Afternoon state sports briefs: Roenicke introduced as new Brewer manager

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MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Brewers’ new manager says he wants an aggressive, running ball club – and he said his players would have a real connection with him. Ron Roenicke was introduced at a news conference today as the Brewers’ 18th manager, replacing Ken Macha.

Roenicke was given a two-year contract, with a club option for 2013. General manager Doug Melvin said the 54-year-old Roenicke clearly has a passion for the game. This is his first managing job after spending 11 years with the Angels – the last five years as bench coach. Roenicke said he would spend the next few days assembling a staff. Dale Sveum is already penciled in as the Brewers’ hitting coach, and so is Rick Peterson as the pitching coach. Melvin said the hiring process took longer than expected – and he’d be surprised if the other three candidates don’t get other managing jobs down the road. Those candidates were reported to be White Sox bench coach Joey Cora, and former big league skippers Bobby Valentine and Bob Melvin.

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Green Bay Packers’ coach Mike McCarthy says he won’t announce any roster changes until this weekend. Corner Al Harris and safety Atari Bigby are still waiting to be activated, after being put on the physically-unable-to-perform list. The Packers have an open roster spot right now, after defensive end Michael Montgomery was released earlier this week. Harris has been out all season after tearing his left knee last November. Bigby is coming back from ankle surgery during training camp. The Packers have until Monday to decide if they want to activate the two players, or place them on injured reserve which would put them out for the rest of the season. Both Harris and Bigby are in the third week of practice following their PUP placements. Bigby says all he can do is prepare like he’ll play on Sunday – even though he has no idea what will happen. The Packers will have a bye week after hosting Dallas on Sunday night. Their next game after that is on November 21st at Minnesota.

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Fox Sports.com said Minnesota Vikings’ owner Zygi Wilf apologized to his players about the distractions caused by the Randy Moss situation. And the report said Wilf was quote, “infuriated” that coach Brad Childress released Moss this week without talking to the owner first. The Fox story also said Wilf expressed confidence to his players that they can save a season that’s on the verge of collapse. Minnesota is 2-5, and Wilf pointed out that they’re not too far behind NFC North Division leader Green Bay. The margin is two-and-a-half games, and the Vikings can gain some of that ground back with a win over the Packers on November 21st in Minneapolis. The Vikings gave up a third-round draft choice last month to get Moss from the New England Patriots. And while he drew enough double-teams to help receiver Percy Harvin and running back Adrian Peterson, Moss’s behavior was bad enough for Childress to let him go this week. The Tennessee Titans have since claimed him.

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Steve Stricker of Madison is the highest-ranked golfer not to be playing in the World Golf Championships’ event that started yesterday in China. But the fifth-ranked Stricker is not the only top American player who stayed away. Dustin Johnson, Jim Furyk, and Zach Johnson are also among those who chose not to play or travel at this time of year. And British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen remains out with an ankle injury. Fifteen of the top-20 players in the World Golf Rankings are at the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai. Francesco Molinari is the first-round leader at seven-under-par 65. Lee Westwood recently took over the number-one spot in the World Rankings from Tiger Woods. And the top players are so bunched together that Stricker and Furyk could have had a shot at number-one had they made the trip to China.

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The semi-finals of the Northern Athletics Conference women’s volleyball tournament will be played tonight. Second-seeded Dominican hosts number-three Madison Edgewood. And fourth-seeded Benedictine hosts number-eight Maranatha Baptist of Watertown. Maranatha upset top-seeded Concordia-Mequon in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. Edgewood advanced with a three-games-to-two victory over number-six Marian. Tonight’s winners will move on to the championship match on Saturday.

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