By Adam Roberts – 4/7/2021

It’s Masters Week, with the tradition unlike any other set to begin tomorrow at Augusta National. One notable face that will be absent from the proceedings will be Tiger Woods as he continues to recover from his awful car crash in February.

Woods today tweeted his thanks to the Los Angeles County Sheriff and Fire Departments for getting him safely to the hospital. He ended the tweet saying he’s focusing on his recovery and family. The tweet comes just as the LA County Sheriff’s Office released its final report on the crash. That report said high, unsafe speed was to blame for Woods’ single car crash back in February in Southern California.

Woods is recovering in Florida from extensive injuries he suffered in the crash.

By Adam Roberts – 4/7/2021

This year more than any year in the past conversation surrounding the NCAA’s transfer portal has amplified, particularly within the world of men’s basketball. But this year in particular has granted seniors the option to use an additional year of eligibility and return for another year to make up the end of the 2020 season they missed out on. There were seven seniors at Wisconsin that this rule could apply to, and already a few have made their plans known. D’Mitrick Trice quickly unveiled plans to move on after Wisconsin’s tournament loss to eventual-champion Baylor, followed by Walt McGrory, Aleem Ford, Nate Reuvers, Micah Potter, and Trevor Anderson.

That leaves Brad Davison as the last senior to make a decision. As of this morning, CBS Sports college basketball insider Jon Rothstein reported that Davison has still not made his choice. Last season Davison had his lowest overall field goal percentage of his four seasons but was his best from three (38.9%) and the free throw line (86.8%). In the Baylor loss, he went 8-2-4 with 2-8 three point shooting.

We’ll continue following for any updates on Davison’s status for next year.

By Adam Roberts – 4/6/2021

At a presser today, Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez will confirm he indeed plans to retire from the position on June 30th.

We already knew coming into this week that Alvarez would be concluding his time at the university who’s football program he completely transformed. But now it appears the wheels are officially in motion to begin planning the next phase of UW athletics.

Additionally, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Jeff Potrykus tweeted this morning: “I am on the road but received an email from #badgers officials regarding a meeting at 11am Wednesday to consider ’employment of new athletic director'”. Some have speculated that, much like the transition from Bo Ryan to Greg Gard with the men’s basketball team, that a hand-picked successor could be in the works. Nothing has been solidified at the time of this writing.

By Adam Roberts – 4/5/2021

Brewers assistant trainer Dave Yeager was hospitalized after two lightheaded occurrences from this past weekend.

The first one was in the ninth inning on the field Saturday, while he was attending to an umpire. The second came in the clubhouse after the loss to the Twins. After being examined by doctors, he was sent to the hospital and kept over night for observation.

“You never want to see anybody go down” Brewers’ pitcher Brett Anderson said after the game. “And it was such a weird circumstance where CB gets hit and you’re thinking they’re going to change umpires, and then next thing you know Dave goes down. We wish him the best and hopefully it’s nothing too serious. I was telling someone yesterday, ‘You think you’ve seen it all in this game and then something like that happens in the ninth inning.’ It’s scary, but it doesn’t sound like it’s too, too serious. Hopefully he’s fine.”

Manager Craig Counsell said that Yeager likely suffered from extreme dehydration and is currently doing better but as of this writing hasn’t been released from the hospital. The Brewers begin a road series against the Cubs tonight.

By Adam Roberts – 4/2/2021

While not a local story, it bears mentioning what Major League Baseball has done today with regard to the 2021 All-Star Game.

Earlier today MLB announced it would move the game out of Atlanta, as well as the MLB Draft, in response to new voting laws passed in Georgia. Commissioner Rob Manfred released a statement, among other things confirming they were beginning the process of choosing a new host city with details to be announced shortly.

For context, SB 202 (known as the Election Integrity Act of 2021) was passed in the Georgia state legislature last week and makes a number of major changes to the state’s voting process. Mail-in absentee ballot applications can now be requested 11 weeks before an election, as compared to the 180 days from before the bill, and the final deadline to return an application is now two Fridays before election day. Anyone requesting an absentee ballot would also have to show a copy of their ID to verify their identity. Mobile voting polls are also now prohibited in Georgia expect during a governor-declared emergency; they were used in the Atlanta area during the 2020 election.

Manfred said in a statement today “Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box”.