Brewers Bid Braun Bye-Bye

 The Milwaukee Brewers have decided, rightfully so, to not pick up Ryan Braun's option for a $15M contract for 2021.

Don't cry for the Hebrew Hammer (team leader in homers with 352) as he gets a cool $4 buyout. I would not be surprised IF the Brewers and Braun reach a very team-friendly deal to come back for one more season -- but only if the NL embraces the DH for good.

Speaking of baseball, the Chicago White Sox went to the retirement home to get their next manager, signing 76-year-old Tony LaRussa to manage the team. Back when I was a sportswriter with the Neenah-Menasha office of the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, LaRussa at 34 was the youngest manager in baseball. He came to town to promote the team and the sport -- at that time the Appleton Foxes were part of the White Sox farm system (the Foxes became the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, now with the Milwaukee Brewers).

Not sure what the White Sox are thinking with this addition, though you can bet that Chicago's pitching staff will be throwing at opposing hitters on a regular basis. That's LaRussa's style.

Covid-19 continues to bedevil sports. The Wisconsin Badgers were forced to cancel their game with Nebraska after 16 positive cases came up -- including starting quarterback Graham Mertz, backup qb Chase Wolf as well as head coach Paul Chryst and offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph.

That puts next week's game with Purdue at risk as well. Not sure exactly why players in the Big Ten must sit for 21 days after a positive test. Think that might be under discussion.

And quarterback Trevor Lawrence of Clemson, probably the Number One pick in the next NFL draft, also tested positive this week with "mild" symptoms. 

The Justin Turner debacle in Game Six of the World Series just highlights the whole Covid-19 issue. A positive test sidelined Turner of the Los Angeles Dodgers DURING the game! But when the Dodgers won, out comes Turner, first with a mask, then without, to celebrate with (and infect) his teammates and families.

Seriously, WTF was he thinking? And what sort of blame should fall on Major League Baseball officials who let Turner go?

Green Bay needs to pull the trigger on a trade before Tuesday, and the Packers could sure use a quality wide receiver to go along with Davante Adams and give Aaron Rodgers another top target. Granted, up-and-coming talent Allen Lazard is due back from injury in the next three weeks. But GM Brian Gutekunst needs to help the team NOW!

Would he be willing to send a high pick to the Houston Texans for Will Fuller V, in the last year of a contract? And on the defensive side, would the Packers send Houston a low pick for J.J. Watt?

We can speculate all we want, but odds are, the Packers won't pull the trigger on anything.

Packers Ponder Pathetic Performance

 Now that many Green Bay Packer fans are on the window ledge following Sunday's dramatic, and surprisingly pathetic, performance against Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it's time to put things in the proper perspective.

It's not that bad, people!

Did anyone who had watched the first 4 games REALLY think this version of the Green&Gold was that good? I certainly wasn't thinking an unbeaten season was in the future. But a 4-1 record after five weeks? I'll take that all day long.

Serious issues on defense, injuries on offense -- primarily to wide receiver, a somewhat weak area to being with -- all add to question marks with this team.

Perhaps the biggest question mark should be quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Blasphemy to doubt him, I know, but in Sunday's game the change was noticeable.

Not after the Pick 6, mind you. A poor throw, yes. And if you watched the replay, you could see that Rodgers never took his eyes off the intended target, Davante Adams. So the Tampa defensive back read the eyes, made the play.

But after the second interception, this off the hands of Adams, it looked like Rodgers checked out. Missing a wide-open Mercedes Lewis in the middle only added to that frustration and change. He wasn't the same quarterback and the Buccaneers sensed blood in the water for sure.

In his career, he has lost by 14 or more points 19 times. And in his career, when trailing at any point, Rogers has a losing record, coming back to win just 47.7% of the time.

Of course, going against a top-notch, aggressive defense also added to Green Bay's woes.

The key to consider here: Will this blow out loss snowball into a loss at Houston, and beyond? Or can Coach Matt LaFleur and Rodgers get the team refocused?

Tune in Sunday to find out.

Musical Chairs In The NFL

 Didn't take long for Covid-19 to impact the NFL, or as I like to think of it now, the National FUBARed League.

FUBARed? Well, that's a military term from World War II. Unfamiliar? Check out the movie "Saving Private Ryan" which summed it up nicely.

After this past weekend, it's musical chairs with the NFL schedule makers. When the music stops, all teams have to have a week to play. Can't follow baseball's leads and play doubleheaders, you know.

So far, we've had two games on Mondays and games on Tuesdays. This week, no game on Thursday because the scheduled tilt (Kansas City at Buffalo) was moved to be an additional Monday game next week. And weeks 7, 8, 10 and 11 have also seen changes.

Covid Football, whether it's professional, college or high school, is a challenge that, frankly, we're just not prepared to deal with. Numbers going up-up-up in many states, especially here in Wisconsin, and that's forced games to be cancelled.

At least, at this point, the NFL has flexibility to move games around.

But for how long?

orced to forfeit games