Welcome to Saturday Scorecard. After a long week of locker talk, we'll keep things short so you can enjoy a few hours of nice weather, auto racing and baseball.

On to the notes...

What's next? It's too early to suggest that the Brewers have turned a corner, but they look a lot better during the first half of their homestand than they did on a recent road trip.

Friday's 5-1 victory marked the second game this season that the Brewers got home runs from Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder. It also was the first full game played with the roof and panels open.

Braun grew up in southern California and went to school in Miami. J.J. Hardy was raised in Tucson. Fielder and Rickie Weeks are Floridians. Maybe the team's offensiive production will rise with the warm weather.

Building a bridge: Brewers right-hander Carlos Villanueva wants to be a starting pitcher. Manager Ned Yost considers him a starting pitcher. Villanueva, who threw two scoreless innings Friday to bridge the gap between starter Manny Parra and closer du jour Guillermo Mota, is outstanding in the long relief role. He attacks the strike zone. He doesn't get rattled with men on base. In addition, many of his struggles as a starter have come the third or fourth time through the batting order.

The Brewers may want to keep him in that role for awhile; at least until David Riske and Eric Gagne return from injury.

History repeats: So, the Packers are going to dismantle Brett Favre's locker and ship it to him in Mississippi. Question answered. Controversy solved, right?

But, wait...

No matter which side of "locker gate" you favor -- the Packers should have emptied the locker before rookie orientation and organized team activities; or, the Packers should have encased it in glass for all time -- you have to allow us this:

The propensity for both the Packers and the general public to be amazed by reaction to seemingly minute Favre news is, for lack of a better word, amazing.

For the past decade, virtually every story involving Favre has been magnified, scrutinized and then overhyped to the point where it vaults it way past overkill and lands in the realm of the ridiculous.

Somehow, every time, the Packers end up with egg a "We didn't think it would be that big of a deal" look on their faces.

Favre's jersey retirement ceremony is slated for the season opener against Minnesota. Something bizarre will happen between now and then.

Back to the future: It has been a long time since we watched every game of the NBA Finals. That could change this year. There is something comforting about having the Celtics and Lakers playing for the crown. It makes me want to find my old pair of Converse Weapons.

Standard operating procedure: Some friends watching the Brewers game Friday night were convinced that the TV cameras caught Brewers manager Ned Yost and bench coach Ted Simmons in some kind of heated discussion.

Upon DVR review, it didn't look all that heated.

Just wondering: Do the Cubs play every game at home? Do they win every game in thrilling fashion? It seems that way. After overcoming a gigantic deficit en route to a victory Friday, the Cubs are 34-21 overall. They have won more home games (24) than they have played games on the road (23).

Creating a Buzz: Kudos to Marquette coach Buzz Williams for receiving an oral commitment from Madison Memorial standout Jeronne Maymon.

Maymon, who averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds as a junior, chose the Golden Eagles over Tennessee, USC, Providence, Iowa State, Baylor and Kansas.

Shameless plug: If you want to consider yourself a well-rounded Milwaukee sports fan, try to attend either a race at the Milwaukee Mile or the U.S. Bank Championship at Brown Deer Park. Both events are big assets to the local sports community and deserve support.

Leap of faith: Bradley Tech's Marcus Jenkins won the WIAA state title in the long jump for the second straight year with a distance of 24 feet 5 inches Friday in La Crosse. Jenkins, nursing a sore hamstring, fell a short of breaking the oldest existing record in the state -- 25-03/4 by Madison Central's Larry Franklin in 1965.

Danica-mania: Danica Patrick, who won her first IndyCar series race earlier this year in Japan, would love to get a domestic victory in the ABC Supply / AJ Foyt 225 Sunday at the Milwaukee Mile.

"I always enjoy coming here to Milwaukee," she said at a press conference Friday. "I liked it back in my Formula Atlantic days. I can remember passing around the outside, thinking this is a good time. It was the only oval racing I had ever done.

"I have always liked coming here. I think that this track produces really good racing. You can go on the high line and keep more on the throttle, or you can go on the low line and be a shorter distance and lift more. It's like it balances out very much. Our cars are much better in the racing situations on these flatter tracks.

"I like Milwaukee. So for me it would mean a lot just because I like the track and I think it's a driver's track. You have to be smart, you have to push, you have to be confident, you have to be aggressive. You have to do all those things.

"I think this is a real driver's track. From that standpoint, it's always that little bit more rewarding where you win somewhere where it's important to have just more than speed or more than just bravery.

"So that would be the special thing about winning in Milwaukee. But I'm really not picky. Wherever they come is fine."