Milwaukeehockey.com

You can't judge a book

June 27, 2007

Oh, can't you see
Whoa, you've misjudged me
I look like a farmer but I'm a lover
You can't judge a book by lookin' at the cover
(Bo Diddley)

At work this week, I had to do a double take. The Hanson Brothers were on the cover of the latest Sports Illustrated magazine. In June... A double issue... Wow. And yes, I made sure this wasn't some sort of Canadian edition... it is the Sports Illustrated.

And as much of a fan I am of the Charlestown trio... I'm not sure I'll be buying myself a copy of this issue. I don't think I can force myself to do it. Doing so would break a boycott I've had on SI for several years.

After reading one-too-many articles slamming auto racing (my other passion in sports) back in the mid-90's, I stopped my subscription and convinced myself not to bother buying it at the checkout lane either... including the swimsuit issues!

Five years ago, my friend told me to read his copy reporting on the story of the 13-year old girl who died in Columbus after being hit by a puck. I became livid. I can't remember exactly what was said in that article, but it had me cussing for several days.... and I vowed not to even read another SI article again... in fact, I've even avoided their web site until today.

Ok... I admit... I'm guilty... I peeked at their site today and read the article about the Hanson Brothers. A good article. Almost as if Dickie Dunn wrote it himself.

The article mentions that Steve Carlson lives in the area (Kenosha), but doesn't make mention of his brief stint doing Admirals TV games. I could give out the link to the article, but I won't. It's there if you look for it. At least for now.

Still, I have to wonder how slow of a news week it is in sports for these guys to make the cover. I'm certainly not complaining... I'm just in a deep state of disbelief.

posted by Todd # 7:35 PM 0 Comments

All we hear is Radio Ga Ga

June 19, 2007

Radio blah blah
Radio what's new?
Radio, someone still loves you!

Those who have visited my site over the years have read my moaning and complaining of not being able to tune into Admirals radio broadcasts when I am unable to listen to the games online. I live in the far southern corner of the state in Pleasant Prairie (south of Kenosha). Not very far from Milwaukee, but too far for many of the city's AM radio signals.

Several years ago, the games were on WISN 1130AM, which came in clear in the daytime, but the signal was turned way down after sunset, at which time St. Louis Blues games (1120AM) would bleed all over Doug Pettit's call of the Admirals. Kinda funny actually, hearing parts of two games at once. Sometimes they would finish each other's sentences.

The team switched to a Christian music station (WJYI 1340AM) three(?) years ago. Weak signal. I could maybe catch every third or fourth word from Kyle Schultz. I rarely bothered to tune in if I was south of highway 20.

Two years ago, the team was added to ESPN Radio's lineup. "1510 days, 1290 nights". At the time, I thought that announcement was pretty cool. ESPN Radio... had a nice ring to it, as if the Admirals finally found a perfect home.

It turned out to be a little less than perfect. I still couldn't hear the games at night, and even if I was travelling where the signal was available, the games were often tape-delayed due to conflicts with other sports events. Once again, I rarely bothered to try to tune in the games when I was away from my computer. But it was a positive step for the Admirals. 1290 hosted a weekly call-in show, and the station exposed and promoted the Admirals throughout the day to other sports fans.

Last week, the team announced a change to Sports Radio 1250 (WSSP). According to radio-locator.com, 1250's nighttime signal should reach me. I've been too lazy to actually turn off my newly-acquired XM radio and test out the 1250 signal on my car stereo to see how much static I'll have to endure, but for now, I'm trusting the web site telling me it's a stronger signal than previous Admiral radio outlets.

The call-in show will also be carried on 1250. It will be interesting to see how often the Admirals are tape-delayed, as 1250 is the alternative station for Brewers and Bucks games, when they cannot be heard live on 620AM. UW hockey and basketball is also carried by 1250.

A few people sent me messages asking for my opinion on the radio switch. I'm taking a wait-and-see stance. A stronger signal is a good start... now we'll have to see if they get preempted by other events. But whether it works out great or not, it can not be considerably worse than I've dealt with in the past. A thumbs up to the Admirals for trying to "right the ship" on this one.

Hopefully, most of you realize the thinking behind most of my recent blog entry titles. I try to pick a song lyric pertaining to the topic at hand (changing words when needed). Most of you younger fans probably do not realize this, as my taste in music often goes back to when MTV actually played music videos (and earlier).

The title to this post is from a 1984 Queen song... scrolling down, you'll see references to Van Halen, Pink Floyd, Frankie Valli, and David Bowie. And I will include subsequent lines to the song in italics at the beginning of the blog entry if they are relevant.

Why do I do this? Thinking of catchy blog titles isn't always easy, and this way it adds a little quirky fun to the site.

posted by Todd # 1:36 PM 0 Comments

Summer nights and my Playstation

June 13, 2007

That's all we need baby don't cha know

It was revealed this week that the EA Sports NHL 08 hockey video game will include AHL teams and players. It will be available for PS2, PS3, XBox, and PC's. Expect it to be released near the beginning of the season.

This is not the first video game to feature the AHL. Gretzky NHL '06 was the first. Unfortunately, that game only allowed use of the AHL teams in individual games, and not in any type of season or playoff mode... and because of that, I grew tired of the game a little quicker than I normally would have.

I'm not a hard-core gamer, so this news doesn't blow me away, but I will likely pick up a copy in a few months and get what fun I can out of it. The first few days I own a hockey game, I spend most of the time updating the rosters... a tedious task, especially on console systems, as you have to go one player at a time through various menu screens... and not having a view of the entire roster at a glance... scroll, scroll, scroll... "nope, he's not on this team"... menu, menu, scroll, scroll, scroll... rinse, lather, repeat.

Not only would I save a version of the real-life updated rosters, but I also like to make up an Admirals Past-and-Present Superteam using the players available in the game. In the Gretzky game, I think I remember counting more than 100 current and ex-Admirals to chose from, so it wasn't an easy task to choose who made the Superteam, and what line combinations were most appealing.

The last PC hockey game I owned (02?) was a lot easier to update, as I found a utility program (Blomman's), which allowed me to move players from team-to-team much easier and gave complete team rosters onscreen without endless scrolling and menu-hopping. Not sure if such a utility still exists (Blomman's was around from 99-03), but I would love to find one for the 08 game.

For information on the upcoming game, visit the official site. Not much to see on that page right now, but I'm sure it'll explain more as the game is about ready to hit the store shelves.

Former Admiral goon Jeremy Yablonski made his mixed martial arts debut at an event in Idaho last month. Before becoming a pro hockey player, he was a Golden Gloves boxing champ, and the only useful part of his hockey game is dropping the mitts, so it's no surprise he has an urge to enter the octagon.

He played with the ECHL champion Idaho Steelheads this season, but did not participate in the playoffs. You can watch the entire bout on Youtube. Perhaps we'll see him on one of the many televised MMA series in the near future.

Program alert - now that the short final season of the Soprano's is history, I now look forward to tonight's season premier of Rescue Me on FX. Denis Leary plays a hockey-playing FDNY fire fighter who has so many problems in life, making everyone watching the show feel better about themselves afterwards. Good stuff.

posted by Todd # 2:01 PM 0 Comments

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