On Saturday night Foxsports Wisconsin is continuing to replay famous games in Wisconsin baseball history and this time it will be the 1975 Major League Baseball All-Star game from County Stadium on July 15 1975. And my 18 year old self was in the upper deck behind home plate. I spent the summer between high school and college playing Legion baseball, flipping burgers at Chips in downtown Wausau, swimming at Man Made Lake, shooting pool and drinking beer with my pals at many area watering holes and listening to all of the great music from that era. And on that one July evening headed to Milwaukee with my buddy Mike Green to see the best baseball players do their thing. I was an American League fan. The Brewers were in the AL and at the time I was a huge Red Sox fan. I would usually make the trip to County Stadium at least once a year to see the Sox. So I was much more interested in the AL squad even if the starting lineup was almost all A's and Yankees. The NL starting lineup was almost all Reds and Dodgers. But what lineups they were…and the benches were filled with future Hall-of-Famers as well. For the NL it was Johnny Bench, Steve Garvey,Joe Morgan, Ron Cey, Dave Concepcion, Lou Brock, Pete Rose and Jimmy Wynn. The bench included Tony Perez, Bill Madlock, Reggie Smith, Al Oliver and Gary Carter. The pitching staff included starter Jerry Reuss along with Tom Seaver, Don Sutton, Phil Niekro, Jon Matlack and Tug McGraw. The AL was loaded. The starting lineup was Thurman Munson, Gene Tenace, Rod Carew, Graig Nettles, Bert Campaneris, Reggie Jackson, Bobby Bonds and Joe Rudi. The AL bench featured George Scott, Yaz, Freddie Lynn (in the midst of his first season where he won both the Rookie of the Year and the MVP award), Hal McRae and Hank Aaron (making his final All-Star appearance as a member of the Brewers). The AL pitchers included Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage, Catfish Hunter, Jim Kaat, Jim Palmer and Nolan Ryan. In all 17 future Hall of Famers played in this game.
Steve Garvey and Jim Wynn hit back to back homers off Vida Blue in the second inning. Bench drove in Brock in the 3rd to give the NL a 3-0 lead. In the sixth Yaz hit a pinch hit three run homer off Seaver to tie the game. Bill Madlock drove in two runs for the NL off Hunter in the 9th to secure a 6-3 win for the NL.
Some other rememberances….you couldnt get near the AL dugout because Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was there to throw out the first pitch. Some idiot threw a firecracker in that vicinity and you should have seen the Secret Service react. I did manage to snag Gary Carter autograph on my program….and bout halfway through the game stadium security came down from the top row behind us hauling an empty quarter barrel. Some ingenious guys had pulled it up the side of the stadium with a rope.
I was fortunate to cover the 2002 All-Star game at Miller Park as a member of the working press and that was a blast…but to see these guys face each other (at a time with no interleague play except the World Series) was still something special . You can watch it on Saturday night
Gotta love those popsicle hued uniforms
Here is the May schedule of classic games on Foxsports Wisconsin
| DATE | TIME | MATCHUP | ORIGINAL DATE | NOTES |
| May 2 | 7 p.m. | 1975 All-Star Game | 7/15/75 | 1975 All-Star Game at Milwaukee County Stadium |
| May 4 | 7 p.m. | Atlanta Braves at Milwaukee Brewers | 5/16/04 | Ben Sheets strikes out 18 Braves |
| May 6 | 7 p.m. | Milwaukee Brewers at Pittsburgh Pirates | 8/31/08 | CC Sabathia pitches one-hitter with 11 Ks for Brewers’ eighth win in nine games |
| May 8 | 7 p.m. | Chicago Cubs at Milwaukee Brewers | 9/28/08 | Ryan Braun’s 8th-inning homer puts Brewers in playoffs for first time since 1982 |
| May 10 | 6 p.m. | Minnesota Twins and Milwaukee Brewers | 6/25/05 | Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks hit first MLB home runs |
| May 12 | 7 p.m. | Arizona Diamondbacks at Milwaukee Brewers | 10/7/11 | Nyjer Morgan delivers 10th-inning walk-off to send Crew to NLCS |
| May 14 | 7 p.m. | Milwaukee Brewers at Baltimore Orioles | 10/3/82 | Brewers win A.L. East on last day of season |
| May 16 | 7 p.m. | Milwaukee Brewers at St. Louis Cardinals |
It was five years ago yesterday that the Orioles and White Sox played in an empty stadium due to civil unrest in the neighborhood around Camden Yards. It was weird…
Fans of Parks & Recreation already probably know this but…
Leslie Knope wants to let you in on a secret… On April 30,
#ParksAndRec
is returning to NBC for “A Parks and Recreation Special”. Our workplace proximity associates, along with our neighbors at
@StateFarm
, are raising money for
@FeedingAmerica
. Join us!
Jack Eich came up with this baseball nugget…
“Was doing some baseball research and stumbled on this piece of info. @Brewers Robin Yount played 2,856 games and was never ejected from a game. That's fourth most games on all time no ejection list. Stan Musial no. 1 at 3,026.”-Jack Eich
I've been diving back into The West Wing on Netflix this week> Yeah, I know its an idealized look at how government works…but it certainly is a tonic from the way our government is working(or not working) now.
A great scene…
Covers Of The Day
Muddy Waters covers Robert Johnson
Paul Rodgers (along with Slash, Brian Setzer, Neal Schon and others) covers Muddy Waters
Now available in the White House Gift Shop…..not even kidding….
Quotes Of The Day
“FreedomWorks, a conservative operation that advocates small government and made its name opposing bailouts, applies for PPP “-Catherine Rampall
https://nytimes.com/2020/04/24/us/politics/coronav…
“A relative of sick meat-plant employees in Green Bay says that instead of checking on its workers' health, the company sent a text message offering a free T-shirt, ground beef and toilet paper.”-Mark Treinen
https://greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2020/0…
via @haleybemiller
“Jared Kushner, owner of the most smackably smug face in the United States, calls 60,000 deaths and 26 million people unemployed “a great success story.” After trump, his is the face I want the most to see behind bars.”-Brooklyn Dad
“Every few days I try to imagine what Republicans in Congress would be doing if coronavirus had hit on President Hillary Clinton's watch, in an election year. I doubt we'd have passed $3 trillion in economic support, for instance.”-Ezra Klein
“Donald Trump does not want to be in charge of any of this. He wants to play president on TV. He doesn't want responsibility for governance in a time of crisis, and in every way he can, he's refusing to do that job, and lashing out at those who ask him to do it.”-Ezra Klein
“Mike Pence is all the evil, twice the hypocrisy, with half of the comedy value”-John Fugelsang
“Seriously f**king wild to listen to some conservatives rationalize the deaths of older folks from COVID using economic reasoning after spending decades telling pregnant women that poverty isn't a good excuse to have abortion rights.”-Charlotte Clymer
“Trump gets off on forcing people to compromise their values publicly. And he's been successful — we see it with media and with officials. It's ritualized humiliation designed to hollow people out. But if you're honest about him *and* honest about institutional flaws, you can fight.”-Sarah Kendizor
“.@GOP you grilled Hillary Clinton for 11 straight hours for the 4 killed in Benghazi. Trump was briefed by the intelligence community in January multiple times on the coronavirus. Trump didn’t read the briefings. He played golf, had rallies & ignored it. Where’s the outrage @gop?”-Copter Doctor
