Ron Roenicke has been around the game of baseball a long, long time, breaking into the major leagues in 1981. If he hasn't seen it all, he's seen most of it.
But, the last week has been pretty eventful for the Brewers' skipper. It began in Houston last Saturday when starter Zack Greinke was ejected after four pitches, followed quickly to the showers by Roenicke himself (video below).
Then, Roenicke was off to Kansas City for the All-Star game as an assistant coach for manager Tony LaRussa.
Well, he got some unwanted face time there too as he was caught in Chipper Jones' "motivational" pre-game speech - forcing him to jump out of the frame as fast as he could.
Roenicke laughed about the moment before the game tonight, saying he had moved to that end of the clubhouse to move away from LaRussa in anticipation of the manager being captured on TV.
Greinke's quick ejection led to a second straight start Sunday before the break, which didn't go too well, and now a third here at Miller Park in a couple of hours.
It's the first time it's happened since 1917.
"It's strange when you look at that, Roenicke said. "It's weird. It was weird. leading up to what happened there and you certainly can't plan for that kind of stuff."
Jim Owczarski is an award-winning sports journalist and comes to Milwaukee by way of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network.
A three-year Wisconsin resident who has considered Milwaukee a second home for the better part of seven years, he brings to the market experience covering nearly all major and college sports.
To this point in his career, he has been awarded six national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting, feature writing, breaking news and projects. He is also a four-time nominee for the prestigious Peter J. Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, presented by the Chicago Headline Club, and is a two-time winner for Best Sports Story. He has also won numerous other Illinois Press Association, Illinois Associated Press and Northern Illinois Newspaper Association awards.
Jim's career started in earnest as a North Central College (Naperville, Ill.) senior in 2002 when he received a Richter Fellowship to cover the Chicago White Sox in spring training. He was hired by the Naperville Sun in 2003 and moved on to the Aurora Beacon News in 2007 before joining OnMilwaukee.com.
In that time, he has covered the events, news and personalities that make up the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NCAA football, baseball and men's and women's basketball as well as boxing, mixed martial arts and various U.S. Olympic teams.
Golf aficionados who venture into Illinois have also read Jim in GOLF Chicago Magazine as well as the Chicago District Golfer and Illinois Golfer magazines.
