Something must being going right when depressing, yet expected, news fails to ruin a great day.  The last eight months or so have beaten me into submission, allowing me to come out the other side surprisingly optimistic and longingly hopeful about my future.  St. Luke’s decided after about five months of time that they in fact did not want to hire me as a Clinical Engineer in their VAD program.  In the end, the lag time between my final interview (over a month ago) and yesterday was disconcerting enough to put doubt on whether or not I would have even wanted to work for them in the first place.  Needless to say, the job at St. Luke’s was the first job I had really gotten excited about, and I thought I would have been perfect for the job.  Apparently I did not convey that feeling appropriately, or they just did not agree.  I’m going to assume they are the experts on the subject.  My good friend Mike also did not get the job, which is a bigger drag because it keeps him away from Milwaukee and his future Mrs.

On the positive side of things, the official rejection from St. Luke’s allows the paid position at Children’s to become a reality.  I literally called them the second I got the lovely form-letter from St. Luke’s with the general idea of “Let’s get this started…” because in the spirit of previous posts, I need a dollar, a couple of dollars would be nice.  But, wait Mike, you said something about a great day earlier, you may ask.  Yes, I did.

The Milwaukee Brewers baseball season officially got off to a stinging start with their first Cactus League game against the San Fransisco Giants.  While the Brewers eventually did lose 3-5, there were still many good things that came out of the game, especially since Spring Training games do not mean that much.  First, Rickie Weeks came back with some authority going 2 for 2 with a walk and 2 RBIs on 3 ABs.  This confirms the many reports that Weeks has been able to carry over his rock solid swing from the beginning of last season, before he went down with the wrist injury, to this season.  Fingers crossed Weeks can keep healthy and have a complete season that proves he is the prolific talent we all believed he was when he was drafted.

On the other side of the field, the Brewer’s pitching looked quite comfortable to be back in the saddle again.   After the painful pitching of last season, it was intoxicating to see the glimmer of hope when three pitchers (Suppan, Coffey, and Schoeneweis) were able to keep the Giants hit-less over the first four innings.  Hopefully, this is a sign that Suppan took last year’s beating as motivation to get back into shape and dedicate himself to pitching successfully for the Brewers.  If he continues down the path he is on, he will go down as the worst contract the Brewers have ever signed, which is shocking given the monstrosity that was 1 year/ $10 million for Gagne.  We did not get a chance to see any playing time for Braun, Edmonds, and Escobar.  Escobar will be an interesting player to watch this spring.  He needs to prove that he can hit as well as he can play defense.  Additionally, Edmonds is fighting for a roster spot, but with the outfield already crowded with mainstays like Hart, and Braun, it will be interesting to see where Edmonds fits in.  There was a report the other day that said Edmonds might fill in as a back up first basemen for the three innings a year that Prince does not play.

All in all, it was great to sit and listen to Uecker call a Brewers game again.  It definitely helped that it was sunny out, giving the illusion that it was legitimately spring.  I bought the MLB.com At Bat app for the iPhone yesterday to listen to the game.  For $15 bucks I can now listen to any baseball game on my iPhone, and apparently, watch some of them streaming…that remains to be tested.  This will complete my reliance upon my iPhone, since I already have the ESPN Radio app which currently eats all of my battery.  What else does a man need beyond, food, baseball, sleep, and the occasional female companionship?

Beyond the Brewers staring their season, the Milwaukee sports scene got a little happiness when Joe Lunardi of ESPN put Marquette firmly in the ‘Locks’ category for the NCAA Tournament.  Looking back at Marquette since the painful loss to DePaul, it is unbelievable to see the success they have had.  Winning 9 of 10, with three straight overtime road wins, and huge wins over Georgetown, UConn, and Louisville.  While Marquette could still make this interesting by losing the Notre Dame and then in their first game of the Big East Tournament, the committee would be making one of the biggest snubs in a long time.  So let’s review: did some good work at Children’s, got rejected from a job, Marquette got ‘locked’ into the tournament, Brewers started playing baseball again, and oh yea, I played a fair amount of video games….pretty good day.  Hope you enjoyed yours.

Remember: 1 Month til’ Opening Day!