League team. My uncle was a host each summer for players so he had season tickets and we'd go to games and hang out with the players. It wasn't until many years later that I realized that I used to hang out with major leaguers Juan Pierre and Jay Gibbons when I was a kid.

 

I played baseball as a kid but I don't even know why I did. Most of my friends didn't and I didn't even have any affection for it. It was probably because my parents wanted me to do something in the summer and baseball was pretty much all there was. The summer of 1998 was when that changed. Yes, it was the McGwire/Sosa homerun chase that piqued my interest in baseball. All my teammates were talking about so I started to watch the games that were on TV and soon I was hooked on baseball. Eventually I learned there was a team in Milwaukee and they actually had games on TV too.

 

While most kids learned the intricacies of the game from their parents or grandparents, I was self-taught in most everything baseball and I think that is why I've never understood a lot of the old school thinking about the game. I taught myself how to keep score from an old Skunks game program and would score my MLB '99 video games as I played them. Video games also introduced me to stats. I'm proud to say that I was ahead of the mainstream as I always favored OBP over batting average and knew that RBI totals had pretty much nothing to do with a evaluating a players talent.

 

I came to Brewerfan.net almost 11 years ago during my senior year of high school when I was working on a research paper about MLB team payrolls effect on winning. I'm sure most of us have either written a similar paper or at least done cursory research on the topic ourselves. That was three user names and probably over 5,000 posts combined ago. Since then I've graduated high school and college, gotten married, bought a house, and will become a father in May. Basically I'm an adult - except for not having a job. That said, I love baseball even more than I did when I was a kid and I'm looking forward to taking my child to Brewer games and the games I coach and play and then eventually teaching the game to him or her.

 

Wisconsin is a tough place to be a diehard baseball fan. The weather sucks for baseball. I've spent two months of each of the last 14 Springs freezing my butt off at high school and college baseball games. Miller Park is probably the best thing to have ever happened to the Brewers franchise and any pro baseball team in the Midwest that has built a stadium without a retractable roof is just plain stupid (looking at you Twins). If the weather wasn't bad enough there's another pro sports franchise in the state with a long and storied history that over shadows everything every other sports entity in the state does. The Brewers are the third most popular team in Wisconsin (if that) and unfortunately attracts a lot of band wagon fair weather fans. As bad as it sounds, I missed the early 2000's Brewer games when the stadium was always half full and you could sit pretty much where ever you wanted and didn't have to worry about obnoxious, drunk college kids who couldn't tell a double from a double play.

 

For as much as I'm involved in baseball at different levels, I really don't have anyone who I can discuss the game with indepthly and intelligently. This board has been the one place I can go for that. If it didn't exist I don't know if I would enjoy the game as much as I do. So I am thankful for this place and all the people who make it the great place that it is.

 

PS: Now that Khris Davis has been traded, I think I need a new avatar. Any suggestions?

[CheezWizHed]

Ironically, I just noticed this morning that I crossed 3000 posts recently. Do I get a thread too? Or do I have to wait for another 1000 posts?

 

Nice write-up by the way. If you have never had a winter wind blow up your jock strap, you have never played spring baseball in Wisconsin. I remember shoveling off our infield before our first game of my freshman year in HS. And that was due to winter snow remaining, not an unexpected spring snow storm either.

 

Why did you pick Khrush as your avatar? That might help pick a new one.

[RobDeer 45]

Great post!

 

What was that picture of on your old avatar??? How about you do the first David Stearns avatar! That way when we win the world series, you can use that as a bragging point.

[jerichoholicninja]

The picture I have of Davis is from 2 or 3 years ago when the Brewers set up a "selfie-cam" at Spring Training and players would randomly walk up to it and take a selfie. Davis's was the only one I found remotely amusing so I used it. I'm not even a Davis fan or anything, I just liked the picture.

[LouisEly]

I believe my 2000th post appropriately incorporated a WOAH SOLVDD reference.

 

Avatar - any chance there is an old picture laying around of you and said Juan Pierre or Jay Gibbons?

[jerichoholicninja]

I believe my 2000th post appropriately incorporated a WOAH SOLVDD reference.

 

Avatar - any chance there is an old picture laying around of you and said Juan Pierre or Jay Gibbons?

 

I know there is no such picture but you might be on the right track. I'll see if I can find an old Skunks program and see if there is anything worthwhile in there.

[pacopete4]

POST 2,000 FOR ME!! Woohooo!

 

Have a long ways to go to catch Mr. 4,000 though.

[reillymcshane]

Great post! I thought '4,000 posts - damn, that's a lot.' Then I saw I'm pushing 3,500.

 

Nice to hear the history of different people - we all live in this virtual world and don't know much about these people we've been talking to for over a decade.

 

Very cool.

[Baldkin]

Looks like I'd better get my butt in gear...

[kalle8]

i only write a few but i did read all your thousands and (i don't know why) still i am here reading ahahahah