Welcome everyone to WFHRs Playmakers for this November 20th, 2023, 304 on the clock.
Got your host James J. I am joined by Seth Habhagger.
Good afternoon everyone.
We appreciate you pitching today, Seth, thanks for being here.
Our third partner in crime around here with Randy and I.
We say a shout out to Randy Paul out there working hard in the assumption school district.
Yes, indeed.
We appreciate him.
I appreciate all of you joining us.
Phone lines are wide open, 715-424-2600.
Call up and join the conversation.
We'd love to hear from you.
What do you want to talk about?
Badgers, Packers, anything, track and field, water polo.
It's your call, everybody.
Call up and join the conversation 424-2600.
Otherwise Seth and I got a handful of things to directions we want to go with today.
We are hoping to talk with our friends speaking of assumption.
Bob Burke, I was from over at Assumption, a flat director over there.
Hopefully going to be able to join us to talk a little cranberry classic.
Yeah.
We will certainly be talking about that and getting into our schedule here at WFHR and WYRI.
But Seth, how are you doing this afternoon?
Yeah, did we run around a lot?
Yeah, you know, it's school and kids and things, so no, that's...
Well, I made it back.
I made it back in time.
You know, you are moving around and so are some of the players in Major League Baseball.
That's true.
No, man.
That was so bad, it wasn't bad.
I didn't want to talk a little MLB free agency with you to kick things off.
Really, where I want to begin is the non-tenorant offers that we found out about
I believe on Friday.
And there are some big names in there, but I think the biggest name, obviously in this state,
is Brandon Woodruff.
By all rights, it looks like Brandon Woodruff is not going to be with the Milwaukee Brewers.
No, no, and that's almost guaranteed at this point.
For those of you who don't know out there what non-tenorant means in Baseball, that means that
it's usually when you're still under arbitration, which means this is before you hit free agency
as a player, that means that you still, you know, you get raises every year depending on performance
and what the team wants to pay you and all that kind of stuff.
But if you're non-tenorant, you're basically not offered a contract.
And that means you are a free agent, free, and easy ready to go.
So right now, Brandon Woodruff, of course, is not going to be pitching next year.
He's going to be recovering from shoulder surgery, but I can totally see a team taking a flyer
on him, like a two-year contract, one year to rehab, and then we'll see what you have in 2025.
And you could, I'm guessing you can get him at a pretty decent price right now.
He's going to have to, he's going to want to prove himself.
And in 2026, be the big free agent and see what he can do.
So that was an interesting, and I understand why the Brewers did it,
but you made a comment with the pregame, James, before we were on the air.
I think the Brewers window may have passed.
Looking at what's all coming up here, I don't see Corbin Burns staying the whole season.
Maybe the beginning of the year, he's going to get traded, if the Brewers are not in contention.
If he stays this year, we'll see, maybe even before the season, he'll get traded.
So there's going to be a lot of difference and a lot of changes in the Brewers this year.
For a window to close for any sports team, it's hard.
It's difficult, but for a small market team that doesn't, these aren't big free agency
signings they did, or they traded the farm to get these guys.
They built these guys up from the farm, and it hurts even more, and it's that much harder to
get back to that place. Then you take away a manager that helped you get there in many ways.
I think it's pretty hard to say, I think it's pretty easy to say one of the best,
if not the best manager in Milwaukee Brewer history.
I cannot think of another manager that had as much success for over the long period of time,
even when they went to the World Series in A2. Harvey Keane was only there for half the season,
and then he didn't stick around very long. So there's not been a Brewers manager that's had
this kind of success for this long. Yeah, there's no precedent for it with that organization.
So it hits, and I want to know how you guys feel about that, and if you, did you have a good run?
I know, obviously, there was not a World Series win, so you didn't get what to want in Milwaukee.
But I think that you got to be able to take these things as is. You know, you got what you got,
you are where you are with this. You can take the good with the bad. You can appreciate the good
and how great this was, and what's to come with this new manager, and I want to talk
up a little Pat Murphy and what you guys think of his press conference and everything.
Let's hear from you. Good afternoon. You're on the dial.
Hi guys. How's it going? Good. How are you? All right.
Awesome. I mean, despite knowing seeing a couple of squirrels in the woods over the weekend,
it wasn't too bad. So Neil Sanders, there's nothing hanging in the ground.
Yeah. Not yet. Not yet, though. Not yet. Glad to hear, though, if they didn't win,
all right. And hopefully you'll get something this weekend. What's on your mind?
Well, one question, because I'm not really sure on all those tenders,
but a contract. If they don't, you know, we never, not offer them an extension or a contract,
and if what I'm an attender, what happens to say maybe halfway through the season next year,
they and nobody sick them off, because the brewers get them at a cheaper rate.
Oh, yeah. Maybe try to rehab us, you know.
Yeah, right now it's looking like according to his agent that the, he said a couple of teams
already reach out the Metz Rangers Red Sox and Braves along with the giants have reached out to
him already. Wow. So some of what Seth was talking about before I think there's some teams that
might have a similar idea. And he might be gauging who's going to offer them. I'm guessing with him,
it's a matter of years, not money on that contract. Who's going to offer him a three-year deal
possibly? Possibly. I don't know if anybody will, but maybe he can push for that. Maybe they're
negotiating. I know Lance Lynn, just did a similar thing with St. Louis. Lance Lynn's back and St. Louis,
by the way. It's similar thing there. Yeah, you know, it kind of thinks that they're
that different happening and say, um, I mean, I like both Woodrow and Furns, both.
Woodrow, I mean, I think Furns, if you didn't have the best year, I think because, I mean,
obviously a lot of things I think probably might have weighed on them a little bit.
Not getting an arbitration that you wanted to feel that the brewers weren't
really honest with him on a lot of things. But on the other hand, no two, I mean, he's had some
good year's teams are starting to figure and I'm all a little bit, um, I don't know, it's.
Sometimes do you need a new prospect, you know, he bring him Murphy and Brink and doing us in his
hammer fresh, fresh, fresh start on this, hopefully go forward. I mean, they got a pretty decent,
I mean, it's not the best, but it's a decent farm system right now. They're starting to kind of
get back into it after that. Oh, it's the Sebastian stuff. Um, so it's, yeah, well here, let me,
let me, and this is a safe place, right? This is a safe place. Yeah, sure. All right. So between
the three of us here and anybody, you know, might be listening out there. Um, I'm going to be
real honest with you guys. Over the last, I'd say four or five years, the Milwaukee brewers have kind
of become almost my number one team in baseball. Wow. Uh, I've seen my Chicago White Sucks win a
World Series. I, I've, I've, uh, enjoyed that very much. I got to see my dad and my papa see
their Cubs win a World Series. I've gotten so much from baseball. Uh, I've seen, uh, you know,
Ricky Henderson, Nolan Ryan, Kinger, if you junior, I've seen so much. I, my daughters are, are both
brewer fans. My brother is a brewer fan. And I know what the plate is of the Milwaukee brewers.
And I've, I've just noticed that myself that I seem to be paying attention to box scores and
players more and little by little, uh, I've just cared more and more about this team that I have
my very own in some ways. Uh, so when you talk about this hurting and everything, I feel like
get a little of that, but I also don't want to pretend I understand what it's like as a,
as a natural Milwaukee brewer fan, uh, because it's rough. And, and it's just somebody who loves
baseball, like seeing small market teams, I hate seeing what's happening in the Oakland right now
and then losing their team some of this. I, I, I hope that maybe there's a little perspective
in Milwaukee brewer fans in the idea of what the caller is here saying about hope. And also the idea
of you're keeping your team. That's a pretty, I mean, I, I know that it's a low bar, but that's a
pretty dang good place to start. And what you've, you've had to build on Craig console. There's two
angles on this. There's one that says things were that rough and Milwaukee that he would go to
a rival that he would choose that like the rival. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That says a, that, I mean,
this, I think it says more about the Milwaukee Brewer organization than it does him. Yeah.
But also that you have the other side of that, too, that's a Milwaukee Brewer's organization,
Craig didn't do that alone. And I'm calling him Craig. Mr. Counsel didn't do that alone.
I'm not a Craig here. We go back. We go back him and I, uh, no, he didn't do that alone. You
know, you've got heck, heck, the heck of them and half the management team is still there.
On that coaching staff and everything. So I think you have some hope. I think you do have some
things to build on and you can have a lot of money to play with, which doesn't always help you
that much, but it ain't going to hurt. No. I mean, you actually have a lot of, you have a lot of
money to play with, but I mean, I know he touched on us a little bit, you know, like last week with,
you know, the brewers that offer Craig, you know, money, but obviously things, I mean,
and even Mike said it on Friday and how things kind of going downhill after that Josh Hater trade.
Yeah. Yeah. Um, but, you know, you talk about, you know, Oakland and you talk about some of these
other teams that, you know, are struggling. I mean, here, I was here in Wisconsin. Just, it was
Wisconsin, along with all of our teams that we've had. I think we just been spoiled for over the
so many years. I mean, winning teams, you know, not many states or, you know, Iowa can't say it
because all they have is football college stuff. You don't have no professional teams down there.
Although Caitlin Clark is a lot of fun to watch. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's end of
this end of this. But I mean, we have just been so spoiled as fans that it, I mean,
when everything is going downhill with our teams, it's like a kick in a gut.
My, uh, my nephew Mason at one point in his room had up a poster of Christian Yelich Yana
Santa de Cupo. And, uh, um, who am I forgetting? Um, players player probably.
Maybe Rogers. I don't know. Okay. There was something there. But basically, yeah, out of the major
sports, just one of the biggest names, if not the biggest name in the sport, was playing right
here in Wisconsin for a good three, four year stretch. That's not even talking about the 20
some years at quarterback from far off to Rogers. Yeah. Or some, or Barry Alvarez's years
at, uh, with the badgers or some of these other things. Yeah. I, I, I, I hear exactly what you're
saying. I'm just a little, I'm taken back by it a little because I don't hear that insight
very often from not, not Wisconsin fans. I mean, fans. It's serious. Just fans. I think that's
really, that's really smart and insightful. It also very, uh, I, um, I also think that it's all,
like we're not going to get this from a lot of callers. I don't expect this from a lot.
It's from a ton of people out there. But, you know, you know, I, I'm a passionate fan. I love my
teams, but you know, I'm not the one playing the game. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm not going to let it
you know, ruin my day. I mean, it's frustrating. You know, it's frustrating knowing that
week probably could be better. It's frustrating. You know, to try to compete like
especially as a major league baseball, I want to have an accelerate cap. How can we compete with
I mean, but Baltimore and some of these other teams and even Milwaukee's proven you don't have to
have that $400 million contract or the payroll to win championships. You can have that lesser
money as long as you have the guys that want to play together and want to be, you know, learn as they
go, you're going to have a winning, winning record. You're going to have a winning team. You're going
to have, you know, have that positivity. It's, yeah, you're not going to, you know, yeah, you're
going to go 161 and zero or 162 and zero, but you're not going to get that. That's just not realistic.
To get to 100 games, sometimes it's, I mean, it's not that easy. Oh, no, not at all in that game.
You know, so do I want to see the Milwaukee go back to what like it was in the 90s when we're
barely making 70 wins or 65 wins? No, I don't want to see that because I think you could have
actually lose a team because nobody's going to want to go see them. But I just want to see
the players be competitive. I mean, that just, yeah, it's going to go either way, especially in
baseball. Baseball is one of those, you know, you could be the best team in baseball and then
get swept in the playoffs. Right. Right. Atlanta. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, right. I mean, so it's
you get catch the team at the right time and goal. And that's just the way baseball is. That's
never going to change. A big part of the Pat Murphy press conference. I felt was the Ricky
Weeks portion of it. Ricky Weeks going to be a bench coach there. And it looks like it's his job
manager. I've never heard that before. Yeah, I thought that was that. Thank you so much. I did not
know what that meant. I don't know. I'm going to be honest with everybody. I googled it just to
make sure I was alone on this one. I'm like, wait a minute. That ate something baseball. Is it
is this something manager? And no, there has not been as far as Google could tell me. There is
nobody in baseball named a dissociative manager on a bench. But that is is what it is. Yeah. Ricky
Weeks, it looks like it is going to be his job if thing go the way that they would like them to.
So it's good for Pat Murphy. That's great. He gets this opportunity and a guy who deserved it,
who has earned this. I'm curious to think of what people think of Ricky Weeks. Not only
we don't know what he's going to be like as a manager. He's a managed one game. But we all know him
as a player. And players are so divisive. And I find it interesting when a player becomes a manager
of a team that he's played for. So I'm curious to see where people think of that as well.
Well, you know, and I never really saw Ricky as being a raw, raw guy. Because sometimes you need
to be that as a coach, you know, to get, you know, kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I never really,
when Ricky played with the players, I never really saw that. You know, I mean, I saw a person out
there that when we needed to hit him. He tried to bang this to get us to get us that hit. But
I still think the best coach out there is a catcher. Yeah. I really, I really mean. Yeah.
Medios. He was a good catcher. But look how he, I mean, he was a pretty dang good coach.
Mm-hmm. Um, Yogi Berra. Was it here, catcher? Yep. Yes, he was. Yep.
Yeah. You know, Jonathan Lucroy is apparently getting into the managerial thing or talking about
it and stuff. I don't know if he's retired yet. But he, I know he has talked about it.
I think it's some of the best managers out there now. Bruce Bochi. Ah, he was a catcher.
Yeah. Bob Melvin. He was a catcher. Yeah. The guy, uh, Steven Vote who just got hired in Cleveland.
He's a catcher. Yeah. Although we could have just stopped at Bochi. We go,
we probably could have like out of all these names of Bochi would have been, yeah,
wouldn't have stopped with that. It'd have been okay with it. It's such a good example.
I never thought about that before until you guys just started talking about that. That's awesome.
Mm-hmm. That's an interesting aspect. Yeah. And I look back, you know, I'm at,
because obviously, you know, as a catcher, you got to manage the game as a catcher. Mm-hmm.
I mean, there's not much difference. I mean, I know Craig was an outfielder and things,
I don't know, I'm on first name basis with him too. But, um,
I think it's got to, you almost have to be, you know, be a player to understand
the ins and outs of the game. I mean, you hear, you know, I played baseball, I played football,
I played basketball, I go out and coach it probably not. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
But, I mean, with, with these guys, some of these guys, I mean, they're probably born,
born to be in that position. I mean, yeah. Especially, I mean, I would love to see Craig,
or Jonathan Mukoi, you know, make it mean to. I was a big fan of it. I think I'll get a chance
at some point. Yeah. Yeah. Well, especially now, it seems like you don't even have to have
any experience sometimes. They just say, you know, if you want to be a coach in New York team,
yeah, or Steven vote for that man. Yeah, yeah. He came basically what exact from a player
to being a manager, because he think he was still technically a player when he, when he wrapped up.
Uh, I, I apologize. He just won manager of the year, Schumacher, or who was it in Schumacher
in Florida? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you see him. I, I, cause, especially because the manager's
wear a uniform, I'm like, wait a minute. He, is he, is he playing? It's like, it's like, it's
like, it's a play. Yeah. He easily looks like he could still play long gone are the days of,
uh, Tommy Lasorta and, you know, Dom Zimmer, you know, some of those guys and everything,
that you don't know, you don't know how they even put that uniform on. What size was that?
What? Come on. I'm trying to be mean. I've just been honest. Hey, hey, hey, Don Zimmer was a
pretty good second baseman. Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was pretty good. Going back to your guys,
this point about the players being great managers. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, we did.
All right. In a bow. Uh, we always appreciate you, sir. I don't like to keep you two
long, uh, but we, we appreciate your calls every week, man. All right, guys, you guys have a great
week and, uh, happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to you. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
Thank you for the call. I always appreciate best listeners and radio.
Want to send a big shout out to quality plus printing, getting your words out in sponsoring
this here hour. Thank you to them for that. We appreciate them. Call up, join the conversation,
715-424-2600-424-2600. Bob Berkauer's, uh, uh, assumption high school athletic director
going to be joining us to talk a little cranberry classic here in just a little bit.
Looking forward to that. Um, and, uh, just wanted to wrap up a little bit of the MLB
free agency. So, uh, for those that don't know, just to catch everybody up right away, uh,
to kick things off, Charlie Morton, resigned with Atlanta.
Uh, a nice deal for him. He's going to be making, uh, 20 million, they picked up their 20 million
dollar option on him, I'll say, uh, 39 years old. Wow. Yeah. He's aging like fine wine. Uh,
and he really is. Yeah. Um, they also picked up, uh, Aaron Bummer, uh, reliever from, uh, I think
he last played with the white stars, first started with the white science or something like that.
Uh, just that name, that name. Aaron Bummer is a time name. The headlines for the trade were great.
Would you rat? Yes. Yes. Would you rather your name was Aaron Bummer or Bummer? I'd rather Bum.
I'd rather Bum. I'd rather Bum. I'd, I think I'd rather Bum. I, I think I would, uh, it's a tough
one. This is a tough one. Uh, the Brewers, uh, and an uplifting note, I think, uh, acquired, uh,
Jake Bowers from the, the Yankees wasn't a bad nice move there. Uh, and didn't give up really
anything for him. That, uh, coming from Jeff Passam. He's, uh, a good, he's a versatile player.
He can play out the outfield. He can play first base, which apparently is a sinkhole for the Brewers,
uh, over the last two decades. I can't, when's the last time they had a, like a solid first
baseman, man. Yeah. I mean, they had that variety was going to do that. He was going to do that. He
had that one, you know, two years ago. He had a really great year. He hit 30 some homers,
but last year, the injuries, uh, and that he just couldn't, he just couldn't do it. And he can't
hit lefties. That's, it's tough. Uh, I understand why they, uh, they also, by the way, they also
non-tendered him too. Yeah, that's a shame. That's a shame. I hate to see that name go.
It's such a great baseball name. The player is, is a little tough. I wish him, well,
I like, he's a good guy, but it's really tough to let that name go. Yeah. That name is a really
tough one. He'll find, he'll find somewhere. Uh, uh, uh, Aaron Nola resigning with, uh, Philly,
on $172 million contract over seven years. My God. Wow. Mama's let your kids grow up
to be major league baseball pitchers. Yes, man. Oh, wow. He, uh, I'm kind of surprised.
He didn't even really test the market. No, he just went right back to Philly. Philly wants to,
they got a mission. I do think that they're in a mission. That team and those players are
bought in on that, that mission because I, I, I thought of the same thing, man. I'm like, how
is Aaron at the very least, even if you really in your heart want to sign with Philly,
test the water. See if you can get maybe get a hundred and eighty two mil maybe, you know, whatever.
Nah, just boom. Man, I'm telling you, if the brewers are looking for possibly a decent
for first base type, I know he's not a great fielder, but speaking of the Philly's, they just,
they just released a Reese, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh בקה. He's a, uh,
Haskins, Haskins, Haskins, Haskins, Haskins, Bob.
Doesn't actor, not a baseball player, you're right. But Reese Haskins, a good, uh,
right handed bat, which the brewers could use a power bat and a first baseman. I'm telling you,
well, he would, he'd be good fit and actually be good fit in Minnesota. But, um,
but just saying, since we're talking about the brewers right now, let's say he'd be good fit in
Milwaukee, I think. Uh, and I think one of the biggest things out there right now is certainly the
un, un, the story of Yoshibu, uh, Yamamoto Yamamoto Yamamoto, uh, I don't know if anybody has
seen any highlights of this young man yet, but oh my god. I mean, he couldn't go anywhere else
with the NPV. He, he, he seriously, he's one of the last three Saiyans. He won the last three
preaching triple crowns there. He can't, he needs, he has to come to the majors because he's
dominated his league for so long. I know he's not the, the sexy thing that Otani was with the
hitting and, and pitching and everything. But this is arguably the best, uh, prospect that has
ever come over from there, especially speaking of pitching for sure, pitching. I'm sorry, yeah,
best starting pitcher that has ever, uh, prospect that has ever come over. The possible
exception of you, Darvish. Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He might be the best one though. Yeah.
We're kind of used to the hitters coming over in their late 20s. Uh, we've gotten you, I should
say we've gotten used to that now. Uh, but the, the, the pitchers come over and they don't usually
take the world by store and maybe a season or two. This guy looks like the real deal if he'll,
health stays on his side. Mm hmm. Somebody is going to be bringing in, uh, uh, quite the,
quite the, the get. Yes. Uh, think about the, uh, something to think about when you're bringing
foreign players, especially big ones from Japan. I mean, you're not only bringing a great player.
You're bringing so many eyeballs to your team. Think about all of Japan when every time there's
a big star that comes to the United States, look at the amount of Japanese press that follow them
around. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's astonishing. Yeah. Because so you're, you're not only bringing
that. I mean, you're bringing more than just a player. You're, you're getting lots of, uh,
extras that come along with it. So, something to consider. It's pretty, uh, incredible. Uh,
when, when you think about what this, uh, what this guy has already accomplished or what this guy
could accomplish here, uh, I'm very excited about that. I'm, I'm, except he's probably end up with
either Boston or New York. I just, well, that's where I wanted to wrap up before we go to commercial
set, uh, because I know that that is the inclination. I know that's the feeling I have right
away too. But we've also seen a number of these players sign with the Seattle Mariners with the
Los Angeles, uh, Santa Cruz, Santa Santa Barbara Angels. Um, the, you know, we've seen them sign
with that. So wrong Washington team. Yeah. Yeah. That's so insane. Man, get you an agent like
Ron Washington has who, whatever industry you are in, whatever you are doing in your life,
whoever Ron Washington's representation is, get them for you. That is, you'll get paid. Yeah,
you'll, you'll get yours. Yeah, man. It doesn't matter what your history looks like. You're
going to find some work. You're going to, uh, incredible, incredible job by that agent. Oh, boy.
We will take a break right here. We're going to come back and we'll be speaking with Bob Berkhauser.
Uh, you're going to be joining us talk a little cranberry classic. Uh, we'll also talk a little bit.
I want to get into the, uh, uh, Wisconsin high school football playoffs wrapped up less. I'm
going to cover that a little bit and of course parts talk some packers, talk some NFL, maybe some
badgers or whatever else you want to talk about right here on playmakers brought to you by quality
plus printing, getting your words out here in Wisconsin rapids. Welcome back everybody to WFHR's
playmakers. Proudly brought to you by quality plus printing, getting your words out here in
rapids. You have Seth and James and we are joined right now by legend, by a legend, uh, sir, uh,
Bob Berkhauser with us right now from assumption high school Bob. It has been a while. How are you?
I'm doing fine. Uh, thank you for asking and thank you for having me on your program.
We're here to talk a little bit about the cranberry classic looking forward to that Bob before we do
that. I do want to, uh, give you a shout out and a congratulations on the MVP award that you
received this past week. I don't want to embarrass you. I don't want to, I know you don't want to
talk about it, but I didn't want to get it out there. It's my job. Bob, I report on these things.
We're really proud of you, sir, and it couldn't go. It's a very, very, very respectful award.
It's very, uh, going toward the right person. There's a lot of great nominees up there.
You deserve this, sir, and I'm glad to see you get the recognition.
Thank you very much. That's a very kind of you. I, um, I, I very much appreciated the award.
It was, you know, it was quite an honor. I mean, I think I, but you, what you say and I mean
this sincerely, you know, you, you don't do all this stuff for awards. You do it because,
you know, you have just for a love of athletics and so forth. Yeah. But, you know, it was a very
nice evening. Most of my family was there and I was very, very grateful for the recognition.
I'm thankful to Wisconsin's Travis Community Media, recording it, putting it on their page,
encourage people to subscribe to their page and support local. It was a great video to watch.
I happen to catch the end of it, uh, your, your, your speech and you're not wanting to do it.
And, and I thought that I was like, you know, that's the Bob. I know that's the one.
I'm like, can I just take the award? I don't really want to talk. I don't really appreciate,
appreciate the sports commission, uh, with all their recognition of all the great people that
they recognize there. Uh, our good friend who joins us, uh, week to week, uh, GM and head coach,
your viewer Wisconsin rapids, River King's Paul Peckman, Brian Went and John Kronmacher.
All of them give big shout out to all of them. And of course, Bob is with us right now. And Bob,
now we, we're done talking about it. We can talk about the cranberry classic now.
Just let me say they're all very deserving and, uh, you know, you don't, you don't go to that
expecting, uh, expecting to win. Yeah. And, uh, so you're, you're not prepared for an acceptance speech.
I'd be in the same boat. I'd be in the same boat. We have the cranberry classic kicking off this
Friday, uh, in Saturday, the event will go on at assumption high school right in their gymnasium,
girls and boys variety of varsity, uh, adversity and JV basketball games kick off at nine. Bob, uh,
who are the teams this year that we can feature? Well, on the boy side, I'll start there because
it's been the same team for quite a few, same teams for quite a few years. Uh, we have a Columbus
Catholic, Nikusa, Port Edwards and assumptions. So it, you know, it has a very, very local flavor.
On the girls side, um, we have assumption, uh, Columbus Catholic and Nikusa is coming back with
their girls team this year. And then, uh, for the first time in the tournament, we're, uh,
we're having why a week of free month. Yeah. Uh, how did that work out that they ended up joining us
this year? Well, we had two teams last year that, uh, we knew we're probably going to be there one
year. One was Merrill, the other was Leona, well, Beno. And, um, when, uh, you know, you, you,
you know, I, I, I have to profess a little bit of ignorance here. I don't know exactly how Joe
does it. But I think what you do is you put it out on, uh, the, um, on the WIA website that you need
teams. Okay. And I think, I think it's, it may be more complicated than that, but that's, that's
as much as I need to know about it. Yeah. Yeah. It's all we know. It's good. It's good. Uh, great
matchups right here, uh, to kick things off. We, we have a port and, uh, an assumption facing off
for the first matchup with the boys. That's going to be a good one. Should be a good matchup. Yes.
Uh, who, who is the first matchup for the girl on the girls side? Uh, I see assumption,
oh, assumption a point for both sides. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. And so it's going to be a nice start
to, to the tournament. Exactly. Exactly. It should, uh, kick it off very well on both sides. And
we start with the girls in the morning with the, uh, JV teams and then we have, uh, the girls
varsity games immediately after that at, uh, noon and one 30. All right. Actually, I think it's
1130 and, uh, 130. Um, and then, of course, the boys follow with, uh, the JV boys games at, uh,
three and four, 15 and then the, uh, varsity games after that at six and eight. Although we're going
to try this year, uh, you know, to start the last game, maybe 20 minutes after the completion of
the preceding game, just, you know, just in the chance that you have a space there, you, uh,
you know, we'll get everybody on their way home. Yeah. So I was wondering, uh, over the years,
and, and, and just a quick reminder to those, uh, new listeners out there about how long have you
been doing this? Well, we've had a cranberry classics since 1985. And, uh, start out as a boys tournament
for the four boys basketball teams. In fact, my, uh, second oldest son, Mark played in the very first
one. That's amazing. And, uh, uh, uh, uh, that in, uh, 1997 when my son, uh, Joe became
athletic director at Assumption, he had the idea of to making this into, well, for lack of a better
tournament to a fundraiser, you know, and, uh, we added the girls teams, we added a, uh, more elaborate
concession stands, some halftime activity stuff like that. And, uh, so, and it's, it's, it's, it's
been very successful. We have, uh, we really have nice crowds. Uh, I mean, it's, I don't know,
maybe people don't have anything else to do with the Friday and Saturday after, uh,
getting back to do something, right? Yeah. Right. Well, whatever the reason we appreciate them
being there, we do, we really have some very nice crowds. Like, you know, on the, uh, for the,
especially, uh, in the evenings when I, for sure, more people are available. We'll have a pretty
full gym. Yeah. This is an all day event. You can come by all day and, uh, come and go and,
enjoy the day of a, of basketball, great high school basketball. Exactly. We started at nine o'clock
in the morning with the first JB girls game and we go until well approximately eight o'clock,
we start the last boys varsity game. So, um, there's going to be, uh, some great food for you
there too. You're going to be hanging out there. We want to make sure that you're eating,
that you're fed, that you got good, uh, at the drink. Uh, so there's plenty of great concessions
down there and a lot of good local concessions, I should say. That is correct. Yes. Uh,
tarot dillment very graciously does the concession stand for us and a lot of other things, uh,
she's just an amazing asset. Where's a lot of hats over there? She does. And, uh, she, uh, she does
a great job with the concession stand. For many years, uh, Elaine Skibba did it and she did
also did a very nice job. So we've been very, very fortunate. We've been very fortunate to, uh,
have an excellent concession stand. People tend to hang around and then, you know, our admission
for adults is five dollars per day. So, uh, you can, you can, you can't beat that. You know,
that's like, comes out to what, uh, 57 cents a gig or so. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. And great
basketball too. Uh, I mean, uh, both, uh, both these teams, all these teams are great, great,
well, uh, put together squads. But we know what the assumption girls do. We know, we know what, uh,
the pedigree is over there and what we get when we get this, uh, see them play, let alone in
the tournament setting, which I think is a diehard basketball fan and a lot of, uh, ballheads out
there know what I'm talking about. It's always fun. We just saw this in college basketball with, uh,
the tournaments they have and everything. It could be a lot of fun part of a, uh, uh, uh,
a basketball season is these mini tournaments that go on. The cranberry classics, one of our
favorites. Oh, thank you. Uh, we have also a 50-50 raffle in there. I throw out that, I throw that
out there because I know how much our community loves raffles. Uh, so we do, we'll have that there
as well. Um, it's gonna be a really fun event. Uh, we do the, we do the raffles at the, um,
assumption, uh, girls and boys varsity games. And, uh, we, we not only have the 50-50 aspect,
but we give away some, um, cranberry products that are generously donated by Elm Lake cranberry
and by Crab Hill cranberry. We will be covering these games for you. Uh, we have a kicking off,
uh, our tip off will be at 640, uh, our 740, I'm sorry, on WIRI for Port Edwards at assumption
for the boys side. And then on Saturday, we will have the, uh, assumption, uh, or Port Edwards
taken a continuation of that. Uh, we'll also have the final game as well, uh, of the 39th annual
cranberry classic. It's pretty cool. Very good. We'll look forward to seeing you there. Uh,
we're going to enjoy it, Bob. You enjoy yourself. And one more time, uh, congratulations again on
the 23 MVP sports commission award. Thank you very much. We appreciate the time already looking
forward to hanging out with you again next year, okay? All right. I'll look forward to it all tonight.
Thank you, Bob. Appreciate you. We'll take a quick commercial break. We'll come back with more
playmakers here on WFHR. Welcome back, everyone, to playmakers here at WFHR, locally grown radio.
Seth and James here with you and send it a big thank you and shout out to our good friend,
Bob Berkhauser for joining us from assumption athletics. Uh, great to talk about. Yeah. That's great.
And the cranberry classic is so cool. You know, I've just, I mean, I've only been in town for a
few years here, but I, I, I understand now how big this is. So it's a very cool event. It's
so to be a part of it this year, too. That's cool. Okay. That is really cool. Uh, uh, we,
we enjoy having this tournament in town. We have a tournament in town. I mean, that's just cool.
That's neat. Um, and I'm glad you actually brought that up, Seth, because I have, uh, heard from
some listeners and one of them, including my father, really likes what you're doing with the board,
keep up the great work. Not not doing much, but okay. It always, we've been very fortunate. We,
we've had some great people run in that board for a long time and everything. So it nice work by
you. Um, and we want to hear from all of you four, two, four, twenty six hundred seven,
one, five, four, two, four, twenty six hundred. Call up and join the conversation. What do you
guys want to talk about? Some badgers, some packers? Where would you like to go? Uh, you leave it
up to me. Who knows where we're going to go? Um, I love the place. I did want to, uh, as long as we
are, uh, leaving it open, uh, let's go ahead and talk a little badgers. Uh, they were victorious over
the weekend, uh, beating Nebraska 2417. Um, nice victory for the badgers, uh, where you didn't get a
lot of those this year. Guaranteeing a sixth win, which means you are bull eligible. Um, you're not
going to get to a playoff bowl game, obviously. You're not going to get the bowl game. Maybe a
lot of your fans, uh, fan base wants out there, but you are getting a bowl game. Uh, you are more
than likely. There are 90,000 ball games. So you're definitely going to get one. You're going to
get to play some obscure school from, uh, Utah, maybe, but you know, you, you, you get a bowl game.
You're probably going to play a school you never heard of. Yeah. Yeah. That, that, that may happen.
Maybe looking at, where is that school now? You taught A&M. What is what? I don't even know
they had A&M. You taught, but yes, you're going to be playing them in maybe even in a state that
you've never heard of. I know there's something like that, but with a weird name ball, but it's a
bowl. It's a bowl. It's a bowl that gives not only these players and this coaching staff one more
game to work together, especially when you need that as we've seen. Um, but it also, uh, it's more
money for the team. It's more money for the, uh, you know, or the program, yeah, the program. I
wanted to say organization. I really did. Actually, you're, you're not. I'm, yeah, I'm not
really as more like that. It's not, but, um, so that's good. Uh, and, and, and it gives you that
momentum going into one of the bigger games of the season because you throw out, or if you don't
really care about records, Minnesota, Wisconsin is the, is that the big, I think that it's pretty safe
to say that's the biggest rival for Wisconsin now. Uh, I think it's gotta be. Uh, you can say,
Ohio State, you can say Illinois, you can throw those things out there, but those games have not
really been competitive for one in one direction or the other, whether in favor of Wisconsin or not,
Ohio State's case and Illinois's case in both of these directions. I think that the Minnesota,
the Paul Bunyan ax game has been the biggest game for Wisconsin and Minnesota for quite a while now.
I agree. I, I absolutely agree that. Yeah. So going into this, I think it's going to be, uh,
quite interesting to see how this goes, uh, for not only for the Luke fickle era in the beginning
of that, but possibly at the end of another era in Minnesota with PJ Fleck. Um, PJ Fleck, uh,
this is a really wild thing about coaching. And if I told you in a month or two from now that
PJ Fleck was just fired, not many people would be surprised. If I told you PJ Fleck just left
Minnesota to take the Texas A&M job or set or set job in certain name, nobody be surprised by
that either. It's just wild. This guy has done a nice job there. He's also burned some bridges
there and hasn't necessarily set the world on fire. No. It's just weird. It's a weird scenario and
it speaks to coaching in general. Uh, and that we don't know what we're doing with hiring coaches.
No, we don't. I mean, and I don't, I mean, and I'm not going to, we're not going to do the
horrible thing here because there's no point to it. Yeah. But I mean, it's the same thing there.
He could, he could leave right off and go to a NFL team. I mean,
it could be very possible because I just don't, you know, it's, you're still right though.
Coaching is such a weird thing. It's that's a weird spot right now. We don't know what we're doing.
We pretend. We pretend we know. And as soon as the guy wins like Bruce Bochi wins a bunch and
everything, we saw this comment. Yeah. Yeah. You know it. You know, but no, we don't know. We don't
know. We have. It's going to be very interesting to see how that situation goes. The coaching
carousel, how it goes. Yeah, especially a lot of people were curious, well, why fire Jimbo
Fisher now in the middle of the season, all that because it is all about signing day.
It's all about signing day. And the sooner you let go of these guys, you got recruits that you're
trying to bring in. Right. And Jimbo has been doing good. That's one of the few things he has
was good at. Right. Uh, was recruiting. So now you're trying to keep those recruits that you
just he just brought in. You got to build that. And you got to and you got to show them some
some structure. Moms and dads don't most moms and dads are not going to let their kids go play for
a coach, whether it's an hour away or five, you know, five hours away for a coach that there's
not stability. A university that there's not stability in. Uh, so you've got to build that show
that before ESPN's big signing day that's in a month or two from now. Um, and you got to build to
that. Yeah. Yeah. You no longer are worried about just winning national championships anymore.
You want to win signing day. There's two big championships that you want to win in college football.
And it's signing day and it's the chance and it's the big one at the end of the get at the
they don't have a name for it really. But the college football championship, uh, and the thing,
yeah. And it's debatable. Which one's more important to your university?
The with the way things go, you're not wrong. You're not wrong, man. It's how many people care
about Texas A&M football outside of the great state of Texas. I mean, even how many people in Texas
actually care about it, right? Considering all the other teams in Texas. I mean, yeah. But man,
we have known about Jimbo Fisher and Jimbo Fisher's contract for three seasons now.
Because of how important that stuff is and how he has won recruiting day time and time again,
how or at least he did once and he's been up the Texas A&M has been in the top five
of recruiting classes. Yeah. Uh, these kids care about that stuff. They want to pull the hat out.
They want to do that. They want to make a big deal out of these things. ESPN, Sirs Heck wants to.
So now you've got to make a decision on these coaches quick and decide, okay, is it time to pull
the bandaid off so that we can get back to the recruiting trail? Right. Because we got to get a
new guy in there and show that these moms and dads and these kids, we've got some stability here.
We deserve to have your child bring his talent to our university. Right. Right. It's wild.
It's wild, man. It's wild and woolly. And then, and then you throw in there, oh, by the way,
now we can pay these kids. Not us. Oh, not the university. Oh, no. Not the actual organizations
that could do this. Right. We're not going to pay him. We're going to expect local businesses and,
you know, and not just them, Nike and some other places are going to pitch it. Oh, yeah. Uh,
awfully nice of them. Uh, uh, uh, uh, everything is wild right now with college athletics. Yeah.
And it's, and it really is, uh, just as wild in the, or if not, it's always been just as wild
with the coaching. Yeah. Yeah. And it, but it seems right now we're in this really weird period.
It seems like we're in a transition period. I have no idea to what.
But there, there's something that there's stuff going on with all the conference,
shuffling and all these other things. I, but you've been saying it for as long as I've known you,
you know, when is it going to, the NCAA finally just going to like,
halt packet it. Just, you know, just saying we're, there's no one cares anymore. No one's
paying attention. We're done. I'm looking for them to go to the, just in college football, say,
just go into the NFL and say, and look, you take it. Yeah. You know, we're, we're done. You take
it. We're done. You guys do something with this. Let's just get this out of the way. Let's
finally say the quiet part out loud. This is AAA football. Yep. It's AAA football. That's all
it is. Let's just make it what it is. We can keep the pageantry. We can keep all the pageantry.
Yeah. Keep the names. Keep all that stuff, right? Keep everything the same. Just let the NFL kind
of do what it does. Yeah. Just let them basically take this over. Now, that's going to change it from
a college athletic to a business. I understand that. To a professional thing. Yeah. Right. And
how is that going to be any different for the viewer? You know, it's not, you know, what is that
really going to truly change? No. Um, you already, any, any debate you want to have about this,
I can counter with what's actually happening right now. Uh, it doesn't make you get official.
That's, yeah, I don't have to bring up stats. And in this year, this or this number, that
already thing, like just look at literally what's happening right now and what has been happening
for some time. It's just, it's pulling the, it's, you know, it's, it's finally just revealing it,
you know, just like, look at the bot. They're actually saying, you know, now look behind the curtain.
Yeah. Right. Pay attention to the man behind the curtain there. I, I will say, uh, it makes a
game that would be exciting anyway, a little more exciting, I think between Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Yeah. Taking place in Minnesota is always exciting to me because I think that they have a,
a very unique stadium. Yeah. That stadium was really interesting. It's kind of a cool one.
I think it's a good, uh, part of what I love about college sports is the locations. Let me
say the, yeah, the, the, the variety, you know, like the one of a kindness of each of the places.
If you've never seen Washington University Stadium, oh, do yourself a favor and take a look.
I would play there just to be able to play in that stadium eight game or six games a year or whatever.
Uh, let alone to see Michael Penex right now, uh, who is just one of the more fun athletes
and college football to watch. Uh, so that'd be good. Uh, we'll have that game for you, of course.
Yeah. Uh, uh, uh, Wisconsin taking on Minnesota was Minnesota taking out Wisconsin.
The battle for pump onions, ax. Yes. I love games that have a thing. Yes.
That they're fighting for it because that Minnesota has got the same thing with Michigan with
the jug, the little brown jug, uh, which they play for every year. But I just, those are,
those are the fun games to me. Uh, one of my favorite games of all time was playing NCA football.
Back when that used to be, I'd be a thing. It's gone. Yeah. The video game, right? Yeah.
My video game friends out there though are going to be excited because they are bringing it back
in 2024. They, they've worked it out to where they can because now they can use the names.
Yeah. Legally. It's pretty cool. They, they use the names that it wasn't legal.
Back. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You'd have, you'd have a guy who was, uh,
basically Ron Dane, his height, his weight, where he was from, all that, just not his name.
Yeah. Ron Dane. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Rod Dane. Yeah. Um, that's going to be exciting.
But the, the Illinois and Northwestern used to actually play for the peace pipe.
And they had to get rid of that and change it in everything. But I always thought that was
one of the cooler trophies. That's a good one. Yeah. Uh, uh, it's, it's, it's, if not my favorite,
one of, and not my favorite because obviously the player is always going to be my favorite,
but top three favorite things about college football was what the, the, these, these games,
these things they would play for. Yeah. Yeah. The rivalry again. Let's go ahead and take a call.
Good afternoon. You're on the show.
Hello. Oh, they're gone. Oh, we lost you a call back. 424, 2600. We'd love to hear from you. 424,
2600. Um, yeah. Uh, so, uh, college football, it's going to be interesting to see where that goes.
I think we can go from college to pros. If you don't mind, Seth, not at all, because I want to get
to at least two things in the pro game. Okay. Um, first, let's talk Packers. Let's go in and get
into the game Packers. Uh, one of game that I don't think everybody on the, everybody had in their
confidence pool. Um, you know, the chargers aren't a bad team. Got a lot of talent on that team.
They just can't get out of their own way. Yeah. Yeah. And that was very much in display on Sunday.
One of the greatest, uh, receivers of the last 15 years, Ken and Ellen, and it's not a stretch to
say that. Uh, he's just been wasted away in San Diego. But, uh, he's been consistent and been good.
He has, uh, you know, a couple of plays that just aren't unrecognizable to him. Uh, where a ball,
you can hear, you can actually listen. If you listen to watch the highlight, you can hear the ball.
Hit his chest. It's so hard. Uh, Justin Herbert, man. What a quarterback. Uh, it, uh, it hits, he
drops. Uh, one of those balls, who's caught by Johnson or Alan. It could be a different game.
I'm pretty sure the chargers would have won that game. Yeah. Um, but you, that's, that's that. Yeah.
You know, that, that, that, so you win a game that you don't always win. Uh, and that's nice.
That's got to be a good feeling for a young team and for a team like young quarterback and Jordan
love. Um, I wanted to talk about two things about that game. One, I like those jerseys.
I like throwback ones. Yeah. I liked them. Am I alone? Cause I didn't, I didn't hear from a whole
lot of people. I like them. One way or the other. I like to hear from people out there. If they
liked them, I think they got to keep doing that, uh, every year. And then the sucker for that stuff,
though. Me too. Me too. I'm a big sucker for. I love the choice too. I like the choice. I thought
those were good too. Um, but I, I want to get into Jordan. Love a little bit. And, and I don't want
to, I don't want to over dissect this young man because I, it's hard to do this for a player that
has only started not even a full NFL season of games yet. Right. But I do think that you do
notice certain things. And I brought up Justin Herbert. And I think that pretty early on,
you saw what Justin Herbert, he's a great. I'm not saying by great legend NFL Hall of Famer,
anything like that. I just mean in the average of average, good, great. We're just looking at a
simple list here of average, good, great. That's it. Um, Justin Herbert right away. Oh, he's great.
Um, he's got something that he's got it. Whatever words you want to use, whatever verbs you want to
throw out there. I have been watching Jordan love. I watched him in college. I liked him in college.
And I've watched him in the pros, uh, his preseason games and I've watched this. And then to get
into this take, I wanted to make sure that I went back and watch some more of his stuff. And I have
not seen much of an evolution from these young man from Utah State to here, uh, from his mechanics
and on. I think he's a good quarterback. I think good quarterbacks have been proven to win you
Super Bowl. Yeah. But I don't know if he's a great. And when you've gone from great from
Farve to Rogers, who are both greats, uh, I'm curious to know how that works for a fan base.
And especially when you're a small market team, where you can't bring in all the big free agents.
So yes, you can win a Super Bowl. You can win playoff games with good quarterbacks. But
traditionally, you do that because you're Baltimore, New York or somebody they can bring in
free agents. Yep. Uh, you've got to do it through the draft. And I don't know that we've seen them
prove giving you enough data that they can prove that they as a small market team, with a good
quarterback, not great, not Hall of Fame quarterback, that you can bring in the talent to be competitive
every year to win a Super Bowl, which is what matters in Green Bay. They don't care about playoff
wins in Green Bay. They call themselves Title Town. I mean, that's what I've been told. I'm not saying
that arrogantly enough to throw it in people's faces. I mean, I'm being respectful here.
I'm trying to be respectful about this two Packer fans. That's what I've been told my whole life,
whether I've lived in Wisconsin or not. That's what matters. The Packer fans and Super Bowls
miss me with we made it to the playoffs or we won the NFC North. That's what they care about.
Can you win a Super Bowl with a team like that looking ahead here? And especially when you're
going to have a high draft pick and you're going to have a decision to make a one of these
quarterbacks drops because it always happens in every NFL draft. They tell me they're going to go
on the top three. I've been watching every NFL draft for 40 some years and went a quarterback
slips like in Aaron Rodgers or a Jordan love slips. You're going to have to make that decision.
Good and Coots and these guys. Do you stick do you stay Pat or do you go with the new guy? Do you
go with one of these kids that slips? I'm very curious to see how this plays out with this and I'm
curious and even more curious to know what you guys think out there. Well, 42426. You know,
it really depends on if they are committed to the Jordan love experiment. Like you said,
he's not even played an entire season yet and he's still getting his feed under him. He's not
played for a couple of years in any type of regular or whatever you want to call it. If they
are committed to that, then you're right. They have to figure out what do they need and for me,
I'm not a GM or anything like that, but you need a better defense. With a good defense and a good
quarterback, you can win a Super Bowl. Like you've said, you can do that. You can, yeah.
Before you win a showing that right now, they've got a less than average quarterback right now
and they still won the game because their defense is so good. But that's what I'm thinking that
that's what you're going to have to do. Or like you said, does the opportunity arise where it's,
oh, can we get this guy? And then that would just kind of blow everything up. But I mean,
with the amount of draft picks they've spent on that defense, it's insane that you and the
audience are probably saying the same thing. That's crazy to think of. As far as late bloopers,
because I don't want to completely say that Jordan Love is going to be the only like his ceiling
is only good. You could be great. There are late bloopers. Our history of it. There was a great
article at the sportsdrop.com that I was reading about James Harrison, Adam Thielen, late bloopers.
We all know the great story of Kurt Warner. Probably the best known example. Yeah. They also had
on this list, Steve Young and Aaron Rodgers. I don't think those count. They were late bloopers because
they didn't get a chance to play right away. Nobody was questioning their greatness or that they
had the potential to be great. Right. I don't think it was a shocker when those two worked out
there. It was just they were playing behind greatness themselves in Joe Montana and air and
Brett Farff. By the way, one of my favorite all-time pictures. Maybe it was an NFL, maybe it was a
card of Steve Steve Young in a Tampa Bay. Oh, yeah. That's one of my all-terrain ones.
When the NFL meets at this winter and talk over the next season, there's two things they have
to do. They have to make it mandatory for these billionaire owners to make grass stadiums only grass
and they got to get rid of the hip drop tackle. We've seen in college football,
two players go down this week. We had two greats. We saw it in the pros, a couple of them in
Mark Andrews and some others. They got to get rid of the hip drop tackle. It's unnecessary.
You should be able to tackle without dropping your weight. You should be able to do it. If you can't
do it, get back in the locker room, learn how to tackle right. Yeah. It's unnecessary. And to not
have grass fields is ridiculous and you miss me with the idea that you care about the NFL being
safer. Yeah, safe. You just care about it being safer. You don't care about it being safe.
Well, and you know, it's funny because I was watching because I was watching an old football
game from the 80s and they were talking about artificial when it was really becoming into its own
artificial surface. And the reason why the game is faster is on artificial service because you
can cut, make cuts better on if you're running back and stuff like that. But you're right. I don't
want to see, but I don't want to see any more injuries like this. How many Achilles Tarris if
they're been this year? Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's crazy. It's bad for the game. It's bad for the game.
We're losing the best of players because of these unnecessary reasons. Yeah. We are going to
Fort Myers now tip off. We have got Wisconsin men's basketball versus Virginia. Part of this
great tournament that's going on. Yeah. A lot of tournament basketball during high Thanksgiving
week at this time. Yeah. You know, it's so much fun. I can't wait. Great, great show, brother.
Thanks. It was fun. Shout out to Bob Rickhawzer for joining him. I say, as well, and all you
callers, thank you so much for joining us. We'll talk to you next week. And a big thank you,
of course, the quality plus printing, getting your words out here and rapids. WFHR, Wisconsin
Rapids 1320 AM and W248 DE broadcasting at 97.5.
