So, I'm making my first ever trip to Green Bay this weekend. I thought I'd see if anyone here had been, and , if so, had any suggestions or warnings.

The Dad, the brother and I are flying into Chicago tomorrow for a Blackhawks/Leafs game and then driving up to GB on Sat.. We're staying in Manitowoc, which is where the team stays, or so I hear.

From what I've heard the Packer fans are pretty hospitable. A friend of mine compared it to our trip to Lincoln for a Nebraska game: the nicest people you'll ever meet.

So, how bout it? Places to eat, drink tailgate? Must see/do?

Well, this is certainly interesting. I think a lot of it is stuff that we've heard rumors about before, but this is the first I've heard this snippet:

From that point on, Nelson testified, he was phased out of personnel decisions. At the 2004 draft, he thought he was in charge of the Mavericks’ selections until he spoke with his son, Donnie, the team’s president of basketball operations, during a men’s room conversation that night.

Cuban, in his testimony, denied keeping Nelson out of the loop, saying personnel matters were group decisions.

The hearing testimony also brought out how Cuban and Nelson remained at odds even after Nelson turned over the coaching job to Avery Johnson late in the 2004-2005 season.

 Of course, that was the Devin Harris draft, about which I have my own feelings, but I think the more important point is that we're continuing to see a pattern of dysfunction when comes to Cuban's personal relationships within the organization and the league. I'm so tired of hearing how great it is that we have a passionate owner who cares about winning and cares about the players and fans. Those things, if true, are all worth a bucket of piss if his "passion" leads to his unintentional sabotaging of this team and its future because of his ego.

That said, barring unforeseen events (SEC investigation?) I think we're stuck with Cuban for a long time.  So my question is this: Could Cuban ever drive you away from the Mavericks? There are a lot of Clippers and Bruins fans who have vowed to put their fandom on hold until Donald Sterling or Jeremy Jacobs are gone. Could Cuban push you to that point?

Just got finished reading the Cowboy-related content in this year's installment of Football Outsiders Almanac.

For those of you who aren't familiar with FO, they're a football analytics site that uses unconventional and advanced statistics.  I highly recommend visiting their site and buying the Almanac ($12.00, PDF download).  Even if they are occasionally off-base in their analysis, their publications are gold mines of well-organized statistics.

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Mike Maddux was on the Ticket this morning. It wasn't too terribly interesting, but I'll give a quick rundown as best as I can remember for those who care.

- He talked about pitcher durability and pitch counts. It was basically the same things we've already heard about pitch counts not being the best gauge and "the hitters will let you know when you're done"

- Spoke very generally about the conditioning program. Light on details, heavy on cliche. Said that depth will be important , and that's a good thing because we have...wait for it....."the best minor league system in baseball".

- Talked about growing up with Greg and their development as pitchers and their childhood. Pretty interesting story. Growing up, they traveled around with their father, who was in the Air Force and then met up with a guy that Maddux called "an old baseball soul" who I assume is Ralph Medar.

Overall, nothing ground breaking. Blah.

So, despite specualtion of mergers and show shuffling, 1310 the Ticket's big announcement this morning is that they'll be the Dallas Stars flagship for the next 5-years. Bob Sturm 's little hockey pants are going crazy right now. 

I like this for the Stars. For all their failings, I feel like KTCK has always done a fairly good job with hockey. I'm also assuming we'll get more Razor, which is great. Not so sure this is a great move for the Ticket, but that's a discussion for another time.