I've never kept track of how many tips of the fedora I have given out over a period of nearly 70 years of sports coverage, but today it's a pleasure to give another tip of the old fedora to the gang who started the Metro Sports Report and in a short period of time have reached one million pageviews.

It represents a great milestone of coverage of local prep sports, certainly unprecedented in my view. And they will continue to offer the latest coverage of Cedar Rapids athletes who have excelled at the high school level and beyond.

For instance, MSR president Jim Ecker will be traveling to Lansing, Mich., to be with the Lansing Lugnuts Friday night when two former Cedar Rapids high school athletes will make their Midwest League baseball debut.

Kellen Sweeney, now with the Lansing Lugnuts, told me this winter that Lansing was the place he thought he'd land as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays farm system. And on the visiting team Friday night, representing the Great Lakes Loons and the Dodgers organization, will be Scott Schebler, who had a grand high school career at Cedar Rapids Prairie.

That's not the only story in Michigan this weekend. On Saturday, Jim will move on to Comerica Park in Detroit to see what's going on with Boston Red Sox outfielder Ryan Sweeney, who went 2-for-4 with a clutch RBI triple for the Red Sox on Thursday.

I've asked Jim to tell Ryan hello for me and tell him my latest condition as I continue to recover from surgery last month. I really value Ryan's friendship and cooperation during his time in Cedar Rapids.

All in all, the 1,000,000 pageviews and the MSR's hustle demonstrate that the Metro Sports Report has become a viable tool in the coverage of the great high school sports scene and those who excel beyond it.

Congratulations to all the staff for their hard work, dedication and extra effort. Mark it down from your correspondent, these people are champs.

Hope to see you next week.

(Bob Brooks is sports director at KMRY and has been one of the leading voices of college and prep sports in Eastern Iowa for more than 65 years. He is a 10-time winner of the Iowa Sportscaster of the Year Award, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in South Bend, Indiana in 2004. His sports reports can be heard weekday afternoons at 4:30 and 5:30, and Saturdays at 6:40 for the Hawkeye football wrap-up.)