Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHR's Playmakers.
Hope you all had a great weekend. Thanks for joining us on a Monday edition of the show.
James and Randy here with you. How you doing, Randy?
Pretty well, how are you, James? You doing good, doing good, doing better now?
Here to talk some sports with the best listeners in radio. We're going to have some fun doing it too.
Want to thank Quality Plus printing family natural foods for sponsoring this hour,
giving us an opportunity to get these sports takes and feelings out of our system.
It is the healthiest way to handle sports. This is a safe zone.
You go ahead and get those takes and those feelings to us.
And go ahead and get us your NFL draft predictions, everybody,
because I want that from our listeners today.
Want to hear from you about whatever you really want to talk about.
You don't have to talk to draft, but I'd love to hear that.
Randy, now we're going to touch on that when we get a chance.
Got some purers to talk rafters as well.
Want to get into the NHL NBA playoffs.
And at the 530 mark when we come back from our time out,
Randy will have a local high school update for us.
But Randy, just kind of spinning the sports roulette wheel right now.
Is there any place you want to start?
I don't think I asked you that nearly enough.
Well, there's so many places to start.
Yeah, all about the Women's Ice Hockey World Championship yesterday.
Yes, yes, right?
The United States defeated the defending champion, Canadian Squad.
In overtime, 4-3 with 254 left as Tessa Janike got the game winner.
And they got the World Championship.
So they kind of breeze through the tournament actually.
And that was, of course, yeah.
And that was their toughest match.
So good for them, good on them.
The last thing you want to do is poke the bear.
But on the women's side of things, I would say that if not caught up,
maybe even passed by escape the women's Canadian team.
And it's really USA, Canada, especially on the women's side,
where the sport hasn't grown as much around the world.
There are wonderful hockey players all around the world of female players.
But when you look at those two squads, those are still the benchmarks.
I think I read something like Canada and the United States had played in the last 13,
except for one.
And I want to say Finland was the host and they knocked off Canada
and the United States played Finland.
But outside of that, it's always been these two squads.
And I'm going to get my dad a credit on this one because he's been talking about this for years
with hockey and women's hockey and soccer.
We need to enjoy it because there was a day where we would laugh at the idea of us being challenged
in the Olympics in men's basketball.
We'd laugh at that.
And the rest of the world caught up.
And now we're going to have to work for it.
I still think that USA is by far and away the best
immense Olympic basketball team every year.
We're going to put out there.
But we're not that far away from it being a lot more closer.
And in the women's side of things, again, I think it's going to be...
You're going to see that sport grow.
You're going to have a great Sweden team and Finland team.
You're going to have a lot more of that because not only the popularity of women's athletics,
but the finances that are being put into women's athletics.
Businesses are now finally starting to see a way to make money here too.
We can also profit from this.
And with that, kids get the profits a lot of times too.
And stuff.
I don't know.
I think that we need to enjoy these while we can.
But I will say this to Canada.
I don't know if they were paying attention here to our Frozen 4 with women's teams and Lady Badgers.
But we got a couple of American Badger players on that team.
USA ain't letting go of that good that this title had any time soon.
With some of these young athletes that are going to be coming up.
You know, just build off of your...
The NBA and how the world is catching up a little bit on that as well for the Olympics.
You think if Steph Curry doesn't hit a couple of those big shots towards the end of that gold medal game,
that might have had a different outcome as well.
That's a whole different game.
And remember last week we were talking about the NBA playoffs, right?
Which are now upon us.
And we're talking about, would you like to face Golden State?
Well, guess what?
Golden State got the first win on the road at Houston yesterday by 10 points.
And Steph Curry goes off for 31.
He had some pretty awesome stats as well.
Oh, he played...
He's just 12 for 19, I think, field goals.
Such an incredible athlete.
Five for nine from three.
A couple of free throws.
Seven for ten from two-point land.
So, yeah, he is just...
Some of those drives, or he just goes down the lane, throws him up high off the back bar,
and they just come splashing through.
It's crazy.
Steph Curry has literally made more three-pointers than anybody else.
So, we have seen him more than anybody else make wild, crazy three-point shots.
We've seen him make it from, you know, past the halfway mark.
We've seen all these...
This weekend, he had a three-pointer that is in his top five, where he's guarded perfectly.
And he's trying to hurry up because of the clock.
He's falling and leaning out of bounds.
He's going...
His old body is going out of bounds.
His arms are going out of bounds, but his wrists in his hands are locked in the perfect shooting position.
And he shoots just an insane shot angle-wise.
If you just watch the ball, well, yeah, of course it's going to go in.
But if you watch everything else that's happening in that play, like, I don't know his body,
how it's just flying out of bounds, there's...
I would be maddened if I was a physicist, or any kind of scientist.
And I tried to watch Steph Curry play basketball.
Like, that's against physics.
He should not be able to do the things that he does.
It's one thing to watch a great.
It's one thing to watch a once in a lifetime talent.
It's another to see and living in real time an athlete like this,
who's also just seems to be a guy to root for.
Yeah.
I don't know how...
Like, I'm fine if somebody says I'm not a Steph Curry fan.
But rooting against him feels pretty heavy.
I don't know how you do that.
I enjoy watching him play so much.
It's not so much that I want to see Golden State continue to win.
I just want to keep seeing him play.
And the only way to do that is if they keep winning.
So it's just a byproduct of what I want to have happened.
Well, you know, the other thing too, maybe there's somebody who's got a quicker release,
but I can't.
Nobody comes to mind as quickly as quickly as they get those shots off.
And again, that one arching shot he made in the Olympics that kind of sealed.
That was just phenomenal.
Yeah, he is something else.
It's going to be an interesting playoff,
especially once we get out of this, the early rounds.
I'm still such an old-school basketball head that I remember these first rounds
being a lot more interesting than they'd become now with the play-in and some of this.
And I don't think that it's, you know, where you look at the West
and I'm looking at right on down the line
and I would not be surprised to see the Clippers Denver, OKC, Lakers, Minnesota,
you know, in the end, Golden State, in the finals.
Let alone in the Western Conference Championship.
None of that would surprise me.
And that's 7, 8 teams right there.
You know, in the East, I've got one team that I pretty much think is going to be in there
for sure that I would bet money on.
And that's Boston.
Right.
Outside of that, there's, I don't know where...
Or kind of Cleveland, maybe.
I'm hoping for Cleveland.
Yeah.
I want Cleveland too, but if I was betting harder in cash on it,
I don't know that I could feel comfortable doing that.
Right.
And please somebody be Boston.
Please somebody be Boston.
God.
It's not the players.
I can't stand their coach and I just entire to Boston.
Like I'm just tired of that.
I work with one of my main teachers I work with.
And I actually run a class with is a Bostonian, a proud Southie.
And we go back and forth on one thing in life.
We get a log out of everything except for this.
Just Boston fans, man.
Well, you know, thinking back to the West, there's only two teams that won on the road.
Game number one.
And that is Golden State, of course.
But the other one, were you surprised by this?
How Minnesota actually defeated the Lakers?
117 to 95?
Was that a little surprising to you or not?
It was.
It was.
No, it was.
I wasn't surprised Minnesota one.
Just last year, Western Conference Finals, solid team.
Anthony Edwards is, I think, actually gotten more game than most people realize.
I think he'll think of him as a mini Jordan, right?
Yes.
Yeah.
He led the league in three pointers this season.
And I think that would surprise a lot of people considering most of the posters and most of the things you see are him slamming.
He's a complete player.
He can do it all.
And he's so much younger than even Luca, let alone LeBron.
And I also think though, and I don't know that they did this.
I'm sure that you want to win every one of these games.
If I'm a 40 year old LeBron, if there's any game that I'm not at full speed for, it's game one of the next.
Hopefully, if you're a Lakers fan, 16 wins.
You need 16 to do what they're trying to do right now.
I also think there's a storyline happening here with the Lakers, where they're playing with House Money.
They expected to maybe be in the play-in.
They expected to maybe be where Memphis is or some of these teams.
The fact that they not only are in the playoffs and everything, but that their future went from, well, LeBron's going to be 41 next year.
I don't know what's going to happen there or anything too.
Oh my God, we got one of the best, if not the best player in basketball, wearing a Laker jersey to the end of time.
He'll forever be known as a Laker from now on, and he's ours, and we can build around this and everything.
It's just, they're playing with Fools with House Money, and they're focused on next year and the year after and all that.
They're a game plan. They're five year plan, if you will.
You talk to somebody in their senior year in high school or even in college.
I'm going to be doing this, this, this, this.
Then they win the lottery the day after they graduate, and all that's out the window.
All that's out the window. I don't care about work anymore. I'm just going to go ahead and spend some money.
That's what the Lakers are in right now.
I don't know their motivation to really, to keep going with this season when I don't know that they can, I don't know anybody.
Even if you're Boston, looks at O.K.C. and says, I can beat that.
51 point victory.
That team is everything that we said about them last year, and even the year before that, because this is the third year now we're talking about O.K.C.
is going to do some damage in the playoffs.
Everything we said those last two years, just watching a half a basketball of this team, I saw, oh, wait.
That's all out the window now.
They've got the one thing that you could, everybody's begging for experience. They get the reps.
It's what we're seeing with Houston right now.
That is a really good young squad, but they don't have the reps. They don't have the playoff experience.
I said this last week, and I'll say it again.
I don't think that there's any other sport that you can say this about so adamantly.
You rarely in the playoffs win right away.
I will, I will, I will forever remember Sam Kassel.
I'll say it, Sam.
Yeah, great, great point guard.
Got drafted out of Florida State to the Houston Rockets, and his first two years in the league won titles.
Yeah, with the Houston Rockets, those two years Jordan was off playing basketball with my socks, or baseball with my socks.
I just think about that.
It's not just rare to have that happen.
It's so rare in basketball to have it happen.
It just doesn't win right away.
Jordan had to get beat up by Cleveland and shoot one of the greatest shots in playoff history,
floating over Kregilo to nail that shot.
What they don't talk about is I'm pretty sure they got swept by Detroit in the very next series.
So he had to go to the gym and get built up and get bulked up so he could bang the boards with Detroit and everything.
Even Jordan had to go through this.
All these teams, all these athletes, they have to go through it in the playoffs in basketball.
And I think that's part of what makes the game so great to me is nothing is given in that sport.
You can have plenty of guys that are a God-given talent, and on the cover of Sports Illustrated,
and LeBron still had to go to Miami and team up with two other Hall of Famers to win his first title.
Charles Barkley is one of the greatest athletes I've ever seen play basketball.
He was incredible.
We have completely underrated Charles Barkley, and he has turned into a complete cartoon character.
A guy like Six Five, right?
Yeah, that's the thank you, Randy.
That's the thing.
If he was five more inches, I probably, and at the same career, I probably wouldn't say the same thing,
but for his size and how dominating he was, how intimidating he was in the boards and everything against Manute Bull or some of these guys.
And they went backwards on him.
Rodman was the only guy I ever saw hang toe-to-toe with, Barkley.
Even my loan, Carl Malone didn't want any of that.
The guys just didn't mess with that guy.
In basketball, you have to really, truly earn it.
It's a whole different game in the playoffs.
Hockey, you can say the same thing, but that's almost on a madman level.
That's going from in the regular season in hockey.
We're going to shoot some goals.
We're going to have some fun.
Hey, you know, Alexander Ovechkin's going to make sure that everybody gives Mark Country Flurry a handshake,
because this is all about class.
And as soon as that, you know, the game's over, we're all getting along and everything.
Going from all of that and making sure that I'm wearing a nice suit, pre-game and all this, to the playoffs where,
hey, what happened to your face?
Well, I dove in front of a puck.
Yeah.
So we can win a one-score game.
Right.
The difference in regular season hockey and playoff hockey is unlike anything else.
Basketball, it's just different in the sense of not only having to earn it on a off the court and on the court level,
but the level of intensity that these athletes play with.
To where guys like Jimmy Butler, it was hidden secret that he's got a reserve tank for the playoffs.
42 minutes in that first game scored 25 points, seven rebounds, six assists.
I mean, he had himself a will of a game.
And I was comparing that a little bit with the person that the box got, that Kuzma.
He didn't score.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
That's disappointing.
Not only disappointing.
It's got to be really disappointing for a lot of the talking heads of ESPN who like had him as their wild card in that game and stuff.
That's going to happen to some athletes in games.
It can happen in that one.
That's rough.
That's a rough look.
There's nothing around it.
Bobby Portis only had four.
I mean, it was all basically honest with 36 after that.
The next leading score had 15 AJ Green.
So you just can't have, you know, one guy getting 36 in the next guy, 21 points behind him.
That's not a formula for winning obviously.
So bucks can have to pick it up a little bit here, even though they won the series in the regular season three to two.
There's an example of what you were talking about preseason a whole different animal than the postseason.
You bring up the bucks.
The bucks had to go through some growing pains to get to their title and everything.
I think we saw Oakley see go through it.
And I think that now is their time.
And I was thinking about that too.
Like I think back to the Packers back in like 92 and they got far.
But just took them a couple of years and they won the Super Bowl that 96 season.
Well, that was kind of the beginning of the free agency though they got Reggie White there.
And now it's so much different because you can basically build the team around free agency.
So you can be one and done in NFL compared to like building these other franchise.
I want to know if anybody's got any picks.
If anybody's, you know, in the early rounds of these NBA playoffs or any shell playoffs for that matter.
If you've got anybody that stands out to you and you're willing to put your name on
that you think is going to be in the finals for the NBA and NHL playoffs.
Well, again, the NHL there's only one road team that won and that was Colorado defeating Dallas five to one.
So tough to win on somebody's whole mice too, isn't it?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Shout out to Winnipeg who just came out and like what president's trophy curse?
We're going to come out here and we're just going to leave it all on the ice.
Yeah, three goals in that third period.
I do like the Panthers team.
They got a number of players.
I like they got a Kachok and a couple of things there that I like and I'm certainly, you know, a little bias there.
But I don't think there's anything in life that I'm more of an opposite homeron where I'm so USA, USA and all that and everything.
And yet with the Stanley Cup playoffs, I'm kind of like I'd like to see a Canadian team win.
I kind of like to see Toronto win.
I've got to, but even in that regard, it's sneaky because Toronto's best player is Austin Matthews who's right from here in the US.
Right.
So I guess I'm not really, but I would love to see a, actually what I'd really like to see is an all-can to the Stanley Cup.
Oh, okay.
I think that would be kind of cool.
Not only would it, like I, perfect, for me, I'd like to see Winnipeg and Toronto.
See, I'm kind of half on your side.
I'd love to see Canada win as much as possible until they get to the finals then at one time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, and go ahead and ask me because I said this last year and then Florida and Edmonton face off.
And what am I saying?
Go pamphlets.
Yes, go pamphlets.
I remember that.
Yeah, yeah.
So I could easily be completely, well fixed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I did want to talk a little baseball with Brewers.
We'll talk some rafters in a little bit too.
But talking about the Brewers, you heard our good friend Mike Clemens talk about this and during his break about the stolen bases for the Brewers.
We had a franchise record, nine steals for the Milwaukee Brewers.
This is one of my favorite things in all of sports is stolen bases.
So of course, this caught my attention.
I thought it was really cool for one.
Randy, you said something.
I did not catch though during that game.
Yeah, we were driving yesterday over to visit with my sister for Easter Sunday and we had the Brewers on.
We're listening and they steal six bases in the first inning.
And they had five different Brewers that stole the base.
The Terrain and Freelix scored soul stole two to make it six.
But the record for one inning is eight.
And four different players in that game, each stole two bases.
That's crazy.
So just think how many times they had to get up and you know what?
Yes.
They had a bad around to make that happen.
Well, and you've got this kid in Tampa, Chandler, who had, Seth and I were talking about last week, had 102 stolen bases in like 100 games or 116 stolen bases in 100 games last year in AAA.
And he just got, they just pulled them up and he's already stealing bases and already doing great work on the Basel pads.
I think that you've seen a shift go on here quite a bit with all the sudden speed and base running, you know, base running expertise, mattering again.
And you can't just go up there and, oh man, smash, you know, we're getting away from that a little bit more in baseball again.
You're not going to get rid of the smashers and I don't want to.
But I think you get an evening out of where you have a little bit of that and a little bit of the great base runners and mixed on your teams.
The only thing I will say, though, that as far as the last game for the players or the players beating the Athletics 141 and that one, particularly we're talking about, as much as I'd like to focus just on the again franchise record nine steals.
How about Logan Anderson?
He's a debuting, right?
As he won six innings, three hits, one walk, nine Ks.
He had a nice stat line.
Even Tyler Alexander bouncing back a little bit.
He had, I think his first outing was kind of rough.
Three innings, one hit, no walks, five Ks.
So, you know, isn't that cool?
I think they were talking a little bit on the broadcast here.
See, but I agree.
It's really cool.
The Brewers, they must have some kind of pitching coaches because they bring in these guys that are kind of thrown off by other teams.
And not everyone is successful, but I'll tell you what.
A lot of them are.
Yeah.
You think, you know, you think it Tobias Meyers coming in the last year and hopefully he'll be back maybe pitching.
I don't know.
I don't see him pitching tonight.
I think Quinn Priester is going this evening as right now.
Yeah.
But he's another one.
I mean, well, you got these guys we've never heard of before and they just seem to be able to turn them into starting pitchers who perform well and
so kudos to the pitching staff.
And you just got to love stories like that.
Oh, yeah.
You know, talking also about stealing bases, thinking about the Brewers.
You know, there's a lot of times they'll be just a ground ball.
You think it's routine and they'll beat it out.
They have so much speed on that team.
That's the other thing that's really impressive.
I've been a fan since the first that I saw of them.
But I feel like every time I see him play, I become a bigger Bryce Turing fan.
I just really like his defense offense the way he approaches the game, even him in the dugout.
He's one of those guys where even if he was a 220 hitter, I'd want him on my starting man roster.
I don't know if I'd put him out there, but I want him on my team.
Let alone he's a great hitter.
And the Brewers, they miss Adamus, you know, for that ra ra in the dugout.
Yeah.
They're still cool he's been there.
But right now he's in a 202 with one home run.
18 ribbies and are 11 ribbies and 18 hits only on this season.
Boy, if you're thinking San Francisco, it's early.
I know he's struggling the first two months of the season, but right now.
And his defense I guess for money understands been a little bit shaky.
So I'll be fine to see him again.
I'm going to be looking forward to watching the next four games against Brewers.
I said when they signed him in San Francisco and you're absolutely right.
It's way too early in the season to say anything.
And I don't care if he hits 50 home runs this season.
You couldn't sign him to that deal.
He's not worth that money.
I wish him best.
But he took 18 San Francisco for any other reason than a big contract.
And I don't blame him for that.
That's fine.
But nobody was offering him that kind of money but San Fran.
They had to overpay because they were all trying to do out a bit other teams including the Brewers.
And then you did a short stop.
Yeah.
But you can't make the argument to me that he's worth that money.
I think especially when I see a Joey Ortiz doing great things over there.
Or a guy that we want.
I wanted to talk about and segue perfectly into Raptor's baseball with you a little bit Randy.
And that is the debut of Caleb Durbin.
Yes.
Illinois zone.
Glad with the final act, Doc Spiders.
Yes.
Yes.
One of our own Northwoods lead guys and everything making his debut and playing great for the Brewers.
And looking more and more like a starting third baseman over there like legit.
Again, they said yesterday during the broadcast it's his job to lose.
He's going to be the starting third baseman just going forward.
And you know, probably a little bit like they did with Dunn.
Give him a chance.
And if you can't prove yourself then they'll look further.
But how about his first, you know, the whole family there first at bat almost jacks a home run.
Yeah.
It's just fall a little bit low.
But then he still got a hit and you got a, you know, he got his first RBI the other day.
So yeah, he's got some speed.
I like his speed.
Yeah.
He fits in perfectly with the rest of the infield.
You really does.
Yes.
His skill set is almost identical but almost perfect for that where whatever one guy isn't great at.
He kind of fills in but they're all really speedy and they all got great agility.
Well, just go around that brewers infield and outfield and you got Durbin at third.
You got Ortiz at short.
You got Terrain at second.
Out in left field.
You got Cheerio.
You got Mitchell in center.
You got Freely can write.
Hey, I'll tell you what Contreras can run a little bit too for a catcher.
Yeah.
You know, he beats out double plays and so yeah, up and down that line.
Outside of Rees Hoskins.
They're basically they got speed up and down that line up.
Well, it isn't he isn't speedy for sure.
Rees Hoskins is such a stalwart at that first base.
He's such a old school first base made up a little bit.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's a guy that I'm rooting for too.
Just in a sense of how he's rooting for that franchise and bet on that franchise and everything.
Kind of be fun to be an older guy kind of brought into the team and just have all these youngins.
You know, looking up to you and probably looking for some advice.
He and Yolich as well, right?
Yolich has got speed too when he D.H.
Is that you can fly?
Brought up Chandler Simpson, a shout out to him to another former North Woods league player as well.
It's fun to see these guys making their debuts and getting an opportunity to play not only in the big leagues,
but to you know, coming from the North Woods league to the big leagues.
And this is why you've got to listen to the rafters on our radio station because who knows in the future.
We might have an MLB player here as well.
Yeah.
You know, last year we had McGuire's kid here.
I mean, we have got there's all kinds of athletes that are fun to watch.
And one of these things that I think that we get a personal connection to when it comes to these players.
Even if they're just in the North Woods league, you know, let alone if they're playing for the rafters.
And you just never know how they can turn out.
And the rafters are taking advantage of it being draft week.
You're on the clock, draft week, ticket deal, 23% off grandstand tickets.
They got a code there free to use.
You just go to northwoodsleague.com and sign up and get those tickets.
That way you're all covered.
You know, come may.
I'm all good.
I'm good. I'm ready to go for opening day.
I think we're about five, six weeks away from the start, aren't we?
So darn close.
I go past Winterfield all the time.
And it just it taunts me.
The car wants to pull in.
Yes.
Yes.
So ready for opening day May 26th over at the word looking forward to, of course, and get your tickets in Northwoodsleague.com.
Just to wrap up, go full circle with the pitching we were talking about with the brewers that you mentioned before.
That was part of the reason and still is part of the reason why I'm a big believer in them being able to turn Nester Cortez around.
Yeah.
Is that pitching staff has earned the benefit of the doubt, I think.
So that's why when that deal went down, I thought that was a lot better than, you know, how a guy looks in your uniform compared to in their uniform.
That's such an odd thing to me to look at in trades.
And like, well, you know, how you gauge that and what can my staff do with this guy, whether it's health or it's their technique or whatever it is.
I always find that really interesting.
And if I'm the brewers, my pitching staff has earned such a benefit of the doubt when I look at guys like Nester Cortez.
I'm looking at them like, like a lot of women have looked at me.
I can fix him.
No, I'm joking.
I'm joking.
I'm so kidding.
We can take a time out.
Well, nobody thinks they can fix me.
I come back except for hot.
I'm more playbakers.
Brought to you by quality plus printing and family natural foods here at WFHR.
Welcome back, everyone.
Playmakers here at WFHR, probably brought to you by quality plus printing and family natural foods.
James and Randy hanging out with you.
Phone lights are wide open.
715-424-2600.
Hit us in the numbers.
Randy's got some local coverage for us.
What do you got about it?
Well, let's begin with Girl's Softball from the area through this week.
Wisconsin Rapids picked up a home win on Tuesday over Marchfield 96.
And then they split up here on Saturday in the point quad over in Clover,
as they smoshed Sun Prairie East 14 to 2 before losing to Jefferson 9 to 2.
Lady Raiders are off until Thursday when they travel up to three dubs to face the Warriors.
Assumption faced Arbordale twice this last week.
On Monday, they nipped the Eagles on the road two to one.
Macy Valor tossed at one hit gem while striking out 10.
And Eric Havanaugh smacked a pair of doubles for the Royals.
Then at home on Tuesday, Assumption fell four to one.
Morgan Grisbach got the W, allowing just four hits while striking out five for Arbordale.
Whether permitting the Royals are up in Edgar right now, taking on the Wildcats.
Poor Edwards beat Bollard Gresham at home on Tuesday, 17-5.
Taylor McDonnell got the W on the hill as she loud only one hit.
Well, at the dish, she went three for three and scored a pair of runs.
On Thursday, Pittsville came a call and they went home with an 18-to-1 win.
The Hawks returned to action on Thursday, as they had east to face Wild Rose.
And Akusa earned three wins that, including back-to-back, no hitters.
The first came on Monday as Jackie Beetle and Reagan willhorn combined to blank Athens 11-0.
And then on Tuesday, willhorn got the solo no-no as the papermaker's malled Boston 15 to zip.
And finally, on Thursday, Akusa picked up the win at Westfield 7-2.
The papermakers will be back at home tomorrow as they entertain Mutoma.
Michael and Seth will be bringing you all the action starting at 4.50 on FM 105-5WRI.
It was also a busy weekend boys baseball action as the Lincoln Red Raiders on Tuesday,
one at Wasa, east 4-1.
And again, at home on Thursday, also against the lumberjacks, 7-1.
Rapids is back at home tomorrow as they play host to SPASH.
Like the girls, assumption-faced Auburndale twice last week.
On Monday, they lost on the road 13-3.
Nolan Richardson got the win, scattering 4 hits while striking out 9.
And then on Tuesday, the Eagles won at assumption 22-1.
Blake Robb was the winner for Auburndale and also went 5-5 at the plate, including 5 RBI's.
The Royals are also on the road today at Edgar.
Port Edwards split a pair this week, striking Boller at home on Tuesday 8-6.
And then losing at home to Pitzville 11-0 on Thursday.
Again, weather and field conditions permitting.
The Black Cocks are scheduled to play at Elman Bancroft today.
And the Crusade had three contests this week.
First on Monday, they picked up a home win over Athens 5-3.
Next, they fell on Tuesday at Black River Falls 5-4.
And then on Thursday, Austin came to town and beat the papermakers 6-1.
Today, Nacusa plays host to the Hornets of Rushhold.
In high school girl soccer action, Wisconsin Rapids pitched a shutout at Merrill on Thursday, 6-10.
And on Saturday, fell at home to Eau Claire Memorial 3-0.
The Raiders are also at home again tomorrow as they face the old aides of Eau Claire Memorial.
And then on Thursday evening, Michael and Seth at 6-50 will bring you Marshfield versus Lincoln on FM-1055WRI from Washington Field.
Assumption picked up a home win on Tuesday over Adams' friendship 5-1.
As they put a whopping 42 shots on goal.
Tomorrow, the Lady Royals will be at the co-op team of Eau Claire Regis and Chippewa Falls McDonald.
And last Tuesday, excuse me, the LHS boys were involved in the Wisconsin Valley Conference indoor track and field invite at UWSB
where Spash captured first with 176 points.
DC Everest was a distance second at 115, while Rapids finished in sixth place with a score of 28.5.
And weather permitting, Rapids will be outdoor this Thursday in a triangular with Everest and Spash at Gurkey Field in Stevens Point.
So that's just some of the area things that took place this last week here in local sports.
Incredible coverage as always, Randy.
I appreciate you love working with you for many, many years.
I don't want to nitpick, but you did miss one key thing on your list.
There was a big, big trade that happened last week that I don't know if it got the national coverage that I believe it deserved.
For those that did not hear, our sister station, 1055WRI has traded for WFHR's playmakers.
There involves a handful of draft picks, a player to be named later.
A bunch of that and stuff and everything.
Not the really key headline of this.
Starting this Wednesday, WFHR will be premiering over on 1055WRI.
Playmakers will be over there.
Playmakers were looking forward to having some fun over there with a new audience, a new crew in some ways.
We'll be airing 4 to 5 Monday, Wednesday, Friday, again starting this Wednesday,
which also happens to be our kind of draft special as we are leading you into the NFL draft kicking off on Thursday.
Where is that going to be held this year, do you know?
I heard, let me double check Green Bay, Wisconsin.
What?
Yeah, we're looking forward to that, though.
Real seriousness, we encourage you to spread the word about playmakers moving.
We've had a lot of fun, a lot of success with this show.
And all of it is thanks to our listeners and our sponsors, greatly appreciate everybody joining us over on 105.
That really long journey across the hall to do this show.
But we have some fun things in store for you as we build the show over there.
And we're looking forward to talking with you over there, everybody.
Same show, no difference, just different call letters.
That's the only change.
Just an hour earlier.
Yeah.
And the other thing, too, is the fact that it'll be kind of nice because we always do our high school sports on 105.
So we've just got all of our sports talk shows and high school activities taking place in the same place.
Yeah, really makes sense.
We're looking forward to that.
We're talking with our new sports director, by the way, Michael Comer.
We've been able to talk a little bit about how we can pre-game a little bit more for the high school events and maybe even get more coach talk conversation on the show or things like that.
It's going to work out really good for me, your rafters and rafter baseball with not really interfering with opening pitches much or anything that we might have done with the four with the five to six time here.
So that's going to even things out a little bit better, too.
And we're looking forward to it.
So spread the word, everybody.
This is, as it turns out, as our last show here at WFHR for now.
But we are looking forward to, of course, bringing you Badger Sports all season long.
As we're the home of Badger Sports here at WFHR.
And, you know, looking forward to what can happen for WFHR at this six o'clock hour.
Because while there are a lot of things going on that we've focused on, one thing I don't think we've been able to talk about, whether it's on our morning show or this show right here, is after six.
You know, we have Pete Schwabba right now, but we may be doing some other things here at WFHR after this six o'clock hour.
So we're not, nobody's abandoning this network, at least not as long as I'm here.
Nobody's abandoning this network.
I love this station.
I don't, that's not just words I throw out there.
It's not a verb I use lightly.
I only say the L word.
If I mean it, I can back it up.
And I think I've proven that this audience, how much I love this darn station.
I would hope I have, at least.
If not, I'll keep showing up and I'll keep proving it to you.
Yeah, boy, I might go all the way back to 92 and that's a few years ago.
Yeah, that's, yeah, your love is definitely.
I wanted to get to our stat of the show and our story of the show.
And piggybacking off of what we are brewer conversation with the stolen bases.
And the brewer's having a record franchise record nine steals in that game that went over Oakland.
That was impressive.
But Randy, what is the most stolen bases in a game?
Who is stolen the most stolen bases in a game?
The record.
For most stolen bases in a single game, is, do you want to take a shot?
Well, you know, I think they were talking about that when they had those nine.
Or when they had those eight in that one inning, it went all the way back to like the 50s.
So I don't know if this is the same one, but I'm going to go with if they actually had that many in one inning.
I'm going to go with 15.
Well, that's a great guess.
I have, I should have said that better.
I have the guys, the player, individual player with the most stolen bases.
I'll look up that part though.
Okay, it's a pretty team.
That's a really good one.
Yeah, boy, one guy, most stolen bases in a game.
Is it somebody in the modern era?
Yes.
Would it be Ricky Henderson?
I wish it was.
Okay.
That would only be so perfect for me personally.
I would love to say that.
You know, Lou Brock back in the day.
He, you know, he swiped quite a few as well.
Oh, yeah, good one.
Good one.
But cheaper is the most one guy in the game.
I'm going to go with six.
Nice.
Well, just real quick, the New York Highlanders had the most stolen bases by a team in a game with 15 steals versus St. Louis Browns.
We all remember back in 1911.
Oh, yeah, I'll remember that one.
Yeah, it's hard to forget that game.
I was 10 at that time.
I was 10 at that time.
So you were right about the 15 on there, one to give you credit on that.
And then for players, we all remember George Gore, wonderful Chicago White Sox stockings.
I'm sorry, White Sox stockings player from 1881.
Good old George Gore had seven in the game, only to be tied many, many years later by Billy Hamilton in 1894.
So seven stolen bases in a game is still the record going back to those old stats.
I apologize.
I wasn't trying to mess with you, but there was a Billy Hamilton for the reds that was pretty good.
That's why I was thinking you were going to tell me.
And that's what I thought.
Yeah, I just glanced at it for the Phillies.
I'm like, well, I thought he played for the reds, but okay.
And I go, nope, different Billy Hamilton.
Wrong Billy.
Yeah.
Great, great.
Yes, yes.
Seven and 15 are the numbers right there as far as for a team and for a player.
Seven stolen bases is insanity to me.
And I watched the greatest base player ever as closely as any athlete I've ever watched.
And I still couldn't imagine Ricky Henderson pulling off seven stolen bases in the game just to get on base that many times.
That's the other thing you have to have happen.
And you got to be getting the double on the base pads there where you're, you're, you're, you get a single and you're stealing second and then stealing third.
The only day of the cruise eyes here are three and one, three pitches.
That's so much fun to watch.
And he said that he had to yesterday.
It's incredible.
And he's not even close to his prime.
He face planted after he caught that thing and got up there and like proud.
Yeah, I love that.
That's a, that's a ball player right there, man.
He's going to be a lot of fun to watch.
Yeah.
Another fun thing to watch this week.
And if you happen to miss it was the, our story of the show.
And you can find the article at ESPN.com if you're looking for it.
Otherwise, I encourage you to watch some of the video.
Elisandre Obonomani became the first ball kid with Down syndrome to work unassisted in the ATP tour match
during the Barcelona Open on Friday.
Bonomani performed her duties during the men's double quarterfinals at Andreas Gamio court,
drawing cheers from spectators and plenty of encouragement on social media at the tournament highlighted her achievement.
How cool is that?
It got me when I read that bear.
It got me.
That's just a beautiful story.
And a really, really cool moment, not just for that kid, but for tennis, for everybody involved and hopefully for sports.
Had I heard about that, that would have been my lead story today.
That's a really good one.
That's a really good one.
A credit to the, you know, the people that powers that be, that make those decisions.
I, I tried to actually look into it because I did, I really did want to give them literal credit for it and everything.
But I could not find who exactly makes those calls.
But whoever does, good on you.
Like, good move, good move.
We need more of that.
Need more stories like that.
And let's talk about this one, Randy, because this was the big one that dropped right before we went on air.
The NCAA Division I Board of Directors today proposed a deleting 153 longstanding rules from its handbook.
A move that would allow schools to share financial benefits directly with players.
An expected step towards a new era of amateurism in college athletics.
But one that remains, you know, obviously controversial when it comes down to it.
But essentially what we're saying here is, is that this would not only, you could say maybe eliminate NIL, but make NIL obsolete.
Whereas, let's take, you know, Miami a couple of years ago where they had this, this benefactor.
This guy who was a tech guy and had millions and millions and all that and everything.
Like, wow, he's going to be able to bring in some really big recruits into the university of Miami.
You know who has more money than that?
The university of Miami who's printing money.
Like, and along with every other university in America.
So if they're able to pay players, what do I need the car dealership guy for?
You know, what do I need?
Even my board of directors for. I've got the money.
I can print out five dollar bills with Bucky Badger on them and everything.
And print out as many as I want, two almost more than four knocks.
Like, I don't think people really have looked enough into or maybe they haven't and that's their own business.
But I don't, if you want to talk about how much money these universities are making.
I don't think people, I almost, I almost bet my bottom dollar that nobody would be able to wrap their mind around how much money college universities are bringing in.
Wisconsin is a big university.
It has a lot going for it.
But I don't think you would think of them as a USC or UCLA or some other, like, you know, or even a Harvard or some universities that are just well known throughout the whole entire world.
Wisconsin is making more money than most any business in this state.
More than Harbor, Harley Davidson.
I'll tell you that more the quick trip.
More than, you know, any other Wisconsin business culverts, you can put them all together.
And I don't know if they're making the money that the university of the university Wisconsin's making.
So if you're talking about them being able to pay players, let alone USC, UCLA, Syracuse, any other university you want to say, that really changes the game.
And it kind of gets rid of the whole need for, you know, the car dealer paying these kids or something like that.
You know, the other thing I was thinking when you brought this up was that I know from what I read in here, I'm not in obviously we don't look at the books, but from what I understand is like some of these colleges have these $50 million right that they're sitting on.
And they also get $2 million like from the government.
So are we actually having the government pay these kids to?
That's the way it's going to.
Yep, that's the way it's going to really look at it.
Yep.
No, you're 100% right.
So my taxes are exactly ready.
You knew exactly or at least you and I were going in the same route on this one and the same path because that's what you're going to.
Where your tax dollars are going to be paying for not going to be, but you're in a, and this is a, please understand this is a bit of a stretch walking down here.
We're not at all saying this.
I'm not fear mongering or anything like that.
I want to have a conversation about this.
I hate fear mongering.
I'm so tired of it.
It's so lame.
I really don't want to be come across the way if I am.
I'm sorry if I am.
What I'm trying to get into here is just the interesting end of this and where we are in time.
Because hopefully if everything works out 20, 30 years from now, they're going to be looking at this and saying what the great groundwork that was done to build this so that it is right.
We all love sports.
We like college sports.
It's not going anywhere.
It's got to evolve.
You are not putting the genie back in the bottle.
You are not going to go back to a day and age that people romanticize all the time about.
Oh, I missed the days where athletes just played for the love of the game.
And they just played for the university and for their scholarship.
Man, get over that.
I mean, that happened.
That happened before they were pro sports basically.
Right.
Exactly.
That was a gone, that was a time and day and age.
Guess what?
Guess the people that lived during it, how they feel, how they felt, how Ray, Ray, Ray, Ray Nagersky, or...
Rock on Nagersky.
I mean, I was trying, Ray Nitsky, who was trying to think of.
Ray Nitsky and Dick Buck has talked about this a lot.
How their respective ownerships of their teams and the money they were making when they were making pennies.
And that's on the NFL level.
When they were playing at Illinois, the university, the money that that university was making off of those two linebackers,
just those two players, along the rest of the team that they had.
That's the last time that really anybody in Illinois could brag about their football team.
That the money that they made off of that in Illinois, they're still collecting in champagne.
Like, they're still collecting and they're still counting that money.
These universities do a great service and do something really important in life, in education, in teaching,
and being a hopefully a safe haven for these kids to go there, learn, and be able to hit the real world and all that.
But let's not kid ourselves and let's stop romanticizing these days of the past, where they played with leather helmets,
and they played for the love of the game and blah, blah, blah.
No, they played for the love of the game because there was no other option.
This was it. This or nothing.
And of course, if you're going to give somebody an idea of doing their passion and nothing, they're going to do their passion.
We're making things right now.
It's the Wild West. It ain't what it should be.
It's out of hand, and whether we're talking transfer portal or NIL, both things are out of whack right now.
I can wholeheartedly agree with that.
But it's just such a lame and easy kind of thing to say, point to the player or point to NIL and say,
that's the problem, that's what's wrong.
When nobody's pointing at the adults, nobody's pointing at the universities.
That's where all this starts.
And true leadership starts from the top.
Anything bad that's happening in life.
If the top leader is not taking accountability, then that falls on them more than anything else.
And whether we're talking about the NCAA or we're talking about these universities or even these players, it goes to the top.
And there has to be accountability or responsibility right there.
And that accountability is paying these players.
We are one step closer to it with this right here.
And all of this being said, the NCAA is probably a good 15 to 20 years behind on this.
Like the athletes at Northwestern almost 20 years ago were trying to unionize.
And this has been a conversation since you and I were kids ranting.
And they're finally just now starting, well, you know what, maybe we'll let go some rules in all this.
Yeah, it's interesting, you know, thinking about all these players that are going to have the ability to bring in some money for their abilities.
You think of the other, what percent get into the NFL or into the NBA just a small tenth of a percent, right?
You think about some of these people, they know, they know there's no way they're ever going to get into the NFL or into the NBA.
So there are some that do it, play it for the love of the game, right?
But then there's the other is the Cooper Flags of the world who basically are, you know, this is just a one stop place.
It's a job interview.
Right. There's one year job interview and I'll show you what I got.
And I think we talked about this maybe last week or two weeks ago too.
You know, the fact that you've got these college players who are they going to actually leave college because they're not going to make as much money, especially if you think about the NFL where they got that four year rookie contract, right?
And if they can stay in college, those extra four years and there's no one's cap on that, you know, so you're going to have these guys coming out at age 24, 25, 26 before they finally get into the NFL.
And then they're going to have a rookie contact until our age 30 and by then their career is over.
Right. It's weird.
It's really weird how that could go.
Or somebody had this comment.
They said, what happens if some kid who's 30 years old, you know, they got bigger, they got stronger.
We know people that got better out of high school.
No, they've got all their eligibility left.
They have these big grown monsters of people.
It's incredible.
It's going to be wild.
And it's especially funny to me to see the argument.
The person have the two dual argument of, oh, NIL has ruined college basketball.
We're not going to have Cinderella anymore in NFL.
These guys don't stay in college anymore.
They keep transferring or whatever.
And then the other side of it is, well, NIL is going to keep kids in college longer where they can become better athletes and be better once they hit the pros.
Like, what are we doing?
I mean, pick a side here and everything.
And real quick, if I can, before we go to break, the fear that NIL could make it so that small universities or universities that are not on the West or East Coast or down south or something, that could hurt them.
And I think that hits locally, of course, with our Midwestern teams and our big 10 teams.
Don't forget that Wisconsin pulled in the biggest free agent coach there was until Bill Bullichek.
And nobody even knew Bullichek was looking at college.
So I think you can make an argument even more than him.
Everybody in college football wanted, in college football wanted Luke fickle.
Every single university outside of maybe an Alabama and one or two other teams.
They'd have thrown their head coach out if Luke fickle one of that job.
And Wisconsin got him.
And they got him legit wise.
Don't tell me that you still can't get talent or anything like that in this day and age.
Players are still going to want to go where they're going to be able to get in where they fit in and be able to play well and get on the field.
Before we hit break, just one NIL guy that left Tennessee the quarterback.
I think I just saw that he went over to UCLA today.
Yeah, so I went, oh no, big 10 needs in our conference. Oh boy.
Yeah, we're going to see what he's made of.
Yeah, I'm curious.
Take a time out.
Come back and wrap up Playmakers here for this Monday on WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody.
Playmakers here at WFHR for one more break.
Got us with us over here at 97 5 FM 13 20 AM.
Locally grown radio.
Randy and James hanging out with you.
Again, starting on Wednesday, WIRI's Playmakers.
Get used to saying that.
We'll be debuting.
We're looking forward to it.
We're going to be talking NFL draft to lead you into it.
And certainly we'll be talking rafters and maybe even some river kings who knows.
But I do want to talk a little NFL draft with you.
Randy, as we're getting into the last minutes of the show here.
And it looks like the Packers have all but assured that Jaya Alexander has done playing for Green Bay.
Some of the moves that they've certainly made in free agency.
But it's also a lot of the hand that they're showing a little bit in the NFL draft and the pre-combine.
And some of that where they've been bringing in a lot of corners, looking at a lot of corners.
Now that of course could be a smoke screen, you know, who knows.
In fact, I would lean more towards all of these things.
These GMs are doing our smoke screens.
I wouldn't buy anything.
I wouldn't believe a single word.
They said, I don't care if I was their kid.
I wouldn't believe in what they tell me because that's their job.
They know if they're good at their job.
That's what they're supposed to do.
But I do think that given salary cap issues for every NFL team in Green Bay with the Jordan
Love contract and some of those things, you really got to be picky about who's going to have those max deals,
who's going to have those big contracts.
Jaya Alexander, just can't, I don't know how you can justify it.
I don't know how one season or one stretch of games could even justify that contract, let alone going forward
where it's not as if he's going to get healthier or younger.
And he's played last two years.
He's played combined one year, basically.
Yeah.
So I think you're better off, you know, cutting your losses.
You get a fifth or a sixth rounder, a fourth rounder, or something like that for him or my god, take it, take it.
Yeah.
And move on.
Maybe they get Hendrickson in the trade.
Yeah.
I think that's what might be happening this week.
You know, that some of those big names that they didn't go after or didn't get the ones that are still out there and left,
they maybe have something that they are hoping to get.
I just, somebody asked me the other day, what do you think the Packers are going to do?
And I said, I just hope they don't do like two years ago where they don't pick a starter.
Yes.
At least grab a starter from a team for crying out loud.
Not a backup isn't their career.
Like Van Ness was, and he just hasn't come around.
Hopefully he still does.
I'm hoping for the young kid.
There's a few arguments that, a few NFL teams that can't not draft, I mean, first two rounds, starters.
That's all you should be drafting.
Unless maybe your Kansas City.
All Americans.
You know, yes.
Yes.
A hundred percent agree with you, Randy.
And I also, I would add under that, don't trade out, don't trade out of that draft.
This is a deep draft.
But where they're picking, you could, you could get lucky and somebody falls to you,
or maybe you only have to move up a spot or two to get one of these receivers.
Everybody's been really tying them to that McMillan kid, that number one receiver out there and stuff.
And you didn't land him.
I mean, I will take back some of the things I've said about the offseason for the Packers.
When's the last time they picked a wide receiver in the draft in the number one slot?
Was it John Walker?
Watson was Watson a first rounder?
I thought Watson was a first rounder.
Maybe not.
But either way, it's been a while.
And it hasn't worked out.
So I mean, I don't know where the direction is going to go any more than anybody else out there.
But I would see, I would like to see them, not easily standing pat or moving up a couple of picks
and landing either this receiver or whoever the top receiver or pass rusher on the board is.
One of the other and get yourself a world beater.
Get yourself a starter.
Great show, Randy.
Thanks for hanging out with us.
It was perfect for you and I to do this final one here at WFHR.
Thank you to the best listeners and radio.
Wednesday, we'll meet you over at 1055.
Have a great night, everybody.
This is locally grown radio.
WFHR 1320 AM.
W248DE Wisconsin Rapids.
And always streaming on the Civic Media App.
