Memories Of The Overtime & The Russian Eagles

Saw a note from Big Bach on facebook that a long-time friend, and one of my favorite coaches, had passed away.

Big Bach is Chris Fahrbach, a standout high school basketball player at Menasha St. Mary's Central High School who went on to star for the University of North Dakota, then took his talents overseas to coach and play in Norway for several seasons. Hope to share more on that story down the road!

Chris shared the news that Clem Massey, 86, had died. While working in the Neenah-Menasha bureau of the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern for several years, I got to know Clem, then the coach of the Menasha Bluejays boys' basketball team, pretty well. He was a good friend, a great guy, a great interview and always available. I often stopped around his office just to shoot the bull.

A member of the 1953 state championship basketball team (and a standout in football and baseball as well), Massey earned a scholarship to Marquette University and, after his successful run as MHS coach, was selected to the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Hall Of Fame.

Clem and his long-time friend, Jack Wippich, also owned The Overtime Supper Club in Menasha. Wippich was a successful coach in his own right at Kimberly High School, and to have the two conference rivals in business together was rare.

The OT was just off Menasha's main drag, located on a street that ran along the riverfront that fed into Lake Winnebago. Trust me, it was THE place to go. You never knew which coaches, athletic directors, game officials you would run into there. And food was damn good as well.

The Russian Eagles lost a teammate recently as well. Classmate, Joel Jarvis, passed away. The Russian Eagles ("five times as powerful as the American bird!") was our intramural basketball team, one that took the court 50 years ago (good lord, can it really be that long?) and featured Rocky, Charlie, Boom-Boom (Joel), Gregger, Bobby Nature, Billy VA, Huggy Dougie, Sagebrush and me.

What followed seemed like something from a Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland movie ("Hey kids, let's put on a show!"), as Charlie designed a logo and printed tee shirts while my Mom sewed shorts for the team.

The intramural season came together when I approached WHS principal Mable Bauman on the subject. She said if there was A) interest and B) I could find a faculty member who would chaperone, she'd okay the court time.

At an early school day meeting, nearly 90 guys (this in a school of just over 500) turned out. I talked David Vignali, our Spanish teacher, into being the faculty chaperone. And somehow conned two friends from the varsity basketball team (Brian Schultz and Mark Norem) into being referees. A six-team, five week season was figured out with two games going on at the same time on the two smaller WHS courts each week.

Good memories, for sure. And good thoughts of Joel and the rest of the Eagles. Hell, there was even a game in which Joel just stayed at our offensive end, fielded long outlet passes and hit lay-ups, finishing with nearly 30 points in the win!

Thanks For The Memories, Josh Hader

 Now that the dust has settled following a flurry of trades, let's bid adieu to ace (sometimes) reliever Josh Hader and thank him for his service to the Milwaukee Brewers.

It was a big, BIG trade, sending Hader to the San Diego Padres for four players -- including LHP pitcher Taylor Rodgers, who was second in the NL in saves behind Hader and who, like Hader, had stumbled recently. Perhaps the change of scenery will do both good. Let's not forget that this gives Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell even more flexibility, since RHP Devin Williams will surely see more action as the closer.

But more reasons for making this trade. Simple economics.

Hader was making $11 million this season as one of the best closers in baseball. Eligible for arbitration, he would probably have gotten in the $16 million range. Plus Milwaukee only had him under contract until the end of the 2023 season. Odds of him staying with a small market like Milwaukee? Not all that good.

So it makes sense to pull the trigger on a trade now and get something for him.

The Padres would seem to be pushing all their chips to the middle of the table this season, having also acquired young superstar Juan Soto (along with Josh Bell) from the Washington Nationals. Plus don't forget San Diego has Fernando Tatis coming back from an injury.

Talk about loaded!

They may not catch the Los Angeles Dodgers for the regular season, but will definitely be a factor for the post-season.

And speaking of those Los Angeles Dodgers, RIP announcer Vin Scully, who passed at age 94. Scully was an icon, calling Dodger games for generations -- all the way back to the team's days as the Brooklyn Dodgers!

His death comes on the heels of another sports icon, Bill Russell. Though not a Boston Celtics fan, I can still appreciate Russell's NBA career and 11 championships.

More than his success in sports, you have to admire his efforts regarding social justice, taking a stand for equality when most fans just wanted athletes to shut up and play ball. The iconic photo of him with Jim Brown, Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (at that time know as Lew Alcindor) still amazes.

Brewers In Good Spot At Mid-Point

 Major League Baseball's All-Star Game is scheduled for next week.

Most folks see the four-day break as the mid-point of the 162-game season, but it usually comes a bit past half-way.

The Milwaukee Brewers wrapped up the first half of their season on Sunday July 3rd, finishing their 81st  game with a 2-0 win to give them a 46-35 record, a .568 winning percentage and a slight lead over the hated St. Louis Cardinals. For a pitching-rich, struggling offensive team this is quite the accomplishment. Especially since it seems like the only one who is NOT/HASN'T been injured is manager Craig Counsell.

(By comparison, the New York Yankees hit the mid-point an amazing 58-23 -- a .716 winning percentage -- and a 13-game lead. For years I thought the club was named the gawd-damned Yankees because that's how my Uncle Doc referred to them!)

Milwaukee has looked more like a M*A*S*H unit this first half, as the injury bug has bitten the club hard. But lately, the pieces are coming back, getting healthy and the bats are starting to heat up for guys like Andrew McCutcheon, Rowdy Tellez and Jace Peterson. The move to the lead-off spot for Christian Yelich has been a positive one, both in getting his bat confidence back and in setting the table for others.

Yelli drew a crucial bases-loaded walk with two outs in the bottom of the ninth the other day against those darn Chicago Cubs, bringing in the tying run in a game that Victor Caratini won with a walk-off three-run homer in the 10th (also of the two-out variety!)

Getting Hunter Renfroe's bat back into the lineup will help as well, since he was just starting to heat up when injured. Don't expect pitcher Freddie Peralta back by the end of the season, but do expect GM David Stearns to make a move or two -- an additional bat and a pitcher or two won't surprise me.

Was over to Am-Fam Field for a Father's Day outing with my two lads a couple weeks back. Took advantage of the 50% discount for Senior Citizen tickets (sometimes being old pays off). We even did the Senior Stroll after the game, when the Brewers allow seniors and their friends out onto the warning track to walk the field.

Started at the first base side and walked around to the third base side. You get a whole different perspective from the outfield warning track. Have been on enough baseball diamonds, major and minor league, to know that, by and large, their dimensions are similar. Still, was pretty neat to walk it.

Thanks For Your Service, Lorenzo Cain

 One of our favorite Milwaukee Brewers, outfielder Lorenzo Cain, was recently given Designated For Assignment status.

That means he's being sent to the minors and essentially released. He can accept that move, become a free agent and hope for the best or retire.

Despite the fact that going into Saturday, Cain was only hitting .179 with a single home run and nine Runs Batted In, the Brewers had held onto him. Making the move Saturday was significant for one reason: It let Cain reach the Ten Years of MLB Service, thus giving him a full pension.

Class move by Milwaukee. Age catches up to all of us, and Cain was a favorite of mine when he came up in 2010, hitting .306 and showing potential. Considering he didn't start playing organized ball until he was a sophomore in high school, even making it to the majors, let alone lasting 10 years, is amazing.

He was traded to Kansas City in December 2010, part of the package for pitcher Zack Greinke, among others. I was crushed, but in his seven years in KC, Cain played in the World Series twice and won a ring. He came back to play in Milwaukee the last five years, though he sat out the 2020 Covid-19 season.

A great influence in the clubhouse and exceptional defensive presence, one moment will always stand out. An Opening Day a few seasons ago against the hated St. Louis Cardinals. Milwaukee clinging to a one-run lead in the late innings. Two outs, runner aboard and Cain goes OVER the outfield wall to take away a two-run homer.

The crowd in Miller Park (before AmFam Field) just exploded. What an amazing play, and amazing career.

Thanks, Lo Cain, for your example and play in Milwaukee. To be honest, it won't surprise me in the least if the Brewers find a home in the front office or on a coaching staff for Lorenzo.

Hail To The Champions!

 The hometown Oregon High School girls soccer team capped off a magical season with the Division 2 state championship yesterday.

Beating Whitefish Bay 1-0 brought the OHS record to an amazing 23-0-1. They outscored their opponents 148-3 in posting an amazing 22 shutouts. 

What's even more incredible is the team is the number 1-ranked squad IN THE NATION. Pretty impressive.

And by the way, the OHS boys took home the state title last fall, so little ol' Oregon can claim to be Wisconsin's Soccer Titletown.

Hats off to Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell, now the winningest manager in franchise history with 565 and counting. Counsell passed Phil "Scrapiron" Garner this past week.

Keep in mind that, while Garner won 563 games with Milwaukee in his eight seasons as skipper, he only posted ONE winning season and finished with a .477 winning percentage. 

In comparison, Counsell as only had three losing seasons in his eight years (and I hesitate to count the 29-31 mark in the 2020 Covid-19 season.) This should be the fifth straight post-season for Milwaukee.

Not bad for a small market manager who has yet to win Manager Of The Year!

Packer fans will enjoy a book I recently cam across. Green Bay's Greatest: Profiles of the Packers in the Pro Football Hall of Fame by Michael Jacquart is a delight. That, along with Cliff Chrystl's The Greatest Story In Sports: Green Bay Packers 1919-2019 are educational reads for those of us who love the Green & Gold. Recently finished Volume I of the four-volume set. Just fascinating.

By the way, Happy Father's Day!

Home Opener The Best Day Of The Year

Made it over to Milwaukee on Thursday for the BEST day of the year, the home opener for the Milwaukee Brewers.

By my count, this was Opening Day No. 30 -- and thanks to a 5-1 thumping of the hated St. Louis Cardinals, my record stands at 18-12. The Crew is 28-26 since coming over from Seattle in 1970.

Witnessed this one with Stevie Wonder (no, not that Stevie Wonder!), a long-time friend who has been meeting us for these games since the early 1990's. Also in tow my bride of nearly 38 years, who hadn't been to one of these events for many, many seasons. Oldest kid had to pass (under the weather) but has still been to 26 of these.

Gotta say, thank the baseball gods for that roof over AmFam Field! While the winds were howling near 40 MPH outside and producing wind-chills in the low 20s, inside the sell-out crowd of 42,794 made it toasty. Not that all the seats had fannies in them, mind you. From our vantage point, could see a lot of empty upper deck spots. Guess people looked out at the weather and said "I'll pass..." Or they never made it in from tailgating.

When the Brewers were playing at old County Stadium, we endured a lot of bad weather Opening Days. Cold. Rain. Snow. Seems like all that was missing were a plague of frogs or locusts.

Odd things gleaned from checking out Opening Day stats:

• The Brewers are 2-0 at American Family Field
• The team was 10-10 at Miller Park -- first game played in 2001
• Against National League teams, Milwaukee is 14-11 (includes 2-1 at County Stadium)
• Milwaukee was 16-16 in games at County Stadium, 14-15 against the American League

And please keep in mind, people, that a 162-game baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint. There will be winning streaks and losing streaks. The team left standing at the end of it, that's the goal.

Came across the name Terrell Buckley the other day. Seems he's one of the head coaches in the XFL, the spring pro football league that will debut in 2023.

Green Bay Packer fans of a certain age will remember the erstwhile cornerback, the fifth pick overall in the 1992 draft who spent two rather unspectacular seasons as a Packer before being traded. He is probably most remembered for blowing coverage late in a game against the Minnesota Vikings that led to a loss.

And The Milwaukee Brewers Will...

 The nice thing about the start of the 162-game marathon that is the baseball season? Every teams starts out as equals.

The trick will be for the contenders and pretenders to sort things out in the next several months.

Did the Milwaukee Brewers, coming off a 95-win season, do enough to improve on that squad and have post-season success?

I think so. In their Central Division, the St. Louis Cardinals will once again be the primary foe, followed by the Cincinnati Reds. The Chicago Cubs are in rebuild mode, as are the Pittsburgh Pirates.

That leaves me thinking that the Brewers should win 97 games this year, win the NL Central and qualify for the post season for a fifth straight time. IF Christian Yelich returns to the form of the Yelie we all know and love, that is.

The offense is better with Hunter Renfro & Andrew McCutchen (slotted as a DH now that the National League has added that back to the mix). First base still remains a work in progress, but once a hitter, always a hitter. That's why I think Keston Hiura will regain his stroke as well. A little more power from catcher Omar Narvaez won't hurt either, along with continued development -- once he's back healthy -- by Luis Urias.

Yet this team is built around pitching. Manager Craig Counsel has a rotation of Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burns and Freddy Peralta to anchor the squad. Throw in Eric Lauer, Adrian Houser and Aaron Ashby and it could well be one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.

On the back end, Josh Hader is one of the premier closers in all of baseball. If Davin Williams can learn to avoid fist-fights with walls, the bullpen should be fine.

There are those who might pooh-pooh the Crew for their lack of playoff success. But you can't get to the World Series without making the playoffs, so at least this small market squad is giving Brewer fans something to root for.

Now, all Milwaukee needs to do is find success against the Los Angeles Dollars.....er, Dodgers, and make it's first World Series appearance in 40 years!

So Long, Johnny Davis

 It really wasn't much of a surprise this week, the announcement coming from Johnny Davis that he would pass up his final two seasons of basketball for the Wisconsin Badgers and take his talents to the NBA.

This was considered by many a done deal all season long, though some of us (like me) were holding out hope that Johnny would return to the Cardinal & White for another season. I'm still not convinced that his body-type is ready for the NBA. Or that some of his skills couldn't use the polish that would come from an additional college season. Heck, overall maturity could be added on as well.

Technically, he still could come back -- as long as he doesn't retain an agent. And who knows, if he doesn't like where he's going to fall in the draft, he might.

But the odds are long that we've seen the last of him on the Kohl Center floor.

Can't blame this young man from La Crosse for taking his shot at the money. After all, athletes are just one serious injury away from losing that.

Thanks for a memorable season, Johnny. And best of luck with that pro career.

Talked about this in my last blog, but it bears repeating. The biography by Brett Christopherson, Over And Back: Mickey Crowe: The Strange And Troubled Life Of A Wisconsin High School Basketball Legend is worth-while reading.

It should be a cautionary tale for parents who push their talented children waaaaay too hard. Mickey's father and coach, Marty Crowe, did his uber-talented son no favors with his heavy-handed style of coaching. And trying to piggy-back a deal to the college level? Odds are, that just added to the son's turn to mental health problems along with his addictions to alcohol and drugs.

I give Mickey Crowe a lot of credit for essentially coming out of hiding and opening up, honestly detailing his issues.

The transfer portal for college athletes gets a lot of attention, especially when members of Wisconsin Badger athletic teams take advantage and leave.

I think the portal is a good thing, up to a point. Coaches, after all, have been free to leave for years. And if a coach is the main reason someone has chosen a program, the athlete should have the ability to pack the bags WITHOUT having to sit out a season.

The portal has been used to an extreme down in Baton Rouge, though. The program's coach was bounced late in the season due to infractions, and as of today 11 players have entered the transfer portal. That means there's not a single scholarship player left on the roster from this past season.

Makes the one or two players we've lost at Wisconsin seem pretty insignificant!

Tournament Time Brings Back Memories Of Mickey

Step about the Wayback Machine, folks. We're taking a trip back to a time when basketball at all levels was a bit different.

OK, a lot different.

Remember basketball in the late 1960s and early '70s? No three-point line. No shot clock. Hand-checks and physical defense was allowed. College freshmen weren't eligible for varsity play.

With the high school champions crowned and the Final Four set, my mind drifted back to a name that, I hope, has survived the years. A kid named Mickey Crowe, a 6-5ish guard in a time when those were rare. Rarer still was a Wisconsin kid (playing for his dad Marty at St. Nazianz JFK Prep from 1971-1975) who averaged over 40 points a game and brought in national media attention.

He torched Cedar Grove for 72 and hit 56 against both Two Rivers and Sevastopol. When JFK Prep rolled into town, it a visit from the circus. As a sophomore he averaged 36 points a game and put up back-to-back games of 60-plus. Crowe upped that to 39 as a junior and then 41.7 as a senior, scoring 1,001 points. 

It's a shame that, with all that talent, his own demons brought him down. Addicted to drugs and alcohol, diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic in 1984, he now keeps his psychological issues in check with daily doses of medication. Mickey Crowe lives in Eau Claire these days. His story is well-told in Over And Back: Mickey Crowe: The Strange And Troubled Life Of A Wisconsin High School Basketball Legend by Brett Christopherson.

Crowe scored 2,724 points in his career, which now ranks second among state preps. In the 1974-75 season he scored 1,001 points in 24 games, averaging 41.71 points per game. I had the chance to see him play four times in his career -- two regular season games against Oshkosh Lourdes Academy and two WISAA tournament games at Kolf Sports Center on the UW-Oshkosh campus.

When Mickey Crowe crossed the half-court line, he was in range, folks. Gotta wonder how many points he would have averaged, and scored, had he benefited from a three-point line. He was Wisconsin's answer to "Pistol" Pete Maravich, who starred at LSU for his father, Peter "Press" Maravich.

Maravich couldn't play as a freshman due to NCAA rules, but in 81 varsity games he averaged 44.2 points a game. From the 1967-68 season to 1969-70, the Pistol averaged 43.8, 44.2 and 44.5 respectively. He's first all-time on the NCAA D-1 men's career scoring with 3,667 points; he's first, fourth and fifth on the list for points in a season (1,381; 1,148; 1,138) and first, second and third for scoring average by season.

Again, keep in mind this is well BEFORE the three-point line. The Pistol was a show, and a big influence on Mickey Crowe -- down to the floppy socks and long hair.

The Lourdes Academy Knights of Oshkosh had Mickey Crowe's number, tho. In a handful of games in his career, he was held to less than 30 points in a game. Lourdes did it twice. In the first, his junior year, JFK Prep won 70-68 in overtime as Crowe had 27 points on 12 of 27 field goals.

Jim Baerwald of Lourdes put up 28 points, and was one of the reasons for Crowe's struggles

"(Crowe) was a crazy guy," recalls Ken Korsch, at that time a 6-3 senior forward on the Lourdes team who went on to earn All-Winnebagoland honors from the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern. "He (Crowe) guarded me, but we had (6-5 forward) Jim Baerwald guard him.

"Jim could time his dribbling so he would be right up on Crowe, which he didn’t adapt to very well," remembers Korsch, who owns Lake Rest Resort on Spider Lake in Arbor Vitae, WI. "I got a letter from Marty Crowe after that game telling me how well we played them."

The Oshkosh Lourdes starting five included forwards Korsch and Baerwald, center Jim Angle, off-guard Mike Muza and point guard Pat McKenzie, currently the team physician for the Green Bay Packers. 

The second meeting for Lourdes and JFK saw Crowe finish with 21 points on 9 of 32 field goals and 3 of 14 free throws in a 78-67 win.

In the tournament games at Kolf, Crowe and JFK beat Marinette Catholic Central 52-50 on Crowe's 15-foot jumper. He had 31 points that game on 15 of 37 shots. The next night, De Pere Abbot Pennings through a stiff defense that frustrated Crowe, as he only got 14 of his 26 shots in the second half, finishing with 27 points in a 49-44 Pennings win.

The next season, as a senior, Crowe got JFK Prep to Milwaukee and the WISAA state tournament championship game, only to come up short against Racine Lutheran

The Crystal Ball Was Cloudy

The Green Bay Packers traded wide receiver Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders this week, getting first- and second-round picks in this year's NFL draft.

Didn't see that one coming. Thought for sure that the two would get a contract done that would keep Adams in Green Bay as the highest paid wide receiver in the league. And that's what he is after Da Ray-Dahs ponied up over $142 million, reuniting Adams with his Fresno State quarterback, Derek Carr.

Guess that franchise tag business was a little too much for the pride (and ego) of Adams to handle. Am hearing that GB offered to match the six-year deal Las Vegas offered, but Adams had enough and his mind was made up. Well, more power to him. The Packers now have four of the first 60 picks in the draft, enough capital to perhaps swing a trade and move up for a stud rookie wide out. Or ink a more reasonable free agent, and there are some good ones out there.

And this might be for the best, as our own gazillionaire quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, may not be so tightly focused on one player.

Johnny Davis of the Wisconsin Badgers is a consensus All-American basketball player, the first for the Badgers since Frank "The Tank" Kaminsky.

Well deserved for Davis, the sophomore guard who leads the Badgers in scoring (19.7 points per game),  rebounds (8.2) and free throws while second in assists.

If he's been able to get healthy since that horrific spill against Nebraska in the regular season finale, the Badgers and Coach Greg Guard should make it out of this opening weekend of the NCAA tournament and into the Sweet Sixteen.