By Drew Olson Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Apr 18, 2009 at 3:27 PM

Welcome to Saturday Scorecard. The weather today is far too nice for heavy introspection, so we decided to catch up with one of our favorite local celebrities -- who was in the news this week -- pop out a few notes and then go to the bullpen and turn the rest of the column over to the guy in suspenders. Here we go:

Quite Frankly: When iconic National Football League broadcaster John Madden announced his retirement this week, virtually everyone in the sports media scrambled to Rolodex and frantically made calls seeking comment... from Frank Caliendo.

"I got an e-mail from my manager asking if I'd heard that John Madden had retired," the Waukesha native and UWM graduate said in a phone interview from his home in Tempe, Ariz. "I said ‘Only from 75 radio stations!"

What was Caliendo's reaction?

"I think it's a big joke John Madden is playing on me," he said. "He could have done this on April 1st and said (as Madden) ‘Hey, Caliendo -- Gotcha!'"

Caliendo granted interviews to 35 radio stations on Friday morning. He did ESPN's "SportsCenter." He got a request from Brian Williams of "NBC Nightly News."

"It's amazing how synonymous I am with the guy," he said. "The L.A. Times ran a column that said ‘First Bush, now Madden. What's Caliendo going to do?'

"I want to remind people that John Madden didn't get shot," Caliendo said. "I would dare myself, or somebody should dare me, to go on stage and not do Madden or Bush at all. The audience would not be happy with that."

Asked how he thinks the Madden saga will play out, Caliendo said: "I think madden will be big news up until the season. people will be thinking about that. During the season, it'll be like what's a John Madden-less season like. Then, it'll depend if he does some other stuff."

The Packers play the Bears in the season opener Sept. 13 at Lambeau Field. NBC will be there, without Madden, to broadcast the game on "Sunday Night Football." Could Caliendo, a huge Packers fan, slip into the booth for a cameo?

"I don't think they would do that to Madden," he said. "I wish they would. I think it would be funny."

And now, on to the notes...

Rickie be Rickie: Over the past few years, we at Saturday Scorecard have defended Brewers second baseman Rickie Weeks and granted him the benefit of 100 doubts.

Weeks is a hard-working. He's a good kid. But, the error he made Saturday at Citi Field was indefensibly brutal.

When Jose Valentin was making errors as the Brewers shortstop in the mid-1990s, he always seemed to make them with two out and nobody on base. The next batter, it seemed, always popped up to end the inning.

When Weeks makes an error, it seems that disaster ensues.

Trevor time: Veteran right-hander Trevor Hoffman, sidelined since mid-March with an oblique strain, is slated to pitch two games for Class AAA Nashville this week and should be back with the big-league club next weekend.

That's going to be a big boost for the bullpen.

The Brewers have seemed a bit out of sync this season and Hoffman's absence has been a key contributor. Once he's back and ready to handle the ninth inning, Carlos Villanueva can help bridge the gap between the starters and Hoffman. The Brewers will have the resurgent Todd Coffey to help Villanueva clean up the seventh and eighth and guys like Mitch Stetter and Seth McClung can find their stride in mop-up situations.

Larry King Lounge: The Brewers aren't going to do much until Prince Fielder gets his bat going. They can't afford to wait too long. The team is 3-8 this season. Last season, the low point was four games under .500... The Admirals face off against Rockford in Game 2 of their first-round Calder Cup playoff series tonight at the Bradley Center. Winning isn't easy in the playoffs, but the Admirals have reached a point where anything less than an appearance in the finals will be considered a disappointment.... The NFL Draft is a week away. Can you sense the excitement?... Maybe it's the economy. Maybe it's the product. Maybe it's the lack of media attention or a combination of the three, but the Milwaukee Iron does not seem to be gaining a foothold.... Brewers right-hander Jeff Suppan no doubt will be booed when he pitches against the Mets Sunday in Queens. Of course, he'd be booed in Milwaukee, too.... The NBA playoffs begin today. In a way, it seems like the start of training camp. The Finals seem to coincide with State Fair.... Nashville third baseman Matt Gamel hit safely in each of his first eight games. Heading into Saturday, he was hitting .516 (16 for 31) with six doubles, 28 total bases, 11 RBI, a .903 slugging percentage and a .568 on-base average... The world will get quieter in a few weeks -- Stephen A. Smith is leaving ESPN May 1. "While my love for sports has never dissipated - of course, I'll never let go of Sports - my desire to venture beyond sports into the world of news, politics and entertainment has grown," Smith said via his Twitter account. "Where that will take me? Who knows! But I'm about to find out. I'll just do so with some degree of sadness, knowing all the friends I'll leave behind."

 

 

Drew Olson Special to OnMilwaukee.com

Host of “The Drew Olson Show,” which airs 1-3 p.m. weekdays on The Big 902. Sidekick on “The Mike Heller Show,” airing weekdays on The Big 920 and a statewide network including stations in Madison, Appleton and Wausau. Co-author of Bill Schroeder’s “If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers” on Triumph Books. Co-host of “Big 12 Sports Saturday,” which airs Saturdays during football season on WISN-12. Former senior editor at OnMilwaukee.com. Former reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.