Home Opener The Best Day Of The Year

Made it over to Milwaukee on Thursday for the BEST day of the year, the home opener for the Milwaukee Brewers.

By my count, this was Opening Day No. 30 -- and thanks to a 5-1 thumping of the hated St. Louis Cardinals, my record stands at 18-12. The Crew is 28-26 since coming over from Seattle in 1970.

Witnessed this one with Stevie Wonder (no, not that Stevie Wonder!), a long-time friend who has been meeting us for these games since the early 1990's. Also in tow my bride of nearly 38 years, who hadn't been to one of these events for many, many seasons. Oldest kid had to pass (under the weather) but has still been to 26 of these.

Gotta say, thank the baseball gods for that roof over AmFam Field! While the winds were howling near 40 MPH outside and producing wind-chills in the low 20s, inside the sell-out crowd of 42,794 made it toasty. Not that all the seats had fannies in them, mind you. From our vantage point, could see a lot of empty upper deck spots. Guess people looked out at the weather and said "I'll pass..." Or they never made it in from tailgating.

When the Brewers were playing at old County Stadium, we endured a lot of bad weather Opening Days. Cold. Rain. Snow. Seems like all that was missing were a plague of frogs or locusts.

Odd things gleaned from checking out Opening Day stats:

• The Brewers are 2-0 at American Family Field
• The team was 10-10 at Miller Park -- first game played in 2001
• Against National League teams, Milwaukee is 14-11 (includes 2-1 at County Stadium)
• Milwaukee was 16-16 in games at County Stadium, 14-15 against the American League

And please keep in mind, people, that a 162-game baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint. There will be winning streaks and losing streaks. The team left standing at the end of it, that's the goal.

Came across the name Terrell Buckley the other day. Seems he's one of the head coaches in the XFL, the spring pro football league that will debut in 2023.

Green Bay Packer fans of a certain age will remember the erstwhile cornerback, the fifth pick overall in the 1992 draft who spent two rather unspectacular seasons as a Packer before being traded. He is probably most remembered for blowing coverage late in a game against the Minnesota Vikings that led to a loss.