Willie Davis, who became one of the Dodgers’ stars soon after the franchise moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn, N.Y., has died. He was 69.

By John Dittrich - Chicago
Yesterday, we were sitting with Maury Wills at the Dodgers' spring training game in Glendale, AZ when Maury was approached by the Dodgers' beat reporter who informed him that one of his great teammates from the '60's, Willie Davis, had been found dead at home at age 69. The writer was seeking a quote about Willie from Maury....... and we were reminded of a story that Bobby Bragan loved to tell............

When Willie Davis was a speedy rookie at Dodger Stadium in 1960, Bobby was a Dodger coach under manager Walter Alston. One of Bobby's duties was to "mentor" Willie Davis in the ways of major league baseball. Bobby had done such a good job mentoring another speedster, Maury Wills, that Alston and the Dodgers asked him to work every day with Davis. During the game, Bragan would sit next to Davis on the bench and point out the nuances of the game, such as pitchers' habits.... and, of course, the great baserunning skills of Maury Wills.

Early in the 1960 season, Bragan was seated next to Davis on a sunny April day vs. the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wills led off the bottom of the first with a base hit. Maury took his lead-off from first base as Junior Gilliam stepped to the plate for the Dodgers. Gilliam was a prototypical #2 hitter and very adept at both hitting behind the runner and also working the count to allow Maury an opportunity to either steal second base or to go from first to third on a base hit to right field.

Bobby Bragan took advantage of this opportunity to teach Willie Davis about the nuances of getting a good lead and a quick jump on the play using Maury as his classic example. He nudged Davis and told him to watch Wills closely... :"Gilliam will try to hit the ball to right field and Wills will be off and running, into third base easily!" stated Bragan.

Of course, the 1960 Pirates featured a talented young right fielder named Roberto Clemente, who was widely known to have one of the strongest throwing arms in the game.

Indeed, Gilliam did stroke a single into right and Wills was off like lightning, digging for third base... Clemente came up throwing, and rifled a bullet to Pirates' third baseman Don Hoak, who applied the tag to a sliding Wills for an OUT!

Davis looked over on the bench at a red-faced Bragan, who responded by saying to Davis.... "THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN IN A MILLION YEARS!"

Now, it happens that the very same situation arises about an hour later, in the fifith inning of the same game. Once again, Wills leads away from first base... ready to fly to third if the ball is hit to right. Bragan nudges his elbow into Davis' ribcage telling him to pay attention to Wills' lead-off and how he will get a great jump and round second on the inside of the bag as he flys to third if the ball is hit to right field.

Once again, Gilliam strokes a single to right.... and once again, Clemente comes up with the ball quickly and cleanly and fires a rocket to Hoak at third.... and once again, Wills is OUT!

There is a silence on the bench.... Bragan does not turn his head to look at Davis, but rather he stares straight ahead at the field and says nothing... Davis finally breaks the silence....he turns to Bobby, saying loudly.... "MY, OH MY, TIME SURE DOES FLY UP HERE IN THE BIG LEAGUES!"

....... SIDEBAR.... Maury told me it is a good story.... but he insists that Clemente never threw him out twice in the same game! I would look it up to see if it happened.... but I like the story just the way it is!

John Dittrich - Chicago

D1 WIAA Wrestling State Championship Match - Nikola Bogojevic of Superior won by pin over Bill Mitchell of South Milwaukee in 4:37.

Earlier round results
Champ. Round 1 - Nikola Bogojevic (Superior) 48-0 won by pin over Seth Brandt (Reedsburg Area) 31-10 (Pin 0:37)

Quarterfinal - Nikola Bogojevic (Superior) 48-0 won by decision over Jake Schall (Slinger) 43-7 (Dec 5-2)

Semifinal - Nikola Bogojevic (Superior) 48-0 won by decision over Najee Parker (Kenosha Tremper) 48-5 (Dec 5-1)

Spartan Westling Classic today at SHS. 8 Teams including Superior, Northwestern, Ashland, Bayfield, Camron, Northwood, Shell Lake and Eau Claire Memorial. Wrestling starts around 10am. Updates at www.trackwrestling.com

Congratulations to the Northwestern Tigers on a great football season.  Wish it would have ended with a trip to Madison and a State Championship but that was not to be.  You had a fine season and have much to be proud of.

The Northwestern Tigers play Somerset in the quarterfinal playoff game at home on Saturday at 1pm.

Northwestern advance to the second round of the WIAA football playoffs with a 42-13 win over Saint Croix Central on Tuesday night in Maple.   Northwestern plays at Neillsville at 2pm on Saturday.   Northwestern is 10-0 overall with the win on Tuesday.  Neillsville won 14-12 over Baldwin-Woodville to advance.  Because Neillsville played on the road and Northwestern had a home game Neillsville gets the 2nd round playoff game at home.  Should Northwestern advance past Neillsville they would more then likely play at home against the winner of Bloomer .vs. Somerset that will be played at Somerset 1pm on Saturday.  Neillsville is 7-3 on the season.

A.J. Burnett pitched a strong 7 innings allowing 1 run on 4 hits.   Yankees had 8 hits in the 3-1 victory.

The New York Yankees opened up a 3-1 series lead with a 10-1 Win over the Angles on Tuesday Night.  For the Yankees CC Sabathia  allowed only 1 run on a 5th inning HR while only giving up 5 hits and 2 walks in 8 innings of work.