Welcome to the show. Hope you guys are having a great Friday afternoon. Thank you so much
for joining us for it. Got your host James here. I am joined by my partner in Sound and
in Sports, Seth Habagger. Well, good afternoon all. We hope you're having a good one out there.
We got some great stuff to line up for you lined up for you. We're going to be actually kind of
your tailgate into some high school football a little bit later on our sister station 105. We'll
have more on that in a little bit. Of course, our stats of the show getting into some classic baseball
stats with our man, Seth here in all of you. We of course want to send a big shout out to our
friends of quality plus printing getting your words out sponsoring the hour. Go visit our friends
on A Street when they open their doors and wish him a great one from all of us. We appreciate
Phil in the gang over there and really appreciate him. That's just that. Well, the work Phil's doing
on that tennis court with these young ladies. I should tell what the young ladies are doing
on the tennis court. He's just coaching us. You know, he's doing a great job coaching of
though. I shout out to assumption tennis. They're doing some really nice things over there. We'll
get maybe talk about that a little bit with our good friend Michael Comer who's got his from
Rapids field. We're looking forward to talking with him about that. All these things to get into
and much more. But all what comes first, your call. 715-424-2600-424-2600. Call up and join the
conversation. We'd love to hear from all of you. Yes, indeed. Real quick. For a couple years now,
actually, it's going back. I would say almost five or six years. Maybe yeah, six, seven years maybe.
Time flies, man. My dad and our sheriff Sean Becker do this thing where they trade cards. Yes.
When Sean comes in, he has a card for my dad. My dad gives me a card to give to him.
Recently, Sean gave my dad a really cool Walter Peyton card last time he was in.
And my dad came running up to me before I got in the work and was like, Jim, you got one for him.
I'm like, all right. And it's a Robin Yon card. It's a classic Yon card. This is one I think a
lot of us had growing up. Yes, it's 89, I think. Top 89, yeah. Nice good call. Points to you, brother.
I'm telling you. I had plenty of those cards, man. Yeah. Yeah. And my dad starts talking about,
like, hey, you know, what do you mean? Look, you guys, you guys got some stuff in common.
I mean, what are you talking about? He's like, well, you know, you're both from Illinois and
you made a big and Wisconsin. And he's teased. He's teased. I know he's at first.
Yes. At first, I'm like, where's the old guy going with this? I don't know. He's teased. I mean,
he's teased. You both got the hair. All right. All right. I guess so. Yeah. And you both got those
noses. And I'm like, wait a second. Wait a minute. What do you talk? What noses? I look him dead in
the eye. And I'm like, who's nose do you think I have? I got your nose, man. It's not what you're
talking about. Now, make fun of my nose. I literally have your nose. I've got the same nose
you do. It was great. That's a great. I was trying to divert it from the fact that you had Robin
rubbing out and your dad apparently all at the same nose. Yeah. Why do you worry? It was going with
that. I want to I want to actually start the show because we certainly we could talk
brewers if you guys want to. Right. I got a feeling there ain't much to talk about. I do want to
get into a couple of things about Milwaukee, but not just Milwaukee, all the teams that are out
of the postseason so far. If we have time a little bit later, I would like to get into a great
article and some comments from Jeff Passon and a couple of the better minds in baseball talking
about the teams that are eliminated, who their free agents are, and what what what is next for
not just those teams, but the teams that are not in baseball anymore. We've already had a lot of
drama going on in the last couple of days with MLB baseball. Well, if we have time, I do want to
get into that, but we will take the conversation any direction you all want to. I want to start
right here with the Wisconsin Badgers. If you've heard Coach fickle in his last couple of press
conferences, he has talked about one of the major pieces to come out of that. One of the highlights
has been that he is going to focus on one to two backs. He has been treating it by really
hot hand and running back by assembly almost where he's had three to four backs. He's used a game.
Not giving these guys a chance to really get hot, according to his words.
And really the way the coach football goes. Going back to the old Oklahoma state teams where they
had Thurmond Thomas and Barry Sanders in the same backfield by God. What was the name of the
SMU with Dickerson? The pony Express. That's right. Yeah. That's stuff like that.
Craig James. Yeah. They've always had these double back double ups on backs and college football
and everything. And really I think that's the way it's going in the NFL. You have almost two
starting backs per team, especially good teams have two starting backs. It's not just having
two wide good wide receivers anymore. You got to have two good backs. So with that being said,
there's a big focus. And of course, a lot of us, the first person we're going to think of,
is Chaz Malousey, who the wonderful senior running back for the Wisconsin Badgers.
Chaz has decided to take a step away from taking away from football. He's taking a step away
from football to focus on his health. Quote, he has endured many injuries and has worked extremely
hard to be able to play this year. But his body has responded the way he expected way hasn't he
hasn't expected. Right. A team spokesperson said, we're here to support Chaz in any way we can
hope he'll be back on the football field again one day. More than likely, it looks like he has played
his last down for the Wisconsin Badgers. If nothing else, yeah. Which is maybe forever. I mean, who knows,
right? Chaz Torres ACL in 2021 broke a bone in his arm in 2022, missed nine games last season
after breaking his leg and ankle against Purdue. Irony, of course, to be playing Purdue this week.
Yeah. And this is a, this is a blow to this badger team. This certainly hurts and everything.
It does give an opportunity for other other backs. In particular, Ty Wee Walker, who a lot of
people have been high on and it looks like he is probably going to be putting it put into that
lead role. He'll probably be the number one back now. I do want to send this. I do think the
pre is another back to keep an eye on. And of course, my guy Cade Yachamelli. This is my Yachamelli,
man. I like him. I like this kid. That's a great name, by the way. It's a great shouting out of the
field. Yachamelli's got 40 to 50. Pumigali. The badgers have had a number of players over the years
with great, great Italian last names. And I will, I make no bones about I will always be
biased about my Italian last name. Nothing wrong. Nothing wrong with that, man. Look out for my
people. And last year. And one of my people is Michael Comer, who was calling in right now.
Michael, good to hear from your brother. I'm one of your people. Oh, boy. Yeah. This week,
this week's just getting better and better. How's it going over there on the field?
It's a lot of back and forth. Half-time score, Newman 14, port and nothing.
Yards 217 for Newman in that first half. A lot of it through the air. Well, it's actually more
of a split. 113 passing, 104 rushing. Whereas port, they just sometimes can't get out of their own
way. 61 total yards, 18 rushing, 43 passing. They had the ball in two, three, four, five times.
And went down with, down, down twice, a fumble and two punts. Just that fumble was costly. It was
a burden long receiver caught it and a whole bunch of moves that even, you know, Oto Sinko would be
proud of. And then he gets ball punched out and Newman recovers it. It's not just the NFL and
college we're seeing that. We're seeing a lot in sports right now with the receivers getting
that ball punched out. You got to cover up. Got to get put to arms on it. Put to arms on it.
Yep, that's right. I'm sure you sacrifice speed, but yeah, at least hold onto it.
Is this game looking like it's starting to, you know, I don't want to say done. I mean, it sounds
like it's getting it's just getting interesting too. Well, if port can figure something out on
offense to move the ball, I think they're going to be okay because Newman's not overly, overly
moving the ball either. Their third scores were on short drives. Well, the share of their own
20 for one. And that was a, that was a nice stand drive. Then that second one came with an
onside kick that in and up. And he didn't realize the ball really hit him. Didn't know which
way it went. And they had 50 yards and three plays. So I mean, it's been, it's been a lot of short.
You know, I should say other than one, it's been short possessions. And they, they either had one
nice tipped interception. But otherwise, it's been punts and downs for Newman as well.
We had some breaking news earlier this morning on our morning show. Randy Paul is going to be
making a presence. He will be on the radio today, Michael. Yes. I want to make sure to mention
that to the audience out there as far as the game you and Randy will be covering. Oh, Claire
Memorial at Lincoln High School, homecoming at Lincoln. What can you tell us about Memorial? What
can you tell us about the old aves? The aves of old. Yeah. Well, in the battle of Lincoln, I guess.
This game should be played in Illinois for that. Who then South Baloid? It's on the border. That's
right. Yeah. It's right on the board. Yeah.
Lloyd, you know, we got it to name. We dropped a quarter in the toilet, right?
I've heard this one. I've heard this one. I got that. I got that one from Michael Crow and the old UW
band director. But that one, man, I, they don't, Claire does not stop the ball very well.
Rapids, I mean, Rapids has allowed fewer points than Oh, Claire, but then at the same token,
Rapids has put up as many points. So Claire, so something's going to have to give tonight,
someone's going to have to win. If they ended in a tie or a draw, then maybe things just
weren't meant to be. But I like to think the two-hour bus drive is going to hurt Oh, Claire a little more.
I would like to, I'd like to see that. But either way, I think people always say,
why would you want to go to that one? It no one's won a game. Well, sometimes those are the
best ones. When someone gets cold feet, someone gets shell shock, and it's over before it starts.
And man, I think this one's going to be an entertaining one. I think we've got some good games on
the slate. You and I talked Wednesday about the Kusan Adams, and that could be a really good game.
But I think you're right, man, you could be at the game of the weekend. This could be a really fun
game. They say in the playoffs, every playoff has the saying, throw the records out. I think you
can almost say that with high school athletics almost every week, we're talking about individuals
going through a lot at a young age and then asked to go and do this out on the field in front of
a bunch of people and play at performing everything. They could be the most greatest athletes,
but still have something going on at home or in school or a test on their mind or a million
things that we don't remember from when we were in school 100 years ago already. It is a really
week to week sport. The big thing to remember at that point, those this week four and Lincoln,
it's a big distraction of the fall. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so true, so true,
man, and we're looking forward to it. Anything else you wanted to make sure that you thought was
noteworthy about this game or any of the games this weekend, brother. Now, I just saw the legend
Chad Holmes up there in the stands for the Wasis Station. That's right. Yes. I guess the other
things that I touched on would be, I can't believe Chad is Mellusi. He's stepping away from the game,
but you know what, you got to worry about your health first because if you're not healthy,
you're not adding good to anybody else. I'm kind of hoping for his sake that he's, well,
just I say that's in the sense if he wants to continually football, that he's stepping away
so that he can get healthy for the NFL draft. And maybe, you know, maybe get, you know, draft,
I don't know what his, you never know. Fifth, sixth round. Yeah. That would be low or anything,
but maybe still, you know, get that, get a paycheck, you know, at least get a contract,
get in the NFL, get a contract, and make all of those hits and bruises at least a little bit
worthwhile in that regard, not to say that the memories and all that isn't worthwhile playing
with your, for your team and stuff, but financial, on a financial aspect of it with these players,
getting something back for it. But it is, it is a wild story to have come out and then to have
a come out just days after your coach came out and said, we're going to be leaning on this guy,
we're going to be leaning on one, two guys. That seems odd, like a miscommunication almost. Like,
you wouldn't, you would think you would know that the chess is going through this if you're
that had coach. Like that, I've been back in fickle and almost everything. I feel like I'm one
of the only ones it has. And this is the first one that's really stood out to me like, what,
what is going on? That seems like a miscommunication when there should not be a miscommunication.
Well, something that I've kind of wondered about is, I saw something on the old Twitter machine
or X or the forum formally noticed Twitter. The artist formally noticed Twitter, I believe,
is what it likes to be called. Yes. I thought it was Braille and Allen had something
kind of funny after the USC game. I can't remember exactly the words, but the gist of it was,
one of these days on a podcast, we're going to come clean about some of the stuff at Wisconsin.
Oh. And I think it's, yeah, that's, that's the gist of it. You'd have to go in one
and I don't have the time right now. I did this. We talked about this the other day. Actually,
I think on the morning show, Terry and I were talking about it somehow came up. And I'm a huge
Braille and Allen fan, big Braille and Allen guy. I remember his first summer game as a freshman.
I watched every almost every game I could with him in it. And I was really rooting for him.
And I'm still rooting for him as an NFL player looking forward to seeing his career. This is a
chump move. That's a punk move, man. And I would say it right to his face. I've invited him on
the air. I've invited him. He's a Wisconsin kid. Yeah. I would love to have him on the air.
And I'd love to hear his side of this because the only reason if you, you know, if you're not
going to say nothing, don't say nothing. If you're going to come out and say something, sure,
that's it. Yeah. But don't come out. Oh, I got some, I got some, I got some teeth.
You know, yeah. It's a little passive aggressiveness of of people. Now it is.
It's tax me. It's, it's, it's, it's the old saying, you know, so many people are,
they wouldn't say to you, it's the keyboard warrior. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And if you said half
of things you write on a computer to someone's face, you'd have no teeth. You know, you're
exactly. I mean, I'm not, I'm not condoning violence, but that's, that's, that's the reality. Yeah.
Yeah. And her med words had this right like 20 years ago. Thank before you hit send. That's it.
That's all you got to do. Just think about it. Like, do I really need, do people really need to
know what, how I feel about this? Sorry. You know, that's, that's a good point too. But you know,
when, sometimes when you're right about something, you just have to come out and say it and, you know,
James and we talked on Wednesday. Remember, talk about Devon Williams a little bit. Yeah.
Yeah. I kind of called that. Oh, sure. I'm sure about that, about that Bruce game. Not just,
you called it in the med coaching staff, scouting staff called it too, man. Yeah. Yeah. They,
they had his number. They had his number and they were waiting on it. It's, it's one of the best
stories in, in baseball, not this, what happened to Devon Williams, but when this happens in
baseball, where they're scouting somebody all year, if this were, if this one scenario were to
happen, and then that scenario happens, it's amazing. You think about all the times that that
must not happen. Yeah, exactly. That's pretty impressive. But I think the irony of the whole situation
would have been better. If Pete Alonzo, when he hit that home run blast, if instead of looking at
the first base coach and doing the chef's kiss, if he would have done the, the crying cry baby
thing that Reese Hosskins did to them at the first game of the year. It could have worked. It could
have worked. I would have done that because I just don't, I'm not a big fan of Reese Hosskins,
but, but that's when I saw him do that, I'm thinking, you missed an opportunity.
Pete Alonzo, not nearly cool enough for that. He's too dorky. You know, and I mean, I wouldn't,
I don't know. I don't know if in that scenario, I'm just too happy. Yeah. I would be focused on my
team and my player, my teammates. I'm not worried about the other team. They can talk all the trash
they want. That's their business, man. They're, they're, they're thinking they're, I'm in their head.
When you start throwing stuff back, you, they're in your head. Yeah. I, I got no time for that. I'm
running the bases. I'm celebrating. I don't even know who that other team might just be. It is.
I'm focused on my sweetest revenge of all. Yes. Yeah. Michael, want to save that voice for
tonight, man. Thank you so much for joining us. Hey, no problem. Uh, and, uh, you can find
results at Wisconsin Rapids Area Sports dot com. And so hopefully, uh, we could get some good
conclusions here, important, a very happy, uh, happy homecoming over in Wisconsin Rapids tonight.
Yeah. Enjoy the game tonight. We'll talk to you soon, man. Yep. Talk to you later.
Appreciate it. Michael Comer, along with Andy Paul and Seth going to be covering the game tonight.
650 are pregame kickoff. Oh, Claire Memorial coming to Lincoln High School right here to
rapids for homecoming. Homecoming. It's going to be a lot of fun. Michael and Randy doing amazing
job covering these games. We're lucky. We're lucky to have them. Man, I can't believe we're only
after this. We've only got two weeks left. Yeah. Of the regular season of football. I can't believe it.
I don't like thinking about it. I don't think you're right, though. You're right. Absolutely right.
Do be the bearer of bad news. But you know, we got some, uh, let's hope to get some wins here.
You know, that's what I'm hoping for it. See if Nicosia can keep their run going. Man,
they're looking nice. They're looking real good. Man, listen to that game last week. They are,
they're something they've got a pair of brothers, uh, the Cretch Meyer brothers and man,
are they good? It's fun when we have a local team that is a playoff shot or it's going to be in
the playoffs. We have that with Nicosia. We're going to be following that as far as we can. We can.
Yeah. And looking forward to also covering a lot of high school, high school basketball for you this
season. Yep. Certainly. We're going to be home free of the river kinks. Uh, we will have the river
kinks on 105 five as well. All their home games will be over there. That voice you just heard.
Michael will be the voice of the river kinks this season. Keep him busy. Yeah. Doing all kinds of
things. A big congrats to him on that. That's a, that's a, that's a nice move for him and the,
and the team, uh, that's a win for both sides on that one. Uh, a little bit later. I want to talk
a little bit about the box bringing in an interesting and, and familiar player, uh, that is a really
nice fit. Talk, talk a little bit about some, uh, talk a little baseball as well with you,
Seth. And again, these teams that are left, the teams that are gone, um, kind of wherever the focus,
wherever the conversation takes us, um, because I understand, um, that man, do I understand what
brewer fans are going through today? And at the same time, I understand that they don't understand.
Uh, you know, I, I certainly, we can relate to baseball heartache you and I, you which wins
fan me a white sock fan. Yes. Um, I, in my family up until one season, my family, all it's known
as heartache with being all being around nothing but cup fans. Cup fans. They had their moment.
They haven't gotten anything since. But in the last 20 years, there's an offshoot in my family
that's happened with my little brother and kind of sprouted off from that. And there is a good
portion of brewer fans in my family makes sense now with my kids and my brother, of course,
in some of these things. And, and with through that, I certainly empathize and feel a lot of what
brewer fans are going through. But I, I, I, I would say that when, like, when the socks lost, uh,
you know, in, in the playoffs, the, the second, the year they were come back after the world series
and had a really good feeling about it or some other scenarios that I could think of in baseball,
where, uh, my player lost or, uh, heck, just bad scenarios. Uh, Nolan Ryan put in a nougat and
Robin Ventura's head. Um, you know, it's the different situations and how crummy you felt the
next day or an hour later or anything. Feel your feelings. Yeah. That's what being a sports
fan is about. That means you're still alive. You still care. Um, it is better than not feeling
anything at all. I will say that. And, um, man, unlike, uh, some scenarios that I can remember
looking at next year, you've got some really cool things to look forward to where I was going to go.
Yeah. Uh, you've got, uh, you've got, uh, one of the upcoming stars in baseball on your team.
Yep. And it's not the first time you've had it. Like, that's pretty cool. No.
Appreciate that for a small market team. Um, and, and, and if I can, and, and I know I can see a
direction you want to go there, Seth will, I promise we'll come right back to it. But before I go
to break, I want to get this in because I'm hearing this from a lot of sports fans and a lot of
talking heads out there right now in Wisconsin that want to put this all on one player and Devon
Williams and, and I don't, I don't know that that's wrong because I'm not going to sit here and
act like I know everything about baseball and I am the authority on baseball or something like
that. I have been watching baseball 40 plus years like the rest of you. And I am not paid to,
to, to, to, I'm paid to talk about stuff. I am paid to coach it. I'm not paid to play. I don't
know what it's like to be a MLB player or anything like that. Um, I have to first pitch out for
the rafters once. That's my experience on the pro level of being on the field. Yeah. But
unlike a lot of the talking heads out there, I own that. And, and I don't think that my viewership
gives me a right to say certain things. And there's everybody seems to want to just put this on
one player. We're at the same time. What is baseball has always been Seth. You'll know the
quote better than I. It's a team sport. It's an individual sport. The mask raids. It's a team
sport within within the team context. Right. Yeah. So you're telling me that any one of those
players right now, they were in front of you. You would say you did a great job. It's all on
Devon Williams. How do you think they're going to feel about that? No. How do you think they take that?
What do you think that does for a franchise? How does that help anybody but you and your own
whiny feelings? Feel how you feel. But don't put that on other people. No. And dang sure don't put it
on Devon Williams. No. No. I will be the first to say that Devon Williams can be a knucklehead.
And I don't understand why they kept him instead of hate her. I will say that. I said that when
the trade happens. So I'm not I'm not a big Devon Williams guy. I'm not and I'm not even trying
to defend him. What are you doing throwing that pitch? What are you doing? But the idea of well,
everybody else did their job. It was just him. Okay. So nobody struck out in that game. Everybody
went four for four. There were there were everybody made the right call in the outfield. Like you're
telling me nobody else did a bad job in that game. You're telling me Willie Adams showed up for these
playoffs. All I've been hearing is William Contreras wasn't even there. Like did he even put his
uniform on? Where's the name? Like if you're going to call out individuals call out the whole dang
team or give the whole team credit. But don't go slicing the trying to divide the Adam here.
Split the Adam here and everything or another word that I can you why don't you give them that's
credit for what they did. Look at the look at the walk that Francisco Lindor in the at bat. He's
the first one that got on base. He earned that walk man. He there was a high fastball that he followed
back. He did that because he wanted to follow it back. He wasn't going to he wasn't trying to hit
it. He's trying to keep the at bat alive. And he earned that walk. Yeah. And then they walked,
you know, then he got an out. Williams got an out. And then Brandon Nemo got on. And I mean,
there's a sequence of events that happen up to the point there. And it wasn't just and
Devin Williams is the guy that's supposed to be in that situation. You're not going to change it.
You can't go back and say, oh, I wouldn't have put him in. No, you would have put him in there
because that's his spot. That's what he does. One of the best closers in baseball. Yeah,
you're not not going to do that. And yeah, unfortunately, it just the count was a bad count for him.
And he threw a meatball. And it happens. And Peter Lonzo did what you're supposed to do with a
meatball. Okay. I got an extra bonus stat of the show for everybody real quick. One. That is how
many home runs. Devin Williams has given up to a left hand pit. I hit her on the up to opposing. No,
I'm sorry. Opposite feels home runs. First one. He's ever given up. Yeah, number one. That's it.
That's the first one. Like how many innings has he pitched? How many batters has he faced?
It just it was it just happened at this moment where it happened. That's all. Sometimes there are
no good guys. There are no villains. It's just life. It's just it was baseball. This is baseball.
This is what happens. If Lonzo swings and misses, nobody is talking about any of the
Nope. Like how bad the Adamus played in these playoffs or some of these other things or
anything. You're just on to the next round. Yeah. I don't think you could treat the look at this
team that differently than head they advance. Then this happened. This is the outcome. Again,
I've not been a big believer in Devin Williams. But you know, he doesn't need my belief. He's
been one of the better closers in baseball. So it's not I feel like the guy you see a consistency
with some athletes a bad decision making, whether it's off the field or on the field. And you know,
you see that with certain guys. I mentioned it with Tuha and some of the decisions he has made.
I don't think that you you can trust. I don't know how you can trust him on the field when it comes
to some of his decisions that he makes. And I think that you have this with Devin Williams in some
ways as well. So you knew what you had and you knew this is the way it played out. And I don't
think that there's anything to, you know, oh, burn your jersey and everything. They just start
all over. And you got so you got so much to build on with that team that this you were playing
with house money all year. And somebody forgot to remind bruh, not all bruh fans. I'm just saying
some bruh fans forgot to remind them of that. None of this was expected. Kevin was talking about
it earlier called in the morning show and talked about this. You know, bruh fans seem to have forgot
some bruh fans seem to have forgotten that. Yeah. Yeah. And part of it's because the season is so
long. You know, part of it, you kind of lose track and you then you're like, oh, yeah, the brurs
are in the playoffs and now saying then, oh, this happens. Oh, oh, my heart, you know, I'll tell you
like that too. For a team that wasn't expected to do anything. None of our teams were either whether
we're talking about my white socks, your twins, Michaels, my expectations were a little bit higher.
A little bit. Yeah, that's true. And then they kind of had a and then they had a real collapse
at the end of the season. But anyway, yes. And looking going ahead, who has more to put their
hand on, hang their hand on, who has a lot of these teams. I mentioned has more hopeful team,
which of these teams has a future star of the league or sorry, a star of the league, not a super,
not a future star. Jackson Turio is here. His coming out party just happened. The MLB is noticed.
Major league baseball noticed and they're not going to forget. Oh, no, offseason or anything.
They're just going to be promoting that kid more and more. Right. Here, here, I got some real
quick before we go to break. I loved it. Okay. So I was going to say, you know, the brewers that
looks like they got it set up really nice. William Thomas is going to be gone. He's going to be free
agent. He'll go somewhere else. They got Joey RT's as their new shortstop coming into next year.
Very talented youngster. Yeah. He could be a star. We got hopefully Christian Yelge coming back.
All these things. Here you go. Peter Lonzo free agent. Oh boy.
Oh, they need a first basement. Right. I wonder how awesome would that be? How great would that be?
Him and him and Ampham field. Perfect. His power. I mean, it would play so well there. Oh, my gosh.
I'm telling you. I love this. I love this. I love this idea. I love the storylines of it.
He's not going back to the meds. The meds are not going to sign in. So he's going somewhere else.
Pretty fair. Yeah. Yeah. But Seth and I will be back. We'll be back after this time out. We'll talk.
We got our stat of the show. We'll also talk a little bit of a couple of other topics.
I want to talk a little bucks and whatever you guys want to talk about. Yeah.
Townlines wide open 715 424 2600. Here I'm playmakers probably brought to you by quality plus printing.
Welcome back everyone to WFHR's playmakers.
Seth and James hanging out with you. We hope you're having a good one out there.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Phone lines are wide open 715 424 2600. Call up and join the conversation. Nobody made a highlight
from the sidelines. You just sit in there. You got sports thoughts running through your head.
We'll let them out. Let us know. We'd love to hear from you. While we're waiting,
I do want to get into our stat of the show. All right. Let's do it.
Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical.
Well, that's got to be Yogi Berra. Then one of his best things.
If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.
You might. It's very true. Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.
It's too crowded.
Nicolay worth the dime anymore.
Well, it never was. Love is the most important thing in the world.
But baseball is pretty good too.
It's like deja vu all over again.
deja vu all over again. Some of the greatest quotes from the arguably the greatest
quote machine in sports history. If not at least in baseball, Yogi Berra.
He's got to be up there.
And as I've been going through, coming through all these great performances and
postseason history in baseball.
Yeah. And we're kind of wrapping up some of them.
They're all going to be broken by a show here, Tony, by the way.
So I mean, why even why even read them?
None of these bad. None of these bad.
It really, really, you're so right. You're so right.
Boy, how disappointing is it going to be if he doesn't like tear everything up, man?
It's weird when we have a guy who we have high expectations for.
And all he does is meet them and exceed them.
Yeah, it's I've never seen it before.
I've never seen it for our generation.
And for many, we have kind of come to know Yogi Berra as one of the mascots of baseball.
Yep. And one of the fun personalities of sports.
Which by the way, he has he and he's passed.
But he accepted in his later life.
Maybe it bugged him a little bit when he was a player.
But he accepted that when he was older.
And it was great to see because he was so much fun.
Yeah, he was great to have around.
He was a character went before there were really characters in baseball.
Yeah, he was one of the early characters of real character,
like a very distinct person.
Yeah, on at the time, the biggest team in America.
There was no bigger team than the Yankees.
There was no team like even people that didn't know.
We forget sometimes that sports wasn't on everybody's mind.
Not everybody knew what sports were or paid attention to.
There's a game going on or whatever.
I mean, that was happening all over the country.
But they knew who the Yankees were.
Oh, they sure did.
That's how big they were.
They sure hated him.
Yes, absolutely.
That has never been, that's never changed.
That's what I was really saying.
But I feel that a lot of people forget how amazing this man was at what he did at his job.
He was not a quote machine.
He was not a mascot.
He was one of the greatest catchers in baseball history.
And had one of the greatest post seasons ever.
There is plenty to choose from when we're talking about Yogi Berra's 1956 performance
that he contributed the 10 different world series champion clubs.
10.
He won 10 world series.
His catching performance into 56 fall classic likely is his best, though.
Berra finished the Yankees seven game triumph over the Dodgers with a 360,
448 over 800 slash line.
Oh my god, what?
800 slash line.
He was slugging 800.
He was slugging 800.
Home of three times and drove home a third then series record 10 runs for the pinstripes.
And of course, Berra was behind the plate, calling all 27 outs of Don Larsen's perfect game.
Perfect game.
And that iconic film after he throws the final strike, jumping into his arms,
which is one of my favorite baseball moments of all time.
I love it.
It's one of the greatest sports moments ever.
Even on grainy footage, you don't have to see their faces.
You know what they look like.
Yeah, how the excitement is just the sheer joy of that moment.
Yep.
After a tough back and forth series across the first six games,
the Yankees won a 9-0 laughter in game seven.
That was thanks in part and large part to Yogi Berra, who had two homers in that game,
went deep in the first and third innings of Don Newcombe,
the Dodgers, NLC Young and MVP Award winner.
Yes, the Dodgers.
The Newcombe, man, he was one of the most feared pictures of his era, by the way.
He was like the Bob Gibson before Bob Gibson.
Don Newcombe was.
But Yogi Berra, I mean, oh my gosh, by the way, do you know what his real name was?
Do you know what it was?
I only because I happened to be.
Oh, you have it in front of me.
Oh, okay.
I did not know it before.
Oh, you didn't.
Lawrence Peter.
Yeah, Lawrence Peter Berra.
That's amazing.
I would have never guessed that.
No, he's Larry.
Because his real name was Larry.
That's amazing.
Did you hear why he got the nickname Yogi?
Because he got it when he was a kid.
Because the other kid said he just walked like a Yogi.
That's how he got the nickname.
I'm not that bad.
I'm not even sure what a Yogi is.
No, I just walked like a Yogi.
Is Yogi Berra part because of Yogi Berra?
I don't know.
I have never made the connection.
I'm not looking to that.
Maybe we'll get back to that some other show, but.
But of all these stats, my stat of the show is the number eight.
The number eight.
That was Yogi Berra's number?
Yes it was.
It was retired by the New York Yankees back in 1972.
I never knew what number he was.
Really?
I don't think I've ever, even though seeing
we're talking about that photo and that picture
and that video of that.
And what we see is Yogi, the back of Yogi Berra.
And I didn't really think about it.
I'd never really thought about his number before.
So I just thought that was kind of cool.
That is number eight for some reason.
I just thought that was interesting.
I have to think now.
I think the Yankees are the only team
that does not have a single digit available anymore.
Because they've retired all the single digits.
Yes, tough.
Which, that's pretty crazy.
I think that's part of the reason why you see Aaron Judd with 99.
Yes, I think that is correct.
And some of the more odd ball numbers when they trade for players
and they come over and stuff.
Most of them were from the old time.
Because of course, Ruth was three.
Garrett was four.
Demagio was five.
And then the other, some of the other guys.
But that's why I think Derek Jeter chose two.
Because that was like the only single digit number left
when he started playing.
And now that's been retired because it's Derek Jeter.
So one of the things that I really appreciated about this,
going down this deep dive below these players
and these stats, too, is while this is happening,
we're also experiencing some players
and some athletes having incredible post seasons.
And we're just getting going.
We're just at the tip of the iceberg here when it comes to this.
Would you have thoughts or feelings
on any of the teams that are out?
Because I don't think we're going to be talking.
We're certainly probably not going to be talking about them
as much as we will.
These teams are still around.
So for right now, I do want to take a moment
to focus on those teams, the memoriam, if you will,
of the teams no longer with us.
And let's go ahead and take a look at the Brewers real quick.
Key free agents, just two guys that they have
in Willie Adamus and Wade Miley.
Wade Miley, I think it's pretty fair to say, won't be back.
No.
Doesn't look like Willie Adamus will be back either.
No.
And I think that's all right.
Yeah, no, he's a good player.
But he's not, I think the player that Joey Ortiz is going to be.
I think Joey Ortiz is going to be a very good player.
And because it's baseball, he's cheaper.
Because he's younger.
I mean, that's part of the nuts and bolts of the game.
But I think, yeah, Willie, I mean, he's a fan favorite.
He's done some great things.
But I think he's moving on.
He's moving on.
The biggest question is, well, what do you do to add to?
Well, first, you have Brandon Woodruff still sitting there.
And if he's healthy, you'll have.
He should be coming back next year, hopefully.
They're talking about whether or not to extend Peralta and that.
So you might have a couple of, you've got a couple of nice young pitchers there already.
But the biggest question from Milwaukee is not like a lot of these teams
with, oh, do you bring this guy back or anything?
It's, are you going to bring anybody in?
That's the big question.
Are you going to spend some money?
That is the big issue with Milwaukee right now.
And I don't want to hear, we're a mom and pop franchise.
No team do I want to hear that from.
Especially if you've got a chance to win a, all right,
if you want to treat this like a business, what is the best way to make more money?
When, when bring in better players?
It's in a best, people, people want to see.
It's in a best mess.
Why do we have to explain to billionaires how to do business?
You don't, you're not going to make more money by, you know,
doing the Oakland A's model.
You're, you're not going to win that way.
No. And no fan base is believing any, like, maybe they did one day,
maybe at one point they did.
But to the Milwaukee Brewer fans out there, to all the fans out there,
actually to every Wisconsin fan, because you're considered a small market,
whether you're talking the Brewer's, bucks or packets.
Absolutely.
There are no small markets.
None.
All these games are televised.
Everybody's got a package.
Everybody's got a deal.
Everybody has the same money.
Everybody's playing with the same money.
Yeah, people come from all over the state to go see a game there.
Have you seen, I mean, how many people came to MFAM field this year?
I don't know the number.
It had probably over two million.
I don't know.
That was, that place was packed most of the time.
I did the last thing I want to hear from anybody in the, in the upper,
uh, in the, in the, uh, upper franchise of Milwaukee in that, uh,
executive room, yeah, is that we don't have money.
Right.
I don't want to hear.
Well, I want to hear from the white socks.
I don't want to hear from anybody.
No, no, although, uh, Mark Ansonatsu apparently has trouble buying sand.
Yeah.
That's apparently, uh, look into that.
Yeah, look into that story.
It's a wild story.
I think the Houston Astros are one of the next interesting stories because of
what they have done and how looks like time to really, you know, hey, we got to figure
this out.
Are we moving?
Are we rebuilding?
Or are we reloading?
Yeah.
Um, they have to figure out what to do with Bergman.
Yeah.
Uh, Bergman.
Yes.
Bergman, he's going to want a big deal.
Big deal.
I don't see him coming back.
Probably not.
I think he's gone.
Uh, and they, uh, at the Houston really has, they've got a decent farm system.
They've been keeping it up.
Um, they got some parts that are really good.
Kyle Tucker is a very good player.
He keeps getting hurt.
That's the downside with him.
Uh, they're pitching a boy, uh, Josh Hader did not turn out to be the what they wanted.
That's a shame.
Which is too bad.
And he was one of the, you know, one of the issues within the playoffs because they're
lost.
You can sit Detroit.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
He ended up giving up some big runs too.
Uh, so I, I, you know, I got to admit to I, I'm part of the reason, I'm part of the
old reason I'm touching on Houston is certainly what they did.
Seven and a LCS is in a row.
That's not where they get credit to them.
Tip of the ball.
Um, uh, a big tip of the ball cap and a bow to Justin Verlander.
Um, I am going to miss seeing him.
I don't know if he's done, but it looks like it.
Um, you know, when you're a season like that, yeah, well, and he wasn't on the postseason
roster.
No, that's nothing.
This season really stood out to me.
I, I, I actually thought he'd be back next year until that when I saw that happen.
The only reason he's still playing is the competitive nature.
Right.
He don't need a paycheck.
He said he wants to get to 300 wins, which was always an outside shot.
He's, you'd have to pitch for a couple more years.
And after this season, I don't know if this could be it.
One of my favorite pitchers I've gotten to see in my life, I've really enjoyed his career,
his ups, his downs.
I really love them in Detroit.
Yeah.
Really liked watching them over there.
A lot of fun to see in the postseason, man.
And as long as I'm doing this, uh, Mac Shers or as well, I want to throw in there because
I don't know.
I know his dad is either at this point.
Yeah.
And God, if I love watching these two warriors go out there and I don't know who is the
next Mac Shers or who is the next just in Verlander.
I got nothing.
I don't know who.
I don't even know who the next, uh, you know, um, and I got, I don't even know who the
next reference of a name to bring up.
Well, I mean, like, like, we don't have Clayton Kirschau really anymore.
I mean, he's had another one of those all time.
He's going to the Hall of Fame too.
So I mean, where are the, I mean, what is the most famous pitcher right now?
Paul Schienz.
A rookie.
Yeah.
Cause he's doing stuff that people like, wow, look at this guy.
But who's in between them?
I mean, it's a, it's a great question and it's something that every baseball, uh, brain
should be thinking about right now and trying to figure out how to make it work and make
it better.
Um, speaking of big name pitchers, one of the bigger free agents that's going to be out
there this season as Corbin Burns and probably the biggest, yeah, and the team with, uh, arguably
the most question marks, but I think by far and away, the most interesting off season
could happen in Baltimore because again, just like we were talking with Milwaukee, a team
that doesn't traditionally spend money that tried to do a couple of things in the off
season.
Didn't work out.
Is that going to make them run scared?
Or are they going to like, okay, well, we got to reassess what we did right, what we
didn't wrong.
Right.
And how do we go forward?
They, they, okay, the big thing with Baltimore, they're under new ownership.
The Angelo family is gone.
Thank you.
So they just recently, they, and this is just their first year under new ownership.
I, I honestly, and I really hope they, they get away from this philosophy of, no, we're
just going to win with all of our talent.
You, no, you can't, you can't win with a bunch of guys.
By the way, they all look the same, which is very, so what they all look, it's very strange
Jackson.
Yeah.
Which, and they have tons of talent, but they got to get, they got to get pitching.
Corbin Burns is gone.
He's not coming back.
They're not signing Corbin Burns to a long term deal.
I'm sorry.
But they need to get some pitching.
They need to find some outfielders.
I mean, they have all infielders.
So they got to use some of this talent as hard as it is to get, you know, to let go
of that.
You got to do it.
Otherwise, you're going to, the same thing's going to happen next year.
You know, going into this post, these, you know, people were like, oh, Baltimore, you
know, they had a bad one last year, but that's okay.
Look at that.
They have the experience.
Now, they got the thing and the exact same thing happened.
Yeah.
They went without a whimper.
I mean, it was, it was sad that they're, they're big guys, Adley Rutchman, you know,
future MVP maybe.
He choked.
Yeah.
That's a fat pitch that he could have hit 100 miles, you know, like out of the ballpark.
Yeah.
And he locked up.
He didn't swing at it.
I just sat there.
I watched that three times.
I couldn't believe that.
Right down the middle.
That's, that's a guy.
I probably grabbed a catcher.
If I'm grabbing any catcher in MLB, I'm grabbing.
Yeah.
He's a, he's a franchise starter.
Yeah.
I, a lot of guys didn't show up in this playoffs.
Baltimore.
That's the, there's one of the questions you can ask yourself and Seth even in our pregame
kind of teased on this a little bit.
Did you have rather been the Baltimore fan base or the Milwaukee fan base right now?
Who's feeling better?
Because if I'm either, sure, yes, I know what you mean, but yeah, I would feel a lot
better as a Brewer fan.
The my team went down fighting and, and, and actually had some guys step up and everything
and show up.
100%.
As opposed to what's with Baltimore right now and look, this was, this was, all of this
was for this.
Yeah.
And two games.
Nothing.
They had, I, I want to say they had like one, one run in 18 innings I saw or something
like that.
Like that's just none.
Run.
With Cedric Mullins hit one home run.
Cedric Mullins who had a tarot, not a very good year, speaking of all these guys, Gunner
Henderson, all these guys, I mean, yeah, it's, it's, man, it's going to be interesting.
And it also shows you too.
And look, I know this very well as a white sock fan.
It was, it was three years ago that there's a lot of people out there that would have given
up their roster for my team's roster.
A lot.
100%.
And now, not, there are high school teams that would rather have their roster than mine.
It can go away so fast.
And especially in the American League East, your window is smaller than the Brewers because
the Brewers are in the Central and the National League.
That's a weaker division.
You're up against teams that are going to be spending, but Toronto's probably going to
spend a lot of money.
Yeah.
Of course, you got the red socks.
They're never taken.
They're always going to try to do something.
Then there's the Yankees, of course.
And even the race, even the race who don't have money, but they're the smartest team in
baseball.
They always usually, not this year, but they find a way to win.
Not the same division, but you just know that the Texas Rangers are going to sign a big
name three agent to a $300 million contract every season they've done that.
By the way, a new Texas pitcher, Corbin Burns, I would not be surprised if he ends up in
Texas.
Right.
Yeah.
Max Fried, Blake Snell, Jake Flattery, all also going to be free agent starting pictures
next season.
A lot of big names.
I don't know how many good names, but a lot of big names that we've seen good innings
from over the years.
Blake Snell had a weird season.
Yeah.
A terrible start.
And then he was like unhittable for like the last parts of the season.
That was weird.
Anyway.
It's going to be an interesting offseason with these teams.
When we come back, we'll talk a little bit about going forward.
The MLB playoffs and how those are looking forward.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we'll have some more fun.
We'll use our final time out of the week right now on the morning show.
I need it.
I need it.
I need it.
I need it.
I was going to do it at least once this week.
Unlabeled.
Oh no.
Let me just get the teleprompter.
Playmakers.
We're going to get into getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids.
Welcome back, everybody to WFHRs.
Playmakers.
Seth and James are going to take you to the top of the hour.
Rap things up.
Get into our schedule and touch on that.
But I do want to talk a little bit of playoffs with you, Seth.
Did you want to mention that, of course, the teams that are left.
We've got Detroit and Cleveland facing off.
You've got Kansas City in New York.
Yeah.
Go Midwest.
Yeah.
Philly and New York with the meds and Philly facing off.
That is it.
That's going to be a fabulous here.
I hope it's a good one, which fan base hates their team more when they're losing, of
course.
And, of course, the big star-studded series is the Padres and Dodgers.
All fascinating series is the one that stands out to you or anything that stands out to
you more than another with this.
I got to go with the San Diego LA one just because show, hey, you've got to put show
in there.
And the maturation of a lot of the San Diego players, like we were talking off air about
Fernando Tetease, looks like he, you know, had a, he had a, he had a, he had some rough
stuff happening.
A humbling moment.
Yeah, there you go.
Some humbling moments.
Some humbling moments.
And, and he seems man, but he is made for this type of stuff, man.
That home run, he hit the energy.
He was like bursting out of his uniform.
It was, it was so cool to see.
And it's the, the rivals, you know, they're the hated rivals.
The Dodgers and it's going to man.
And then you've got, you know, both of those teams, the, and what the San Diego did to him
two years ago in the playoffs, they took LA out.
So there's got, there's got, I know the LA players are thinking about that too.
You know, so it's going to, I hopefully that's going to be a really good series.
It is a, do you know, I was trying to look it up before the, the show here almost said
the game before the show here is a quan playing for Cleveland yet.
Is he back?
I'm not sure.
I don't believe he is yet.
You know, and I don't know if you'll make it if they, depending how far, of course,
how far Cleveland gets, but I hope he does because I would love to see him in the playoffs
too.
I think you could have said this, even if some of the other teams had advanced, including
Milwaukee, but given the teams that are left, one of the things that stands out to me too,
not only the markets, of course, that a lot of people are noticing that a lot of big
markets are left here for the, the possibility of a world series with two huge markets and
all that.
Right.
But you got stars.
You got stars.
And you're almost guaranteed to have a big name or a young big name star moving forward,
whether it's Detroit and Scubu or a coffee with junior in Kansas City.
Yep.
New York, obviously with air and judge and so do, yep, yep.
Even the Yankees with Lindor in Alonzo, some of those players and everything, Philly
with the stars.
They have obviously the stars in San Diego and L.A.
The Cleveland's like the only one that doesn't have like a name brand guy, like quan, who
would probably would have been, but he's heard so.
And in a guarantee, if that kid, quan was playing in any other ballpark or in a bigger
market, he would be a lot more popular.
Oh, yeah.
I really like that kid.
It's sad if you're clearly, because you tend to get ignored a lot, but we know, I mean,
being in the Midwest, a lot of Midwestern teams said that happens to us.
I'll say that while they may not have that star, they have the closer everybody wants.
Oh, my gosh.
Everybody wants that guy.
This guy.
He's like the second coming of Mary on a Rivera that he's got to cut her like the same
pitch that he has and it's unhittable.
He said it.
People can't hit it.
It's almost as dominant.
Yes.
He should come out to a different Metallica song.
That's how good.
That's how dominant he is.
Yes.
I really, like a lot of people, I'm paying attention to that San Diego LA one.
That's going to be fascinating to see.
You want to see guys step up.
This is what we're watching.
This is what my status of the show has been all about, is seeing the stars step up in
the biggest moments.
But I'm really interested in the KC New York one.
I'm enjoying speaking of stars.
I'm enjoying seeing what Bobby what junior is doing.
And I want to see if they collapse or not.
Boy, I got to tell you, a lot of people are not giving Kansas City a lot of chance.
But man, if they didn't look great in Baltimore, their pitching was good, but they didn't
look great.
If Bobby what junior gets hot, he can carry a team.
He can carry a team.
Good afternoon.
You're on the show.
You're in the game.
Hello.
Oh, we lost.
Feel free to call back, though.
We got a couple minutes.
Couple minutes left.
Feel free to call back.
715-424-2600.
The Detroit Cleveland series is awesome.
That's going to be a fascinating one, two, boy, I don't know what to make of Detroit right
now.
I mean, I love what they did against Houston.
That was cool.
That was really awesome.
But I mean, and they're playing for nothing.
Right now, they're probably the loosest team out there because they didn't expect, I mean,
no one expected them to get this far.
If you're a Yankee fan and you don't get to the, I'm not saying win the World Series,
but get to the World Series with this in front of you, you're losing your mind.
We will, we have never seen Yankee fans like they will be if they do not get to the World
Series.
Winning it is a different story, but just getting there, if you're a Yankee fan, you're
looking at these teams.
They're like, well, what is it for?
So KC, Cleveland, Detroit, come on, forget about it.
Yeah.
They're expecting to be in the world.
They're already buying tickets to the World Series right now.
Of course they are.
Of course they are.
I can't help but see, like, I am not a hater.
I don't enjoy that part of sports, but every once in a while, that part of me comes out.
And I'm very curious to see what happens.
The team that has caused them the most trouble in the playoffs in recent memory is Cleveland.
They've done it to them a couple of times.
So I'm guessing they do not want to face Cleveland right now.
They're saying they're all into, on Detroit.
Just going to Detroit.
Yeah.
Why is he guys to do it?
It made you like baseball.
It's just begging the Yankees to pull this off because they, none of those markets do
they want.
They don't want them not to win.
I'm 100% with you.
I want to see KC Cleveland.
That would be hilarious.
That's great.
Good afternoon.
You're in the game.
You're on the show.
What's up?
Hey, just one.
I just want to know to keep you laughing, guys.
I want to see a knuckleballer come out and have him play moon dance by Van Morrison.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
Matt Waldron.
Matt Waldron.
Matt Waldron.
Matt Waldron.
San Diego.
He's got a knuckleball.
That's right.
We got it.
We got it.
We got it.
Get him.
Let him decay.
We know what song you need, Matt.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
That we got you covered, Matt.
There's your song.
There's your song.
There's your show for the week.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thanks so much for joining us all week long.
All you callers.
All you great listeners.
Thanks for spreading the word about the show.
Good things coming up for you tonight at 6.50 on our our sister station.
10555WRI.
Michael Seth Randy.
You're going to be covering.
Oh, Claire Memorial.
Ticking on Lincoln High School.
Homecoming for Lincoln.
Woo.
That's going to be a good one.
Right here on WFHR at 9 a.m.
Our pregame kicks off was constant hosting Purdue.
Yep.
That's going to be a fun game.
And a little bit later in the day, college hockey for you.
Yeah.
Wisconsin at 530.
Our pregame kicks off was constant hockey hosting Nebraska Omaha.
We'll have that exhibition game right here on the radio station for you right here at WFHR.
Let me know when they play UMD.
I'm just excited about hockey.
Yeah.
I'm just excited about that.
Have a great weekend.
Everybody Seth.
Great show.
Yeah, it was fun.
Be good to each other out there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
