By Adam Roberts – 10/20/2021

Well it’s safe to say the Brewers’ offseason is off to a spicy start after floundering offensively down the stretch.

Beat writer Adam McCalvy among others reports the team has fired hitting coach Andy Haines. Additionally the team has informed assistant hitting coach Jacob Cruz that he is free to pursue other opportunities.

Fans for months had been wondering if this move would come after a highly disappointing end to the year for the Brewers’ offense. In particular, people have pointed to the disappearance of Christian Yelich at the plate for the past year and a half. In the NLDS against the Braves, Milwaukee notably only scored in one of their first 29 innings.

There’s no word yet on who the Brewers might pursue to fill the spot or when a hire could be made.

By Adam Roberts – 10/19/2021

On a night when some wondered whether the Milwaukee Bucks would be victims of the moment and get caught up in the celebration of unveiling a championship banner and handing out rings, that couldn’t have been further from what happened on the court.

Giannis had a double-double with 32 and 14, Khris Middleton added 20 points, and Pat Connaughton and Jordan Nwora were solid off the bench in a 127-104 opening night win over the Brooklyn Nets. Defensively the two Nets giving the Bucks the most grief appeared to be Kevin Durant with an unsurprising 32-11 night and Patty Mills who was a perfect 7-7 from three.

Kyrie Irving was notably absent tonight as he and the team continue to be at an impasse over his vaccine refusal. James Harden had 20 in 31 minutes of action.

Offensively, the Bucks shot 45.7% from the field and 37.8 from three. Free throws were pretty even between the two teams with Giannis hitting seven of nine.

In injury news, Jrue Holiday did not play in the second half after suffering a right heel contusion. No word yet on his status going forward, but it

Milwaukee next travels to Miami on Thursday.

By Adam Roberts – 10/18/2021

Every Wednesday afternoon during the football season, I set aside some time in my busy production/writing/recording schedule to take in the work of Youtuber UrinatingTree‘s “This Week In Sportsball” videos summarizing the previous week of NFL football (they’re highly entertaining btw and I recommend checking them out starting with this video on the Packers-Bengals game). But UTree isn’t just limited to football, also offering his comedy and insight into the other big sports as well. One of his favorites is baseball, and while he’s an equal opportunity offender he takes great pride anytime he can lambast the New York Mets, or “LolMets”.

Today provided a very LolMet moment, with the team being denied permission to speak to Brewers general manager David Stearns for the opening in New York. This in and of itself isn’t a really LolMet kind of moment, since it was Brewers’ owner Mark Attanasio who denied the Mets a chance to talk with Stearns as he has every right to do. But when you consider that earlier today Oakland executive VP of baseball operations Billy Beane publicly said he was withdrawing from interest and Theo Epstein already was out of the running after talking to team owner Steve Cohen, it’s looking more and more like the Mets are running out of options and could have to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

It is known that Stearns grew up a Mets fan and was briefly employed by the team early on in his baseball career, but with the recent run of measured success in Milwaukee, Attanasio would have been a fool not to flex his owner’s muscles in this situation.

Stearns has one final year guaranteed in his contract.

By Adam Roberts – 10/18/2021

In case you didn’t know, it would appear that the majority owner of the Chicago Bears franchise is not, in fact, Virginia Halas McCaskey.

In actuality, it appears to be Aaron Rodgers.

The Packers quarterback scored a six-yard rushing touchdown late in the fourth quarter to seal a 24-14 Packers, and then let the lower bowl know just who is the Bears’ owner. Afterwards, Rodgers would attribute the outburst to “blacking out” and the plethora of middle fingers pointed in his direction. If you seek evidence of Rodgers’s “ownage” of Chicago, he is now 22-5 against the Bears including the postseason.

Rodgers also passed for 195 yards and two touchdowns in Green Bay’s fifth straight win. Aaron Jones had 110 total yards and a receiving touchdown. On defense, the Packers registered four sacks and an interception against Justin Fields.

In more unfortunate news, the injury bug continues to be a nagging problem for Green Bay, with three more big names leaving the game and not returning yesterday. Safety Darnell Savage, who made the interception of Fields, suffered a concussion at the start of the third quarter, center Josh Myers was dealt a knee injury in his first game back, and linebacker Preston Smith was sent off the field with an oblique injury. Of the three, it appears Myers got the luckiest; head coach Matt LaFleur said after the game the medical staff don’t think the injury is season-ending.

The Packers are in first place in the NFC North with a 5-and-1 record. Green Bay will host Washington on Sunday.

By Adam Roberts – 10/15/2021

The road has ended for the final three Coulee Region athletes competing at the WIAA State Tennis Tournament in Madison this week.

Earlier today, Aquinas’s Danica Silcox fought hard in the second set against fellow sophomore Jessica Jacobson from Catholic Memorial, but the sixth-seeded singles athlete was too much to handle and Silcox fell 6-1, 7-5. She finishes her still highly impressive sophomore season 21-4.

In doubles action, Viroqua seniors Cammie Leer and Anneka Cress won a hard fought match in round 1 against the Sheboygan Falls senior duo of Claire Liebe and Rianna Krist, but against fourth-seeded JJ Krohn and Lexi Kass of Brookfield Academy the difference was clear in a 6-0, 6-1 defeat. The Blackhawk duo finishes 14-3 for 2021.

Don’t forget Week Nine of the high school football season continues tonight on ESPN La Crosse 105.5 and espnlacrosse.com as Holmen fights for their postseason lives against West Salem.