By Adam Roberts – 3/12/2021

We already knew going into this week that Mill…erm, excuse me, American Family Field will be opening at 25% capacity to start the 2021 Brewers season, translating to around 11,000 to 12,000 people). Up until today, it was uncertain how Target Field in the Twin Cities would work with having fans in the stands this year, but now we have a better idea.

Today, Governor Tim Walz pulled back on certain COVID restrictions, namely in public and religious buildings. Along with that, public venues can operate at 50% capacity, with outdoor venues limited to 10,000 patrons. This will be the number the Twins work with to start their season on April 8th.

Along with this news today, Major League Baseball is announcing its very low COVID positivity rate. In a release today with the MLB Players Association, the league announced there were just two positive tests last week from the near 15-thousand tests conducted. Both positives were from players. Since intake testing began at the start of Spring Training, there have been 27 total positives — 21 players and six staff members — comprising 17 clubs, out of more than 49-thousand tests.

By Adam Roberts – 3/11/2021

Tonight at the Fiserv Forum, the Milwaukee Bucks will take the floor against the New York Knicks to begin the second half of their season. Exactly one year ago this evening, the sports world, and in a much larger context American life, came to a screeching halt.

Over 20 teams are hitting the court today on the one-year anniversary of the NBA shutdown. It was on this day last year that the league stopped playing due to multiple players, namely Rudy Gobert, testing positive for COVID-19 outbreak. ESPN Radio and a lot of other media outlets are reflecting today on the magnitude of the day league commissioner Adam Silver suspended the season. Prior to that point, the pandemic, which had only been officially ruled a pandemic by the CDC one day prior, still seemed in many Americans’ minds to be sensationalism, something that would take the form of the SARS pandemic from a decade and a half before, or bird flu, ebola, or the Zika virus. One year later, sports and nearly every element of our day-to-day life has been remolded to fight against the virus, and there will likely be things that never truly go back to pre-pandemic ways.

Still, with one of the largest vaccine rollouts in history continuing along and states slowly starting to resume some semblance of normalcy, there are at least signs that the elusive light at the end of a seemingly never-ending tunnel may be approaching. It certainly seems like it anyways with 22 teams playing in eleven games as the NBA begins the second half of the season.

By Adam Roberts – 3/10/2021

The debate over barring transgender athletes from participating in sports under their identified gender continues, with several athletes making their stance very clear.

More than 500 college athletes are demanding the NCAA pull its championships from states that have passed or are considering anti-transgender sports measures. They sent a letter to the association saying events should not be held in states that have or are looking to ban transgender-identifying individuals from participating in sports that align with their gender identity. The letter was created by runners from Washington University in St. Louis.

Athletes from 85 different schools, including Duke, Michigan, and Villanova have signed on to the letter. The letter comes after Mississippi and South Dakota have approved bans on transgender girls and women competing, and at least half of other states, including both Wisconsin and Minnesota, have brought up similar measures just this year.

By Adam Roberts – 3/10/2021

UWL seniors Ethan Anderson and Wyatt Cook each were named to the All-WIAC First Team for their exploits this season, with Cook earning the coveted title of WIAC Player of the Year. In addition, head coach Kent Dernbach was named the conference’s Coach of the Year.

Cook started all but one game the Eagles played this season/postseason and led the team in rebounds, field goal shooting, three-point shooting, and blocks. He also was a Top-10 finisher in nine different WIAC statistical categories. Anderson made the All-WIAC First Team for the second straight season, with the Black River Falls product starting every game and leading the team in scoring and free throw percentage.

Dernbach is now 59-32 in four seasons as UWL’s head coach, and has consistently kept the Eagles in the national polls, finishing as high as 14th in the nation this year.

By Adam Roberts – 3/9/2021

Many Bucks fans recognize the name Ersan Ilyasova. The Turkish power forward was drafted 36th overall by Milwaukee in 2005 and has played three separate stints in the Cream City over his career. But Ilyasova was waved by the team last November after determining his 7 million dollar price tag due next year would be too much and had not found a new home, until today.

The former Buck, according to Woj, will be signing with the Utah Jazz for the rest of the season. At the moment, Ilyasova is completing the league’s COVID testing protocol, which he will need to pass before he can sign his new deal.

Ersan set seven different career highs while playing in Milwaukee during stint two, and during the 2019-20 season played in 63 games averaging 6.6 points per game and 4.8 boards per.