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Twins-Red Sox Postponed Following Deadly Police Shooting

By Adam Roberts – 4/12/2021

The Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox won’t be playing baseball today following a deadly police shooting just outside Minneapolis.

The Twins released a statement saying “it is in the best interests” of many including players and fans to postpone the game. The team says the league was consulted in the decision making process. The Twins also expressed their condolences to Daunte Wright’s family; Wright was shot and killed by police yesterday following a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center. The police chief said he believes an accidental discharge led to the shooting.

Protests took place in the Minneapolis suburb yesterday evening, a metro area which dealt with massive protests and riots in the wake of the George Floyd shooting last May. We’ll keep an eye on if the situation impacts the scheduled Bucks-Timberwolves game on Wednesday.

Caledonia, La Crescent BBB Post Six All-Conference Athletes

By Adam Roberts – 4/12/2021

While the season didn’t end the way Caledonia boy’s basketball would have liked Saturday in the Twin Cities, they had a heck of a run to the AA title game where they very nearly brought down the top-ranked team in Minnesota. On top of just making it to that point, they did so without the services of Eli King, lost to injury earlier this season.

The Warriors did lead the Three Rivers Conference in All-Conference athletes, with Sam Privet, Andrew Kunelius, Austin Klug, and Jackson Koepke making the list. The La Crescent-Hokah boys had some representation as well, with the Lancers’ Parker McQuin and Carter Todd receiving honors.

Viterbo W. Volleyball Wins NSAA Tournament; Will Face Madonna (Mich.) In NAIA Tournament

By Adam Roberts – 4/12/2021

The 20th-ranked Viterbo women’s volleyball team needed five sets to do it, but with their 3-2 comeback victory Saturday over #17 Bellevue, they secured a NSAA Tournament championship.

That’s now seven NSAA Tournament titles in a row for the V-Hawks, who were led by senior Maya Roberts with 19 kills and Winona freshman Grace Rohde with 13. Holmen sophomore Kenzie Winker added nine kills while Caledonia junior Adrianna Renhart contributed 20 digs for Viterbo.

WIth their automatic berth, the V-Hawks were granted a home game to start the NAIA Tournament, and they will host Madonna (Mich) in the opening round. The tournament begins this Saturday.

Brewers, Bucks Dealing With Injuries

By Adam Roberts – 4/12/2021

The positives from this weekend? Both the Brewers and Bucks picked up big wins yesterday; the Crew defeated the Cardinals 9-3 to secure the series win while the Bucks stomped on the Magic to end a three-game losing streak.

The negatives? The injury bug is biting both teams.

Both Christian Yelich and Travis Shaw were pulled early from Sunday’s contest, Yeli with lower back soreness and Shaw after a foul ball caromed off his right shin and ankle. Manager Craig Counsell says both players are considered day-to-day ahead of tonight’s game against the Cubs at American Family Field.

As for the Bucks, they got Jrue Holiday back yesterday but played their fifth straight game without Giannis Antetokounmpo; he is still dealing with left knee soreness and the team says there is no timetable for his return to action. Beat writer Eric Nehm says the team is playing the situation very cautiously and will be extremely patient in getting him back on the floor. P.J. Tucker was also not playing yesterday with his strained left calf.

Zora Stephenson Will Call Tonight’s Bucks-Hornets Game

By Adam Roberts – 4/9/2021

Those of you who listened to games in the NBA bubble last summer may have heard some play-by-play from current Bucks sideline reporter Zora Stephenson. Tonight, she’ll be on the call for the Bucks-Hornets game, making her the first female to call a Bucks’ regular season game.

A product of Elon University, Stephenson held a reporting position in Denver before making the leap to Milwaukee, where she serves as both the Bucks’ primary sideline voice and also contributes to Milwaukee media stations from time-to-time. In Denver, she became an Emmy award-winning broadcaster. Stephenson also excelled on the basketball court, where she was a nominee for the McDonalds All-American team while at Oakton High School in Virginia (she also holds the school-record for three-pointers at 263). During her senior year at Elon, she made a huge leap from her sophomore to junior year, finishing the 13-14 season with the school’s second-highest single season three-point percentage at 40.4%.

Stephenson will be behind the mic for a Bucks-Hornets game tonight that will be sans Giannis and Jrue Holiday; Giannis has now missed four straight games.

Giannis Out Again Tonight Against Hornets.

By Adam Roberts – 4/9/2021

We’ve all heard and become familiar with the term “load management” by now. And with the length of a NBA season combined with the ever-increasing demand of its star athletes, it’s no surprise that teams are more and more frequently putting their big names out of games that largely are inconsequential. However, news today on Giannis could mean things are maybe more serious than just a day of load management.

The Greek Freak hasn’t played in three games heading into tonight’s contest against the Hornets, and now he’ll be missing a fourth straight game with what the team is calling left knee soreness. Joining Giannis on the injury list, according to Hornets’ beat writer Rick Bonnell, is Jrue Holiday with a left knee contusion.

Giannis hasn’t played since April 2nd against the Trailblazers, where he scored 47. He’s played in 46 of the Bucks’ 51 games this season.

Brewers Add Dee Strange-Gordon To Minor League Contract

By Adam Roberts – 4/9/2021

It’s been no secret that through the first week of the Brewers’ regular season, their offense has been less than stellar. Their six runs on Opening Day have been the scoring highlight of the season, and already pitchers like Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Hauser have had great outings ruined by no run support. General manager David Stearns has already acknowledged the offense isn’t where it needs to be, and hopefully with this new signing that will change sooner rather than later.

The Brewers have signed former National League batting champion Dee Strange-Gordon to a minor-league contract. He can play the infield or outfield, is a two-time All-Star, led the NL in stolen bases three times, and won a Gold Glove at second base. He has played in the majors with the Dodgers, Marlins, and Mariners. He had been preparing to play with Cincinnati this season, but the Reds released the 33 year old Strange-Gordon in March.

Statistically, Strange-Gordon had one of his worst years last season with Seattle, with career-lows in batting average, on-base and slugging percentage and appearances in under half of the Mariners’ games with no home runs.

After having today off, the Brewers will send Adrian Houser to the mound tomorrow afternoon to face the Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Milwaukee starts lefty Brett Anderson for the series finale Sunday.

The Masters Tournament Begins Today

By Adam Roberts – 4/8/2021

The feeling of having two Masters in less than five months is a different kind of bizarre. I have always associated, as I’m sure many others have, with the teeing off of round one at Augusta as the true start of spring, so watching the world’s best do battle in November was more than a bit odd. But as with many other things this spring, a hint of normalcy is returning.

The Masters tees off today from Augusta National Golf Course in Georgia. One of the PGA Tour’s most prestigious tournaments returns to its regular April start after the pandemic pushed it to November last year. A limited number of fans will also be allowed back for this year’s event. Among the favorites to take home the Green Jacket are Dustin Johnson, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy. Johnson came away as the winner in 2020.

Five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods will be watching from home after being seriously injured during a February car crash.

Nate Reuvers Going Pro

By Adam Roberts – 4/8/2021

Yesterday we reported that Brad Davison was the only Badger senior who had not yet decided on whether or not he would return for the one-time only extra year being offered next season by the NCAA. In that report, I noted that Nate Reuvers had already declined to return to Wisconsin.

Today, he confirmed on Twitter that he will be in fact going pro. On the app today he said: “I will be hiring an agent and starting my professional basketball career. This is my dream and I love this game. Thank you to everyone that has helped me on my journey.”

This past season saw a notable scoring decline for Reuvers, who went from a 13.1 point per game average in 2019-20 to 8.3 per game this year. His shooting percentage has stayed above 40% consistently since his sophomore year, and his free throw shooting is also decent at 78%.

Caledonia BBB Advances to State Final

By Adam Roberts – 4/8/2021

Tell me if you’ve heard this before: a Caledonia sports team is a win away from a state title.

While it yearly refers to the football team, this time I’m speaking of the boy’s basketball team, which finds itself a victory from the championship after a 60-55 win over Minneapolis North yesterday in the semis. It was a win that early on looked like a Warrior blowout, then quickly became a close back-and-forth kind of game featuring some chippy moments late.

The Polars are likely looking back at the game today and wondering what could’ve been if they had been more accurate from three; the Warrior defense essentially eliminated those shots from the game with North shooting 1-18. The Warriors made five threes in the game with Jackson Koepke accounting for two of them. He finished with 13 for the game, one behind leading scorer Austin Klug.

All that remains in front of Caledonia now is top-ranked Waseca Saturday at the Target Center. The Blue Jays are 22-1 this year behind 22.7 a game from Andrew Morgan. They handled Fergus Falls in the semis yesterday evening to advance.