Brewers are putting up Uecker-like numbers

By JERRY TAPP

• The Brewers are at the .500 mark (a 10-10 record through games of August 16) with the season one-third of the way complete. The Brew Crew is averaging only 4.0 runs per game in the first 20 games of this season; if the season ended today, that would be the 12^th lowest offensive output in team history. The fewest runs per game for a Brewers team was 3.16 in 1972. The second lowest was 3.54 in 1976. That, however, is not the worst news… through games of August 16 this year, the Brewers team batting average is .221; the lowest team batting average for a season was 1971 when the team hit .229. In fact, the four lowest team batting averages were all under .243 and happened in the first four seasons of the franchise: 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972. One more dreadful stat through the first 20 games: The Brewers offense has averaged 10.1 strikeouts per game. The most strikeouts per game the team have averaged in a season is 9.7 in 2017.
• Bob Uecker is a Hall of Famer… broadcaster, that is. He has gotten a lot of comedic mileage out of the fact that he had a very mediocre MLB career, and his nickname of “Mr. Baseball,” which came from Johnny Carson, certainly takes advantage of that fact. But did you know that Uecker may have had one of the worst seasons of all time for a player? In 1967, Uecker had 221 plate appearances and a season batting average of .150. He is one of only 11 players since 1901 to have 200 or more plate appearances and a batting average of .150 or below in a season. If that isn’t enough, in that same season, Uecker led the league with the most errors and most passed balls by a catcher. I guess it was a good thing that he was so funny.
• Aaron Rodgers is one of 28 quarterbacks in NFL history to have 100 or more TD passes in a career and less than 100 career interceptions… Rodgers has 364 career TD passes and only 84 career interceptions. Of all the NFL QBs with fewer than 100 career interceptions, Rodgers has the most TD passes with 364. Russell Wilson is second on the list with only 68 interceptions and 227 career TD passes.
• Defense will be a big key as the Bucks try to win an NBA title this season. Consider this: The Bucks were 56-17 this season, best record in the NBA; however, they were 11-12 (.478 winning percentage) in games when they allowed the opposition to score 115 or more points in a game, and were 45-5 (.900) when they kept their opponents under 115 points in a game. The Bucks were a perfect 26-0 this season when the defense held foes to 102 or fewer points in a game.
• Over the last 21 college football seasons, the University of Wisconsin has had four different running backs lead the nation in rushing yards: Ron Dayne (1999), Monte Ball (2011), Melvin Gordon (2014) and Jonathan Taylor (2018). In the last 21 years, only one other school had multiple players lead the nation in rushing yards… San Diego State (Donnel Pumphrey, 2016, and Rashaad Penny, 2017).
• In the Brewers 6-4 win over the Twins on August 11, the Brew Crew offense hit four home runs. Since 2015, the Brewers are 29-3 in games where they hit four or more HRs. Since 2015, the Brewers are 5-23 in games when their pitching staff allows four or more home runs.
• Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams has 50 or more receptions in five straight seasons. He joined four others Pack receivers who had 50+ receptions in five or more seasons; Donald Driver tops the list with nine seasons with 50+ catches for the Pack. He is followed by Sterling Sharpe with seven consecutive 50-catch seasons, Antonio Freeman with six straight seasons, and Greg Jennings with five straight seasons with 50 or more receptions for the Packers.
• Giannis Antetokounmpo finished the 2019-20 NBA season with a points per game average of 29.5 and 13.6 rebounds per game. It was the third season in his career that he averaged 25 or more points and 10 or more rebounds per games in a season. He became the 17^th player in NBA history to have three or more 25 points/10 rebounds seasons in an NBA career. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal each had 10 25/10 seasons, most in league history.
• The “Greek Freak” also finished this NBA season with an amazing stat: He upped his per game points average for the sixth straight season. He averaged 6.8 points per game in his rookie campaign and has upped that stat to 12.7, 16.9, 22.9, 26.9, 27.7 and 29.5 in each subsequent year. What’s even more noteworthy is that he has also upped his rebounds per game stat in each of his seven seasons in the league… he averaged 4.4 boards his rookie year and then upped that stat to 6.7, 7.7, 8.8, 10.0, 12.5 and 13.6.
• Can you imagine going a whole MLB career without a stolen base? There are quite a few players who never swiped a base in their MLB career, but four of them had 2,000 or more plate appearances and never had a steal. The four: Russ Nixon (2,715 plate appearances and no steals; he played from 1957-68), Chris Snyder (2,459 PA, 2004-13), Johnny Estrada (2,244 PA, 2001-08) and Aaron Robinson (2,191 PA, 1943-51). The Brewers have seven players who had 500 or more plate appearances in a Brewers uniform but no stolen bases. Topping the list is Jesus Aguilar, who had 1,139 plate appearances with the Brewers and no stolen bases. He is followed by Wes Helms (1,030 plate appearances), Hank Aaron (851), Chad Moeller (669), Marc Newfield (583), Adam Lind (572) and Charlie O’Brien (559). The MLB record for most plate appearances with only one career stolen base is held by Gus Triandos, who played from 1953-65. He had 4,424 career plate appearances and only one career stolen base. The Brewers record for most plate appearances with only one career stolen base is 1,664 by Casey McGehee.

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