Former UWM Baseball Player Inducted Into Hall of Fame

Mike Casper, who played baseball at Milwaukee from 1995-98, was recently inducted into the Wisconsin State Baseball League Hall of Fame. Casper made 41 starts in 49 career games at UWM, going 16-17 with an ERA of 4.27. He struck out 165 batters in 249.0 innings as a Panther.

Special thanks to Denny Moyer for providing the story.

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Casper Joins WSL Hall of Fame

Former Sheboygan A’s pitcher Michael Casper, who finished with a career 41-22 record in league play, was inducted into the Wisconsin State Baseball League Saturday night at the league’s Annual Awards and Hall of Fame dinner at The Bull in Sheboygan Falls.

In presenting Casper, Dave Moyer, who managed him in the pitcher’s young formative years cited his consistency and dedication to his team.

“He was so consistent with his composure, hidden desire to destroy his opponent, commitment to his team, love of the game, unbelievable control, dominant slider and superb change up, that his consistency became deceptive,” Moyer said. “He became spectacular at appearing unspectacular.”

“I remember coming back to watch him pitch later in his career. He was so on top of his game in those years in the late 1990s and early 2000s that it was a routine matter of business for him to precisely and surgically demoralize an opponent,” Moyer said.

Casper played his high school ball at New Holstein and then went on to UW-Milwaukee before signing with the Kansas City Royals.

In his 10 years in the State League, he won the Most Valuable Pitcher Award three times. His 3.23 career earned run average ranks third among pitchers with 500 or more innings pitched. He shares a one-season record with 11 complete games. And his 10 wins in 1999 is second all time. He ranks seventh in career shutouts, strikeouts and wins. He led the league in innings pitched and in strikeouts in 1999, 2000 and 2001

Michael helped the A’s to championships in 1997 and 2000 and was a first team all-league pick in 1997, ’99, ’00 and ’01.

Inducted with Casper at the dinner were Dave Christman of the Green Bay Blue Ribbons, Tom Imhoff of the Janesville Aces, Paul O’Callaghan of the Lombard Orioles and Dr. Tom Zoch of the Marshfield Chaparrals.

Presented with the league’s individual honors for the 2011 season were Jeff Vukovich of the champion Lombard Orioles, who was named Manager of the Year, Pitcher of the Year Randy Johnson of the Kenosha Kings, Rookie of the Year Brock Guetzke of the Oshkosh Giants and Most Valuable Player and Leading Hitter Nolan Fadness of the Eau Claire Cavaliers.