Financing a minor league baseball team can be a perennial struggle, but for former scouts Bill Lutz and Norb Wishowski, adopting the ailing Wausau Timbers was the natural result of a lifelong passion for baseball.
The pair, along with six other co-owners, took on Wausau’s first affiliated franchise when the Mets left town in 1978 after an unsuccessful four seasons in the Midwest League. The 1979 club was a co-op effort populated by prospects from the Rangers’ and Indians’ farm systems, and in January 1980 was handed over to Lutz, Wishowski, and their partners for an unspecified amount between $40,000 and $60,000.