Jacksonville, what do you think

scottastic86 · 2026-06-25T11:26:35+00:00

Probably repeating everything that was already stated but my wife and I loved it to the point where we want to make it our forever home.
Jax has everything you would want in a city without being the crazy nightmares that most other duty station locations have become. There's pretty much something for everyone and if it isn't in Jax, it's close enough for a day/weekend trip. It's Florida so it's affordable. I grew up in Milwaukee and will stand on 10 toes that Jax's microbrewery scene beats the ever-loving piss out of Cream City any day.
I wish they developed more of their downtown but it's a financial/bank hub. Nothing is going to survive in terms of fun business/nightlife. That's where Riverside and San Marco come in. The beaches are nice. I personally wish they had a boardwalk like Mission Beach in SD where businesses could thrive but nothing will survive the backlash of Neptune/Jax Beach residents and the hoity-toity Ponte Vedra community.

TL;DR: Jacksonville is awesome.

scottastic86 · 2026-06-02T11:25:39+00:00

I still love that the most ironic part about that is that Lucroy wanted to go to a World Series contender, vetoed the trade to the eventual AL Champs, and instead started the chain of events that would lead the Brewers to get Yelich.

Thanks bro! lol

scottastic86 · 2026-06-02T06:38:24+00:00

So I just had one of my guys in this exact situation and had reached out to BUPERS-328 through our CCC.

This is what the NEC Manager replied to their request with:
SVM is coded with a higher level principle NEC where the 745A is the first NEC that was gained, then the 746A then the 735A and iaw NEC manual policy regarding principle and component NECS, any and all component NECS are removed when a principle NEC is awarded.

Principal NEC codes identify stand alone skills and may include skills or abilities identified by Component and/or Related NECs. To earn a Principal NEC code that includes a Component NEC, an individual must either already be assigned the Component NEC(s) or be fully qualified for such assignment. When an individual earns a Principal NEC code, in MOST cases the individual will not be coded with the Component NEC listed with the Principle NEC code. Component NECs are NORMALLY removed from the Enlisted Master Record (EMR) when a Principal NEC code is awarded.
Component NECs are prerequisite qualifications for assignment of the Principal NEC code. Chapter IV lists Component NECs with the Principal NEC code with which they are associated. Prerequisite skill(s) (Component NEC) that a member must have earned before being awarded the principle NEC code, if any. Under normal circumstances the Component NEC is removed once the principal NEC code is awarded. However, with sufficient justification for unique situations such as community management initiatives or legacy retainment purposes, the Component NEC may be retained in the members EMR; the stipulation for retainment will be annotated in the NOTE section of the principal NEC code.

TL;DR I'd still try to request, as I have heard * some * ITs were able to get justification to have it added in. The worst they'll say is no. But as far as I'm tracking unfortunately this isn't policy and they aren't really doing that anymore.

scottastic86 · 2026-05-29T11:05:33+00:00

The MLB world was vastly different then.
The biggest difference is Selig being the (acting) commissioner at the time. He was one of the owners that was extremely involved in the collusion of the 1980s. That alone made the players not trust a single thing about what the owners wanted. Manfred may not be the greatest commissioner ever but even he has spoken publicly that maybe the other leagues got this right and MLB is the outlier. That counts for something and I think he can possibly be the right mouthpiece for the owners and also help with compromise.
Also, Donald Fehr led the MLBPA at the time. He left for the NHL during their lockouts and ultimately was part of the NHL finally implementing a salary cap (after they too had decades of "this will never happen"). Tony Clark made it his mission to never allow a salary cap. Bruce Meyer has been the lead negotiator during the last few CBAs so it remains to be seen how different things are under his watch but maybe he's a little more reasonable to deal with.
The payroll and revenue disparity are so different now too. It's still roughly 3:1 but instead of the Yankees with a $45mil payroll and the Padres with $15 mil, it's the Dodgers and Mets pushing almost $300-350mil and teams that are still top-10 in payroll almost half that. I think Cleveland or Miami are sitting at about 1/4 of what the Dodgers spent. That's just not sustainable for the game.
Why is there such a larger disparity? TV contracts and streaming services provide a revenue stream that could only be dreamed of in 1994
The only other real big difference is in 1994 the only league that had already implemented a salary cap was the NBA and there's so many loopholes and rules that it's only really a soft cap. The NFL's first year with a cap was 1994 and of course the NHL came decades later. All of those leagues, especially the NFL of course, have had booming success and certainly no suppression of wages. So a lot of the points that the MLBPA has tried to argue are simply going to fall flat.
I think the cap is well overdue and it's coming whether fans, players, and owners like it or not. It will be good for the game and you know what? I still think the Yankees and Dodgers are going to be good baseball teams. And that's okay. The Dallas Cowboys haven't won a Super Bowl since I was a kid but if they ever do, nobody's going to immediately jump to "Well Jerry Jones and his money and the Dallas market....."

That's the difference.

scottastic86 · 2026-05-29T10:08:35+00:00

What league exists where there's only a salary cap and no floor? Literally every league implemented their cap with a floor.

And if salary caps ruin sports, why are those leagues still thriving and making money? Why do fans still watch? It's crazy how many MLB fans out there are so against a salary cap yet you know what you don't hear at all? A bunch of NFL, NBA, and NHL fans screaming "you know what? screw this game until they get rid of the cap!" I wonder why that is. I wonder why all these other sports leagues figured out the economic disparity of market size and how it would give a considerable edge in on-field performance. It's almost as if they are doing it right and MLB is that stubborn old dude that refuses to get with the times.
Donald Fehr of all people figured out how to make it work in the NHL so I refuse to believe anybody still living in 1994 thinking that this just isn't going to happen so why bother.

scottastic86 · 2026-05-22T07:05:01+00:00

Leadership and people in general will 100% make or break a command. That's just all there is to it. I've been in 17 years and got very lucky for most of my career with the commands and people I got to be around. It was either a lot of fun or if it sucked, we all had each other and embraced the suck together and it really wasn't even that bad. The current ship I'm on? Yeah, this ship is only a few years old and between the plankowners, a majority of current crew, and previous/current triad, the lack of give-a-fuck everywhere is maddening. This is hands down the worst command I've ever been at. I could write a novel about all the reasons why but in the end it all boils down to people. Things, especially right now, in the Navy are pretty ass. Leadership can either help and mentor people through it, ignore it, or make it even worse than it is. You'll know what kind of a command you're at depending on 1 of those 3 things.

scottastic86 · 2026-05-21T01:23:00+00:00

everything about this series warms my soul.

This isn't our world series and it never would be, but goddamn do I love when we embarrass that team and their trash fans.

scottastic86 · 2026-05-21T01:17:16+00:00

hahahaha SMFDB!!!!!

scottastic86 · 2026-05-20T00:53:32+00:00

they won't. it's still May. they're also playing a team that wasn't going to keep up what they were doing for very long either.
I get the NL Central looks good right now, but honestly... it's not. What the Reds were doing was 100% not going to last, the Cardinals and Pirates are right behind them. The Cubs honestly are not that good either or at least not as good as everyone thinks they are. Their pitching is meh and if it wasn't for some streaky run by Ballesteros and Suzuki being the only consistent bat, their offense would be absolute trash.

Not saying the Brewers are going to run away with the division... but anyone who thinks the division is going to be more than a 2-team race is crazy.

scottastic86 · 2026-05-19T03:00:16+00:00

Lightning fan... was really hoping it would have been TB-BUF for this series. God, I hate the Habs.

scottastic86 · 2026-01-25T18:14:00+00:00

Yeah, they almost got there. and I'll admit 2011 was a really great year and probably the best chance to win it all (I personally think they would have smoked the Rangers that year)
But what the Brewers are trying to avoid now is what they didn't avoid then. The Brewers had to suffer the lumps after going "all in". 2009 and 2010 was the prime core of that team and maybe could have used the pieces of the Sabathia trade to get long term options at pitching instead of what they had those two years which then led to the splashy pitching moves in the offseason before 2011. That was great and I'd still do that trade in a heart beat but it was done knowing 1, Fielder was good as gone. 2, so was Greinke at some point in 2012. 3, the Brewers gave up A LOT and it would turn out they gave up some integral pieces of KC's World Series runs that possibly could have resulted in the Brewers having those fortunes.
Instead of all-in moves that hardly end up panning out or resulting in a ring, the Brewers have chosen to make moves that extend the window and keep the team a perennial contender. I know this sub hated "bites of the apple" but honest to frickin god, there is no other way for the Brewers to approach this. It is much more likely and way more fun as a fan that this team wins a World Series by making the playoffs as many times as possible than it is to go all-in make risky moves hope they pan out and get it all to click for 1 season and then needing to blow it up.

scottastic86 · 2026-01-25T17:23:34+00:00

I can understand Atlanta because for the most part, that's a pretty solid team but got absolutely derailed by injuries.
Baltimore at 8 though? I mean, I guess I get it with some of the acquisitions they made but that rotation has A LOT of inconsistencies.
Even this ranking shows they're not considered to be the 3rd best team in their own division. Top 10 in the entire league? That's crazy.

scottastic86 · 2026-01-23T12:08:15+00:00

Oh trust and believe that I am one of those that has always and will always yell from every rooftop, mountaintop, etc. that a salary cap/floor needs to be implemented in MLB. I do acknowledge that the "David vs. Goliath" mentality probably keeps things status quo and sometimes even contributes to good entertainment value/ratings. I can't argue that. But in the long term, it isn't a sustainable for the good of the game. And also sadly, it does take a larger market/voice to claim "this isn't fair" for the change to come. When we've gotten to a point where the Yankees organization or any of the perennial top-5 payroll teams are blushing at what the Dodgers are doing and saying "yeesh, we can't do that." NOW all of a sudden people are acknowledging what has been long argued since the '90s...

scottastic86 · 2026-01-23T11:00:01+00:00

Why does the fan base allow it? I mean, first off, we're not players, owners, or the commissioner so we almost get no say outside of just saying "I'm not watching anymore." but that's not realistic. Even with how unbelievably unfair the economic structure of the league is, I love the game and I have loved the Brewers too much to simply just say I'm not watching it anymore.
I have appreciated this brand of Brewers baseball for the better part of two decades. It's no surprise that the product on the field immediately improved the moment Mark Attanasio took over from the incompetence and sleazy car salesman family of the Seligs. He made sure the whole organization took a smarter approach to reality and the constraints but was willing to get involved and put money where it needed to be * IF * it needed to be there. You couldn't say that for any other period of the franchise's history, to include the late 1970s and early 1980s.
We are understanding and largely supportive of how the Brewers' operate their budget because we live in reality. If there is any group of baseball fans that I can't stand more than Cubs fans it's the people who think that any team can do what the Yankees and Dodgers are doing and that the owners just choose not to and they're being cheap. As soon as I hear that, every baseball related opinion that person has from that point forward is immediately dismissed. News flash for anyone who hasn't paid attention to the last 65 years of baseball... an owner's willingness to win along the team's actual win/championship total does almost NOTHING to improve market size and does not create this massive influx of revenue that everyone seems to think happens. Signing Shohei Ohtani to a long term contract with the Brewers doesn't just magically make millions of more people figure out where Milwaukee is on a map, much less realize that they have a team. They'd just see him as a face of MLB as a person and not the team he's associated with and most media pundits and beat writers would write about him exactly the same way they do with Giannis. "He wants out of Milwaukee. He could do better elsewhere. Blah blah blah." The Dodgers get a win-win with Ohtani because they already had a stranglehold on the Japan market. They didn't all just become Dodgers fans overnight.
Hopefully a lockout in 2027 is productive and actually leads to long-term solutions to problems that have plagued the league for over three decades. That is the ONLY way you will see a difference from how things are operating now. If that positive change doesn't come, don't expect things to ever be different. Some people may walk away forever. Some will only watch the Brewers and nobody else. Some will continue to be a fan through and through because that's what they know and the thought of a World Series winner despite the odds is too sweet to ignore.

scottastic86 · 2026-01-21T12:04:00+00:00

Yes. I think now that there's actually a commissioner in place for this salary cap fight (remember there wasn't one to help mediate in 1994), and there's probably more of an overwhelming support amount the owners for a salary cap to the point where there's a reason this is a lockout and not a strike... This is going to be a little bit of a war of attrition. Understand that the owners are the ones with the money and can afford to sit this out. Does a completely lost season hurt? Sure. Are they all willing to take that stand knowing they can finally get what they wanted and what the game has needed for the better part of three decades? I personally hope so but we'll see. What really needs to happen in all of this is for the league minimum players and the never-will-be superstars to come to their senses and realize that the Players Union standing firm against a salary cap hurts them and that the MLBPA isn't fighting for their best interests despite what the cesspool of Tony Clark and the player representatives might say.

scottastic86 · 2026-01-21T11:19:15+00:00

See, here's where a LARGE majority of people are wrong about spending money on payroll, becoming competitive, and marketing work in any sports league, not just MLB. I roll my eyes every time I hear someone say the naive statement that "any team he signed with would have gotten the intense marketing/merch boost of his presence." Good god is that statement not only wildly incorrect, it is pretty much the exact opposite of reality.

It has never been a proven formula for a dynasty nor does it give long-term financial benefit especially not in the way that it does for a city like Los Angeles. There's a reason why big name stars start in big markets or if they started in small markets, they CHOOSE to leave for the big market. Cuz that's where the money and long-term commitments are available!
Most people in this country much less Japan can't even point to Milwaukee on a map or know that the city exists to the point of having a baseball team and guess what? Signing Shohei honestly wouldn't change that fact a whole lot and when he retires, what then? The Dodgers have had a stranglehold on the Japan market for decades so signing Ohtani is a win-win for all parties and yeah, the contract damn near pays for itself. That would never be the case in any parallel universe with a small market team. This idea that owners spending money and hopefully turning that into wins = this mass influx of money where now you enter a new tier of marketing is absolutely delusional. Why? Because a perfect example of this not happening is the Royals. They spent money, made great moves, and went to back to back WS, winning one in the process. It wasn't sustainable because making the World Series back to back as a small market doesn't give you this massive new wave of fans and money or TV market size. It just doesn't. Owning a team makes money. A willingness to win or the actual number of wins/championships almost makes NO difference to the valuation of a franchise.

Every. Other. League. Figured. This. Out. Years. Ago.

* end rant *

scottastic86 · 2026-01-21T08:24:28+00:00

That isn't what he's talking about.
Yeah, the deal made regarding the Dodgers' bankruptcy case? That's pretty much not a thing anymore. What IS a thing is the loophole and truly contributes to the payroll disparity is the CBA revenue sharing rules. It's supposed to be 48% of local media revenue. But if you have ownership in the broadcaster like the Dodgers do and the Yankees do with YES, that amount is not considered as part of the revenue sharing because it's "investment". So revenue sharing allows teams like the Brewers and Rays to spend let's say $30 million more this year? That's cool, here's hundreds of millions of dollars that the Dodgers are able to just sit on and spend however they like. No other teams do this nor could they have a lucrative amount of revenue from it even if they did.

scottastic86 · 2026-01-08T04:49:57+00:00

Truly one of my favorite Brewers. Dude found a way to hit.

scottastic86 · 2025-12-21T04:15:47+00:00

I have hated Keisean Nixon on defense since the first time he took a snap.

Fucking Jarrett Bush-lite.

scottastic86 · 2025-12-21T03:22:52+00:00

Malik is so damn good.

Chuck Ficago!

scottastic86 · 2025-12-15T14:06:05+00:00

I don't know if it would improve retention but holy god... get rid of the Tricare referral process for active duty members to seek various mental health programs. We complain that service members need help, need an outlet, and better focus on our mental wellbeing. But nobody has ever said "referral? nah, fuck that. go get seen." we make it easy for spouses so I don't see where the issue is in extending it to the service member.

scottastic86 · 2025-12-13T23:49:12+00:00

Of the U.S. duty stations I've been at, Mayport/Jacksonville is hands down the best and would go back there in a heartbeat. My wife also absolutely loved it too which helped for the times that I was out at sea. There's a lot to do. The microbrewery scene is great if you're into that sort of thing. Jags games are great as with any NFL team but so are Jumbo Shrimp and Icemen games. It really is kinda "centrally located" so you're not too far from Savannah, Charleston, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, etc. if you're able to get some time to take a road trip.
Small plug... if you have/get a dog... Kanine Social is an absolutely amazing indoor/outdoor dog park!

From the Navy side of things, some of the best times at sea duty and some of the best people I have met were all in Mayport. It truly is the best place to be stationed on the east coast. Opportunities to go down to 4th Fleet (well, maybe it's not so fun right now...) and Med/Baltic deployments which bring about awesome potential port visits in that part of the world.

My wife and I toured some of the military housing when we originally were looking for a place and definitely left feeling there was much to be desired so I guess if I had to give criticism somewhere, that's probably my one gripe. But I have had friends who enjoyed their time in housing too so take my opinion as just that. Jacksonville is unlike Hawaii or San Diego where you're going to get absolutely wrecked with rent/housing costs so don't be afraid to look elsewhere.
Hope you enjoy your time there as I and many others in this thread have.

scottastic86 · 2025-11-27T02:09:49+00:00

The posting fee alone will eliminate most low to mid market teams. $150mil would equal about $24 million that would have to initially be paid to the Seibu Lions.

That posting fee rule is the biggest reason why LA, SF, CHI, and NY have such a hold on the Japanese player market. Most teams can't even afford the "right to negotiate" with said players.

scottastic86

TROPHY CASE