By Adam Roberts – 11/24/2020

The hope is that the upcoming 2021 Northwoods League schedule will look a little more normal. Part of that normalcy is the release of the 2021 schedule, which will feature many more familiar opponents than last season.

The Loggers will tentatively open the season May 31st against the Mankato Moondogs, and will conclude things on August 14th against the Waterloo Bucks. Weekend home series this year include June 4-6, June 18-20, July 9-11, and August 7-8.

Check out the full schedule below!

By Adam Roberts – 11/23/2020

Two La Crosse colleges officially cancelled any plans athletic competitions for the foreseeable future.

In two separate statements, both UW-La Crosse and Western Technical College suspended athletics, with UWL saying sports are on hold for the rest of the fall semester and WTC cancelling both their winter and spring sports seasons.

“In accordance with the Coulee COVID-19 Collaborative recommendation to cancel all in-person sports for schools and universities for the next 30 days, the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse will be following this guideline.” the UWL statement read. “The current COVID-19 pandemic in the La Crosse community is concerning, so with that in mind, all athletically-related activities will be suspended for the rest of the fall semester.  UWL Intercollegiate Athletics looks forward to returning to the field of play as soon as possible.”

UWL has not played an organized NCAA athletic event since March 15th.

**UPDATE** Viterbo has joined UWL and WTC in suspending athletic activities; the V-Hawks will pause athletics until December 27th.

By Adam Roberts – 11/23/2020

After his first two starts, many assumed the upward trajectory of Wisconsin quarterback Graham Mertz would continue last Saturday against #19 Northwestern. After all, the Wildcats, though unbeaten, recently have had some close calls; conversely Wisconsin marched with relative ease to wins in their two games. But the offense sputtered against Northwestern, particularly in the third quarter where the Badgers gained just 47 total yards and punted four times before turning it over on downs to end the quarter. Couple that with three Mertz interceptions and a duo of fumbles, and the Badgers’ 17-7 loss shouldn’t come as much of a suprise.

The lack of weapons for Mertz to work with also manifested itself this week. Apart from the Chimere Dike touchdown pass, there was no real big play threat on the field for Wisconsin. Jake Ferguson led receivers with 58 yards on 7 catches, but Dike’s 49 yard scoring play was the only offensive play to go for more than 25 yards, both through the air or on the ground.

Defensively, the Badgers actually held their own. Northwestern scored just once in the second half on a 32 yard Charlie Kuhbander field goal, but a defense can only do so much before the offense has to simply bow up and put points on the board. The ineptitude on that side of the ball ensured Wisconsin would fall for the first time this season.

The loss drops the Badgers to 18th in the AP as they prepare for the Golden Gophers next Saturday. It will be critical for Wisconsin to win out for any shot at the Big Ten Championship game, since they’ll need the Wildcats to lose two of three against 1-3 Michigan State, 2-3 Minnesota, and 2-3 Illinois to jump the Cats in the standings.

By Adam Roberts – 11/20/2020

Minor league baseball is a section of sports that has both A) been completely ravished by COVID-19, and B) not discussed all that much about at the top levels of sports talk. Major realignment is coming to MiLB, and teams are rising up to and falling down to different levels on a seemingly daily basis.

One of those dipping down are the San Antonio Missions, the Brewers now-previously Triple-A affiliate. They will be returning to the AA level they had been at for a while before a recent jump up, and that leaves the Brewers currently without a Triple-A affiliate.

Reviewing The Brew wrote an article this morning about what the Brewers could do in this situation, laying out the three most likely scenarios that Milwaukee may pursue. It certainly isn’t likely to be the last of these kinds of situations this offseason, and certainly minor league baseball in 2021 will be much different than years in the past.

On a personal note, the RTB article does the community of Fresno, California pretty dirty. I’ve never been, but briefly considered taking a job out there after college, and as Ryan Stiles once put it, I’m sure it’s “a lovely town”.

By Adam Roberts – 11/19/2020

When this image popped up on Brewers’ Twitter this afternoon, it probably prompted a number of double-takes from Milwaukee fans:

But fear not Brewer faithful, David Stearns isn’t heading anywhere. While Mike Arnold is now the Crew’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, Stearns will remain with the team as the President of Baseball Operations.

Arnold previously served as the director of player personnel for the Tampa Bay Rays, and has been with the Brewers as the assistant general manager and vice president since 2015.