Wednesday State Sports Briefs: Badger State Games ended after 25 years

• Badger State Games

Badger State Games

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The head of the Wisconsin Sports Development Corporation says his group will decide on a new mission in the next 3-to-6 months. That’s after the group announced yesterday it would no longer put on the Badger State Games. Both the summer and winter events are being scrapped because participation and sponsorships have both dwindled in recent years.

The interim president of the development group, Dan Doyle, said only five-thousand athletes took part in this year’s editions of the Olympic-style sports festivals. That’s way down from the 20,000 the Games attracted in the late 1990’s. The Badger State Games had been run for 25 years. But the Winter Games suffered after Wausau’s visitors’ bureau stopped providing financial support. And the Summer Games moved from Madison to the Appleton area a couple years ago, due to dwindling local support in the place where the Games started. Now, Doyle says the group might consider a new sports authority to coordinate things like NCAA Division-Three championships. The corporation also said it would try to sell its ownership of the Wisconsin Athletic Hall-of-Fame in Milwaukee.

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The Milwaukee Brewers have the Majors’ best home record at 40-16 – and Saint Louis manager Tony La Russa thinks he knows why. He says the lighted ribbon board around the ballpark between the second-and-third decks shines brighter when the Brewers are batting – and it’s darker when the Cardinals hit, thus making it harder to see the pitches. La Russa filed his complaint with the umpires on Monday night. Crew Chief Gary Darling passed it onto Major League vice president Joe Garagiola Jr., who then talked to Brewers GM Doug Melvin. Melvin denied any cheating – and they didn’t change anything with the lighting in last night’s 11-inning victory by Saint Louis. Darling confirmed La Russa’s complaint but said nothing was changed. Darling said he couldn’t notice any difference in the lighting when the two teams batted. La Russa said the Brewers have heard about this before – but he refused to say anything else publicly about it. Brewers’ manager Ron Roenicke says the idea that the Brewers are cheating at home is quote, “incredulous.” He said he’d know about it if it was happening. When he was with the Angels, Roenicke said he had similar questions about the ballpark at Texas, when the Rangers hit 100 points better at home than on the road. Roenicke says he can’t answer why the Brewers are doing so much better at Miller Park – other than it’s a good hitters’ park, and the players are more comfortable there. The Brewers are hitting .282 at home and .262 on the road – where their record is only 21-35.

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Brewers’ pitching prospect Wily Peralta of Double-“A” Huntsville has been named the Southern League’s pitcher-of-the-week. The 22-year-old right-hander threw 14 scoreless innings in a pair of games last week. Peralta held Birmingham to four hits in seven innings last Tuesday – and he then struck out nine Carolina batters in seven frames on Sunday. Peralta has given up just three runs in his last 41 innings on 23 hits. And he’s third in the Southern League with 113 strikeouts. Peralta went 4-0 in July.

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Sturgeon Bay native and former University of Wisconsin lineman Casey Rabach has signed with the Baltimore Ravens. The 33-year-old center has signed a two-year deal with the team that drafted him in the third round in 2001. Rabach spent four years in his first stint at Baltimore, starting in 23 games and playing in 46. He then played for six years in Washington before the Redskins cut him late last week. The 6-4, 288-pound Rabach is expected to back up Ravens’ center Matt Birk – and he could also provide depth at guard.

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Milwaukee boxers Luis Feliciano and Luis Arias are still alive at the U.S. Olympic Trials, after both won their bouts in the challengers’ bracket yesterday. Feliciano eliminated Joe Gonzalez of Glendora, California 14-12 at 123 pounds. Arias just got by Chris Pearson of Trotwood, Ohio on a tiebreaker at 165 pounds. Both Wisconsin boxers have lost once in the double-elimination trials – and they must win all four of their final bouts to make Team USA for next year’s Olympics.

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Thousands of Wisconsin cable TV customers will soon get the NFL Network. Charter Communications has announced a long-term deal to carry the league’s 24-hour programming in time for the start of the regular season in early September. Customers with the Digital View Plus package will get the NFL Network, along with all high-definition customers. They’ll also get the NFL Red Zone channel, which features scoring drives inside an opponent’s 20-yard line.

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SCORES

In the Midwest League…

Wisconsin 2, Clinton 1

Kane County 6, Beloit 2

Peoria 4, Burlington 3

Quad Cities 3, Cedar Rapids 2

West Michigan 9, Dayton 6

South Bend 6, Lansing 3

Great Lakes 4, Lake County 3

Bowling Green 3, Fort Wayne 0

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In the Northwoods League…

Battle Creek 5, La Crosse 0 in Game-One

La Crosse 2, Battle Creek 0, Game-Two, suspended by rain

Wisconsin Rapids 7, Madison 4

Eau Claire 6, Waterloo 3

Wisconsin at Green Bay, rained out

Duluth 3, Thunder Bay 1

Willmar 8, Rochester 5

Alexandria 4, Saint Cloud 3

Mankato 10, Brainerd 6

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Here are Tuesday night's scores from the American Association:

Sioux Falls 9, St.Paul 6

Sioux City 7, K-C 2

Lincoln 3, Fort Worth 1

Grand Prairie 5, Amarillo 2

El Paso 11, Shreveport 8

Gary SouthShore 13, Winnipeg 11

Wichita 5, Fargo-Moorhead 1

Tags: wisconsin sports, sports, proam