PSoTD

We went to the last Oktoberfest of the season yesterday at Stoudt's Brewing Company. If I had been smart or prepared I would have pictures, but being neither I forgot my digital camera. But, I have to say, it was fun and we'll go again.

I tried three beers at the Oktoberfest: Stoudt's Triple, Stoudt's Fat Dog Stout, and Stoudt's American Pale Ale. All were great, but I'll highly recommend the Fat Dog Stout- if you like your brew thick and deep and dark, which I do.

The band was fun. My wife and I danced, our friends danced, we ended up doing the chicken dance, we had dinner at the Black Angus, and we laughed almost the whole time. In short - we'll return, we had a lot of fun.

City to sell the Senators
Mayor doesn't want to do it but believes it's now a must

Mayor Stephen R. Reed joked 11 years ago that owning and operating a Class AA minor league baseball franchise wasn't exactly part of every city's daily routine.

But that didn't stop Harrisburg in early 1996 from purchasing the Eastern League's Senators back from private ownership in a successful effort to keep the team in town.

Today, with the city locked in a crippling budget crisis, Reed believes selling the franchise has become necessary.

...

However, Reed insisted he will not sell to prospective owners who might want to move the Senators. The fact that he'll demand the team remains in Harrisburg does reduce the price, as it limits the freedom of the purchaser.

The team does add a lot to Harrisburg, and it'll be interesting to see how Harrisburg can require the team to stay. I hope they stay, we enjoy going to a few games each season, it's a great ballpark for kids, and very much a dose of Americana.

I have another suggestion, for any buyer - change the team name.

I appreciate tradition in baseball as well as anyone. Still, I've never understood the choice of team name of "Senators". Here's why:

It's not a team name that really describes Harrisburg. Yes, Harrisburg is a government town, but so are 51 other cities in this country. It's like calling a team in a university town the Professors. The General Assembly is a part of Harrisburg, but hardly its most distinctive (or proud) part.

About that pride thing - I don't know of any teams named the Governors, or the Representatives, or the Mayors, or the Judges, etc. Why Senators? Why name your team after a partisan employee position that suffers from as many public image problems as Senators do? Most sports teams have a team name that promotes some sort of team and player attribute - ferocity, or speed, or tenacity, or strength, or something. What does the name "Senators" promote? That they work a couple of days a week in Harrisburg? That they get great benefits? That they gerrymander the league so they can keep their positions? That they will do their job at 4 AM on the last day of the season?

And please, don't get me started on the proud history of the Washington Senators - a history, that if anything, promotes the name "Senators" as a baseball synonym for "doormat".

I say - look to the river. Something about the Susquehanna should be the source of the team name. Hell, the team plays their home games in the middle of the river - could it be more obvious?

If and when the team is sold, I hope new ownership considers such a change. Some traditions are made to be broken.

In a reversal, Harrisburg Mayor Stephen R. Reed said yesterday that he plans to sell "a majority" of the approximately $7 million in Western artifacts he acquired using nontax city funds since 2000.

Reed said he is abandoning his concept for a National Museum of the Old West in Harrisburg, a facility he said would have chronicled the country's westward expansion and would have helped fuel the city's growth.

Yes, that's Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Good to see Mayor Reed drop this idea, as the public really didn't support it.

CBS News with Katie Couric.