***It is hard to believe after watching the seemingly invincible Miller Park Brewers get trashed by Houston and Chicago last week, but Milwaukee is going for a franchise record tenth consecutive road victory this afternoon here in Atlanta.  Can you remember the last road loss suffered by the Brewers?  It was exactly one month ago, July 3rd in Phoenix.  Now you probably remember the game that you thought you'd never forget...the big blown lead in the ninth inning where the Brewers never could get an out?  If the Brewers had been able to hold that lead their road victory string would already stand at 12 with today's game pending at Turner Field.

***I must say I find it a bit silly and presumptuous of critics to lay so much blame at the feet of Rickie Weeks for the Cubs' sweep of the Brewers.  First of all, I don't know anyone who has studied the situation who thinks Ray Durham is ready to play everyday at second base at this stage in his career.  Permanently benching Weeks because he didn't turn a double-play and got doubled off first base inexcusably is not going to make the Brewers a better team, but pretending it would gives frustrated fans and media types a nice punching bag to hammer.  I am well aware of Weeks' shortcomings this season, but I will say this without any hesitation:  Rickie Weeks will ultimately be an All-Star second baseman in his career.  When you rush a young talent to the Majors who has only small college and 200 minor league games worth of experience, you know in advance you will have to grimace through some growing pains.  Weeks is only 25 years old and, despite what has been an underachieving season offensively so far, he still has an OBP better than half of the rest of the regulars in the Brewers' lineup.  It is always easy to pick a target and rip away, but the correct analysis of the Cubs' series is that Chicago just played great baseball and was the better team.  Turning Ray Durham into an everyday player right now would not change that.

***I can't help it...I must weigh in on Brett Favre's soap opera.  To me the solution is simple:  Bring Favre back and make him the primary back-up to Aaron Rodgers.  Period.  Green Bay has a championship-caliber team with zero experience at the all-important quarterback position.  Rodgers may not prove to be brittle long-term, but we are all aware that he has missed more games as a back-up quarterback than Favre has missed as a starter in his long, illustrious career.  There is no doubt that Favre has behaved badly through all this, but the Packers have to realize that the best option they have at this point is to let him return and hold their noses until the furor dies down.  If Rodgers gets hurt or plays badly, Favre can come racing off the sideline to a standing ovation and give the Packers a chance to win much more so than either of the two rookies they just drafted.  If Brett doesn't like being a back-up, who cares?  He can go retire again.  I can't fathom why the Packers have let this go on for so long.  Just let him come back and take 20% of the practice reps and carry the clipboard.  Trading him for a low draft pick (if they can even get that) or releasing him is ridiculous to consider.  Begging him to stay retired is embarrassing.  Favre has been reinstated by the Commissioner:  Welcome him back to the roster and slot him at #2 on the depth chart. 

***While I'm taking a cruise around other sports, I want to recognize the end of Roger Federer's run as the World #1 in men's tennis.  Though it is often hard for sports fans to root for the guy who always wins, it has been easy for tennis fans to continue to cheer Federer despite his unprecedented success atop the sport because of the class and grace he has displayed as tennis' best ambassador.  Rafael Nadal deserves the top ranking and will ascend to that within a couple of weeks, but I suspect  Federer will return to that rung on the ladder again next year at some point.  Federer's bout with mono at the beginning of the year, in my opinion, is a very underrated factor in his sub-par performance in 2008.  By the way, everytime I watch a tennis match and see the "Spot Shot" instant replay system that the sport has implemented with great success, I think about how that kind of technology can improve the game of baseball.  Other than tradition, there is no reason that poor strike zone enforcement by umpires should continue in the future when there is a way to fix the whole issue with technology which is already available.  It may take a decade or two, but I predict that eventually we will see an electronic strike zone in MLB.