Hats off to a dear friend, now baseball's 25&40 man.
Not a statistical leader by any stretch of the imagination, mind, you but a front office leader.
Ted Tornow, who grew up in Menasha and was a three-sport athlete for the Bluejays, took the field this week for his 25th Opening Day as General Manager of the Clinton LumberKings. In fact, this Opening Day was Ted's 40th of his career in baseball, one started right out of the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh (Hail Titans!). Been friends with Teddy since his high school days, when I was covering teams in the Fox Valley for the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. I could tell you some great stories, but I digress.
Clinton is part of the Prospect League, a summer league for college athletes much like the Northwoods League of the Madison Mallards. Which, by the way, is a franchise where Ted's oldest son, Brett, is working in the front office. (Must be in the genes!)
When Ted took the job at Clinton, the city was still part of the country's minor league system. That unfortunately ended a few years ago when MLB dropped over 100 minor league affiliations. But Ted and the LumberKings shopped around and found a home in the Prospect League.
Congrats, Teddy. Proud of you, buddy...
Major League Baseball hit June 1st and perhaps we can say that the Oakland Athletics are close to being mathematically eliminated. The franchise, packing it's bags to move to Las Vegas (and a 30,000 seat stadium that has yet to be built) is already 34 games below .500! At 12-46, this club could break the all-time record for futility set by the 1962 New York Mets. In their first season, the less-than-amazing Mets lost 120 games. With 104 games yet to play, the Athletics have a shot at the mark. By the way, the A's are a bit of a vagabond club to begin with, starting in Philadelphia in 1901, moving to Kansas City in 1955 and then to Oakland in 1968.
Oakland is averaging just 8,675 fans per game in their pit of a stadium, the Oakland Coliseum. That's dead last in MLB. Hell, the afore mentioned Madison Mallards get nearly 6,000 (and more) per game at Warner Park!
Those folks who clamored for baseball in Florida? Miami (third in the National League East) ranks 29th at 12,119 while Tampa Bay (tops in the American League East with an amazing 40-18 record) sits at 26th, averaging just 17,360. Your Milwaukee Brewers? Leading the NL Central and ranked 13th with 28,849 fans a game.
The Green Bay Packers are having OTAs this week, crucial for a young squad with 32 rookies on the roster and a host of first-year men.
David Bakhtiari, the somewhat grizzled veteran offensive tackle, talked with media earlier in the week about being part of the rebuilding process. And make no mistake about it, Green Bay is rebuilding with a massive youth movement.
Perhaps Bakhtiari should give Wisconsin native Joe Thomas a call. Seems like he was part of a rebuild annually while forging a Hall of Fame career with the Cleveland Browns.
