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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > May > 11
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Shaken Tech baseball team regains focus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In the language of Georgia Tech sports history, this is James Forrest’s shot against USC. This is that 51-48 miracle over Jasper Sanks and the dreaded Bulldogs. This is those less famous than Lethal Weapon 3 or the Thin Gold Line reaching the Final Two. This is Joe Hamilton passing like crazy in the heat of Tallahassee or Eddie Lee Ivery running like crazy in the snow against Air Force.
This is unbelievable, especially when you analyze the journey from last month to now for members of Tech’s predominantly young baseball team.
Despite the tragic death of a teammate, complete with scrutiny from everywhere, the Yellow Jackets entered their weekend series at home against Clemson grieving and streaking. They whipped the Tigers 5-1 Friday at Russ Chandler Stadium after hammering a splendid Georgia bunch on the road earlier in the week.
While their ERA steadily has dropped since late April, their batting average steadily has risen. Not only that, eight of their 14 losses prior to Saturday’s 7-1 victory over Clemson were against a combination of Miami, North Carolina and Florida State. Those teams join Tech in the ACC, and they also rank one, two and three atop the national polls.
No wonder the Jackets are within a hook slide of the elite 25.
We’re talking about Tech grieving and streaking while doing the unthinkable at this level by starting six freshmen, including three up the middle at shortstop, second base and center field.
We’re talking about Tech grieving and streaking with its players still excelling as student-athletes (21 of 31 guys on the dean’s list).
Mostly, we’re talking about Tech grieving and streaking despite a 21-year-old pitcher’s drug-related death in his junior season. Michael Hutts was found dead in his off-campus apartment by a teammate exactly four weeks ago.
The grieving began in a hurry. So did whispers that heroin possibly contributed to Hutts’ death. As a result, slumping instead of streaking was more likely for a Tech team that was smashed that weekend at home by Miami. The grieving intensified a few days later when all of the Jackets players and coaches attended Hutts’ funeral in Dunwoody before busing their way to a series of road games against Georgia Southern. There was a pit stop at Russ Chandler Stadium for practice.
Then, during the early grieving, Tech coach Danny Hall asked permission of his bosses to drug test the whole team. He got the OK, and everybody passed. He even gave his players a surprise drug test several days ago with the same clean results.
“I needed to clear my conscience,” said Hall, showing his considerable worth to the Jackets on and off the field during what is his 15th and best season.
It’s better than the three times he took Tech to the College World Series. It’s better than anything he’s done throughout his 21 years as an award-winning head coach, period, because this really is unbelievable. Just consider that the Jackets are dealing with “constant reminders as we go along that, hey, we’re missing somebody here,” Hall said, glancing around from the home dugout.
Even so, Hall has kept his players, coaches and himself mentally together enough to prosper. “I think you just have to show them empathy,” Hall said. “I’ll never forget what happened. I know these guys won’t forget what happened. Nobody we’re playing is going to feel sorry for us, so you have to keep motivating them every day. Let them know that you appreciate them.
“We also have great senior leaders such as Eddie Burns and Brad Feltes. They’ve said that they do a lot more things as a team off the field as opposed to what they were doing prior to this. The whole thing has brought our team closer.”
So was there anything during Hall’s previous 53 years on Earth that prepared him for this? He thought, before sighing and saying quietly, “Nothing.”
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