If Paul Attanasio, creator of the masterful Homicide: Life on the Street, is looking for more dark stories to tell, perhaps his brother's new acquisition will provide the inspiration.

Mark Attanasio, a partner in Los Angeles-based investment firm Trust Company of the West, has reportedly reached an agreement to buy the Milwaukee Brewers.

Given the Baltimore-centricity of Homicide, Paul would probably have preferred his brother come away with the Orioles - or at least the Washington Expos - but the Brewers do have a mysterious quality to them. Not seedy, necessarily - but maybe hoppy. And isn't it interesting that a businessman as successful as Mark wants to become one of the huddled masses that constitutes major league baseball ownership? We'll have to remember that during Bud Selig's next cryin' poor jag.

Or, perhaps Paul would like to craft a drama in which Mark tries to move the Brewers closer to his Los Angeles home? Anyone for a third local team? Anyone for 162 games a year downtown?

On the other hand, perhaps it will be Mark turning to Paul for inspiration. On one of Paul's later creations, Century City, a baseball player in the year 2030 fights a rule set by the Lords of Baseball that prevents ballplayers with a bionic eye.

Hmm ... it's all coming together.