MIKE & MIKE

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THE BIG QUESTION
Whom do baseball's Davids hurt more, the Goliaths or the game itself? Mike & Mike mull the downsides of upstarts.

GREENY The Brewers understand how to play in this era of baseball. If you're a team that can always spend upward of $100 million on payroll, you'll make plenty of postseason runs. But teams like the Brewers have to realize when their competitive window is closing; they need to strike while the iron is hot. Milwaukee knows it's going to lose CC Sabathia and likely Ben Sheets after this season. And at that point, it'll reload and try for another run in five years. That's the other side of this era of baseball. And the Brewers are playing it perfectly.

GOLIC Well, only if the fans like the approach. Currently, the fans in Milwaukee are getting their moment in the sun. And playing to win this year knowing you won't contend next year is what the Marlins have done successfully twice. So maybe it is worth it.

GREENY It's definitively worth
it, especially in an era in which the fans of small-market teams have been conditioned to believe they have no chance. The Brewers haven't made the postseason since 1982. You don't think those fans would wait another 25 years if they could just win it all this season? But what about this: Would a Milwaukee-Tampa Bay World Series be good for baseball?

GOLIC It's a good thing for baseball but a bad thing for Fox, which airs the World Series.

GREENY If it's bad for Fox, it's bad for baseball. The recent NBA Finals wasn't a great series, but the ratings were very strong because it was the Lakers and the Celtics. The reality is, Milwaukee and Tampa Bay could play seven extra-inning games decided by walk-off home runs and it wouldn't rate well. That's just a fact. Parity in baseball is good; too much parity is bad.

STONE COLD LEAD PIPE LOCKS

GOLIC Michael Phelps will win eight golds in Beijing, breaking Mark Spitz's record.

GREENY Tiger Woods will be mentioned more times during the British Open than whoever actually wins the event.

THE MIKES ON … THE VALUE OF A GOOD FOIL

GREENY I said at the beginning of the year that Rafael Nadal had a better chance of beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon than Federer had of beating Rafa at the French. I don't care what the rankings say, Nadal is the best tennis player in the world.

GOLIC For a while, we've talked about how Federer and Tiger were equal, each dominating his sport unlike any other athlete. Before his injury, that was true about Woods. It's no longer true of Federer.

GREENY Nadal has given Federer what no one has ever given Tiger: a real rival. Rocco Mediate did that for one day, and it provided scintillating entertainment. Imagine if Tiger faced someone like that all the time.

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INTERVIEW THAT WON'T HAPPEN BRETT FAVRE
Are you familiar with the movie Groundhog Day?
What did Aaron Rodgers ever do to you?
How do you look in purple?
What will you do with all your Packers memorabilia?
And while we have you, why is your name spelled that way?

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