by Tim Froberg
August has arrived and there is plenty happening in the sports world.
The Packers have launched training camp, high school football practice has started and the Milwaukee Brewers are in the heat of a pennant race.
Here’s a few random thoughts and observations on Wisconsin’s wild world of sports.
- Let me get this straight. The Milwaukee Bucks are going to pay Damian Lillard $112 million to NOT play basketball for them? Another move like this and we’re going to be calling them the Milwaukee Need Some Bucks.
- The Miz has been a whiz for the surprisingly relevant Milwaukee Brewers. I’m talking about Jacob Misiorowski, Milwaukee’s fireballing rookie pitcher who has emerged as a strikeout machine since being called up from the minors. Misiorowski compares favorably to Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh’s insanely talented mound ace. Both have basketball height (Misiorowski is 6-7 and Skenes is 6-6) and bring a towering presence to the bump along with triple-digit fastballs that sometimes can only be heard.
Misiorowski has electric stuff. If he can keep that prized arm healthy and continue to develop his secondary pitches, he might be baseball’s next big thing. Congrats to local fans who were smart enough to catch any of the six games Misiorowski pitched for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers during the summer of 2023.
It’s just a shame the late, great Bob Uecker isn’t around to tout the talents of the young flamethrower. I can just hear Uecker saying something like, “Jacob works for NASA in the offseason, lending his right arm to America’s rocket program.” Or, “Misiorowski threw that one so hard Milwaukee firefighters are rushing to the plate to extinguish the flames from William Contreras’ mitt.”
On the opposite side of the toughness spectrum, Contreras deserves a shout-out for playing most of this season with a fractured left middle finger. Imagine catching 100-plus pitches a night from fireballers like Misiorowski, Freddy Peralta, and Trevor Megill with a busted-up finger. To quote George Costanza, “That’s gotta hurt.”
Here’s a fun fact about the likeable and highly skilled Brewers manager, Pat Murphy. He’s a former boxer who won several amateur tournaments as a teen and considered professionally pursuing it. Murphy still spars in the offseason at the age of 66. If I’m Christian Yelich and a bench-clearing brawl breaks out at American Family Field, I’m hanging with Murph.
Corbin Burnes may have more cash than Montgomery Burns of The Simpsons, but the former Brewers ace is yet another example of why it’s financial poison to sign even elite pitchers to blockbuster contracts. After inking a six-year deal with Arizona for a whopping $210 million, Burnes made just 11 starts for the D-Backs this season before undergoing Tommy John surgery that will sideline him for all of 2026. Keep it up baseball. If salaries keep escalating, Elon Musk is going to be the only fan who will be able to afford box seats in 2035.
With three players—Cooper Flagg (1), Kon Knueppel (4) and Khaman Maluach (10)—selected as the top 10 of the 2025 NBA draft, I still can’t figure out, how, in the name of James Naismith, Duke didn’t win the Big Dance. Did the Blue Devils play that Final Four in hockey skates?
The Dallas Mavericks were not only wise to select Flagg with the first overall pick, but patriotic, too. What’s more American than procuring a Flagg a week before Independence Day?
I’m fine with Green Bay’s release of seldom-healthy Jaire Alexander. The man spent more time in street clothes on Sundays than members of the team’s public relations department. But I do feel the Baltimore Ravens got a bargain in signing Alexander to a one-year contract worth just $6 million. Alexander is only 28 and still has elite skills. If he can play 8 to 10 games next season, Alexander will be worth the Ravens’ modest investment.
This article was originally published in the August 2025 issue of Appleton Monthly Magazine.
