Bizarro Mount Rushmore of Sports: Wisconsin
By Tim Seeman ,
If you're a regular viewer of ESPN programming, then you're probably aware of their online promotions for each state to debate the four biggest sports personality from that particular state, the "Mount Rushmore of Sports," as it were.
Montana and Magic in California.
The Bambino and Broadway Joe in New York.
Stockton and the Mailman in Utah.
Here, I'm going to take a more humorous approach to the topic for my home state, Wisconsin. Surely names like Favre, Lombardi, and Yount would be on a serious list, but that's not my goal.
Hopefully, if you have appreciation or knowledge of Wisconsin sports, these guys will bring a "I remember that guy" smile to your face. Here we go...
Replacing George Washington on Mount Rushmore is no small feat. Vin Baker is definitely big enough to accomplish it.
Or at least he was at one point.
The Milwaukee Bucks drafted Baker 8th overall in 1993. He played in Milwaukee for four seasons and averaged 18.3 points per game and only missed four games in that stretch. He was a great player for the Bucks. Not so much after he left.
His reputation for drinking too much and staying out of basketball shape followed him everywhere he went after he left the Bucks, and this earns him his spot on the Bizarro Mount Rushmore of Wisconsin. Even though he was a good player in his time here.
There are a lot of worthy Brewer candidates with all the futility the club has gone through since 1982.
Richie Sexson. BJ Surhoff. Jeff D'Amico. Jose Hernandez. You get the picture.
But like Baker with basketball, Jaha was one bright spot in a dark era for Wisconsin baseball. In 1995 and 1996, he hit 54 home runs and 183 RBI with a .306 average in 236 games.
Not much to say about Brian Noble except that he was a linebacker for the Packers in that black hole of Green Bay history between 1968 and 1994.
He had 14 sacks and three interceptions in eight seasons. There's that I guess.
Yeah, he was a pretty good player on some pretty good Wisconsin teams. But no one would say he's one of the four most important figures in Wisconsin sporting history.
Just look at him. He's big and goofy. His teams ran a slow, boring offense and beat teams by grinding them into submission and winning the rebound battle. Wonderful.
