Damn 2011 was a fun season. Too bad that I was too busy feeling sad the whole season to really appreciate it. If you know me then you know that I had a pretty damn good reason for that. There were moments here and there during the summer on Friday nights when I was waist deep in parking lot rum and Friday's Long Islands that I had a good time without even knowing it. The sombrero was in full force in the left field bleachers and even though we didn't get a whole lot of TV time nor did we make any road trips, it still was a pretty successful year. By the time I finally came to and realized that it was OK to enjoy life again on a daily basis the Brewers clinched the NL Central title in a game against the Florida Marlins on a Friday night. It was the last game of our 10 game pack and I was happy. Sure there will always be a hole in my heart but that cannot be repaired. But there is a lot of good in this world. And for me that good thing is Brewers baseball. Besides my family and friends, Coach Bombay and the Pookon Enterprise, I love the Brewers the most. It's a part of my life that I spend the entire year pining over not just the usual months of April-October. Spring Training is such a tease and I have hardcore Brewers fever that won't go away, which is why I started the "25 Brewers in 25 Days" countdown to Opening Day a few years ago. In the days leading up to the season opener I highlighted a different player every day whom I thought would make the 25 man opening day roster. That was one of my favorite sections on this blog, and judging by the stats I know that you guys appreciated it too.
You don't have to be an English scholar to realize that I was talking in the past tense. That's because I'm not doing a "25 Brewers in 25 Days" series this year. Well, that's not entirely true Mr. President. Wait... which part? I won't be doing a daily entry but I still will be writing a couple entries previewing the 2012 season. I will be giving my preseason predictions for the team as well as the individual offensive players and members of the pitching staff. It will just be 3-5 total articles instead of 25. I'm going to try to keep it brief and I will also be featuring a couple of videos, which went over pretty well last year. So why I am doing it like this instead of the full 25? That's because the 25 separate articles took a lot of time, planning, preparation, studying, formatting, layout, research and effort to pull off. I easily put 3 hours work or more into every single article that I posted last year and I had a really good time doing it. But the problem is that it took so much time out of my life. Last year I had plenty of time to commit to this project and I happily used it to bring you some fresh and exciting new content. The videos alone made it priceless. But I just don't have that kind of time this year. If you have been following along here at Pookon's Ill Blog then you know that I'm trying to get my life back together and I have been trying new things to change my life and alter my perceptions in a series of weekly challenges called "7 in 7." It's going quite well but it takes a lot out of me because I am thinking and living outside of the box. Stepping outside of your comfort zone takes a lot of hard work. But don't get me wrong pal - I'm loving every minute of it. But I just can't do it like I used to. I'm getting old and I've got too much on my plate.
To anyone that is upset right now deal with it. Come up with you own material. Go outside and play on a jungle gym. Talk a walk in the park and throw rocks in the river. Learn more about the game of baseball so we can discuss the benefits of using the double switch and why the DH role should be done away with or added to the NL. Or we could talk about why the new playoff structure is a bad thing for baseball and the Houston Astros moving to the NL West in 2013 is not necessarily a good thing. Or is it? Do you have an opinion to share? If so come to me with some knowledge and don't you dare try to drum up some sympathy for Ryan Braun and his offseason debacle. Because you damn sure will not hear one kind word coming out of my mouth pal. But that is just one topic of many that may or may not be addressed in the coming weeks. How do you find out if that topic or a myriad of others like the improved defense, returning starting pitching staff or an offense lacking the punch of Prince Fielder will be covered? By checking back here on a bi-weekly basis. Today it is 25 days until the season begins which gives us a little over 3 weeks until the season starts. I promise to at least have 1 new article per week but don't be surprised if I throw a couple random more in there just for the hell of it.
It will be hard to top the 2011 season. The month of August was insane when they went 21-7 and the starting pitching staff was damn near unbeatable. September and the pennant race was nuts and we had to battle right to the end for homefield advantage in the NLDS which ultimately led to them winning Game 5 with a walk-off hit by Nyjer "Tony Clutch" Morgan. They also had homefield advantage in the NLCS but that one didn't end up so sweet. The playoffs at Miller Park had such an electric atmosphere and I made hella bank working all of the games. I'd love to have that back again and given the wide-open NL Central there's no reason to believe the Brewers can't repeat as Champions and make it back to the playoffs. There's nothing like October baseball and we are fortunate to have experienced it twice in the last 4 years after wallowing through a 26 year drought. I'm excited for 2012 and I will make sure to try and translate that excitement into words on this here blog. So look out buddy. Look out buddy. Dave... I'm gonna race 'em. I'm sorry Officer... I didn't know I couldn't do that. The thing is Dave, I did know that couldn't do that! Ha ha ha ha! This is going to be a pretty good year. All things considered of course.
- pookon -
email: pookondotcom@gmail.com
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