Hair of the Dog, 11/6/08

The Bucks dropped the Washington Wizards 112-104 in overtime at the Bradley Center last night. The night was far from encouraging though. The Bucks, playing without Michael Redd took off to what looked like a commanding lead. They were up 30 to 17 at the first quarter but were then outscored 28 to 9 in the second. They lost more ground in the third but made a huge comeback and tied it up at the end. The bad thing is that the Wizards are pretty bad and were playing without Milwaukee-hating star Gilbert Arenas. The good news is that the Bucks actually came back from a big deficit. I can't remember the last time I heard about them doing that. The give-up mentality we're used to wasn't present in the 4th quarter or in overtime.

Richard Jefferson took over for Redd as the team's main scorer with 32, 14 of which came in the first quarter. The Bucks had both of their point guards, Sessions and Ridnour, on the floor at the same time for significant portions of the game and they added 22 points/8 assists, and 20 points/11 assists respectively. Luc Mbah a Moute continues to impress and seems to have become a scoring threat on top of his already impressive defense and energy. That brings the Bucks to 3-2 and tied with Cleveland for second in the Central behind the undefeated Pistons.

The Brewers are starting to round out their coaching staff. Brad Fischer was named Third Base Coach. Fischer worked under new Manager Ken Macha when he was in Oakland. With Sveum as Hitting Coach and Bill Castro and Ed Sedar staying on as Bullpen Coach and First Base Coach, that leaves the Crew with vacancies at Bench Coach and Pitching Coach--although Castro may be moved to Pitching Coach.

There's more news in the Sabathia sweepstakes. Tom H. is reporting that the Yankees will "go hard" after Sabathia and offer something more than the $137.5 million over 6 years that Santanna got from the Mets. Duh. This guy I know tells me that Sabathia will not play in New York under any circumstances. Let's hope that's true. The Yankees are also reportedly going after Teixeira, who edged out CC in Elias Ranking 98.890 to 98.110. I think that means that if the Yankees get both, we don't get their first round pick. Is that true?

That's all I got for today. The Hair of the Dog was brought to you by Smithwick's, which they sell at the Bradley Center for the low low price of $8 for a 20 oz cup.