The latest example that the state has a long way to go to a competitive business climate (a favorite subject on this blog, as you know) came last week.
Development Counsellors International rated Wisconsin 38th in “A View from Corporate America: Winning Strategies in Economic Development Marketing,” a triennial survey of corporate site selection executives, the people who decide where a business decides to place a new location.
The top five were Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. Those states have a few things in common that Wisconsin apparently doesn’t have, or at least didn’t have when the survey was conducted last year:
Among those who named Texas as having a favorable business climate, the factors mentioned most frequently were: tax climate (44%); pro-business climate (31%) and economic development support/incentives (15%).
Among those who named North Carolina as having a favorable business climate, the factors mentioned most frequently were: low cost (29%); pro-business climate (22%); and strong workforce/talent (22%).
The top reasons provided by those who named South Carolina included low cost (27%); right to work state (23%) and pro-business climate (20%).
The reasons given in 2011 emphasize costs, taxes and incentive offerings. In 2008, workforce was of greater importance.
That is hardly surprising. It is an example of how markets work. When the economy is going well, businesses have to get more creative in getting employees, but states can be less aggressive in attracting businesses. The opposite is the case in bad economic times — employees have to get more creative to find jobs, and states have to become more aggressive in attracting businesses.
Wisconsin is not in the top five, but at least it isn’t in the bottom five — Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois, New York and California. As with the top five, the bottom five also are consistent:
California was cited for having high taxes by 40% of respondents, while 36% mention too much regulation, 23% said high cost and 17% said anti-business climate. Among those who named New York as having a least favorable business climate, 61% cited taxes, 38% said costs, 19% said regulations and 11% said antibusiness climate. Taxes (especially corporate taxes) (49%), fiscal problems/state budget deficits (22%) and costs (20%) earned Illinois a position in this list.
You’ll note that after eight years of the Doyle misAdministration and two years of a Democrat-controlled Legislature, Wisconsin was closer to worst than first. (Of the survey respondents, 2.5 percent put Wisconsin among the “Most Favorable Business Climate Rankings,” and 4.1 percent put the state on the “Least Favorable Business Climate Rankings” list.) Which description as applied to business applied more to Wisconsin as of last year: Low business taxes or high business taxes? Pro-business climate or anti-business climate? “Fiscal problems/state budget deficits”? (Which remain a problem.) “Too much regulation”?
The survey also rated state and regional economic development organizations. Not one from Wisconsin was on either list; the state list included the Texas Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the North Carolina Department of Commerce. (The regional list included the Austin Chamber of Commerce. Austin, Texas, is thought to be like Madison but with hotter weather. But apparently Austin, Texas is more interested in economic development outside state government and the state university than Madison.)
The Wisconsin Reporter, the only Wisconsin media I’ve seen reporting on this latest poor business climate comparison, put some spin on the DCI report:
A new survey ranking the Badger State as not having the most business friendly climate was conducted before Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP-led Legislature’s pro-business laws took effect.
And economic development leaders say the Walker administration is sending the message that times are changing in Wisconsin. …
The 2011 survey was conducted before legislation, such as tort reform and income-tax incentives for businesses that come to Wisconsin, went into effect.
Walker campaigned on a pledge to create 250,000 private-sector jobs during his first term and has made “Wisconsin Is Open for Business” his administration’s slogan.
The Walker administration often points to a recent study by “Chief Executive” magazine as proof that business leaders’ opinions of Wisconsin are changing. In the national survey, CEOs ranked Wisconsin the 24th best state for business, up from 41st in 2010.
The Walker administration has taken some correct steps. Replacing the Wisconsin Department of Commerce, which did more to harass commerce than promote commerce, with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. is a positive step.
It’s also clear, though, that the legislation of earlier this year hasn’t gone far enough. Nothing the Legislature approved did anything to curb the Department of Natural Resources, which has earned a nationwide reputation for making it as difficult as possible to do business in Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Reporter quotes Steven Sobiek, the City of Columbus’ director of economic development and energy sustainability, as saying that “My strong sense is that …. we are just not competing as effectively as a state as we could be against other states. That means marketing. That means giving local municipalities tools.”
Sobiek suggests “using revenue from a local sales tax for an economic development fund to encourage business development,” similar to the 0.5-percent Fond du Lac County sales tax that is funding the Mercury Marine retention package. If local officials had better records of thriftiness with the tax dollars they now have, I might be more convinced, but raising local taxes to wave goodies at business looks from here like a local variation of the Doyle Administration’s economic development strategy, such as it was. And you know how well that turned out.
The Wisconsin Reporter’s opposing view came from Sally Simpson, a member of the Kenosha County Democratic Party board, who said perhaps what she didn’t intend to say about “the turmoil” over public employee collective bargaining of earlier this year: “I think the business person sitting at home, wherever he is, (is) asking, ‘Do I want to bring my company into a state like that?’ They get offers to go everywhere.”
If Simpson — a retired teacher and not an expert on economic development — actually meant to say that business owners watch TV coverage of union thugs harassing taxpayers, elected officials and actually productive people, and then ask “Do I want to bring my company into a state like that?”, then she may be right. And thus the public employee unions and their apparatchiks in the Democratic Party and elsewhere are directly responsible for Wisconsin’s rotten business climate.
The Wisconsin Reporter adds this gem: “Democrats accuse the GOP agenda of being too cozy with business, at the expense of the state’s workers.” Given how crappily Democrats ran the state in the 2009–10 Legislature, and the voters’ reaction to same last Nov. 2, by rights Democrats should have forfeited the right to any opinion about economic development.
What comes out of this week’s Legislature special session on jobs may or may not improve the state’s business climate more. That may be up to Sen. Dale Schultz (R–Richland Center), who is viewed, rightly or not, as the squishiest Republican in the one-vote-majority Senate. The issue of venture capital, the lack of which has hampered high-tech and other businesses in this state, has yet to be dealt with given the reluctance of the Legislature (rightly or not) to create a venture capital fund.
If the Legislature is looking at legislation to pass in the jobs special session, here’s a list from earlier this year from listeners of Jay Weber of WISN radio in Milwaukee that haven’t been passed by the Legislature:
5. Repeal combined reporting
8. Bring back TABOR or some taxpayer bill of rights.
9. End the minimum markup law
15. Create a rainy day fund from excess or unexpected revenues that pour into the state coffers during boom times. (only talk of this so far, so far as I know)
16. Eliminate the state income tax on retiree pensions to help keep them in Wisconsin.
17. Freeze the property taxes of retirees to keep retirees in Wisconsin.
24. End early retirement for public employees, so they can no longer live off of a state pension longer than they ever worked at the job.
41. Review and repeal the so-called ‘smart growth’ environmental requirements and restrictions, which have hit the point of absurdity.
The DCI rankings, and for that matter the improved CNBC and Chief Executive magazine rankings show Wisconsin has a long way to go to become a great state in which to do business.
Today in 1957, the sixth annual New Music Express poll named Elvis Presley the second most popular singer in Great Britain … behind Pat Boone. That seems as unlikely as, say, Boone’s recording a heavy metal album.
The number one British song today in 1962, coming to you via satellite:
Britain’s number one album today in 1969 was the Beatles’ “Abbey Road”:
The number one album on both sides of the Atlantic today in 1975 was Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”:
The number one single today in 1980:
Birthdays start with LeRoy Van Dyke, whose number one country and number five pop song in 1961 is not the “Walk on By” you might think it is:
Who is Patricia Holt? You know her better as Patti LaBelle:
Jim Fielder was the original bass player for Blood Sweat & Tears:
Chris Lowe played keyboards for the Pet Shop Boys:
Barbara Kooyman MacDonald, half of Timbuk 3, which claimed …
Two deaths of note today: Janis Joplin in 1970 …
… and Bruce Palmer, who played in the Buffalo Springfield and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, today in 1974:
A fellow former member of the UW Marching Band had a perfect three-word description for this past weekend: “Fear the beer!”
Indeed, it’s hard to imagine this past weekend could have gone any better for Wisconsin sports fans. The Brewers took a 2–0 National League Division Series lead by beating Arizona 4–1 Saturday and 9–4 Sunday. The Brewers can clinch their first National League Championship Series berth in their history by winning one of the next three NLDS games.
This was apparently Offense Weekend for the Badgers and Packers, given UW’s 48–17 corn-squeezing of Nebraska and Green Bay’s 49–23 corralling of Denver. I haven’t checked, but Saturday and Sunday’s combined 97 points might be the record for most combined points by the Badgers and Packers in the same weekend.
Photo by Tom Lynn, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
First, though, the Brewers. I listened to parts of both Brewers games on the radio. On a couple of instances, it sounded as if 76-year-old Brewers announcer Bob Uecker was going to expire on the air due to overexcitement. Uecker is concluding his 40th season calling Brewers games, and those 40 seasons have included far more bad baseball than today. So I’m particularly pleased that Mr. Baseball is getting to work in October, which is the point of baseball’s first six months. His 40 years of quality work (even if he doesn’t announce the score as often as he should) have earned him the right to announce the Brewers as long as he wants.
Announcing bad teams is not as fun as announcing good teams. (Duh.) Ripon High School’s season is ending in two weeks; in fact, the Tigers have yet to win a game this season. There have been just two running-clock games (and ironically both lasted at least as long as regular games, one due to the lights going out and one due to a lengthy delay waiting for an out-of-town ambulance to arrive for an injured player), and Friday’s was a good game, a 13–6 loss to 40-year-long rival Winneconne.
But bad high school football seasons are just nine games, and bad high school basketball seasons are 23 games (22 regular-season games plus, most likely, one playoff game). A bad baseball season is 162 regular-season games — at least 1,400 innings — plus however many exhibition games the network decides to broadcast. When the All-Star Game arrives and your team is already out of the race, the end of the season must look a long way away, particularly if, as with Uecker, you announce only baseball — no weekend getaways to do football.
But at Miller Park, who’s thinking of football? Well, truth be told, there is divided attention, since baseball scheduled game 2 at the same approximate time as the Broncos–Packers game. (In 1982, when the Brewers went to the World Series, the Packers weren’t playing because of the NFL strike, and in 2008, when the Brewers were last in the playoffs, the Packers were not very good.) So there was manic channel-flipping in Ripon between channel 5 0r 9 (CBS, which carried the game) and channel 35 (TBS).
(That situation, by the way, demonstrates how poorly run Major League Baseball remains in media. Almost half of Americans cannot watch any Division Series or the National League Championship Series because they are on TBS and not on broadcast TV. NFL games on ESPN or the NFL Network are required to be carried on local TV in the participants’ home markets. Major League Baseball has no such contract stipulation, so Brewers fans without cable or satellite TV will get to see the Brewers only if they reach the World Series.)
Anyway, the Brewers had quality pitching Saturday (something exceedingly rare in the history of that franchise) and big hitting Sunday, with a five-run sixth inning ignited by, of all things, a suicide squeeze, something to gladden the hearts of those who believe the Brewers are incapable of fundamental baseball. While comebacks are fun (such as in 1982, when the Brewers dropped the first two games of the American League Championship Series in California only to win the last three in Milwaukee), it is better to make the other team try to come back, regardless of sport.
And Saturday night’s Camp Randall stomping (my favorite headline: “Forlorn Corn”) was a come-from-behind 48–17 win, a thrashing so embarrassing to Nebraska coach Bo Pelini that he actually apologized to Cornhusker fans. There is a certain arrogance in assuming you should roll to victory against a fundamentally sound team in what has become one of the most hostile places to play in college football. And it looked good early for the Cornhuskers until quarterback Taylor Martinez did his best Jay Cutler impression (as in three interception), which the Badgers compounded by scoring touchdowns on each. So 21 points of the 31-point margin started in Martinez’s right hand.
Photo by Eric Gregory, Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star
Martinez’s counterpart, Russell Wilson, continues to amaze. My favorite play was his touchdown run that started with a fake handoff to the right side, with Wilson rolling out to the left side. After the faked handoff, Wilson slowed down as if he had handed off the ball so his work was done, only to take off with the ball. Pelini had a long sideline conversation afterward with the poor Nebraska defender whom Wilson faked out of his compression shorts.
Wilson might be the best quarterback Wisconsin has ever had, and the hyperbole in a comment about someone who has played exactly four games is starting to fade. No UW quarterback in memory has had the combination of running ability and throwing ability that Wilson has. (You’d have to put together two or three recent quarterbacks to equal Wilson’s skills.) Opponents are forced to pick their poison — defend against UW’s vaunted run game and have Wilson pick them apart, or defend against the pass and have UW run them over like a road grader flattens asphalt.
Photo by Rick Wood, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Meanwhile, Wilson’s Packer counterpart, Aaron Rodgers, now appears able to throw a touchdown pass whenever he wants, and to whomever he wants. On Sunday, Rodgers’ four touchdown passes were to four different receivers. And none were of the methodical carve-up-the-defense variety. Flick, zip, cue up “Bang the Drum All Day.” As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tyler Dunne put it, “This regular-season game quickly resembled a 7-on-7 tournament with Rodgers needling passes into every window of the offense.”
This season, of course, featured no between-season minicamps and hastily assembled training camps due to the NFL lockout. This season has also featured high-scoring and fun games to watch. Perhaps the NFL and the NFL Players Association can arrange future lockouts.
This season is starting to look like the 1996, 1997 and 2010 seasons in one aspect: The Nemesis. In 1996, the Packers had to fight off the Vikings to win the NFC Central before their march to New Orleans. The next year, the Packers had to beat up-and-coming Tampa Bay three times to return to the Super Bowl. And in 2010, the Packers had to get past Da Bears twice to get to Super Bowl XLV. This year’s Nemesis is Detroit, which improbably came back to defeat Dallas and remain as undefeated as the Packers. And they meet twice in the last part of the season, starting on Thanksgiving Day.
Long-time Wisconsin sports fans know that sports success is not our usual lot in life. While rooting for the Packers, Badgers or Brewers hasn’t been the exercise in futility rooting for the Cubs is, history says a season where each team is winning is rare. The more normal circumstance has been, say, 1986, when the Badgers were 3–9, the Packers were 4–12 and the Brewers were 77–84. There have been other years where one team was good but the other two weren’t, and there have been years where two were good but the third wasn’t. Before, it seems, this year, the best season may have been 1982, when the Brewers made the World Series, the Badgers won their first bowl game, and the Packers reached the second round of the playoffs. But now, we have, thanks to someone on Facebook:
I can say unequivocally, though, that this weekend will not be repeated next weekend.
Blogger Rich Galen begins by relating the story of the British War Cabinet, formed by Prime Ministers Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill as part of Britain’s 100-year-long tradition “when it was determined that the very survival of the Kingdom is at risk and it is necessary to bring the best minds in Parliament to bear on the threat, notwithstanding party affiliation.”
Galen wants President Obama to do the same thing today, because …
At the end of March of 2009, remember, we were six weeks into the $787 billion stimulus package about which President Obama had claimed,”We have begun the essential work of keeping the American dream alive in our time.”
You know where we are. More than fourteen million Americans are out of work. Last week the government announced the economy – measured by the Gross Domestic Product – had grown at an annual rate of only 1.3 percent in the second quarter.
Worldwide the news is no better. … The chief economist of the Paris-based think tank said:
“There’s a clear drop in confidence in both business and households which reflects what they see as a lack of policy response from governments.”
Ah. “A lack of policy response from governments.” That’s what we need to focus on.
President Obama should come in from the campaign trail to reach out and call upon the best economic minds in the nation to come to Washington and figure out that the “policy response” from his government should be.
He should form an Economic War Cabinet. It even has a nifty acronym: The EWC.
He should, as Chamberlain and Churchill did when England was threatened by Germany, reach out not to just Keynesians like Paul Krugman, but to Conservative economic thinkers like Larry Lindsay. …
We wouldn’t ask them to check their ideology at the door. We would want them to set their ideologies, like their iPads, in front of them at the table. The idea would be to have them apply their considerable intellects to the problem of seeking common ground within their ideologies to help get the nation’s economies moving again.
There is no one economy of the United States. From the financial/service/engineering centers on the East and West coasts, to the vast agricultural areas between them, to the industrial Midwest (and increasingly the Southeast) there are many different economies.
It is quite likely that the EWC would decide that certain programs would help in Illinois and Michigan and others would be more beneficial to Iowa and Kansas.
If President Obama is looking for a bold idea that doesn’t include the suffix -illion, the appointment of an Economic War Cabinet would be a good place to start.
Well, Obama isn’t looking for “a bold idea that doesn’t include the suffix -illion.” He is looking to win the 2012 presidential election. Republicans in Congress are looking to prevent that from happening as well as to improve their majority in the House of Representatives and get control of the Senate.
It says a great deal about Obama’s political powers, such as they are, that Obama is reduced to complaining about Republican obstructionism when Obama’s party controls the other half of Congress. Obama’s allies in Congress, and 2012 Democratic candidates for Congress, are not exerting themselves touting Obama’s American Jobs Act, which makes one think even Democrats think it’ll prove ineffective.
It is also difficult to broker a deal when at least one side will be asked to ignore what one would think is their core principles. Republicans are not interested in raising taxes on job producers. Democrats are interested in raising taxes on millionaires (defined as a family with more than $250,000 in income), ignorant of what raising taxes in a down economy will do to that economy, because the gap between (Republican) rich and (Democratic) poor offends their sense of fairness.
An economic war cabinet that represents the complete political spectrum will never happen, of course, because Obama has at least one similarity to former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold (D–Wisconsin) — they both listen only with their left ear. Obama has yet to propose a budget-balancing initiative that would include cuts that anyone would notice. Obama claims that it would be crazy to raise taxes during a recession, and yet how does he propose to fund the American Jobs Act? By raising taxes, of course. (If you eliminate tax breaks, and people end up paying more in taxes, you have in fact raised their taxes.) The fact that businesses will use tax credits for hiring new employees does not mean those credits compelled hiring new employees; businesses hire employees when the amount of their business justifies hiring new employees. And that’s not happening now.
One assumes the country will survive the next 13 months until the November 2012 elections. (Of course, you know what they say about assuming …) Just hope your savings last that long, because the only people getting rich in today’s economy are those who were rich before August 2008. And nothing coming out of Washington is likely to change that until January 2013 at the absolute earliest.
We begin with this unusual event: Today in 1978, the members of Aerosmith bailed out 30 of their fans who were arrested at their concert in Fort Wayne, Ind., for smoking marijuana:
Britain’s number one single today in 1987:
Today in 1992 on NBC-TV’s “Saturday Night Live,” Sinead O’Connor torpedoed her own career:
The number one British album today in 1999 was Tom Jones’ “Reload,” which made Jones the oldest performer ever to have a number one album with new material:
Birthdays begin with Eddie Cochran:
Who is Ernest Evans? You know him better as Chubby Checker:
Victor Martinez of Los Bravos:
Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac:
Ronnie Laws played saxophone for Earth Wind & Fire:
Jack Grondin was one of .38 Special’s two drummers:
Stevie Ray Vaughan:
Gwen Stefani, no doubt:
One death of note: Benjamin Orr of the Cars died of cancer today in 2000:
Today in 1953, Victor Borge’s “Comedy in Music” opened on Broadway, closing 849 performances later. (Pop.)
Today in 1960, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs released “Stay,” which would become the shortest number one single of all time:
The number one single today in 1965:
Today in 1971, Rod Stewart had the number one album, “Every Picture Tells a Story,” and single:
Today in 1983, the number one British single was a song whose original title, “Pass the Kutchie,” was changed to avoid its being banned due to drug references. So, of course, the new song title came to mean the original title:
Today in 2008, Pink had Britain’s number one album, “Funhouse.” The album’s title was changed from its original name for some strange reason:
Birthdays begin with Mike Rutherford of Genesis:
Gordon Sumner is better known as Sting:
Greg Jennings, not of the Packers, but of Restless Heart:
Robbie Nevil:
Today’s final birthday: Back in my first journalism job, I got a news release package from a record company announcing a shopping mall tour for a new female artist. My part-time colleague and I decided this was a stupid idea going nowhere and threw it into the vertical file. Who was the new artist? Tiffany:
Some enterprising individual designed a logo for this weekend and possibly longer:
It seems like Wisconsinites are being blessed by big sports weekends more and more these days.
Our sports cornucopia begins with the Brewers’ second appearance in the National League Division Series in four years, after their first division title since their American League East title in 1982. That season, of course, went farther than 2008, when the Brewers lost their first playoff series:
The 2008 Brewers’ postseason was disappointing as are all that don’t end in a World Series win. But the 2008 Brewers seemed on the cusp of big things, even though they didn’t play like that in September and had to win their playoff berth on the last day of the season.
This postseason seems as if it’s the Brewers’ last, best hope for a title. The round mound of pound, Prince Fielder, seems to be on his way out to an American League team where he can be their designated hitter, with no obvious replacement on the roster. The Brewers traded away most of their minor-league prospects to dramatically improve their pitching. And they did improve their pitching, so it’s ironic that their best starter (Yovani Gallardo, who starts game 1 against Arizona Saturday afternoon) and closer (John Axford) are homegrown products. (Sort of, in Axford’s case; he was in the Reds’ and Yankees’ minor leagues, but never pitched in the majors before signing with the Brewers in 2008 and arriving in Milwaukee barely a year later.)
One thing the Brewers haven’t improved is their defense, which statistically isn’t very good. Baseball experts scowled earlier this year that the Brewers were trying to win with poor defense. And the Brewers finished 24th out of 30 in fielding percentage, though their Defense Efficiency Package was 16th. One could wonder how important defense is, however, given that there are as many teams in the playoffs that finished in the top eight in fielding (Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Arizona) as in the bottom eight (St. Louis, Milwaukee and Texas).
This team compares mostly favorably to the 1982 Brewers in terms of team color. The ’82 Brewers had Robin Yount; the ’11 Brewers have Ryan Braun. The ’82 Brewers had Rollie Fingers and his handlebar mustache until his late-season injury; the ’11 Brewers have John Axford and his Zappa mustache. (Read here for facial hair definitions.) The out-there personality of Nyjer Morgan (loved by his teammates, close to hated by their opposition) lacks a match in ’82, but the ’11 Brewers have no one as, well, ugly as Gorman Thomas and Pete Vuckovich. (A book about the ’82 Brewers chronicled an insult contest between Thomas and Vuckovich with one claiming the other’s face looked as if it had lost an acid fight.)
The ’82 Brewers’ power (216 home runs) was better distributed than the ’11 Brewers (185 home runs), whose biggest sticks (not to mention providers of the most majestic home runs you’ll ever see, homers where drinks should be served after the Fasten Seat Belt lights go out) are Braun and Fielder. Then again, few teams today have a 6-foot-6 leadoff hitter with some power (26 home runs) and a second baseman who hit his share of home runs before his ankle injury (20). Yuniesky Betancourt appeared to be the worst shortstop in baseball to begin the season, but he became at least serviceable by the end.
The ’82 Brewers were a veteran team, and the ’11 Brewers are still relatively young. This year’s team is slightly more home-grown: 1982 starters: 3B Paul Molitor (Brewers), SS Robin Yount (Brewers), 1B Cecil Cooper (traded from the Red Sox), C Ted Simmons (traded from the Cardinals), LF Ben Oglivie (formerly with the Tigers), CF Gorman Thomas (traded from and to the Brewers), DHs Don Money (Brewers) and Roy Howell (formerly with the Blue Jays), RF Charlie Moore (Brewers) and 2B Jim Gantner (Brewers). 1982 pitchers: Starters Mike Caldwell (formerly with the Reds), Don Sutton (formerly with the Astros and Dodgers), Pete Vuckovich (traded from the Cardinals) and Moose Haas (Brewers); reliever/starter Jim Slaton (traded to and from the Tigers), closer Rollie Fingers (free agent formerly with the Athletics and Padres). 2011 starters: RF Corey Hart (Brewers), CFs Nyjer Morgan (traded from the Nationals) and Carlos Gomez (traded from the Twins), LF Ryan Braun (Brewers), 1B Prince Fielder (Brewers), 2B Rickie Weeks (Brewers), SS Yuniesky Betancourt (traded from the Royals) and C Jonathan Lucroy (Brewers). 2011 pitchers: Starters Yovani Gallardo (Brewers), Zack Greinke (traded from the Royals), Randy Wolf (in order, Phillies, Dodgers, Padres, Astros and Dodgers again) and Shawn Marcum (Blue Jays); eighth-inning pitcher Francisco Rodriguez (started with the Angels, traded from the Mets), and closer John Axford (Brewers after getting cut by the Reds and Yankees).
The 1982 approach was the brainchild of general manager Harry Dalton, who traded for or signed as free agents Cooper, Simmons, Oglivie, Thomas, Caldwell, Sutton, Vuckovich and Fingers. The 1977 Brewers weren’t very good, but after Dalton arrived, the ’78 through ’83 Brewers were suddenly contenders every season. In an era when salaries weren’t so insane, Dalton found the small core of his team and augmented it with trades that nearly always benefited the Brewers more. (Only Brewers fans probably remember that they gave up outfielder Sixto Lezcano, pitcher Lary Sorenson, a pitcher and a prospect to get Simmons, Vuckovich and Fingers, or that they traded first baseman George Scott to get Cooper.)
The 2011 approach was the brainchild of general manager Doug Melvin, who developed more position players than Dalton, but who put together a pitching staff largely by acquisition.
The NLDS starts Saturday at 1 p.m. Six hours later on the other end of Interstate 94, the undefeated Badgers host Nebraska in the Cornhuskers’ first game in the 12-team Big Ten Conference.
The last time the Badgers played the Cornhuskers was in 1974, when a late touchdown pass from Eau Claire native Gregg Bohlig to wide receiver Jeff Mack (whose son later played for the Badgers) beat the mighty Cornhuskers 21–20, a win sealed by a late interception by safety Steve Wagner of Green Bay. My grandfather, a longtime Badgers season-ticket-holder, invited his sister, an ardent Cornhuskers fan from Lincoln. Great Aunt Mildred was, I’m told, mortified at the postgame conduct of the uncouth Badger fans.
And of those still-uncouth Badger fans, one commentor at HuskerExtra says:
Madtown is a great place for a game…festive atmosphere. However, if you’re going, be prepared for some interesting fan traditions. Besides the “Jump Around”, there is the cheer when an opposing player gets hurt, “Shoot him like a horse!” That is one of the nicer cheers. There are others that wouldn’t make it through the LITR profanity filter. Having sat in the student section at Memorial Stadium in recent years, it makes me realize how true it is, “There’s no place like Nebraska.” Stay classy Husker fans.
Another has a traditional view of the Badgers that omits their scintillating new quarterback:
The nature of our offense is ‘the big play’. We run 65 plays, and 58 of them are ‘duds’. No big deal. We still score 4 touchdowns and 3 field goals.
The Badgers are boring, like Nebraska used to be back when they won consistently.
New age technology offense vs. old school.
Nebraska: 37
Badgers: 21
This game will look like an intersquad game (the “scarlet” and “cream” Cornhuskers and the “cardinal” and white Badgers), and not just because of their uniforms and white helmets, reports the Lincoln Journal Star:
Barry Alvarez can’t wait to show off to his Nebraska football friends what he’s helped build at Wisconsin.
They’ll certainly notice similarities to what they’ve become accustomed to in Lincoln. Not just the fan support and electric gameday atmosphere, but also the big, burly linemen in red jerseys, some of whom joined the program as walk-ons.
That’s how they did it at Nebraska, where Alvarez played linebacker from 1965 to 1967, and it’s the model Alvarez followed to pull Badger football out of the doldrums. …
“We were able to build a program and sustain it,” Alvarez said.
Much like Bob Devaney did at Nebraska. Alvarez played for Devaney, who also took a lethargic program and turned it into a consistent winner.
Would Alvarez consider himself the Bob Devaney of Wisconsin football?
“I would be flattered if anybody would consider that,” Alvarez said. “We did some very similar things here that Bob did.
“I felt fortunate to play for a great coach in Bob Devaney. He had a tremendous staff. As far as fundamentals, physical play, sound play, all those things are things I took with me and took to this program.”
Alvarez, who began his career as an assistant coach at Lincoln Northeast and head coach at Lexington, said he “stole” the walk-on program from Nebraska.
Wisconsin, like Nebraska, is the only NCAA Division I football school in the state.
“I really felt there were a lot of players that were borderline — guys that you’re not quite ready to pull the trigger on that we would actively recruit,” Alvarez said.
“Quite frankly, they’ve been our savior. I call them our erasers. They make up for any mistakes you make in recruiting.”
The least important game in the scheme of things is the Packers’ game against Denver Sunday during NLDS Game 2 (or vice versa). That’s because it’s an interconference game, which, as we learned last year, counts less in getting a playoff berth than, in order, overall record, divisional record and record in your conference.
Nevertheless, the Packers and Broncos have an interesting history, independent of the abomination that is Super Bowl XXXII. One of the Packers’ most impressive wins in their Super Bowl XXXI season was their 41–3 win over Denver, a game that looked like a Super Bowl preview given that the Packers and Broncos ended up as their conference’s number one seeds. (The Broncos’ path to Super Bowl XXXI was rudely interrupted by a home playoff loss to Jacksonville. We won’t mention what happened the next season.)
In the 2003 season, the Packers needed to beat Denver and, more unlikely, to have the Vikings lose to the Cardinals to clinch the NFC North title; had either of those not happened, the Packers would have missed the playoffs. The Packers handled Denver easily, and then during Lambeau Field’s two-minute warning:
And then in 2007 in Denver:
This weekend once again is why TV remote controls were invented.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 
