Sports Nut

#477699969 / gettyimages.com Paging through some old posts this morning, I spotted a pretty significant anniversary: 29 years ago today, Major League Baseball held the 1985 amateur draft. With the first overall pick, your Milwaukee Brewers selected University of North Carolina shortstop (!) B.J. Surhoff. Surhoff didn’t play much shortstop in the majors but, as No. 1 overall picks go, he wasn’t a bad choice. He played his first nine MLB seasons in Milwaukee, primarily as a catcher, and hit .274/.323/.380 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging) in 1,102 games. His 704 career games behind the plate are the second-most in franchise history,…

Just before new Milwaukee Bucks owners Marc Lasry and Wes Edens spent Thursday night hanging out and drinking beer with fans, word came down that someone was buying the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion. That’s nearly four times what it cost to buy the Bucks. But there’s another connection between the Clippers and Bucks sales. The man who’ll write that $2 billion check for the Clippers is former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. But before he offered to write that check, as this ESPN story explains, he and partner Chris Hansen offered to write another one for the Bucks. And it…

It is, for now, nothing but a number, and a rather small one at that. Which hasn’t stopped it from being quite the big deal. And the Milwaukee Bucks are counting on it becoming even bigger. “Pick #2” is the latest Bucks catchphrase, splashed around their redesigned website and celebrated in emails sent out to “Bucks Stakeholders.” It is their prize from Tuesday night’s NBA Draft Lottery, which was their prize for suffering through the worst season in franchise history. It is a symbol of hope that things will get better, and a symbol of how far away they may…

The 22-year-old’s name is Wei-Chung Wang. He hails from Taiwan, throws lefty in the mid-90s, has a spot in Milwaukee’s vaunted bullpen, and would, under normal circumstances, be quite familiar with life on a minor-league bus. But these days, life is anything but normal with anything involving the Milwaukee Brewers. They’re the best team in baseball, having just notched their 20th win, and own a divisional league big enough to drive one of those buses through. They struck heartfelt marketing gold with Hank the Dog. And now, they are singlehandedly reintroducing Milwaukee to the wonders of 80s new wave music.…

Soon-to-be-Bucks owner Mark Lasry introduces himself to Milwaukee, with partner Wesley Edens (far right) and longtime Bucks owner Herb Kohl looking on. (Photo by Howie Magner) Meet the new bosses. Far from the old boss. We don’t know much yet about Mark Lasry and Wesley Edens, the soon-to-be-official new owners of the Milwaukee Bucks. We know they know how to make money, to the tune of billions. We know they’re big basketball fans. We know Lasry is pretty tight with some Navy guy named David Robinson. And we know both Lasry and Edens convinced Herb Kohl they deserved his trust.…

You spell Cardinals with nine letters. Unless you’re a Brewers fan, in which case it’s probably more like a four-letter word. Nobody needs to tell a Brewers fan what life’s been like against the Cardinals of late. In a word, bad. In a four-letter word… well, make up your own. But if you want some specifics to wallow in, here they are. Since 2013, St. Louis has won 16 of 21 against the Brew Crew. Since 2012, 25 of 36. And of course, in 2014, the Cards have won both of their games against Milwaukee by a combined score of…

All About Braun Ryan Braun may not have been the star of the game. He had a hit, stole a base and scored a run in Milwaukee’s 2-0 win. He even became a trivial footnote when his infield hit was overturned on replay, making him part of the first play reversed under MLB’s expanded replay rules. It was a nice game for Braun. It was not nearly among his best. And yet, because it was his first game back from his lengthy suspension, and because he got a hero’s reception from most Brewers fans, Braun was most definitely the star…

After every season, the rumors about Buzz Williams potentially leaving Marquette flew. And after every season, the rumors were proven wrong. But as Marquette fans are painfully aware, this was not like any other Buzz Williams season. For the first time in Williams’ tenure, Marquette missed the NCAA tournament. And for the first time in his tenure, one of the rumors proved true. Williams is leaving Marquette for Virginia Tech, reportedly on a seven-year, $18 million deal with the ACC school. A couple years ago, I wrote a piece about Buzz Williams and the future. Looking back on it, this…

It was way back in November, two days before Thanksgiving and long before UW-Milwaukee knew just how good things would get. But everybody already knew things were a whole lot better than before. Not that this was a particularly high bar for the Panthers. The previous season had seen them win all of eight games, a sorry slog that set the stage for coach Rob Jeter’s massive offseason renovation project. When it was over, he’d have far more new players on his team than returning ones, which didn’t keep preseason prognosticators from picking them last in the Horizon League. Well,…

Buzz Williams isn’t one to shy away from the subject of failure. On the contrary, he prefers to make the most of it. The Marquette basketball coach has often noted his belief that you learn more from your failures than your successes. “I don’t think most people believe that,” Williams says, “but I believe that.” So in that sense, Marquette has had more learning opportunities recently than its fans are accustomed to. There have been 10 losses this season. That’s more than the team experienced in each of the last two seasons, and the 14-10 record has turned the Golden…