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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2008 > May
May 2008
Instant replay would strip baseball of its soul
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No instant replay, please. Not in baseball, where breath-to-breath squabbles between umpires, managers, coaches and players are as much of the game’s soul as the seventh-inning stretch, the national anthem and a box of Cracker Jack.
Quick. How many blatantly wrong calls do you recall in baseball history? Before you answer, the last few days don’t count, because they were a fluke.
Even so, courtesy of back-to-back-to-back mistakes by umpires on flyballs beyond outfield walls since last Sunday, baseball is threatening to do something that it doesn’t need, and that is become the NFL, with a little instant-replay booth somewhere on the field, folks huddled over video monitors upstairs and confusion, period.
Before we continue, here’s another question, but this one goes specifically to Phil Niekro, who spent most of his 24 seasons as a Hall of Fame pitcher with the Braves. How many blatantly wrong calls do you recall during your career?
Niekro thought, before answering in a hurry, “You know, I probably can count them on one hand.”
After thinking some more, Niekro could count them on one finger. Once, the Braves played at New York’s Shea Stadium with no first-base umpire due to a sudden illness by somebody in the crew. A Mets player lofted a fly down the right-field line, and Niekro rushed from the mound to see the ball hook to the foul side of the pole. One of the umpires called the ball fair. “I got beat in the game on account of that,” said Niekro, 69, still perturbed by the moment after 21 years in retirement. “I got in that umpire’s face and called him every name that I’d learned since I was out of the Boy Scouts. He just said, ‘Hey, I had a 50-50 chance.’ What could I say?”
Niekro laughed, adding, “Umpires are human. They’re going to make mistakes, and one of the thrills of a ballgame or of a season is when an umpire maybe blows one, and it could have gone either way, and the fans are getting on him. Maybe in the playoffs or the World Series, they should have instant replay, but I don’t know. I’m not big on it.”
For good reason. With instant replay, there aren’t highlights for the ages of Ralph Houk, Billy Martin and Earl Weaver kicking dirt and slinging caps. With instant replay, there isn’t Bobby Cox adding to his record each week for ejections from a game. With instant replay, there aren’t blown-calls legends, ranging from Don Denkinger to Jeffrey Maier to Ken Burkhart.
That said, baseball’s general managers want instant replay. They voted 25-5 last autumn to use it on boundary calls, but the commissioner’s office historically has been against it. Then along came that overblown deal last Sunday at Yankee Stadium, where umpires reversed a correct call by saying a home run by the Mets’ Carlos Delgado was foul. The Mets were playing the crosstown Yankees, which always makes everything bigger than life. Worse, the game was on national television, which always makes everything even bigger than that.
The following night, umpires botched a call in Houston on Geovany Soto’s shot to the wall in left-center field at quirky Minute Maid Park. It actually was a home run for Soto, but the umpires couldn’t tell where the ball slammed into the wall near a home-run indicator. So they ruled that the ball was in play. Although Soto scored on what erroneously was called an inside-the-park home run, the instant-replay cries grew louder with that controversy and with the one two days later.
This time, umpires at Yankee Stadium didn’t see Alex Rodriquez slamming a pitch off the yellow staircase behind the fence for a home run. Instead, they thought the ball hit off the fence and back into play.
Now baseball executive Jimmie Lee Solomon is saying technology associated with instant reply will be tested in the Arizona Fall League this year.
After that, don’t ask.
It’s too scary to think about.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Braves/MLB
Comparing Chipper to Mantle not a stretch
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This is a sacrilege, but so be it. If you ignore Mickey Mantle’s 536 home runs and magical name for the ages, Chipper Jones is just a few seasons shy of ranking as the greatest switch-hitter ever. He’ll surpass Eddie Murray, whose 504 homers were aided by longevity and the DH. More significant, he’ll surpass Mantle, idolized by Jones, even though the Braves slugger was born four years after the Mick’s last game in pinstripes.
You may stop gasping now, because it’s true. If you prefer not to believe me, then how about Bobby Cox?
As Braves manager, Cox has seen every one of Jones’ 2,031 games. “He’s in the Hall of Fame, even if he stops playing right now,” said Cox on Thursday night at Turner Field, where Jones continued to swing beyond even his typically lofty standards. But back to Cox, among Mantle’s former teammates with those New York Yankees of yore, which means the following is rather huge. Said Cox, when asked about Jones likely becoming better overall at the plate than Mantle, than Murray, than any switch-hitter in professional baseball’s 139 years, “I think you could say that, yeah. I really do. You could say that he’s headed that way. Absolutely.”
The New York Mets would agree, especially after Jones did much to sweep them out of town in four games. During the Braves’ 4-2 victory in this one, Jones stayed around Ted Williams territory (.400) after going 2-for-4 to raise his outrageously high bar for everybody else in the major leagues to.412. He displayed his ability to use his brain as well as his brawn in the seventh inning against the esteemed Johan Santana. With the score tied at 2-2 and runners at the corners, Jones calmly poked an outside pitch from the Mets’ left-handed ace into shallow right field to score the eventual winning run.
It was the stuff of Mantle, a master in the clutch, and Cox should know. “Switch-hitters with power, and both of them could be laid-back at times, and both of them could have fun, and both of them could have that focus,” Cox said. “Nobody’s more focused than Chipper during a ballgame. I mean, he has total concentration. Mickey was the same way. Chipper doesn’t say a lot on the bench, because he’s watching everything that’s going on.”
So much for the comparisons. Now to the contrasts. Mantle and Murray are the only switch-hitters with more home runs than Jones’ 398, but neither Mantle nor Murray finished with a career batting average over .300, where Jones has resided forever during his 15 seasons. Murray had those 573 at-bats as a DH to Jones’ 71, which means Jones has had to overcome more than Murray ever did by concentrating on fielding and hitting instead of just hitting. Plus, Jones has nine seasons of 100 RBIs or more and counting, while Murray had six and Mantle had four.
We won’t even mention that Mantle often swung in a who’s who lineup, ranging from Joe DiMaggio to Yogi Berra to Roger Maris. In contrast, Jones mostly has been in batting orders for the Braves with good hitters instead of great ones.
Such talk makes Jones force a smile after cringing. That’s because he has so much respect for his retired elders, already sitting in Cooperstown. “With Eddie, you always think about longevity, you think about runs produced, RBIs, runs scored and setting the bar so high,” Jones said. “With Mantle, you think about mammoth home runs, 500-plus homers, a career cut short because of injuries. I wanted to be the all-around guy that hits for average, high on-base percentage. Hit the home runs. Drove in the runs. If I have four or five more years with the same type of numbers, you might be able to put me in the same breath as those other guys. But it’s way too early to say I’m with the best of all time.”
Actually, it isn’t.
Permalink | Comments (64) | Categories: Braves/MLB
Ryan must prove he’s worth the money
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
First of all, the Falcons blew it, but not about making Matt Ryan an extremely rich young man on Tuesday before his first breath in an NFL game.
The Falcons blew it, because Ryan was the wrong pick at No. 3 overall in last month’s draft. When your situation at defensive tackle is as dreadful as the Falcons, and you have a chance to take the next Warren Sapp, you take him. Instead, the Falcons ignored Glenn Dorsey and grabbed Ryan, the quarterback with the fancy numbers at Boston College.
A lot of quarterbacks with fancy numbers in college have bombed as first-round draft picks. In recent years, MOST quarterbacks with fancy numbers in college have bombed as first-round draft picks.
It’s a wrap, though. The Falcons believe Ryan is the player who can move them from the Michael Vick mess to prominence on and off the field. Since that’s what the Falcons believe, they did the right thing by wasting no time in giving Ryan that six-year deal for $72 million and a guaranteed signing bonus of $34.75.
Essentially, the Falcons are saying that they want Ryan to start right now, and that they believe he can start right now. Since that’s what the Falcons believe, they had to sign the guy right now to get him acclimated to their offensive system way before training camp.
As for Ryan’s mighty payday from the Falcons, this is a free-market system that operates on the principle of supply and demand. If that’s what the Falcons believe Ryan is worth to them, then that’s exactly what he should get.
All Ryan has to do now is prove to the Falcons that they are justified in their various beliefs.
That’s the problem.
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Atlanta doesn’t deserve Super Bowls
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Barring all 32 NFL owners getting trapped on Georgia 400 along their way to their meeting today at the Ritz-Carlton in Buckhead, they’ll do the predictable. It’ll also be the unfathomable. They’ll give the 2012 Super Bowl to a cold-weather site, and it won’t be Atlanta.
The winner is …
It’s Indianapolis.
My parents live there, so trust me when I say this. In February, it’s a little colder in Indiana than Georgia. Which makes you wonder why NFL decision-makers made that big deal three years ago about not giving Atlanta the 2009 Super Bowl for fear of an ice storm. You know, like the one that paralyzed the last Super Bowl in Atlanta eight years ago.
Trust me on this, too. They get ice, sleet, snow and everything else in Indianapolis during February. It sort of makes you wonder if there was another reason why all of those owners spent that May 2005 meeting in Washington giving Tampa next year’s Super Bowl over Atlanta. Are they allergic to our pollen? Would they prefer that the Varsity serve quiche lorraine instead of slaw dogs?
I mean, should Falcons owner Arthur Blank take this personally, especially since that weather excuse against an Atlanta Super Bowl is about an Indianapolis vote on Tuesday from going the way of leather helmets?
“No, no. If Indianapolis is chosen, I don’t think it would be any reflection on me or the Falcons,” said Blank on Monday, before joining his peers for the opening day of the meetings. “A lot of people love Atlanta, and they have good feelings toward the city. If it is Indianapolis — and that’s conjecture at this point, since there are two other cities [Phoenix and Houston] involved — but if it is Indianapolis, it would be because Indianapolis is having a brand-new stadium built, and also because 95 percent of it is paid for by the public.”
Maybe. The 16-year-old Georgia Dome is ancient by NFL standards, and more than half of the league’s teams have stadiums newer than that of the Falcons. You’ve also had the high-tech remodeling of Lambeau and Soldier fields. As a result, Blank wished to use those Washington meetings to build state support for the renovation of the Dome by trying to host the 2009 or 2010 Super Bowl. He was the only owner to bring along his governor (Sonny Perdue) and his mayor (Shirley Franklin), but it didn’t matter. The owners gave those Super Bowls to Tampa and Miami, respectively, because the owners supposedly hadn’t stopped shivering from Atlanta’s ice storm.
Whatever the reasons for such a snub, Atlanta shouldn’t get another Super Bowl anyway. The same goes for Detroit, Minneapolis and Jacksonville, Fla., essentially south Georgia.
The Super Bowl should rotate between cities with overwhelming warmth in the winter and a resort mentality at all times. That’s because the Super Bowl isn’t about a day. It’s about a week. Folks often plan their vacations around the event, and the majority of those, ranging from corporate sponsors to casual fans, would rather spend that time trying to stay cool than warm.
So we’re back to this Indianapolis thing, and Indianapolis is expected to smoke its competition this time around on the first ballot. It nearly won the 2011 Super Bowl, but Jerry Jones kept yanking pennies from his pockets to convince others to give the game to the new stadium for his Dallas Cowboys. Even so, Indianapolis lost by only two votes back then, and nothing against Indianapolis. It’s a wonderful place to live (ask my parents), and the Final Four is a regular hit within its city limits. Plus, you have that 500-mile race each May on the city’s west side. It’s just that you can’t give a Super Bowl to Indianapolis if you won’t give another one to Atlanta.
Not that either place deserves it. Not unless they relocate to California, Texas, Louisiana or Florida.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Braves understand every game counts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Even though they don’t always play like it, especially away from Turner Field, you get the feeling the Braves know the secret for success in August and September during a tight division race.
It is playing as intensely as you can in April and May. You also can throw in June and July. That’s the whole baseball season, by the way.
“I can’t imagine someone in this division pulling away from everybody else, or even one team being up by more than five or six games at a given time,” said Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur. “There are just too many good teams and too many even teams. If somebody stayed healthy, it might happen, but there are too many teams with the same kind of pitching staffs. We all have a bunch of older pitchers.”
The point is, the National League East will stay as cozy as it is now through the rest of the spring, summer and fall. That means the Braves’ fight against the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies and maybe the inexperienced but pesky Florida Marlins down the stretch began last month and continues this weekend.
For instance: The Oakland A’s are in town, and they aren’t from the same league, let alone the same division. Even so, you get the feeling the Braves have the mind-set that these games against Oakland are part of that August and September battle for the NL East. The same goes for the way they approach games between now and then against everybody else. You get that feeling because enough Braves keep suggesting that they understand as much.
“I think we do,” said catcher Brian McCann. “The more you sit back and you act like it’s not a pennant race right now, then I think you get to those last two months and you’re trying to make up a bunch of games, and that’s tough. I think the games now are just as important as they are in the final months.”
If that sounds like a cliché, it is, but you know what? It’s true. Just ask the San Diego Padres, still imploding after the events of last Sept. 29. On that day in Milwaukee, they were within a strike of reaching the playoffs, but they lost. They were caught by a Colorado team winning 21 of its last 22 games, and then they dropped a one-game playoff to the Rockies. Which brings us to hindsight: All the Padres had to do to avoid that late-season horror was secure an early-season victory during one of those games that got away.
The Braves don’t want to operate in hindsight.
“When we were in the [NL] West, that was really tough when we beat the Giants,” said manager Bobby Cox. “We won 104 games, and they won 103. You knew at the start of that year it was going to be tight. But this division, right from the start, I don’t think anybody gave Florida much credit for being in the race, but they are. They can hit, and they’re getting good pitching.”
It’s a combination that has the Marlins atop the division despite losing Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis in the offseason. The Phillies and the Mets aren’t far behind, and the Braves are a tiny winning streak from the lead. Not only that, the Braves hope to keep it that way until the disabled list releases a slew of their pitchers.
Said Cox, “We had a strong team when we broke spring training, and we still do. We’ve been missing [John] Smoltz and our two top relievers in [Peter] Moylan and [Rafael] Soriano. And [Mike] Hampton, we thought he’d win 15 the way he threw in the spring. It was no fluke. So if we get all that squared away …”
There is the meantime, though, for the Braves. They’ve got to treat the “meantime” as if it is the last time to get it right for a 15th division title in 17 years.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves/MLB
Blank can ill-afford more slip-ups
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Falcons have an image problem. Now let that sink in. After all, from his GQ attire to his spiffy facilities throughout Flowery Branch to his stated emphasis on keeping fans happy and coming, no NFL owner is more obsessed with the perception of his franchise than Arthur Blank.
So this isn’t good: Starting with December 2006, there was Jim Mora boasting to a Seattle radio station that his “dream job” was coaching the University of Washington football team instead of Blank’s professional one in Atlanta. There was that dogfighting mess with Michael Vick. Then Bobby Petrino bolted in the middle of the night with three games left during his first and only season as Mora’s replacement to call Hogs in Arkansas.
Now you have rising linebacker Michael Boley sacking what was a good-guy image after he was arrested on battery charges against his wife.
“It’s been hard. It’s been a hard [17 months],” said Blank, easing into a laugh to keep from crying. “Everything you do in the NFL is played out in the eyes of the public. It means that owners, executives, coaches and players, all of us, we have to take real responsibility for our behavior. It’s not just a matter of winning on the field. It’s a matter of what we do off the field as well.”
So this is good: Blank knows his franchise can’t keep suffering these mighty blows to the belly without having its legs wobble more at the gate. He knows the Georgia Dome already is becoming a lovely place for empty seats during the NFL season with the Falcons spiraling the past three seasons from 8-8 to 7-9 to 4-12.
Blank knows, all right, but what about those around him? It makes you wonder, especially since these things keep happening. “Well, they know how I feel,” he said, adding that there are significantly more folks who have helped the Falcons’ image than harmed it during his six years owning the team. “When you have certain situations that are disappointing, they’re just disappointing. You go back, and you examine all the research of anybody we’ve drafted and the free agents. Did we miss on character, and if so, why?
“There are things that happen that can change somebody. They get married. They end up with a lot of money and end up with a lot of distractions. So you think you know somebody a certain way, and you do know them. And then things happen in their lives that give them other choices, and sometimes their choices aren’t always the best.”
Take Boley, for instance. One day, he was entering his fourth season with the Falcons as a 25-year-old on the verge of stardom after spending 2007 with three sacks, two interceptions, three forced fumbles and seven pass breakups. The next, he was interrupting Blank’s evening at a black-tie affair with news that he had been arrested and released on a $1,200 bond for physically abusing his wife of less than a year.
A stunned Blank stepped into the hallway to speak to Boley for 30 minutes over the phone. Through it all, the owner had the same feelings he had during those other moments of woe with his Falcons over the last 17 months. “Well, you know, the first thing I am is disappointed, disappointed in the individual,” Blank said. “Then I have a variety of emotions. Some are anger. Some are trying to figure out how I can help. Is there any way I can help with our coaches or GM or Rich [McKay], our president, or is there anything I can do to be productive and not get into anybody’s way? I’m pleased to say that this kind of thing doesn’t happen very often.”
No, it doesn’t, but when it happens for the Falcons these days, it happens big. And this is an owner who doesn’t even like things to happen small when it comes to negative images of his franchise.
That’s why this makes no sense. Then again, neither did the actions of Mora, Vick, Petrino and Boley.
Permalink | Comments (66) | Categories: Falcons/NFL
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.”
Permalink | Comments (14) | Post your comment | Categories: Tech/ACC
Keeping Woodson makes sense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He’s coming back, and he should. It’s just not official that Mike Woodson will receive a contract for a fifth season and beyond with the Hawks. Instead, Michael Gearon Jr., among the team’s eight owners with Atlanta Spirit, kept suggesting Wednesday from his Vinings office that the coach who nearly had his talented but flawed team do the impossible against mighty Boston in the playoffs isn’t going anywhere.
This ranks as the best non-firing in Atlanta sports history.
Just last week, Woodson discovered ways to help the Hawks overcome their two blowouts on the road in Games 1 and 2 to push the Celtics to a seventh game in the first round before losing. “Once we gave him another seasoned veteran [Mike Bibby] to complement Joe [Johnson], there certainly was more pressure,” Gearon said. “The expectations were higher. We think he did an excellent job.”
That’s because Woodson did, especially since the Hawks were a No. 8 seed to the Celtics’ No. 1. Even Doc Rivers, the former Hawks great and current Celtics coach, told Gearon to cherish Woodson for his ability to keep his youthful and inexperienced bunch playing hard no matter what. It was nice of Rivers to say so, but Gearon already had such a mind-set after watching Woodson take a mostly pitiful Hawks team from 13 victories in his first season to 26, then to 30, then to 37.
Added Gearon, “We’ve got a lot of momentum as a franchise right now, and what’s important to us is that we do not disrupt that.”
Makes sense to me. The same goes for Gearon saying, “I cannot see a situation where Woodson is not here.” Which brings us to the following: All this Woodson bashing, stretching from the past to the present, is ridiculous. He didn’t put together a bunch of dysfunctional rosters. He just had to coach them, and he did so well, despite having one of those eight owners suing the others, a player’s death before the start of a season, the NBA’s youngest team for most of those years and no decent point guard until Bibby arrived in February.
Billy Knight was the problem, but he isn’t anymore. Thankfully, he announced Wednesday that he’ll resign when his contract as general manager expires at the end of June. He’s the one who was obsessed with giving Woodson a bunch of “long and athletic” players to the detriment of common sense. Mostly, he’s the one who made the biggest NBA draft gaffe of our time and in the vicinity of all-time.
Let’s just say whenever you see Chris Paul doing something extraordinary from now in the playoffs with the New Orleans Hornets until he dribbles close to the Hall of Fame, you may scream. Knight thought Paul was too small or something during the 2005 draft. Not only that, in Knight’s estimation, Marvin Williams was a better pick than Deron Williams.
You may scream again. Knight chose Marvin Williams because he was another “long and athletic” player, but the Hawks needed a point guard. The Hawks needed Paul or Deron Williams, now doing potent things for a Utah Jazz team that also is in the second round of the playoffs.
Woodson had zero say in personnel decisions, by the way. He just kept his mouth shut and did the best he could with a starter out of high school (Josh Smith), another just a year out of college (Marvin Williams), a power forward playing center (Al Horford), no point guard worth mentioning before Bibby, no depth on the bench beyond Josh Childress and a dearth of shooters.
Said Michael Gearon Sr., who joins his son as Atlanta Spirit’s primary owners dealing with the Hawks, “[Woodson] is patient. He doesn’t panic, and he’s not worried about his job.”
He has a job. The same one.
Permalink | Comments (33) | Post your comment | Categories: Hawks/NBA
Knight needed to go
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It wasn’t a question of “if” Billy Knight would go as general manager of the Hawks after six uneven (OK, mostly strange) seasons. It was a question of “how,” followed by “when.”
As for the “how” and the “when,” Knight announced today that he will resign after his contract runs out at the end of June.
Good.
That was opposed to his bosses at Atlanta Spirit doing what they would have done without Knight’s voluntary departure notice, and that is force Knight to leave.
This was a necessary split. In fact, it should have happened about two or three strange moves ago by somebody who was obsessed with obtaining a bunch of players who looked and played alike.
Knight did well at the start. He inherited an expensive and dysfunctional roster from highly over-matched predecessor Pete Babcock. So you have to give Knight credit for discovering ways to blow things up in a hurry, despite a slew of contracts that seemed impossible to shred from the Hawks’ payroll.
It’s just that Knight became a Babcock clone (translated: he was highly over-matched) while trying to help the Hawks rise from those ashes. He kept going after his “long and athletic” players, no matter what else the Hawks needed.
And he passed on point guards Chris Paul and Deron Williams in the same draft when the Hawks needed a point guard. In case you didn’t know, Paul is flirting with greatness for the New Orleans Hornets, and Williams is doing the same with the Utah Jazz.
Knight did get point guard Mike Bibby, but it wasn’t until this February, which was too late for the Hawks to become much more than a tease and too late for Knight to keep his job.
Permalink | Comments (78) | Post your comment | Categories: Hawks/NBA
Glavine will be key to Braves’ long run
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Braves can’t afford to have days like these. They spent a third consecutive game smacking around Cincinnati’s Little Red Machine. This time, they won 14-7 on Sunday at Turner Field. It’s just that the way they did so was disturbing in the overall picture of what will remain a cozy race of three in the National League East.
So let’s get picky for a moment, because when you’re talking about tight competition in a division for long stretches, you’re also talking about little things becoming big things. Actually, this is a big thing: Courtesy of injuries and whatever else, the Braves starting pitchers are pathetic regarding baseball’s most underrated statistic, which is innings pitched.
The more innings thrown by your starters, the less thrown by your relievers. Not only that, the higher probability you’ll win more than you lose.
More specifically, the Braves began Sunday’s action with the fewest innings pitched by starters (158-1/3) of any team in the league. Not good. Neither was what happened in the Braves’ series finale against the Reds after roaring to a 7-0 lead through the first couple of innings with Tom Glavine and his Hall of Fame arm on the mound. He was pounded out of the game by the Reds’ normally feeble hitters before the end of the fifth inning. He was responsible for seven hits, six earned runs, five walks and several more reasons to wonder if the Braves’ bullpen will become an absolute mess by the All-Star break.
Glavine suggested that we should stop wondering, at least regarding his role in this situation. Said Glavine, “You know, those (blowout) games aren’t always the easiest to pitch in, especially when you’re out there in the situation that I was today where I wasn’t locating where I wanted to, and I was struggling. Those guys are behind, and they’re being a little bit more patient and waiting for a pitch. It makes it a little bit tougher trying to hit your spots.”
That’s encouraging news for the Braves. If they wish to survive the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies down the stretch, they’ll need a lot of Glavine for a lot of innings. During his second coming with the Braves after that five-year pit stop at Shea Stadium, he has overcome whatever negatives are involved with having a 42-year-old arm. He has given the Braves enough solid innings out of 22 overall in five starts to deserve more victories than his current total of zero. This was his second start since leaving the disabled list for the first time in his 21-year career with a strained hamstring.
Which brings us to the best news of the day involving Glavine. That is, he didn’t have any more aches or pains. “I felt really good, probably too good,” he said, sounding like few Braves pitchers these days.
Among relievers, Mike Gonzalez, Peter Moylan and Rafael Soriano are hurting or recovering. The same goes for starters Mike Hampton and Chuck James. Then you have John Smoltz, the starter turned closer turned starter turned whatever he’ll become in the future. He is on the disabled list with a nagging tendon problem on his right pitching arm. No wonder only the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals entered Sunday’s action with more innings pitched by their relievers than the Braves.
Still, the Braves have a three-game wining streak after dropping four straight before that. They also trail the division-leading Phillies by just two games. Before long, though, they’ll need to improve that innings-pitched issue. The days of Cy Smoltz, Cy Glavine and Cy Maddux going 200-plus innings in their rotation are gone. Tim Hudson has struggled during three of his last four starts. Who knows if youngsters Jair Jurrjens and Jo-Jo Reyes can stay potent for the long run? So, with the Braves in search of a 15th division title in 17 years, an innings-producing Glavine is among the keys.
It might be the key.
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Even Smoltz has his limits
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sooner rather than later, especially since the man himself confessed on Saturday at Turner Field that his time left in baseball shouldn’t include an “s” behind the word “year,” folks will get it when it comes to John Smoltz, but only after he’s gone from the game with his Hall of Fame arm.
Right now, they don’t get it.
They really don’t.
Game after game, year after year, decade after decade, Smoltz pitches and prospers no matter what. He mostly does so in obscurity, at least when compared to the extent of his aches and pains. That’s why the Braves right-hander has spent this year hurting more than you think. We’re talking about much more.
In other words, you should place an asterisk by Smoltz’s splendid numbers, spanning from his 2.00 ERA to his 36 strikeouts in 27 innings to his .214 opponents’ batting average. There even were those seven innings that he threw during the night in which he became just the 16th player in baseball history to strike out 3,000 or more hitters.
Through it all, with those in the batter’s box grimacing more than the man on the mound, Smoltz was in pain.
How much pain? “I would say significant,” said Smoltz, describing the depth of that pain for the first time to a visitor at his locker before the Braves’ 9-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. “Significant to the point where I could not throw the ball between starts.
“You know, when you talk about pain, it’s relative to the person, but not necessarily consistent to everybody. I don’t want to make it sound like I’m tougher than anybody else, but I’ve gotten used to it. I’ve just gotten used to the certain threshold of pain. I can power my way through, but I cannot finesse my way through.”
Still, Smoltz just pitches and prospers no matter what. Not only that, he always is contemplating ways to keep doing so. We needn’t go further than the last few days, when he gave more reasons why he ranks among the most unappreciated athletes of all time.
For instance: After he heals from his current stint on the disabled list with his severely inflamed biceps tendon and inflammation of his rotator cuff, he said he’s willing to end his second coming as a starter with a return to the closer role. This is the same Smoltz who agreed to interrupt his sprint to Cooperstown as a starter for the opening 14 years of his more than two decades in the pro game to become a needed force in the bullpen for 3-1/2 years.
Great players usually aren’t that flexible, and even if they are, they usually aren’t that great anymore afterward. Now Smoltz is on the verge of another dramatic career change just 11 days shy of his 41st birthday, and he’s doing so willingly.
“Whether it’s starting, closing, starting, closing, I will try to figure out a way,” said Smoltz. “But what I won’t do is continue to pitch in pain just for the sake of pitching.
“I’m at a point in my career that I want to enjoy my life, and I really don’t want to go through the type of pain that I’ve had to go through, to be honest.”
He’s gone through it this season without mumbling a word. Despite the eternal throbbing, extending from the tendon stretching from his right elbow toward his shoulder, he threw five strong innings in his first start, and then he went six innings in his second. He went five innings after that before his “adrenaline” game that featured his 3,000th strikeout and a season-high seven innings.
What followed was April 27 in New York, where all of Smoltz’s considerable guts couldn’t keep the Mets from managing seven hits and four earned runs against him in four innings.
He was off to the disabled list after that, and he plans to return potent enough to help what he calls a “great” team reach the playoffs.
Then what? Retirement, or more of the same for an ultimate warrior? Smoltz eased into a smile, saying, “If anything, I’m taking just a year [at a time].”
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SEC is why you won’t see football playoffs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Can we talk? This whining around the SEC over the lack of a playoff system in big-time college football is transparent. This is all about Auburn in the past, Georgia in the present and Florida, LSU, Tennessee and every other potentially explosive team for the conference in the future.
This is all about the SEC, period, and money, money, money.
That’s SEC money, lots of it, which those in the conference see coming their way like, well, to quote a raspy voice, “sugar [oranges, roses or the names of whatever bowls would be involved with a playoff system] falling from the sky.”
So why don’t these disingenuous folks just come clean? They should tell the truth, which is that they aren’t obsessed with switching to a playoff system for the good of college football, the student-athlete or all of mankind. They are obsessed with this for what they perceive would be for the good of themselves. That’s why their mostly selfish idea of implementing a playoff system of four teams was slammed again this week in Hollywood, Fla., by a gathering of the commissioners who run the flawed but perfectly adequate BCS.
That’s also why you’ll never see a playoff system any time soon. When it comes to a playoff system, the majority of those in charge of running college athletics understand that these really are disingenuous folks in SEC territory.
“I certainly wouldn’t say that,” said the diplomatically inclined Thomas Hansen over the phone on Friday from Walnut Creek, Calif., where he is commissioner of the Pac-10. Hansen joined the BCS commissioners of the Big Ten, Big East and Big 12 to vote against the proposal of SEC commissioner Mike Slive to seed the game’s top four teams each year. ACC commissioner John Swofford voted for Slive’s proposal, but it was four against two, and college presidents are overwhelmingly against a playoff system anyway.
Added Hansen, “I think we all have multiple interests, and different teams within our own conferences feel differently.”
Not in the SEC. The rhetoric is primarily the same from Baton Rouge to Athens to Gainesville. With apologies to Hansen, these disingenuous folks are saying forget everything and everybody else and think of an expanded SEC bank vault. They know their conference is more likely to have a team or three with national-championship credentials in most years. They know those particular teams already produce big bucks for themselves and also for their conference by just meeting the opening kickoff in a BCS game. They know those big bucks can become bigger bucks with a playoff system, especially since most playoff games would be dominated by SEC teams.
They know they are full of Gatorade if they say anything less.
For academic reasons, logistical reasons and so many reasons in between, a playoff system makes no sense for an already prosperous sport that has set attendance records for 11 straight years. Not only that, television ratings for college football last season on ESPN and CBS were their highest in nearly a decade.
“The strong consensus among the 11 conferences and Notre Dame was that there is no support for — and let’s just say for the sake of discussion — a full playoff of 16 teams,” said Hansen, suggesting that Slive’s four-team plan would grow before growing some more. “The fact that every single playoff in college sports or professional sports that’s ever been initiated has led to a greatly expanded playoff was the most important factor in the decision of these conferences not to even really give a lot of consideration to a plus-one format.
“We all felt the political pressures would mound rapidly and very, very strongly to expand if you add four teams, then eight teams. Wherever you draw that line, you’ll always have controversy and resulting pressure for an expanded field.”
Guess who would be screaming the most for expansion? That’s right, the SEC, in search of even bigger bucks.
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