For those of you still wondering how the Milwaukee Brewers were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks, the answer it clear: You can't leave 20 runners on base in two games and expect to win!
It's not all about hits in baseball, but also when you get them. For Milwaukee, timely hitting disappeared. Can't count the times that the Brewers either had two runners aboard, or the bases full, with less than an out. All you need there is a flyball to score and perhaps create a big inning. No such luck at AmFam Field in this year's playoffs.
The only positive coming out is the fact that the D-Backs just swept the deep-pocket Los Angeles Dodgers, moving on to the NLCS against either Philadelphia or Atlanta (Philly leads the series 2-1 with the deciding game today.
Brewers GM Matt Arnold met with the media this week, indicating that he expects pitchers Corbin Burns and Brandon Woodruff to be in Milwaukee uniforms this season (they are both free agents after the 2024 season).
Not so fast there, Matt. It might be wise for the franchise to deal Burns during the off-season, when the club can get the most bang for it's trade buck. A solid, power-hitting corner infielder, and a prospect or three, might be in the best interests of the Brewers.
As for Woodruff, well he's damaged goods and awaiting a second opinion on his shoulder. I say keep him around and let's see how this plays out.
Meanwhile, Arnold thinks a decision is forthcoming on the Craig Counsell front, as the team's manager has yet to sign a contract for next year.
If you're among the Green Bay Packer fan base grousing about the team's 2-3 record and ready to jump off the band wagon -- go ahead. With the youngest team in the NFL, the Packers are going to be a work in progress, a team that will delight one play and disappoint the next.
Let's give this squad some time to grow into NFL players. My expectations at the start of the season were pretty low. I imagine yours were, too.
However, this doesn't stop me for thinking Defensive Coordinator Joe Barry ought to be given his walking papers sooner rather than later!
Been reading Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen and ran across this that I just had to share with you. This references 1915, a time when Cobb had been in baseball with the Detroit Tigers for 11 seasons. He would play 24 in all, the final two with the Philadelphia Athletics.
By 1915 he was considered to be the best player in the game, and was coming off a season in which he hit .369 in the "deadball" era, driving in 99 runs and stealing 96 bases.
Everyone in American knew who he was, and to prove it a newspaper in Syracuse, New York, asked its editorial cartoonist to draw a picture of a necktie and another of a corncob on the face of an envelope. The piece, with no other markings on it, was dropped in the mail and a few days later it reached the home of Ty Cobb in Augusta (Georgia).
If that's not star power, I don't know what is. Cobb was a career .366 hitter, scored 2,246 runs, drove in 1,938 runs and stole 897 bases -- and 54 of those were of home plate!
Saw a recent high school football score that boggles the mind. Green Bay Notre Dame (back when I was with the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern in the 1970's, this was Green Bay Premontre) defeated Green Bay West 71-8, and had a 44-8 lead after the first quarter. I tried to find details of the game on several sites, but either came up empty or was asked to pay for a subscription.
Anyhow, the ND Tritons have scored at least 42 points in each game during a six-game winning streak and has topped 50 points five times. They finish the regular season this week at 3-5 Manitowoc.
