Berken suffers tough loss in 2nd MLB start

Jason Berken had a strong outing against the Detroit Tigers today, but ended up taking a tough loss.

Jason Berken again pitched well for the Baltimore Orioles today, but he didn’t get any help from his teammates.The former West De Pere High School star left the game trailing Detroit 1-0 after seven innings of today’s game at Camden Yards in Baltimore. He wound up with the hard-luck loss after the Tigers’ 3-0 victory over the Orioles.

The only run Berken allowed came on a solo home run by the Tigers’ Curtis Granderson in the fourth.

“I made one mistake and left the ball up, and Granderson hit it out,” Berken said.

In seven innings, Berken (1-1) allowed four hits, one run, hit a batter, walked two and struck out two. He threw 102 pitches – 61 for strikes – and lowered his earned-run average to 2.25.

Berken was pleased with his performance, but conceded that he wasn’t quite as good as Tigers starter Edwin Jackson.

“Yeah, I mean he threw the ball outstanding, obviously,” Berken said. “Especially against the lineup we have. It’s one of the better lineups, and he threw the ball extremely well.”

He even earned the respect of a poster on Camden Chat with his strong performance.

Jason Berken made his second start of his major league career and pitched a hell of a game. Though he won his first game, he wasn’t that sharp, and I didn’t really have much hope that he’d have another effective outing. Jason, I’d like to apologize for that, because you were straight up awesome today.

One mistake. That’s really all he made. A 4th inning home run by Curtis Granderson put the Orioles in the hole 1-0 and they couldn’t recover. Berken finished with 7 strong innings, giving up just 4 hits and 2 walks. He did all he could do to keep his team in the game and I don’t think we could have asked for any more from him.

Check out Berken’s post-game comments to the media here.

Great job Jason!

While I’m Waiting

more about “While I’m Waiting“, posted with vodpod

 

Recently my wife and I had the opportunity to watch “Fireproof“.  A great, must-see movie for any married couple as well as anyone planning to get married one day.  If you really think about it you can’t love someone until you understand what true love is – which the couple in this movie discovers only after being on the verge of divorce.

Berken’s next start

Jason Berken’s next start come Sunday, May 31 against the Detroit Tigers.  First pitch is 12:35 CST.

If you don’t get the MLB package on cable or satellite TV, check out your local establishment. 

Hopefully Berken will get his second MLB win.

Hansen votes for taxes and earmarks

JSOnline has the dirty details of some of the crap that was in the budget passed at 5:30 this morning.

Cigarette tax: The committee voted to raise the cigarette tax by 75 cents a pack, to $2.52, starting around Sept. 1.

Oil tax: Democrats agreed to impose a new tax on oil companies to help pay for roads. Oil companies would be barred from passing on the tax at the pump, but critics say that measure won’t withstand a court challenge and drivers will end up paying the tax.

An effort to remove the tax failed 6-10, with Rep. Gary Sherman (D-Port Wing) and Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) joining the committee’s four Republicans.

Income tax: The committee voted to raise the income tax rate to 7.75% for the richest 1% of Wisconsinites.

Earmarks: The committee signed off on $28 million in bonds for a School of Nursing facility at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

They also provided: $6.6 million for a Yahara River project in Dane County; $5 million for the Bradley Center Sports and Entertainment Corp.; $4 million for planning a joint museum for the State Historical Society and Department of Veterans Affairs; up to $1.25 million for Manitowoc Road in Bellevue; $1.1 million for the AIDS Network and AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin; up to $500,000 for Washington Street in Racine; $500,000 for an environmental center in a park that borders Madison and Monona; $500,000 for the Oshkosh Opera House; $500,000 for Eco Park in La Crosse; up to $430,000 for Highway X in Chippewa County; up to $400,000 for State St. in Racine; $250,000 for a bridge on S. Reid Road in Rock County; $250,000 for the Madison Children’s Museum; $125,000 to remodel an Eau Claire library; $100,000 for Huron Road in Bellevue; $50,000 for a consortium of seven Dane County schools; $50,000 for the Chequamegon School District; $50,000 for an Eau Claire County shooting range; $50,000 for a playground in the Town of Beloit; $37,200 for the City of Stanley in Chippewa County; $25,000 for the Root River Education Center in Racine; and $20,000 for a pedestrian path in Rock County.

Driver’s licenses: The committee adopted a provision that would allow illegal immigrants to get driver’s licenses. The licenses could be used for driving but not for other purposes.

License plates: The committee decided to keep in place a requirement that vehicles display two license plates and that drivers get registration stickers to put on their plates every year. Doyle wanted to eliminate the stickers and allow just one plate to save money.

W-2: The committee agreed to overhaul Wisconsin Works, the state’s welfare-to-work program. Among other changes, the committee approved eliminating a program that reduces parents’ benefits if their children aren’t attending school.

Debt: The state would delay $285 million in payments, helping the budget immediately but increasing long-term interest costs, under the committee’s plan.

Tax credits: Democrats put off scheduled tax breaks for health insurance premiums and child care, having them take effect in 2011 instead of this year.

QEO: The committee voted to eliminate, in July 2010, the qualified economic offer used to settle labor contracts and restrict teacher compensation. Teachers have long argued the policy has kept their salaries lower than their counterparts in other states, while others say the QEO helps keep local property taxes in check.

Hospital tax: The committee agreed to increase an assessment on hospitals and expand it to ambulatory surgery centers. Because the tax increases the state’s Medicaid budget, it draws more federal aid, which helps the hospitals and goes toward balancing the state’s budget.

Health insurance: Health insurance plans would have to cover treatment of autism, mental disorders, alcoholism and drug dependency under the committee’s action.

Auto insurance: The committee recommended increasing the minimum amount of car insurance people would have to buy. People would still have the option to drive without insurance, but if they did buy it, they would have to purchase more coverage than they do now.

Thanks State Senator Dave Hansen, you had no choice but to stick it to the taxpayer and pay back special interests under the cover of darkness right?