Good Vibes from NYC

 Have to thank CC in NYC for thinking David Stearns, now the General Manager of the New York Mets, will make a run at Craig Counsell for manager.

It's a good, valid consideration CC. However, I don't think Counsell will head to the Big Apple. Yes, it's a chance to manage a big market club with big, big bucks to throw around. But would the Mets play with the desire and back-to-basics style that Counsell has with the Milwaukee Brewers?

Don't think so. Way too many high priced contracts.

Meanwhile, the Brew Crew has a chance to end the post-season hopes of the Chicago Cubs this week. With a 90-69 record heading into the final three-game series, the Central Division Champion Brewers will be hosting the a wild card round next week.

I will give the announcers who handle Green Bay Packer games on Fox, etc., just one more week before I start getting testy. About what, you might wonder? Just having the name of our Former Quarterback Now Out For The Season in New York rammed down our throats, er, ears.

For the first two or three games, I get the sense of the story line. It's a big one. BUT enough is enough, folks. It's time to put it to rest and find something else to enlighten us on.

Wrote the above section prior to the third game of the season, the thrilling and improbable come-from-behind 18-17 win over New Orleans. And I must say that the announcing team was much, much better and only made a handful of Former Quarterback references.

There's a local sports columnist who produces a lot of copy. He's happy to share his opinions. In fact, down right giddy. He seems to me like a guy who doesn't see the glass as half-full or half-empty, but as smashed to bits on the floor. Give him any situation and, like Eeyore, it's an oh-me-oh-my response.

Maybe I'm just wired a little different, but as I came up as a 15-year-old sportswriter covering my high school for a nearby daily paper, I had to look for positives. After all, I lived and went to school with the athletes I was covering. Couldn't very well come down too hard, right?

Those hated St. Louis Cardinals have had a lot of success in their storied history. This season, not so much. They are currently 69-90 -- they haven't had 90 losses in a single season since 1990. On top of that, they will finish last in the Central Divison. That basement finish is only their second since 1918!

During the 34-20 thrashing the Detroit Lions were administering to the Packers, the graphic was posted that the Lions have won only a single playoff game in 68 years. But then, you have to GET to the playoffs in order to WIN there. This year's Motor City Kitties look like a team that will reach the playoffs and have success there. After years of struggling, all those high draft choices should finally pay off with a coach like Dan Campbell lighting the fire.

That would be nice, sine in reality the team hasn't been relevant for ages. Hell, the last won the NFL championship in 1957 (following a win in 1952).

Time For Craig Counsell To Be Manager Of The Year

Going to get right to the point, as you might have noticed with today's headline: Craig Counsell of the Milwaukee Brewers must be the National League Manager Of The Year.

Not should. Not might. Not maybe. Counsell simply stated is the Manager Of the Year. Milwaukee doesn't have the big market bucks or deep owner pockets of the Los Angeles Dodgers or Atlanta Braves, two teams currently posting better records than the Brewers.

Instead, Counsell pushes the right buttons, makes the right moves and adjusts to the roster limits he has. And let's face it, he's dealt with a lot of injuries this year, plugging in rookies to fill out the lineup and still has the Brewers in the top spot in the NL Central.

Milwaukee is currently 84-64 as of this writing. Counsell, since taking over manager duties in 2015, has been in charge of the club for 1,237 games, including playoffs. His regular season record? Well, that's 670-601, a winning percentage of .525. Counting this season (unless there's a horrific collapse in these final two weeks), Counsell will have taken the Brewers to the playoffs in five of the last six years.

And while he's not under contract for next year, I get the feeling that he soon will be. A Milwaukee and Wisconsin guy through and through, he's the right man for the job.

There were cheers and tears this past week when the Former Green Bay Packer Quarterback went down with a season-ending injury. I didn't wish this on him, and am saddened that he won't be on the field. After all, he will be a Hall of Fame player and was OURS for 17 seasons. And the fact that the Packers will lose out on a first round draft pick for him, getting a second rounder from the New York Jets, doesn't make it any better.

Appreciate what that guy did for the Packers during his years here instead of focusing on the ugly way he left.

Can't help but wonder, though, how many of the scheduled prime time games of the Jets will now be flexed out. With the star of the show on the sidelines, doubt if a national audience (or the network suits) are keen on what the understudy brings to the stage.

 

Where Have The High Schools Gone?

 In a previous life, as a sportswriter with the Oshkosh Northwestern, I got acquainted with the newspaper's agate page. Well, addicted is more like it. I enjoyed scanning through the long list of type, looking for scores from schools I followed.

Those of you who still read newspapers (physical or on-line) know the agate page. Maybe not by name, but by sight. It's the page in the paper that carries the smaller type -- scores, standings, soccer, golf and NASCAR lists, etc. Pretty much a hodge-podge of information. It used to carry a long strip of high school scores (football and basketball) that wrapped up the entire state., but this is long before the internet.

The Wisconsin State Journal no longer carries those high school results. And while I'm far removed from those sportswriter days, I am still addicted to looking over the state's scores, following schools I am familiar with. I fill that addiction now via a Wisconsin High School Sports website. Sometimes the scores carry full results (scoring plays, yardage, etc.) and others just the score. But it fills the need.

The present high school season is a couple of weeks old, and I noticed something with a couple of  small schools I follow. THEY AREN'T PLAYING HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL ANYMORE!

Well, at least not at a varsity level. Their varsity schedule has been cancelled, and I've learned they are only playing JV due to a lack of numbers. Other small schools are opting to co-op with nearby districts. I keep wondering when Wild Rose will do this with my alma mater, Wautoma, for example.

Still others are going the 8-man football route. This is an especially popular move in the northern half of Wisconsin. Better for costs and roster sizes.

I quizzed a long-time friend in Eagle River, where Northland Pines High School had cancelled it's varsity football season, as to what was up.

"We just don't have the numbers," he said. "When my girls were in school, enrollment was around 800. Now it's nearly half that. We get retirees moving in, and that doesn't help the numbers. We're starting to see younger families with kids moving in. But interest in soccer has grown, and that takes the fast kids away from football. So we're playing a JV schedule and hoping for the best."

Am sure what is playing out in Eagle River and Wild Rose is happening all across Wisconsin. Not necessarily a trend I'm happy to see.

The Green Bay Packers get their regular season going on Sunday down at Chicago against Da Bears. Some of the Las Vegas lines have put Packer wins at 7 1/2. I'll bet the over on that one, as I think Jordan Love and Company will surprise fans, especially as the season continues and the team grows together.

Every fan I've spoken with over the past few months is optimistic AND excited. Let's hope patience factors in as well.

Speaking of the Packers, noticed going through one of the NFL magazines I pick up that most professional coaching staffs number anywhere from 26 to 28 members. That's a lot of specialty coaches for teams that number 70 (53 regular roster, another 17 on the practice squad.

Back with the 1961 Packers, the 11-3 NFL champs (shutting out the New York Giants, 37-0), the 40-man roster was coached by Vince Lombardi and four (count 'em four) assistants! There was a defensive coordinator (Phil Bengston, who succeeded Lombardi as head coach), plus coaches for the defensive backs, defensive line and offensive line.

By the 6-8 1970 squad, rosters had grown to 47, but still had just four assistant coaches.

Just proves what a big, BIG business professional football has become.

Back at the end of March, I predicted 90 wins for the Milwaukee Brewers. Many thought I was insane. But here we are with 23 games to play and the BrewCrew stands at 77 wins, just a game and two games in front of the Chicago Cubs.

Milwaukee has a fairly tough schedule left: three games with the New York Yankees and Washington, seven with Miami and St. Louis before wrapping the season with three home games with the Cubs. In fact, The Brewers have 13 home games remaining, including their final six.

Meanwhile, those pesky Cubbies have six with Arizona, seven with Colorado, three with Atlanta and the three at Milwaukee. Only 10 of the final 24 are in the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.

Thinking that the Brewers will win the division and secure three Wild Card playoff games at home, while Chicago qualifies as a wild card. In fact, division foe Cincinnati could also snag a wild card spot.