It wasn’t the storybook ending, but John Axford, JOHN AXFORD, was back with the Crew last night. Plus: Bobby is back, PJ is gone.

When I saw a tweet from the official Brewer Twitter page yesterday welcoming John Axford, I legitimately did a double take. I gasped out loud. At first I thought maybe they were resharing a ‘this day in Brewer history’ post that announced his initial signing in 2009 season. Or maybe they were welcoming him back for a Wall of Honor induction. Nope! They were welcoming him back as an actual player. Unreal.

So up until last night, Axford hadn’t pitched in the Majors since 2018. He had some arm troubles after that season, had surgery, and seemed to sort of be disappearing from MLB like a family member in a Marty McFly Polaroid. To the point where he started the season as a color analyst on Blue Jays TV! But with the Olympics getting cranked up, and counting baseball as an Olympic sport again, Axford tried out for the Canadian team. I won’t say it was like the movie Rookie of the Year where the tendons healed a ‘little tight,’ but he discovered he still had a live arm. He was throwing 96-98 mph on his fastball. The Blue Jays noticed as well. They signed him to a minor league deal, and at AAA Buffalo he had pitched 10.2 innings, only giving up 1 run and striking out 14 batters.

So with COVID running wild through the Brewer bullpen, they acquired Axford from Toronto for cash considerations. Side note, this is still one of my favorite pictures anytime a trade involves, ‘cash considerations’:

And do you know what the Brewers paid Toronto for Axford’s services? An actual dollar. That’s it. $1.

So he lands in Milwaukee, gets his old #59 jersey on, and actually gets into last night’s game! The Brewers had a 6-0 lead, so it seemed like a safe time to get him an inning and see what he’s still got. And he was throwing 95 mph gas. Unfortunately, not all fairytales last longer than a day. He hit a batter, got a fly out, gave up a few singles, and walked in a run. Then he asked for the trainer and exited with pain in his elbow. He’s scheduled for an MRI later today, but elbow pain generally isn’t great news, especially for a 38 year old pitcher who hasn’t pitched in Major League Baseball since 2018. Honestly though, I thought he pitched better than the results he got. He was hitting his spots for the most part. It will be interesting to see if there’s any space for him if this turns out to be a minor injury. But what a wild story.

Speaking of wild stories: NBA free agency started last night, and it was quite a roller coaster for your REIGNING NBA CHAMPION MILWAUKEE BUCKS!

I think most Bucks fans figured we’d see PJ Tucker back, and Bobby Portis was likely to cash his big payday somewhere else after a breakout season last year. Well the opposite happened. Bobby AGAIN took less money to stay in Milwaukee. Reports were that he was being offered $9.5-10 million PER YEAR with other teams. He signed a 2 year, $9 million dollar deal to stay. He took HALF of the money. BOBBY! BOBBY! BOBBY!

Then a bit of sour news after that: PJ Tucker signed a 2 year, $15 million dollar deal with the Miami Heat. The Bucks had his Bird Rights, which means they could have paid him literally anything, but the thought was they’d offer him 2 years, $20 million. Well, based on PJ’s Instagram post last night, they either low balled him, or didn’t offer him anything. He said he was shocked. So am I, and most Bucks fans.

There’s no other way to say it: The Bucks ownership group simply didn’t want to pay PJ that kind of dough. In their defense: This team has three maxed out players. They’re way over the cap, and in the luxury tax. So saying that the owners are ‘cheap’ doesn’t really add up. With the luxury tax, a 2 year/$20 million dollar deal would really have cost the owners $30 million in taxes. That’s a lot to pay a 36 year old wing who doesn’t give you really anything on the offensive end. They did sign Semi Ojeleye for the veterans minimum, he’s 26 years old, and is a similar player to PJ. He’s 6’6, plays tough defense, and can knock down 3’s. And you obviously get him at a much lower cost. Plus you’ve got Donte coming back, and he would have eaten up PJ’s minutes as well.

That said, PJ Tucker will go down as one of the great rentals/folk heroes in Wisconsin sports history. They don’t win the title without him. His defense on Durant in the 2nd round will go down in Bucks lore. His ‘WE DOGS’ speeches got every fan fired up. He brought a grit and nastiness to the team that they desperately needed. He’ll never pay for a beer in Wisconsin for as long as he lives:

The REIGNING NBA CHAMPIONS probably have enough room for one more move, if they want to make it. But it looks like a pretty pure ‘run it back’ effort coming in 2021-22.

PS: I forgot how dominant Axford was in 2011. 46/47 save chances, franchise record for total saves in a single season, the guy was even getting fairly serious Cy Young consideration: