Andy and Bret

The other day on Facebook I got a notification that my brother had changed his profile picture, and since he's been adding pictures of us as little kids lately I thought I'd take a look. But from the thumbnail, it looked like him and someone famous.

Check it out.

Pretty cool. I emailed Andy to ask him about it, and here was his tongue in cheek response:

"Mendota Gridiron Club's annual 'IT Day.' BB and the coaches emailed a bunch of IT people on campus and we sat down with the guys to show them how to use Powerpoint and YouTube. Xavier Harris now loves playing World of WarCraft ..."

And the real story:

"It was actually at a 'rock & roll concert' in Middleton last weekend. Someone spotted BB from like 30 yards away and he was nice enough to let us take a picture with him."

As cool as it must be to be Bret Bielema, it's also got to be challenging. You want to be accommodating to fans like Andy and his buddies, but let's say 25 people come up to him during this concert asking for pictures. Can you ever say no? If you do just once, you come off as a jerk. Suppose that's just the price that comes with living as a celebrity and not being content to be homebound or exceedingly private.

Andy also said they couldn't have their beers in their pictures with the coach, which makes sense -- he doesn't want another Larry Eustachy-esque picture gallery popping up on a message board or in the blogosphere.

Crazylegs=Crazy fun!

It wasn't the best day for the 27th annual Crazylegs Classic, with overcast skies and blustery wind. I finished 4,963rd, which was good for second place in our group. Unfortunately, it was 4,962 places short of finishing our quest for the perfect baby name; Jana and I made a deal that if I won the whole ball of wax, we'd name our son Elroy Hirsch Tappa. No dice.

For those of you who know us, the our quintet's finish was: 1. Tim Toohey (great race dude!), 2. me, 3. Matt Schwalbach, 4. Jim Polzin, 5. Andy Tappa. Andy and Jim crossed the finish line at the same time (sadly, not holding hands), but Jim crossed the start line a second before Andy.

A good time. Someone suggested I did some hits and misses for the day, so here goes:

Hits
-Here's who greeted us at the starting line: Morris Cain, Lance Kendricks, O'Brien Schofield, Kevin Gullikson, Brett Valentyn, Greg Stiemsma, Joe Krabbenhoft. Saw Brian Butch, wearing a big black hoodie, on Breese Terrace near the stadium entrance.

-The wave start was done better than ever, meaning less running in place and a less congested first half-mile of running.

-Ron Dayne, talkative as ever, told the crowd he planned to play two more years in the NFL before retiring to work with the program. Apparently he's also spending a lot of time in Madison working with schoolkids. Nice to see a strong alumni connection to the current team.

-Free beer at the end is a really good thing about Crazylegs.

-Didn't miss any of the NFL Draft, which started later this year. Really enjoying the new 10 minutes between picks first round, kudos Roger Goodell.

-Always a great feeling to run onto the field at Camp Randall.

Misses
-The guy with the lip piercing who enforced the double-letter waves way at the end, who made kids move from BB to CC. Come on dude, lighten up.

-The folks with really bad leg tattoos who dressed up in full Joe Thomas UW uniforms for at least the second time. I appreciate the school spirit, but the tattoos are just creepy.

-Did not hear the theme song from Rocky once. Very disappointing.

-People who are walking on the running course should move to the right side and let us run through!

-Some dude was wearing an Adam Haluska Iowa jersey. I subtly pushed him into Lake Mendota.

-The course got kind of narrow on the lakeshore after the dorms.

-George Johnson, sports director of Channel 3 in Madison and the MC at the finish line, is a bit much for my tastes.

Already looking forward to next year. Will is asking to run with me next year. I'm not sure that's such a good idea, although there were some 6-year-olds who seemed to be finishing ahead of me this year.

Your Crazylegs Grand Marshal: Rooooon Daaaayne

It'll be nice to see the big fella on Saturday, hopefully. According to a State Journal story, Dayne said "I never thought I would be in a position to do something like this."

Really, Ron? You didn't think winning the Heisman and back-to-back Rose Bowls wasn't significant enough to give you the honor of grabbing a bullhorn and addressing 18,000 runners/walkers? Hell, if I keep up Badgercentric long enough I half expect to be Grand Marshal of the Crazylegs ... around 2056.

Looking forward to the run. This will be the first time I've run without actually running beforehand, so if he really busts it Schwalbach might beat me this time, if he decides to run and leave the walking to the women. I have been playing basketball four days a week, though, so I'm not coming in stone cold.

It looks like they're projecting about 18,000 people for this year's event, which is awesome. When I started doing this with Andy six years ago I think the turnout was between 10-12,000.

One of my favorite parts of Crazylegs is to run through the start line and high-five the third-string right guard. We'll let you know whose hands we touch.

Thanks for a good year, Badgers

It was inevitable, but I was still hoping it wouldn't happen. When I hopped on Google Analytics yesterday morning, I noticed that traffic on the blog had dipped roughly 30% Saturday from Friday. Could it be because the basketball team lost, unofficially ending the 2007-08 Badger sports season?

Unfortunately, I think so.

A few weeks ago Andy said to me "What are you going to write about when basketball season's over? Because I don't want to read about your freaking personal life." The feeling is mutual, bro.

What am I going to write about?

-Sporadic Badger news. For instance, Tyler Donovan just signed with a CFL team, the Edmonton Eskimos. That's really great, the CFL is a better fit for a mobile quarterback like Tyler, and hopefully he finds a long, successful career north of the border. Maybe he turns into the next Doug Flutie. Badgers in the NFL Draft will get some coverage.

-General Badger thoughts. For instance, I plan on reflecting on the careers of the four departing senior basketball players, my favorite Badger games, etc. Maybe I'll dig into recruiting more, especially key basketball prospects like Jamil Wilson and Evan Anderson. When the preseason football magazines start coming out in June, we'll take a look at those, and break down some of the key Badgers for this fall's team.

-With the Badgers done, I can focus my sports energies on the Brewers for better or worse on Brewercentric. Head on over there and check out the discussion, Walt and the guys have been getting the hang of group blogging.

-General pop culture stuff. For instance, Jana and I watched Michael Clayton on Saturday and liked it. Tilda Swinton was excellent, Clooney was good, as were all the other key players. It was a bit confusing, and might not have been as good as all the hype surrounding it .. sort of like The Departed. But we're still glad we watched it.

-The Office is going to start airing new episodes again too, right?

-If you do want to read about my freaking personal life, Jana and I are blogging about our adventures in parenting at Raising Tappas. Will is good for a yuck a day, and we'll have our hands full with #2. (And by the way: we test drove those three vehicles on Saturday, and are a heavy lean to the Honda Odyssey. Yes, Badgercentric's going minivan. Maybe I'll try to grow a ponytail to compensate for my middle-age insecurities.)

When I started this blog in late September the day before the Iowa game, it was really just as a writing outlet and a way to keep in touch with friends and family. And that's what it will remain going forward. But in just over six months it's brought me in touch with so many more people, including old college buddies with whom I'd lost touch, and been a terrific experience.

If you've been visiting every day and choose to scale back, no hard feelings, I'd probably do the same. But Badgercentric isn't going anywhere, and I'm already looking forward to what the 2008-09 Wisconsin sports season has in store.

A silver lining from the hockey team? Nope

Yesterday the Badger hockey team upset Denver in the first round of regional play at the Kohl Center, moving UW into position to make the Frozen Four with a win over North Dakota tonight. Didn't happen - Bucky blew a 2-0 lead heading into the third period and lost 3-2 in overtime.

A lot of people thought the Badgers didn't deserve to make the tournament, seeing as how they had a sub-.500 record and all. But their strength of schedule didn't lie, and for all the kvetching the win over Denver proved the Badgers belonged. But there will be no reprisal of the "Backdoor Badgers" team that controversially made the tournament a generation ago and went on to win the whole ball of wax.

Two years ago on this night Andy and I were in attendance at the Resch Center in Green Bay for the epic three-overtime win over Cornell that went Wisconsin onto the Frozen Four in Milwaukee. There, the Badgers won the national title. We've seen mixed results since then for Mike Eaves' program.

Last year's step back was understandable, given the number of early departures that hit the program and the abundance of injuries to key players. This year's team was very young, too. But that's the way it is in college hockey now - everyone's losing guys early - look at poor Minnesota, which lost their best player to the NHL midseason. And Eaves has been bringing in very highly-rated recruiting classes. It's time for these players to start living up to their billing and showing that the 2006 national championship was not an aberration, but a sign of things to come.

Thanks Dad

Before we pack up and leave the hotel, wanted to write a few words of thanks to my dad for taking Andy, Nick and me on our annual Big Ten Tournament trip, which is always a wonderful time. And to my wonderful mom for doing much of the organizational legwork, and for helping take care of Will and Jana while I'm off indulging my basketball jones (they deserve some credit too!).

For years Dad took us on summer baseball trips to places like Detroit, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Boston and New York. But a couple years ago he suggested mixing things up and coming to the Big Ten Tournament. Good suggestion - this coincided with the Badgers' recent run of success. Now we talk about when we'll be able to bring Will and his future brother to this event (consensus: when he's eight), and that's fun speculation.

Last night at dinner after our Saturday night toast to the guy who makes the trip possible, Dad said "You're welcome - this is one of the most fun things I do all year." The feeling is mutual.

Jansen at the Georgia Dome

Quick note: Rob Jansen texted Andy to tell him he was at the Georgia Dome during last night's severe weather event in Atlanta. We'll hear more later.

Also:

-With either Illinois or Minnesota playing in the title game Sunday, won't the selection committee have to wait until that game is over to finalize the brackets?

-Just saw Barry Alvarez strolling around the suite level. Andy was surprised he didn't have a bodyguard. Do you think he needs one?

-Stop me if you've heard this before: passed Andy North and Kirk Penney in the Sheraton lobby ...

The Hill made Devin leave early

Well, not really, but Devin Harris said that with a smile in this very good story in today's Newark Star-Ledger. It's not the longest story, but it works in quotes from Bo, Travon Davis, and Latrell Fleming. It's got good anecdotes about The Hill, the first time Devin met Davis, the time Devin ruptured his spleen in an AAU game, Devin's record-setting gym rattedness.

At first I was bummed about the trade that sent him to New Jersey (that's a USA Today picture of him in Times Square the day before he was drafted; he was headed to Hamburger Harry's). With apologies to my good friend Angela, who works for the Star-Ledger, who the hell would want to live in New Jersey? But the more I've thought about it, the more I like it.

In Dallas, Devin was never going to be The Man - that would always be Nowitzki, or at least Mark Cuban. In Jersey, he has the potential to be every bit The Man that Kidd was, even if they are very different players. Vince Carter is still really talented, but his days as a first-tier superstar have passed. Richard Jefferson is really talented, too, but he has #2 guy written all over him.

Davin has the skills and personality to be a big star, and in the process, be the NBA example we can show recruits, like Marquette has with frequent free throw shooter/NBA turnover leader Dwayne Wade.

Also:

-You can see Elver Park from Deuces' condo. You still go up and down 20 times, right Andy?

-How sad was it that we never got to see Fleming in a Badger uniform? Many people thought he was every bit as good as Devin. Glad to hear he's healthy and living a productive life.

West Bend East baseball - '98 videos

Andy emailed me Saturday to let me know that Robby Jansen had begun putting their old West Bend East baseball videos up on YouTube. This one is a sectional game against Cedarburg.



I watched the top of the first, in which my brother (top) goes in as a courtesy runner, takes third on a Mike Mueller single to right, then scores on a double steal. Pretty cool.

For those of you that didn't know, even though Andy's teams never won a state title, they were still pretty damn good, and set the standard for power hitting by a high school team.

Wisconsin-Minnesota: 2005 pictures

Snowed in one recent morning so I spent some time cleaning up my Hotmail Inbox. Found these pictures from Mr. Scott Burch, taken at the 2005 Wisconsin-Minnesota game. Most people will remember that game for Jonathan Casillas's blocked punt and Ben Strickland's recovery for the game-winning touchdown, but many of us will remember Toohey's similar second-half explosion. Others will remember the Toren-Tappa bipartisan Baggo dominance.

Wisconsin-Iowa thoughts: Return to the Kohl Center

After falling from the top spot for one day, my brother is now back to being my all-time favorite #22. He got us two awesome seats for today's Wisconsin-Iowa game at the Kohl Center - lower bowl, roughly 40-yard-line, 12 rows up, right with all the big boosters.

As weird as it may seem, this was my first Badger basketball game at the KC since its first year in business, and my last year in school, 1998. If memory serves, it was against an Ohio State team led by Michael Redd and Scoonie Penn, which beat the last Badger team not to make the NCAA Tournament. I believe it was Senior Day for Sean Dougherty.

I've been back to the Kohl many times since, for graduation, hockey games, and high school hoops, but this was different. The atmosphere is so professional. The scoreboard is incredible; when late arrivals blocked our view, we just watched the action on the scoreboard. The amenities are top-notch, and there are nice historical displays in the concourses of UW athletics through the decades.

The Nitty Gritty was packed afterward, and we tried to get in by telling the hostess we knew Mike Milinovich, but she said "Who?" Just kidding, we went to State Street Brats ...

-This team is so balanced and versatile. Think of the last three games in terms of hockey's "stars of the game" system. Texas: 1. Butch, 2. Flowers, 3. Bohannon or Landry. Michigan: 1. Leuer, 2. Landry, 3. Hughes. Iowa: 1. Butch, 2. Krabbenhoft, 3. Could be one of a handful of guys.

-Butch was at his best today with 22 points and seven rebounds. Iowa needed to double him and Landry, and when they didn't our posts got good looks either turning to the middle for mildly contested jumpers, or going baseline for contested layups. Butch goes 5-6 moves before getting his shot sometimes, and thought it looks ugly at times, he usually gets a decent look. The toes on his pivot foot must be about 12 inches long. Picking nits again, Brian was 0-for-3 on 3-pointers.

-Krabby had a solid game with 12 points and seven boards. What he did a nice job of was controlling the ball in traffic and getting fouled. He shot free throws better than usual.

-Pop passed up some open looks today from both inside and outside the arc. It looked like he was making a conscious effort to not shoot to soon in the shot clock, and those were pretty good shots. Iowa did a nice job defending his penetration, and did a pretty good job overall. Hughes also had three steals and a great block on an Iowa big man and generally played good defense.

-We gave up some wide open layups off back cuts or penetration, sort of surprising.

-Only seven turnovers - nice!

-Iowa scored only 51 points, but they were better than I thought they'd be. Justin Johnson is a good scorer, Tony Freeman a good point guard, and Cyrus Tate and Kurt Looby are active big men. They'll win a few games this year.

-Leuer was down to two 3-pointers today, but like against Michigan, they came at key points for momentum.

Spotted: Rob Jansen at Cameron Indoor Stadium

Just got this email from Andy:

People who wear gray Wisconsin shirts ... Rob Jansen is one of them: www.uwbadgers.com/blogs/default.aspx?postid=335

I think I've spotted the young man, but I'm not quite sure. Can someone clarify? You'll have to click on the picture below or go to the picture on the UWBadgers site and magnify the photo.


What, you couldn't get seats next to Andy North, Rob?

How was it, the result aside?

Brewers' B-Force

Andy works for an organization that studies tobacco use, and this little nugget appeared in his latest newsletter, from a May Brewers press release:

On Sunday, the first 10,000 kids 16 and under will receive a Brewers Comic Book featuring Rickie Weeks and Corey Hart of the B-Force, who do battle against the evil spit tobacco monster Grossmouth. The comic books are compliments of the Wisconsin Dental Association.

Andy's first thought: Do you think Prince Fielder, Bill Hall, and all the other Brewer players that chew are pissed? :)

Prince chews? I hadn't noticed. ;)

Seriously, his chaw is as much a part of him as that ridiculous neck tattoo. I suppose that when Will gets to an age where he might want to chew tobacco, I might care more about Prince's tobacco habit, but for now if he hits 50 dingers and is a great team leader, go nuts with the Kodiak, man.

In related Brewers catch-up news:

Prince won the Henry Aaron Award for being the top offensive performer in the National League, and was honored as the top NL player in a vote of his peers. Still, when the NL Most Valuable Player is announced, I'm guessing it's going to be Matt Holliday from Colorado. And that wouldn't be a bad choice at all, he had a great year for a team that had a great run. Just hoping Prince can pull this off.

Also, Ryan Braun was named top rookie by the Sporting News, and like Fielder won Players' Choice honors, in the outstanding rookie category. I think he should beat Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki for the mainstream Rookie of the Year, although like Holliday, Tulo could benefit from the Rockies' late success, and Braun's defense was historically awful.

Here's the thing: my understanding is the Baseball Writers Association of America casts their votes before the postseason. Even though the Rockies' had a great late regular season run, their playoff run got much more attention, and the Brewers coughed up the division lead in August, through no fault of Fielder and Braun. So even though momentum favors the Rockies, we may get the first Brewers MVP since Yount in '89 and ROY since Pat Listach in '92.

Minnesota tickets! and other Monday Badger thoughts

Got the email from Toohey today that we've got tickets to the UW-Minnesota game, the last of its sort at the Humpty Dome. Very excited about heading to the Twin Cities in a month to hang out with the More Points crowd for one more game this season ... unless we reconvened in Tempe in late December, a possibility Jimmy raised in a comment yesterday.

Tim's email said the tickets cost $64, which is fine, will gladly pay it. But, unless these are really good seats - and I can't imagine the U giving Badger fans really good seats - it seems high. When Andy and I went to the opener against Washington State, we had seats on about the north goal line, about 40 rows up, and they were $39. Decent seats, decent price.

But $64 for a University of Minnesota football ticket? My high school economics teacher wasn't that great, but he taught us enough about supply and demand for me to know that when a school puts a mediocre product on the field for 40 years and plays in front of half-empty stadiums, a $64 price tag is high. Guess paying off Clem Haskins' old tutors isn't cheap.

-On the ride home from work tonight the local radio news reader, paraphrasing Bielema's presser today, said the coach believes the team lost the 1-0 focus these last couple weeks. And I threw up in my mouth.

-Reading the quotes from the press conference, I see Chris Maragos was the scout team MVP for the second time this season, and BB expects big things from him in the future. We might be in bigger trouble than I thought.

-Someone, I think Will, made the comment earlier that those of us in Vegas knew there was something wrong with this team and that it probably wasn't a title contender. I will be honest and admit that I didn't feel that way at the time - fully expected them to return home, throttle The Citadel for 60 minutes, roll through the first three Big Ten games, then battle Penn State. Must have been those cardinal-colored shades I picked up before the flight.

-As much as I realize the passing game needs Jefferson and Gilreath to continue getting acclimated with Donovan, what I would really like to see is for the Badgers to run the ball about 60 times for 400 yards, with Brown and Smith splitting the second half. That's what I thought going into the Citadel game, too, and that game didn't go so well, although we did run the ball as well as we should have. I also remember five years ago, watching UW play Northern Illinois with my dad at my aunt Karen's house, and watching Bollinger get sacked 10 times, so you just can't take anything for granted.

-Jim's story today touches on whether or not a bye week would be good for the Badgers this week. I think it's a good thing they're playing so they don't stew over the Penn State game. In another season, I might think a bye is perfect here in week eight. Something you just can't tell until a season starts going.

-Kyle Turris is off to a great start for the Badger hockey team, two goals and four points in two games. You'll be hearing his name a lot, even if you're a casual fan, especially our friends in Phoenix (Coyotes draft pick).

-For Andy: Diamond Taylor was at Night of the Grateful Red, per Schultz in the Cap Times. He's spending a lot of time in Madison. We have to get this guy, can't think of a better name in Badgers hoops history.

Vegas was fun

Before we get too far out from what actually happened, I wanted to post some photos taken by our good friend Molle Polzin from our group's trip to Vegas for the UW-UNLV game. Aside from the fact that we had to hold our breath for 58-1/2 minutes, and we now hold season football tickets from the school that knocked us out of the NCAA tournament in March, it was a great trip. Here's some of Molle's photos:

My lovely wife Jana and I before the game, the last time I smile for about 2 hours and 50 minutes. She and Molle waited in line for the entire second quarter to secure beverages - MVP! MVP!

Me with Will Bottinick and Scott Burch. Notice the guy behind Will making fun of us. We kicked the crap out of him later. The people next to us were from Fennimore, but none of them complimented me on my Luke Swan jersey.


After the game, we were arguably more spent than the players. Yep, fans have it tough. By this time my brother Andy (red hat) and Robby Jansen (to his left) had stopped their renditions of UW band tunes. Thankfully.

Jana and Molle outside O'Shea's, our dive casino/bar hangout ($2 Miller Lite!). The girls debated whether or not is was impolite to bend over to be closer to the leprechaun's height. What do you think?

Me, Jana, Molle, and Cap Times beat reporter Jim Polzin, who went 1-0 with his online coverage of the game for the TCT website. Later we saw The Producers at the Paris, starring Tony Danza (no, really). And no, there are no physics diplomas on our walls; otherwise we would have been hanging out at the Bellagio.

Jim, me, Burch, Jana and Tim Toohey enjoying a light moment, which were many.

Other dudes in attendance were my brother Butch (Mat) Falkowski (who somehow called Donovan's naked bootleg TD run three plays ahead) and Matt Schwalbach, who heroically shouldered the bulk of the organizational duties - thanks dude! Unfortunately, all the pictures of them were in appropriate for posting on a website I plan on showing my mother.