MILWAUKEE BREWERS 40th ANNIVERSARY TEAM

Twenty years ago fans voted and selected the following Milwaukee Brewers to the elite 20th Anniversary Team:

Pitchers: Mike Caldwell, Rollie Fingers, Pete Vuckovich
Catcher: Charlie Moore
First Base: Cecil Cooper
Second Base: Jim Gantner
Third Base: Paul Molitor
Shortstop: Robin Yount
Outfield: Sixto Lezcano, Gorman Thomas, Ben Oglivie
Designated Hitter: Hank Aaron

Okay, so after twenty more years of Brewers baseball have been etched into Major League baseball history, who should be out and who should be in? Comment below and state your case for what Brewers should be on this year's 40th Anniversary Team.

HOPING FOR ANOTHER 1980 U.S. OLYMPIC HOCKEY TEAM-LIKE MIRACLE

Sometimes special sports teams or certain player performances can heal, unite, or breed hope. The 2001 New York Yankees amidst the 9/11 aftermath and Kirk Gibson hobbling around the bases after his game-winning home run for the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers are a couple of those kind of moments.

However, once in a while a game can ignite the human spirit that inspires a nation. And that is what the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team accomplished with their "Miracle on Ice" when they defeated the Goliath Soviet Union squad in the medal-round on February 22, in Lake Placid, New York.

The U.S. team's victory over the Soviet Union and their win over Finland in the gold medal match lifted the spirits of the American people, resuscitating our country's national pride.

It's no secret that our country needs another miracle. Please join me in the "U-S-A! U-S-A!" chant while watching the 2010 Olympic games in Vancouver and believe.

Dreaming of Spring Training Camp

One more football game and then sports fans can begin dreaming of sunny spring baseball in Florida and Arizona. Sometimes I catch myself wondering why I spend my winters in Wisconsin but then I remember nobody beats our summers.

The start of February assures me that pitchers and catchers will be reporting to spring training camp in a couple of weeks. I love this time of year. Whenever the pitchers and catchers reported to camp when I was a kid, so did I. I grabbed baseball gloves, a ball, and a shovel and shoveled the snow out of our backyard. I shoveled and shoveled until I saw a good sixty feet and six inches of grass for my Dad and me to play catch on when he returned from a day's worth of welding in our Wisconsin winter's wind chills. We ended our February spring training camp sessions with Dad throwing me some snowball batting practice sessions.

February means spring's renewal of buds, birds, blades of grass, and bugs with another Major League Baseball season of Milwaukee Brewers, bats, balls, and beer is close and that gives me hope, hope that our days will last a little longer and the Brewers might win their first ever World Series championship.

It won't bother me if the groundhog predicts a few extra weeks of winter tomorrow morning, for I know I can shovel my way into my childhood spring training camp in just a couple of weeks, giving me ample time to assure that my throwing arm will be in playing shape for some tailgating toss by the time Opening Day rolls around in April.

Thanks for reading! Comment below and finish this sentence, "You know it's time for Opening Day when ..."