This blog has moved! Yes, already!
As of Thursday, Feb. 12, this little blog has relocated to a new home on AJC.com. It’s the same newspaper, the same Web site and the same writer (feel free to groan) — there’s just a new URL.
New features: Bigger type, more graphics, comments that load 10 times faster and a larger and more recent photo that makes me look pretty doggone old. I think you’ll like it (the blog, not the photo). But I am, as we know too well, often wrong.
Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > July
July 2008
Time for UGA to take notice of Tech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For Georgia fans the game is an afterthought, assuming they’ve thought of it at all. With all the big names and exotic locales on the schedule — South Carolina in Columbia, Arizona State in Tempe, LSU in Baton Rouge, Florida in Jacksonville, Auburn at Auburn — who notices Georgia Tech?
By Nov. 29, Georgia would be wise to take note.
Understand: I’m not picking Tech to beat the Bulldogs. I’ve already written that Georgia will win the national championship, and I’ve expended my one self-allotted foolish forecast of the calendar year on the Braves. What I am saying is this:
Paul Johnson is a terrific coach, and the arrival of a terrific coach should always trouble a rival accustomed to owning a rivalry. (Ask Auburn people if they’ve heard of Nick Saban.)
By Nov. 29, Johnson will surely have found a quarterback, and his spread option, which struggled mightily in Tech’s spring game and which will suffer palpitations early this fall, will be beginning to purr. And for all the good work done by Willie Martinez, the worst game ever played by his Georgia defense came in the Sugar Bowl against West Virginia, which used…
The spread option.
Then there’s the timing. By Nov. 29, Georgia will (it says here) have positioned itself to play for the SEC title the next week in the Dome and, by extension, the BCS title. That’s exactly the scenario encountered by LSU last November, when it lost its regular-season finale to an Arkansas team that ran all over Tiger Stadium. (LSU still wound up playing for the national championship, but it needed West Virginia and Missouri to lose for that to happen.)
On Nov. 29, 2008, nobody in the world will be expecting Tech to win in Athens, a reasonable assumption given that the Jackets haven’t beaten Georgia anywhere since Nov. 25, 2000. But I get the feeling Tech is about to get really good again, and four months ahead of time I get the feeling that unassuming game is going to rise up and grab us all by the lapels.
It’s surely too much to ask Johnson’s first team to beat what should be Mark Richt’s best team. But wouldn’t it be something if what is being touted as Richt’s long-sought championship season gets spoiled by a coach who’s in place only because the previous guy couldn’t beat Richt? Well, wouldn’t it?
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Teixeira trade makes room for more improving
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It wasn’t just they made a move. It’s that they made the right move. They found a first baseman for 2009 and beyond, and when you consider what next spring might have brought — “Starting at first base for your Atlanta Braves, Scott Thorman!” — Casey Kotchman looks like Mark Grace.
“Our infield now has a very solid nucleus,” Frank Wren said Tuesday. “We need to look for another big bat … [And] we’ve got to work on our pitching.”
Yes, those are major concerns. But letting Mark Teixeira walk away with draft picks as compensation would have matched the Hawks’ botch of the Josh Childress negotiations as the worst maneuver of the summer. At least now the Braves have a first baseman. At least now they can move on to the next tasks.
Truth to tell, they needed the head start. This season was designed as a last stand — nobody in the organization has admitted as much, but some truths are self-evident — and it flopped so badly as to attach a massive question mark to everything going forward.
John Smoltz might never pitch again. Tom Glavine might well retire. Tim Hudson might need surgery. Mike Hampton, suddenly the most robust member of the over-30 gang, will become a free agent. And if, as late as Tuesday afternoon you were eyeballing the projected everyday eight for 2009, you saw only two big-timers (Chipper Jones, who’ll turn 37 in April, and Brian McCann) and one up-and-comer (Yunel Escobar). Everything else seemed a varying shade of ordinary.
Kotchman changes the dynamic. He’s not the run-producer Teixeira was, but he beats the heck out of Thorman. Sellers for the first time since 1990, the Braves had to broker their biggest asset into something nearly as big, and they did. “We would have made the trade without [getting] a first baseman,” Wren said, “but this made the Anaheim deal very attractive.”
Now for the bad news: The Braves have no more Teixeiras to peddle. Will Ohman might net a prospect, but nothing more. If they sought to move Jeff Francoeur today, they’d get pennies on the dollar. And they still need hitting, still need outfielders, still need starting pitchers.
Wren spoke of finding a center fielder “from within” the organization, but starting pitchers and run-producers will come only from without. (Charlie Morton, this year’s bright young hope, has yielded 66 hits and walks against only 24 strikeouts in 39-2/3 innings.) And that means the Braves will have to swing more deals, which might be possible if they had something to offer, or buy a big-ticket free agent, which they haven’t done since signing Brian Jordan in 1998.
“We choose to put our club together differently, using scouting and player development,” Wren said. “That’s not to say we’ve been opposed to adding key pieces [via free agency]. We won’t shy away from that — it just hasn’t been our priority or our preference.”
That needs to change. So long as the Braves were winning the division, they could afford to eschew the overspending inherent in free agency. But they’ve finished third the past two seasons, and they’re in fourth place now, and the time is gone when the answer to every ill was to bring back Julio Franco.
Kotchman is a good player, and he’ll help. But gazing at 2009 from the distant perch of July 2008, next season doesn’t figure to look much better than this one. For the first time in almost a generation, the Braves just aren’t talented enough to win. They have to find better players. They have to find them soon.
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Give Ryan a chance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Flowery Branch — I’m usually not one to offer advice to fans — to owners and general managers, yes; to the paying public, no — but I’m doing it now. I’m making a recommendation.
Give Matt Ryan a chance.
It’s not his fault Michael Vick isn’t here. It’s nobody’s fault but Vick’s. But there is, if we’re to believe ajc.com blogs, a hefty percentage of people who insist Ryan will never be Vick and was a joke of a draft pick to boot, and such hostility could do a long-term disservice to the team they claim to support.
“I’ll be the first to tell you I’m not Mike Vick,” Ryan said Sunday morning. “We have completely different styles of play … I’m just trying to be the best I can be.”
Ryan will never make some of the plays Vick made, but that’s not really a comparison: In the history of football, no other quarterback has made some of those plays. But Vick (stop me if you’ve heard this already) isn’t here, and the Falcons need a big-time quarterback. And nobody who has been around Ryan over the summer believes he isn’t big-time.
Said running back Michael Turner, who played alongside Drew Brees and Philip Rivers in San Diego: “I don’t see anything that makes you think [Ryan] can’t be [first-rate]. He’s executing the plays, taking command of the huddle, taking control of the offense … You’ve got to respect the quarterback. He’s the leader of the team, whether he wants to be or not.”
Ryan wants to be. The Falcons have a new $10,000 sound system in their locker room, courtesy of the rookie. It wasn’t something Ryan had to do, nor was it something he did for public consumption. (“I didn’t know that had leaked,” he said when asked about it.) But it’s the kind of thing that plays well, sonically and otherwise, with his teammates.
Some rookies who arrive toting a windfall contract would act as if the sun rises and sets on their rich young personages. Said receiver Brian Finneran, who was here before Vick arrived and is here still: “[Ryan has] done everything the opposite of that. He’s done everything the right way. He’s a pro.”
Ryan will be starting at some point this fall: Probably not the first game, but surely by Halloween. He will have lousy games. Rookie quarterbacks do. But the public needs to recall that not every Vick game was a masterpiece. He threw the occasional interception and took the more-than-occasional sack. And Vick, let’s recall, started only two games his first season.
But will the masses offer Ryan the benefit of any doubt? “They have to,” Finneran said. “He’s our quarterback now. But unless you’re in a city like Washington or Cleveland, the only way to get fans to fill your stadium is to win.”
Said Turner: “I don’t know if there’s a Michael Vick cloud over his head. You’d have to ask him.”
Said Ryan: “I can’t worry about that.”
Nothing that happens in camp will tell us how the new guy will be received by his new audience. That will come only with the first Dome games, the first overthrown interception, the first sack-and-fumble, the first few losses. But initial impressions can mislead: Troy Aikman, who wound up winning three Super Bowls, was 0-11 as a rookie starter.
Ryan might or might not turn out half as well as Aikman, but he has it within him to be good enough to make the Falcons win. That’s if he’s afforded the chance to grow, to fail, to learn how not to fail. And that’s what I’m asking of you folks out there:
Give him that chance. Give him the same chance you gave Michael Vick.
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Falcons starting over — as a team
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thomas Dimitroff could have sought to finesse the transition. Instead he grabbed the Band-Aid and ripped hard, which is always the best way. It smarts for a little while, but you’re done with it.
In his first offseason as general manager, Dimitroff severed relations with four former Pro Bowlers. On Saturday, the Falcons open training camp with a roster heavy on youth and heavier on uncertainty, and the thought occurs that keeping one or two of those veterans might have smoothed what figures to be a turbulent season. The thought, it must be noted, does not occur to Dimitroff.
“I respect all the individuals who moved on,” he said this week. “[But] we are moving forward. There’s not a temptation to second-guess our moves. They may very well go to the next team and be productive. Right now for the Atlanta Falcons, we’re focused on our new roster.”
This administration may or may not prove any more successful than previous Falcons regimes, but there is about Dimitroff a clarity of vision — really, you folks need to meet this guy — unseen in Flowery Branch (and, before that, Suwanee). He’s new to the job, but he carries himself as if he’s been doing this all his life.
About those cast aside: Might DeAngelo Hall, traded to the Raiders, have helped win a game in a season that might not generate many victories? Sure. He also might have been a bigger distraction than ever.
Might Warrick Dunn, who signed with Tampa Bay after being waived, have made a few plays? Sure. But would a man who has worked all his career to disprove the notion that he’s a third-down back have welcomed a role as a third-down back behind Michael Turner?
The Falcons, see, tried the cult-of-personality route, and everything collapsed when their biggest personality went to jail. Imported from New England, Dimitroff is trying a tack that has met with somewhat more success. “We have the type of people who want to be part of this organization,” he said, “who believe quite simply in the team concept. For us, that’s imperative.”
Then this: “We made very calculated decisions in the draft — not only skills on the field but the makeup of these players. That combination in minicamp really showed its colors. We were impressed with what we saw not only skill-wise but [with] players who are buying into the team idea, who aren’t about just themselves, who know the way we’re going to restructure and redirect this ship is through all of us buying into the team idea.”
Doesn’t every organization say the same? Sure, Dimitroff said. “It sounds cliche. [But] I was witness to that turnaround in New England, how that team truly bought in. … A guy like Kevin Faulk, who could play for another team and maybe touch the ball 20 times, accepted his role and maybe only touched the ball eight to 10 times, but he was so instrumental in us winning.”
Dimitroff concedes that harmony can go only so far — “Obviously you have to win for it to gain legs” — but when you’re starting over, isn’t this the place to begin? The 2008 Falcons might not win many games, but they will build a foundation. They will look like a team, as opposed to a collection. And that’s something.
“If you continue to make moves that are sound decisions and not emotionally driven haphazard decisions,” Dimitroff said, “I think people will realize that consistency is the key here. To me, that’s huge. If this team can show consistency in their work ethic and their believing in themselves, then I truly believe we’re headed in the right direction.”
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Urban looks for payback against UGA
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Urban Meyer is still ticked about Georgia’s celebration. We know this because a forthcoming book quotes Urban Meyer as saying, “It was a bad deal. And it will forever be in the mind of Urban Meyer and our football team.”
Crocodile tears from a Gator. Boo and hoo.
Named after a Pope, Urban Meyer is apparently under the impression that Urban Meyer is a saint. Never mind that Georgia was appropriately penalized - two personal fouls, the combination requiring a kickoff from the 8-yard-line. Never mind that Urban Meyer’s team is such a stickler for rules that it ranked next-to-last nationally in penalties in 2006 and 113th among 119 Division I teams in 2007. Never mind that Mark Richt has apologized repeatedly for a prescribed bit of emotion that turned into a team-wide ad lib.
Urban Meyer is still so ticked as to feel the need to refer to Urban Meyer in the third person, which as we know is the height of humility.
Urban Meyer is a good coach but something of a baby. He teared up after Florida lost at LSU in 2005, thereby earning the nickname, “Urban Crier.” He whined in 2006 that Urban Meyer’s Gators belonged in the BCS title game ahead of Michigan and began to lobby for a playoff system and then, having gotten Urban Meyer’s way and won Urban Meyer’s national championship, was moved to say, “I want to make sure I am perfectly clear that I think the bowl system is what it’s all about.”
Now this. Again from the book by Buddy Martin (titled, appropriately enough, “Urban’s Way”): “We’ll handle [the Georgia celebration]. And it’s going to be a big deal.”
Really? The same forceful way Urban Meyer’s incensed defenders handled it that day in Jacksonville? By yielding five more touchdowns and losing 42-30?
Perhaps what most rankles Urban Meyer is the realization that, with one imperfectly scripted tactical swoop, Richt changed the dynamics of a series. Perhaps Urban Meyer grasps that the Bulldogs are no longer apt to roll over and be dominated. Perhaps Urban Meyer is just sorry that he, Urban Meyer, didn’t think of it first.
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Losing Childress an astonishing mistake by Hawks
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This summer was the test. The Hawks flunked. Are we surprised?
They couldn’t persuade the lesser of their two prized free agents to stay. They got outspent and outhustled by a team from Greece. Think about that.
An NBA-caliber player in the flower of his youth has chosen to play somewhere other than the NBA. It’s unprecedented, yes, but it’s also fitting. After this ham-handed non-negotiation, the Hawks should forfeit all claim to being big-league. They allowed something to happen that simply cannot happen.
Josh Childress isn’t a star — Rick Sund, the Hawks general manager, characterized him Wednesday as “a utility player” — but he’s precisely the sort of multi-tasker found on great teams. He’s a quick and clever sub who changes games. Having nurtured him for four seasons, the Hawks should have had some sense of his value. Alas, they wound up being penny-wise and pound-foolish. They dared Childress to leave. He took the dare.
This was Childress, speaking via conference call from Athens: “I wanted to get it done early … I was disappointed by the initial Hawks offer. They said, ‘Go out and find another offer’ … There was no urgency, no desire to get anything done.”
How could that be? The Hawks had no picks in the June draft. Sund and co-owner Michael Gearon Jr. had claimed the entire offseason focus was on keeping Messrs. Childress and Smith, but this disconcerted effort drove one Josh across the Atlantic.
Working a sign-and-trade wouldn’t have been the preferred course — Childress needed to stay here, period — but at least it would have yielded a return in personnel. This way the Hawks get nothing, and to twist the knife they must take a hit against their salary cap if they choose to retain his NBA rights. (Lon Babby, who represents Childress, was only happy to share that nugget with his media audience.)
This astonishing whiff comes not three months after the Hawks took the Celtics to Game 7 and this woebegone franchise began to buy back the good will lost over a decade of incompetence and indifference. This summer was going to be the time to consolidate precious gains, to prove to a suddenly rapt audience that happy days were here again. Instead we see that, in the serious-about-basketball department, the Hawks weren’t even a match for Greeks bearing gifts.
“After the Boston series, we thought things would get done,” said Childress, speaking of himself and Smith. “But I don’t think there was any commitment shown … We had a good run, we’d done everything we were expected to do, and we were put on hold.”
Sund noted that the Hawks offered Childress “more than market value,” but there comes a time when an organization that would win big has to spend what it takes to win big, even if it’s above market value. Sund wasn’t willing to do budge upward, not even after Olympiakos raised the stakes. Said Sund: “Going above the luxury tax with a team under .500 is probably premature.”
That’s the kind of small-minded thinking that has, over time, reduced the Hawks to irrelevance. After the pain and suffering of making all those lottery picks and watching them flail, the organization had cause to think this group might well win if kept intact. And now the Hawks’ fourth-best player is gone, and the third-best could follow.
For a few dizzying spring days, we dared to believe the Hawks were no longer the Hawks, that they were something better and brighter. Fooled us again.
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Things to consider as Falcons prepare for camp
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Training camp opens Saturday, presumably without protesters and low-flying aircraft this time, and those still paying attention will see how it looks when a 43-year-old franchise starts over. The Falcons will convene with new coaches and new players, and they’ll be fodder for many, many questions. Such as:
1. If Matt Ryan is the most impressive quarterback in preseason, will the Falcons dare to start him against Detroit on Sept. 7? If Ryan isn’t the most impressive quarterback, will that be an indication Thomas Dimitroff overreached? And will Ryan — who is, after all, a rookie — be extended the benefit of any doubt by a constituency still divided over Michael Vick?
2. Is the offensive line as bad as all that? Will first-rounder Sam Baker step in at left tackle, or was his lofty selection merely wishful thinking? Is Justin Blalock, a second-round pick in 2007, just another example of why Rich McKay is no longer running the draft? Is Kynan Forney finished? Can anybody here play this game?
3. In Mike Smith’s ball-control scheme, will Michael Turner get enough carries to gain 1,500 yards? Or with the absence of holes force him to run for 1,500 yards just to reach the line of scrimmage? Is Jerious Norwood going to get the ball this year, or is he destined to end his career as the most-discussed decoy since O.J. Simpson was a rookie?
4. Was Roddy White’s breakout year the real thing, or was it one of those statistical anomalies that lost seasons sometimes spawn? Is Laurent Robinson ready to start? Is rookie Harry Douglas really better than Robinson? Can Brian Finneran, who hasn’t played since 2005, find a spot? Is Joe Horn still on this team? If so, why?
5. Is the defensive line any better than the offensive line? Will John Abraham stay healthy? Will Jamaal Anderson ever sack a quarterback? Will Dimitroff have to find a tackle off the waiver wire if this unit is to stand any chance of stopping anybody’s running game? Is it possible Grady Jackson, exiled by Bobby Petrino, could wind up here again?
6. Is Keith Brooking still a big-time player, or is he as overrated as ajc.com bloggers insist? Will Michael Boley, who signed a one-year contract and who was arrested for battery over the offseason, continue to develop at an All-Pro pace? Will second-rounder Curtis Lofton, who impressed at minicamp, force himself into the lineup?
7. Is DeAngelo Hall’s absence a case of addition by subtraction or simply of subtraction? Do the Falcons have the guts to start a second-year man (Chris Houston) and a rookie (Chevis Jackson) at the corners? Was safety Erik Coleman worth $10 million over four years? Does Lawyer Milloy have anything left beyond gravitas? Is there a place for David Irons in this iffy mix?
8. Is Smith, a proven defensive coordinator, really a head coach? Or is he the successor to Dan Henning and Marion Campbell — accomplished lieutenants who flopped when given command of the Falcons? Will Mike Mularkey’s low-risk offense be seen as practical or dull?
9. Will a losing season strewn with low-scoring games burn off all the communal good will Arthur Blank has sought to build? Will home games again be blacked out? Will this restart turn out to be just another false start, or have the long-suffering Falcons found a lasting formula for success?
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Reality throws Glavine a curve
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Don’t make the mistake this correspondent did. Don’t refer to this season as Tom Glavine’s farewell tour. “It’s not a ‘farewell tour,’ ” Glavine said, his voice rising. “It was never supposed to be a ‘farewell tour.’ “
OK, then. But however we label the prodigal’s ballyhooed return, it has fallen short. Back with the Braves after five Flushing-based seasons, Glavine hasn’t worked since June 10. “I came here to pitch and provide stability to the club,” he said Friday. “But you can’t eat up innings if you’re not out there eating up innings.”
Here’s how messed up this season has gotten: Glavine spent two decades in the big leagues without going on the disabled list but has landed on it twice in 2008 — first with a tender hamstring, now with elbow tendinitis. He’s scheduled to throw off a mound today for the first time in 5 1/2 weeks — his elbow feels OK, he said, but he lacks arm strength — and he targets mid-August as a possible return.
Glavine came here to share a rotation with John Smoltz and Mike Hampton. Instead the three occupy space on the same overstuffed DL. Think about that: Glavine, who never gets hurt, missing at the same time as Hampton, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since August 2005 and who this week tweaked his groin in yet another rehab.
“Certainly nobody feels worse than Mike,” Glavine said, “but invariably something happens. If you weren’t watching it, you’d be frustrated or skeptical. But if Mike had his way, he’d be out there pitching.”
So would Glavine. “Thank God I haven’t had to deal with the disabled list before,” he said. “It’s not a lot of fun.”
If nothing else, this frazzled season has given him new appreciation for all those seasons that ran so smoothly. “From the early to the mid ’90s, we had some years where we didn’t make a move with our pitching staff because we didn’t have to make any moves,” he said. “The whole team was that way. I remember thinking, ‘We’ve been really fortunate.’ “
And in 2008? “Every other day something goes wrong.”
This wasn’t a concession speech. Glavine still believes the Braves can make a race of it. “On the one hand, you think of all the people we’ve had injured,” he said. “But you look at our statistics, and we’re high on the list in hitting and we’re first in ERA. That’s the part that makes you scratch your head and say, ‘Why aren’t we winning more?’ “
The Braves reported for duty after their All-Star hiatus 6 1/2 games out of first place and five out of third. The second part concerns Glavine as much as the first. “If you’re in fourth place, you could go on a 10-game winning streak and you might not gain ground on a certain team. It’s a lot easier to put pressure on one team. Back in the day, we were pretty good at doing that.”
Back in the day, things were different. The Braves were mostly healthy and roundly irresistible, at least over 162 games, and famous pitchers weren’t wondering if the end was nigh. Does Glavine want his Hall of Fame career to end on the DL? “I don’t. But I don’t want to pitch another year just to pitch another year … If I’m healthy, I’m more inclined to come back [in 2009]. If I’m not or if I have to have surgery, the likelihood goes way down.”
Some crummy homecoming, huh? “It hasn’t gone the way I had scripted or the organization had scripted,” Glavine said. “But real life sometimes throws you a curve.”
Then, smiling wryly: “So to speak.”
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Why UGA will win it all in this season
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Citing the 10 reasons Georgia will win the BCS national title drew the predictable responses: Bulldog fans figured I’d jinxed them, while non-Bulldogs hooted and pointed to that road schedule as the reason this touted team will fail. And while I’ll admit to being wrong once or twice in my so-called life - the Braves were not, alas, in first place on the Fourth of July - I’ll also note something else:
Mark Richt is a pretty fair road coach.
His record on the opponent’s field is 25-4. More than simply good, that’s obscene. He’s 2-1 at Auburn, 3-0 in Columbia, 3-1 in Knoxville, 2-0 in Tuscaloosa. (OK, so he’s only 2-5 against Florida in Jacksonville, but that’s about to get a lot better.) Of those four road losses, one was to a team (LSU in 2003) that finished No. 1, and another (Auburn in 2004) was to a team that went undefeated.
Urban Meyer is, I believe we can all agree, an outstanding head coach. (His performance in the BCS title game against Ohio State was the single greatest tactical job I’ve ever seen.) In three seasons at Florida, Meyer has lost more road games (five) than Richt has lost in seven seasons at Georgia. Think about that.
I’m not saying the Bulldogs will win all five of their road games. Playing at South Carolina, at Arizona State, at LSU, at Kentucky and at Auburn is a daunting assignment, not to mention Florida in Jax. But Georgia seems stout enough to negotiate that path with only one loss - coming at Auburn on Nov. 15, I’m guessing - and one loss against that schedule will almost surely book passage to the BCS title game.
Back to Florida: The 2006 Gators had a rather testing slate themselves - they played at Tennessee, at Auburn and at Florida State, and they also faced LSU and Kentucky and Alabama and Georgia and South Carolina - and they got through with one loss. (At Auburn, wouldn’t you know?) They wound up playing the aforementioned Buckeyes in Glendale, Ariz.
Georgia in 2008 seems every bit as loaded as Florida did then, and those Gators taught us one essential thing: If you’re good enough, you can win anywhere. Georgia, it says here, will be good enough.
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Falcons’ never-ending season began above London
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He was an hour outside of London when the bell began to toll. Arthur Blank was flying home from a Kenyan safari on his private plane, scheduled to land in England to refuel, when the pilot left the cockpit, a sheaf of paper in his hand.
“You need to see this,” the pilot said.
It was a transmitted copy of Michael Vick’s federal indictment. The date was July 17, 2007. The football team on which Blank had lavished so much money and care was about to unravel as completely as any football team ever has.
One year later, the Falcons owner speaks of 2007 as “the season that never ended. Every day there was another twist to the story — there was the Michael Vick story, and then there was the Bobby Petrino story. It was like someone kept adding another stick of wood to the fire.”
Then, after a pause: “But fires do burn out.”
This fire, alas, had a wickedly long tail. Within five months, Blank would find himself without both the quarterback he’d supported and befriended — some say coddled — and the head coach he’d hired for the express purpose of maximizing the quarterback’s singular skills.
Blank regards 2007 as “another reminder that even though you work hard to try to build a roster of players capable of handling the pressures of being a professional athlete both on and off the field,” the work carries no guarantee. Of Vick, he says: “On the football field, he could cope.”
Would Petrino’s system and guidance have enabled this quarterback to realize his massive potential? “Clearly the answer we felt was, ‘Yes.’ But whether he would have proved he could play at a very high level — a consistent level — we’ll never know.”
Early indications were encouraging. Vick’s offseason workouts led to in-house speculation that the Falcons could average 30 points a game, a prognostication that would have left them second to New England in scoring. But Vick never played a down for Petrino, who left under cover of darkness for Arkansas after 13 games.
What if, Blank is asked, Petrino had had Vick at his disposal and the Falcons would have started 4-3 instead of 1-6? Would the grumbling about Petrino’s methods have been silenced?
“It’s possible, but to be frank, the issues Bobby had with the players and communication started from the very beginning. … The players from the get-go felt disconnected. We would have had to win a lot of games for [pacification] to take place.”
For the owner, what was the nadir of the season without end? Receiving the indictment? Seeing training camp begin with Vick in court in Richmond, Va., and PETA protestors outside the gates at Flowery Branch? Watching Vick address the media after pleading guilty? Having Petrino bolt the day after Vick was sentenced to 23 months in jail?
“It was the day [Aug. 24] we received the document,” says Blank, referring to Vick’s pre-plea statement of facts. “A lot had been speculation up to then. … Even after the indictment, Michael was still saying, ‘I’m innocent; you’ll find that out.’ … The reality was that what Michael had been saying was not true. It was difficult when Bobby left, but I didn’t have a six-year relationship with him.”
About Vick: “People say we shouldn’t have supported the quarterback that much, but what about New England [with Tom Brady]? What about Indianapolis [with Peyton Manning]? With Michael, as spectacular as he was — not always great — with that kind of exciting player, he becomes in many ways the face of the franchise.”
The former face of the Falcons sits in a Kansas prison. A radically different team — new quarterback, new coach, new general manager — will open training camp next week. Of his reconfigured club, Blank says, “I have tremendous expectations this team will play hard and play well. … There’ll be a lot of energy, a lot of discipline. We’ll surprise a lot of people.”
Already the summer has yielded one bit of cheer. The 2008 Blank family vacation passed without untoward interruption. “We went to Italy for 10 days,” he says. “We didn’t get any pieces of paper over there.”
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Weak hitting confounds good pitching
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you can pitch, you’ll be OK: That has been the way of baseball since before Christy Mathewson was flinging his fadeaway, and it’s almost invariably the way now. The 2008 Braves stand as a case study of the variable: They can pitch, but they’re not OK.
They hit the All-Star break 6-1/2 games out of first place and five out of third. They hold the National League’s 10th-best record. They do this despite having compiled its lowest ERA.
The concept of pitching is simple — if your pitchers keep enough games close, you’ll win enough of them to be a winning team. The Braves have done the first part but not the second. They’re 40-28 in games decided by two or more runs; they’re 5-22 in one-run games. Tim Hudson has the league’s 10th-lowest ERA, but the Braves are only 9-11 in his starts.
The Braves were correct in their offseason self-assessment: They did indeed collect a wealth of starting pitchers. If they hadn’t, they’d be in last place. The Braves reached the break having received just five victories from the aging threesome of John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Mike Hampton, and with 67 games remaining they still have a chance to finish first. That’s the good news.
The bad is that it isn’t a very good chance. As we applaud the Braves for their reasoned emphasis on pitching, we must also fault them for their failure to flesh out this roster. Sports Illustrated notes that the Braves have devoted 62.2 percent of their payroll to pitching — only Arizona and Milwaukee have earmarked more — and it shows. Over the season’s first three months, they hit better for average than for production, and lately they haven’t hit much at all.
Should we be surprised? Even when healthy, Mark Kotsay and Matt Diaz are journeymen. Kelly Johnson is the epitome of an average big-leaguer — neither embarrassing nor exceptional. Chipper Jones and Brian McCann are exceptional, and Yunel Escobar could be. Mark Teixeira has had tremendous seasons, but this isn’t yet one of them, and Jeff Francoeur stopped hitting to the extent that the Braves treated him to a holiday weekend in Mississippi.
The Braves hold out hope for these last 67 games because they believe, not for the first time, that they’re about to get healthy. Trouble is, most of the returnees are apt to be pitchers, and it’s unlikely this team can pitch much better than it has. (Roger McDowell deserves a gold star.) The keys to the next 2-1/2 months are the same as the keys to the past 3-1/2 — both Teixeira and Francoeur have to hit. With this lineup, there are no other options.
The break arrives with the Braves in no man’s land. They’re not so far behind as to give up on the season, not so close as to become an active buyer. So long as they’re within eight games of first place, the Braves will surely resist the urge to dump Teixeira. But do they dare spend to import another bat with the odds arrayed against success?
They’ve surged from greater deficits — 9-1/2 games back at the 1991 All-Star break, nine behind in 1993 — to finish first. For a better team, there’d be time enough to pull this off. That’s the thing, though. Not since Memorial Day have the Braves looked like much of a team.
To their credit, they’ve hung around in a season where, as Chipper Jones has said, “we could have gotten our doors blown off.” But the time for hanging around is over. Come Friday night, this unassuming team must play as if it’s 1993 all over again. Good luck with that.
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First, and 10 reasons Dogs will rank there
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No sense mincing words. Georgia will win the BCS title, and here are 10 reasons why.
1. They’ll be ranked loftily from the get-go. LSU could lose twice and still play for the 2007 BCS title because the college football world had grown accustomed to the Tigers at or near the top. And pollsters snubbed Georgia in the final balloting because, even though folks kept voting the Bulldogs higher and higher, nobody had given them much consideration as a national champion.
2. Their schedule will keep them visible and therefore viable. Back to LSU: The Tigers played big games every single month. Even though they lost twice, they kept getting chances to redeem themselves. Georgia has South Carolina and Arizona State and Alabama in September, Tennessee and LSU in October, Florida and Auburn in November. If the Bulldogs lose only once, they’ll be playing in Miami in January.
3. Even if the Bulldogs lose a big road game in the Central Time Zone, they could well get a second chance. If we assume that the loss will come either at LSU or at Auburn, we can also assume that a rematch in the SEC championship game in the Georgia Dome would favor the team from Georgia.
4. Florida’s hold has been broken. The World’s Largest Outdoor Whatchamacallit runs in streaks, and the Bulldogs are about to start one. Mark Richt’s celebration-on-demand changed the dynamics of a series that had seen his side come to believe it couldn’t beat the hated Gators. (Losing 15 of 17 can have that effect.) The Bulldogs now know otherwise. So do the Gators.
5. Knowshon Moreno is the nation’s best back, and his presence brings balance to Georgia’s offense. There’s nothing wrong with throwing the ball strategically, but it’s worth noting that Georgia’s best seasons under Richt — the breakthrough of 2002 and last year’s revival — have come when it had a 1,000-yard back. And let’s not forget Caleb King. (ajc.com bloggers haven’t.)
6. Matthew Stafford throws better when he throws less. It’s simple math, really: If Stafford looses 30 passes a game, assume five will be forced. If he grows accustomed to handing the ball off and throws 10 fewer passes, figure his completion percentage — only 55.7 last season — will rise to a more suitable level.
7. Mark Richt has been pointing toward the national title since 2002, but he hasn’t yet had the right team at the right moment. This time he will, and he’ll know how to handle it better than in 2004, when a gifted bunch of Bulldogs peaked too soon.
8. Willie Martinez gets no credit — just results. Georgia fans still bemoan the loss of Brian VanGorder, but the unloved Martinez has returned the defense to unyielding eminence. Remember how many splendid defenders LSU fielded last season — Dorsey, Highsmith, Steltz, Jackson? Those Tigers yielded 33 touchdowns in 14 games. Georgia yielded 28 in 13.
9. Sophomore linebacker Rennie Curran is about to get huge, figuratively speaking. He isn’t big — 5 feet 11 — but he’s everywhere. Curran made his first start against Florida, and over the final six games he had 36 solo tackles and three sacks. You won’t find him on early All-American lists, but you’ll know him by season’s end.
10. Uga VI is gone but not forgotten, and there exists no deeper feeling than the memory of a beloved dog. Who among us didn’t get teary-eyed over Old Yeller? What red-blooded Bulldog wouldn’t clothesline Urban Meyer’s grandmother to dedicate a posthumous championship to this fallen critter?
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Francoeur’s not the first to lose his grip on Atlanta
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Each hit town with a splash. Each dazzled us with deeds and flair. We loved them for a time, and then, for varying reasons, we stopped loving them.
In light of Jeff Francoeur’s sudden fall, we look back on four former toasts of the town, and we assess the career of Frenchy, the local boy who’d made good but who unaccountably went bad.
PETE MARAVICH
• RISE: Was the Hawks’ No. 1 pick (third overall) in the 1970 draft. So excited was ABC about the advent of the all-time collegiate scoring leader that the network aired his regular-season debut on a college football Saturday. Alexander Memorial Coliseum was sold out for the occasion, and Pistol Pete was suddenly the hottest sporting figure in Hotlanta.
• FALL: Played here for four seasons, averaging 24.3 points on teams that posted one winning record (46-36 in 1972-73) and never won a playoff series. Clashed with teammates over his reluctance to share the ball, and in 1978, Sports Illustrated quoted Lou Hudson as saying, “He will be a loser, always, no matter what he does. That’s his legacy.”
• DEPARTURE: Was traded to the New Orleans Jazz on May 3, 1974, for Dean Meminger, Bob Kauffman and future draft picks. Led the NBA in scoring in 1976-77. Retired in 1980.
• DENOUEMENT: Died of a heart attack at the age of 40 playing pickup basketball on Jan. 5, 1988. Was named one of the NBA’s 50 greatest players in 1996.
DEION SANDERS
• RISE: Was the Falcons’ No. 1 pick (fifth overall) in the 1989 draft. Missed all of training camp while playing for the New York Yankees but returned a punt for a touchdown in his first game as a Falcon. Signed with the Braves as a free agent in 1991 and shuttled via helicopter between football practice and baseball games during the epic pennant race that fall. Scored 10 touchdowns over five NFL seasons here. Led the Braves in hitting during the 1992 World Series.
• FALL: Enraged the Braves by leaving the team during the 1992 NLCS and flying via Nike-funded jet to Miami for a Falcons game. (He returned to Pittsburgh and sat in the dugout that night.) Enraged the Falcons, who fined him $68,000, by skipping the first three games of the 1992 season while off with the Braves.
• DEPARTURE: Was traded by the Braves to Cincinnati for Roberto Kelly in May 1994. Left the Falcons to sign with San Francisco as a free agent in 1994.
• DENOUEMENT: Remains the only man to play in both a World Series and a Super Bowl (winning it in his one season with the 49ers). Played for 10 organizations in two sports, most recently for the Ravens in 2005. Is a commentator for the NFL Network.
STEVE BARTKOWSKI
• RISE: Was the Falcons’ No. 1 pick (first overall) in the 1975 draft. Named NFC rookie of the year by Sporting News. Led them to their first playoff victory in 1978. Passed for an NFL-leading 31 touchdowns — still the team’s single-season best — in 1980 as the Falcons went 12-4. Dated Jan Stephenson, the LPGA pin-up.
• FALL: Limited mobility due to bad knees — “I wouldn’t want to pass-block for me,” Bartkowski once said — led to an inordinate number of sacks (51 in 1983 and 40 in 1984). From 1980 on, the Falcons had only one winning season with Bartkowski as quarterback. Was benched in favor of David Archer in October 1985 when the Falcons were 0-5.
• DEPARTURE: After the benching, the Falcons sought to waive Bartkowski even though he was hurt, which isn’t allowed. Started six games for the L.A. Rams in 1986, after which he retired.
• DENOUEMENT: Lives in Atlanta; has had double knee-replacement surgery and has undergone treatment for colon cancer; sits on the Falcons’ board of directors; is playing in the American Century Championship golf tournament in Lake Tahoe this weekend.
MICHAEL VICK
• RISE: Was the Falcons’ No. 1 pick (first overall) in the 2001 draft. Excitement over his selection led to a traffic jam on a Saturday morning outside the team’s Flowery Branch headquarters. Led the Falcons to the playoffs and a famous postseason victory in Green Bay in 2002, his first season as a starter, and to the NFC title game in 2004. Made the Pro Bowl three times. Signed a 10-year, $130 million contract extension Dec. 23, 2004.
• FALL: Falcons failed to have winning seasons in 2005 and 2006, and Vick’s passing numbers slid. Also began to make unsavory news: an ugly lawsuit by a former girlfriend; the impolite gesture to Georgia Dome fans after a loss to New Orleans in 2006; the water-bottle incident in the Miami airport in 2007. And then …
• DEPARTURE: Was indicted on dogfighting charges last July; pleaded guilty in August; was sentenced to 23 months in prison in December. Filed for bankruptcy protection this week.
• DENOUEMENT: Remains on the Falcons’ roster while incarcerated in Leavenworth, Kan., but is unlikely to play for them again.
JEFF FRANCOEUR
• RISE: Was the Braves’ No. 1 pick (23rd overall) in 2002. Joined the big-league team July 7, 2005, and hit a home run that night. Batted .300 with 48 RBIs and 14 homers in helping the Braves to their 14th consecutive division title. Finished third in voting for NL rookie of the year. Drove in 100-plus runs each of the next two seasons. Came to personify the latest wave of young and gifted Braves.
• FALL: Saw his average dip from .269 to .234 in six weeks this season. Went 12 games without an RBI. Went 14 games without an extra-base hit. On-base percentage plunged to .287. Began to hear boos at Turner Field. Was 1-for-23 over a six-game stretch and seemed utterly helpless, which led the Braves to …
• DEPARTURE: Send him to Class AA Mississippi, where he stayed for three games, going 7-for-13 with two RBIs. Was recalled to the majors Monday. Hit a home run, his first in 27 days, in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
• PROGNOSIS: Good if he starts to hit; less good if he doesn’t. If local history teaches us anything, it’s that one year’s toast of the town can become next year’s ghost.
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Hey Mike, where’s the money?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Dec. 23, 2004, Michael Vick signed a 10-year contract extension that was to bring him $130 million. On July 7, 2008, Vick filed for bankruptcy, citing debts ranging from $10 million to $50 million.
I have a question: Where’d it go?
Let’s stipulate that Vick didn’t receive all of the $130 million - he played only two of the 10 years - but the deal also included a $37 million signing bonus, most of which he has been allowed to keep. Let’s also recall that Vick signed for $62 million over six seasons after being drafted in 2001. And let’s not forget endorsements.
So, to recap: Two record contracts in the span of 3 1/2 years, followed by bankruptcy in 2008.
Where’d it go?
I’d really like to know. How do you go through that much that fast? Bad investments? (Certainly we know about the property he bought on Moonlight Road in Smithfield, Va.) Too much travel? (Didn’t his deal with AirTran provide free flights?) Too many lavish purchases? (Obviously he ran up some hefty legal bils.) Too many unsavory friends? (Well, yes.) A sudden downturn in earning status? (Well, duh.)
But even with the worst spending habits and the grabbiest associates in the history of mankind, wouldn’t it be tough to blow through earnings that surely topped $100 million and to do it by the time you turn 28? How do you manage that? Where’d it go?
I understand that making money as an athlete is no assurance of having money. Evander Holyfield made nearly $250 million as a fighter, but last month he was moved to tell this newspaper: “I’m not broke. I’m just not liquid.” The baseball player Jack Clark once filed for bankruptcy while working under a contract that paid him $8.7 million, in part because he’d bought 18 cars.
I understand that athletes aren’t always the shrewdest investors. I understand that even successful people do silly things. What I can’t understand is how so much money just flies away. Where does it go?
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Hawks catch break in Smith sweepstakes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There can be no excuses now. If Josh Smith plays elsewhere next season, it will be because the Hawks messed up or wimped out.
The Philadelphia 76ers were thought to be (and have indeed become) the major force in the free-agent bazaar, but they’ve deigned to spend $82 million on Elton Brand. Had the Sixers offered Smith something approaching that, the Hawks might well have blanched at matching it, choosing to work a sign-and-trade instead.
No other team is apt to tempt Smith so lavishly. He’ll probably sign an offer sheet, possibly with the Clippers, who are to free spending as Wilt Chamberlain was to monogamy. If you’re a team desperate to keep a free agent and your chief competitor is Donald Sterling — who just sank $65 million into Baron Davis — you haven’t just gotten lucky. You’ve gotten lucky like Jon Koncak got.
It was 19 summers ago that the Hawks were on the wrong side of the Koncak sweepstakes. The dastardly Detroit Pistons stuck it to their division rival by offering the free agent $2.5 million at a time when Michael Jordan was making $2.5 million. On the night in question, this correspondent called Koncak and asked if the $2.5 million was for two seasons, which seemed to make sense. “Dude,” said Koncak, scarcely believing it himself, “it’s for one.’ “
The Hawks were then faced with two lousy options: They could lose an asset, albeit a non-starting one, to their nemesis without compensation, or they could match the outrageous offer and keep the unassuming ‘Kak. They chose to lock him up long term at a cost of $13.1 million over six seasons, thereby skewing their salary cap for the better part of a decade. (Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t Pete Babcock who made the worst of a bad situation — Stan Kasten was the general manager.)
It’s unlikely Rick Sund’s feet will be held to a similar fire. With the Sixers sidelined, he shouldn’t have to match an offer that would bankrupt the cost-conscious Atlanta Spirit. He should be able to keep Smith for $60 million, give or take, which is a chunk of money but is less than Joe Johnson got three years ago. It should leave enough money to retain Josh Childress, too.
Michael Gearon Jr., the chief basketball voice among the many Spirit partners, has said it many times: “Our whole emphasis is keeping this core group together and letting it grow.” This summer is the time of testing: You can’t keep a young team intact without spending big when the young guys hit free agency, and the trouble with free agency is that it takes only one extravagant outsider to wreck your plans.
If any club was going to be the extravagant outsider, it figured to be Philly. The Sixers chose Brand instead. (Certainly they were influenced by his status as an unrestricted free agent, which meant no matching was possible and no sign-and-trade would be required.) And now Smith, who was given the grand tour of Philadelphia, has to find someone else to make him an offer.
Doubtless he will, but surely it won’t be an offer of Koncakian proportions. The Hawks had been holding their breath, waiting to see what the marketplace holds for the Joshes, and early returns must have touched off a round of exhales.
Yes, something screwy could still happen, but chances are it won’t. For one of the few times in their star-crossed existence, the Hawks seem to have caught a break. Let’s see if they know what to do with it.
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Epic could be start of something good
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You can’t know until later. On June 27, 2004, we couldn’t know that a seven-run eighth inning in Baltimore would be the spark that set a sub-.500 team alight. On May 15, 2001, we couldn’t know that an eighth-inning grand slam by the rookie Marcus Giles (off Mike Hampton, of all people) would rouse a team that had drifted six games behind Philadelphia.
So, in the here and now, no one among Braves was characterizing one elongated victory as anything more than a nice springboard to a West Coast getaway. “We’ll talk about a winning streak after [today’s game in Los Angeles],” Chipper Jones said.
And yet …
A team starved for any sliver of good news left town on the wings of a fairly epic victory. The Braves trotted out a sickly lineup — starters included Gregor Blanco, Omar Infante, Martin Prado, Greg Norton and everyone’s favorite Corky Miller — and proceeded to fall four runs behind. They tied the game in the eighth on Yunel Escobar’s two-out single, and there it stayed for hours, days, years.
Six Braves relievers worked the equivalent of an 11-inning shutout. Every Braves run was driven in by one of the three legitimate hitters among the starting eight, and the runs were well spaced — three in the first three innings, three more in the seventh and eighth, no more until the Braves mustered the winner in the 17th inning on the strength of four (count ‘em) consecutive singles.
The game should have ended two innings earlier. With runners on second and third and one out and the infield draw in, Houston’s Ty Wigginton smashed a liner into the hole between third and short. His reaction time essentially halved by playing so close to the batter, Escobar nonetheless threw himself into the air and flung his glove across his body and caught the darn ball with, as Jones would say later, “the last inch of his glove.”
This wasn’t quite Otis Nixon scaling the wall to thwart Andy Van Slyke, but it was as fine a play as any Braves infielder has made in the last quarter-century. “Walt Weiss relived,” said Jones, recalling the stop made by the shortstop in Game 3 of the 1999 division series against, of all teams, the Astros. “[Escobar’s catch] is one of the most incredible plays I’ve ever seen.”
The incredible used to arrive as a matter of routine around here, but it has lately been in short supply. About the only thing that has beggared belief about the 2008 Braves is the scope of their disabled list, which, if you can believe it, stands to grow by three more names today. (Jeff Bennett hurt himself Saturday, and Infante and Manny Acosta limped off Sunday.) “Never had that happen before,” said Bobby Cox, meaning DL-ing three guys in one procedural swoop.
Injuries will probably scuttle this team, but for the moment hope still floats. The Braves needed five hours and 35 minutes — plus Philadelphia’s 12-inning rain-delayed loss to the Mets — to do it, but they shaved a game off their deficit Sunday, and they could still hit the All-Star break within hailing distance of first place. They’re hanging in, just.
“This team has two faces,” Jones said. “One of the faces is very good. The other is not so pretty — we can be an ugly team. We’ve got to bury that team.”
They do, and the shoveling has to start this week. Or else we’ll recall Escobar’s whirling intervention as just a footnote in a failed season, assuming we recall it at all.
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Venerable Peachtree Road Race renews tradition
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For Vickie Glassman, the 39th Peachtree Road Race was an excuse to hand out red, white and blue cupcakes to sweaty runners. “It’s a ritual,” she said, and then she laughed. “Actually, it’s the first year I’ve done this.”
Stayed up half the night baking, had she? Yes, Glassman said. Then: “I’m teasing. I bought these at Publix. Four dozen.”
The Peachtree was still in its first hour, and already she was on her third dozen. Glassman sat not far from her front door and scanned the passing masses for friends and relations and the guests who’d come from “two or three different states” to stay at her place and run the race. She has been watching the Peachtree since 1977, and she has her routine. “I take off work July 3,” she said, “to get ready for the Fourth.”
Outsiders sometimes wonder just what the Peachtree is — race or ritual, competition or celebration — and the real answer is that’s all of that and more. For Brian Ragen, who was sitting outside his church — the Cathedral of St. Philip — with two of his sons, “it’s the way to kick off the Fourth of July,” but it’s also one of things that sets Atlanta apart.
“Very few cities could close down a major artery,” said Ragen, who ran the race when the starting line was at the corner of Peachtree and Roswell Road, “and nobody get all torqued out of shape because they can’t get from Point A to Point B.”
Fifty-five thousand people get up early on a holiday to run/walk 6.2 miles so they can be handed a T-shirt, and more folks than that rise just as early and plant their folding chairs along the route to wave a flag or snap a picture or just to feel like an Atlantan. And an American.
“It’s not just the top runners anymore,” said Glassman, thinking of how the race was 30 years ago. “There’s a much wider diversity of people now.”
Somehow, though, diversity isn’t what strikes you about the Peachtree. Instead it’s the gleeful convergence of young and old, of participant and watcher, and how often in this fractious 21st Century do we actually converge for anything?
“This is a celebration of what John Adams would have called ‘our revolution,’” said Max Cleland, the former U.S. Senator. As is his custom, Cleland sat alongside Peachtree and displayed a placard from his wheelchair: “Run, Run To The Max.”
“I think John Adams would be proud of this,” Cleland said. “This is maybe the last vestige of citizen participation. People look at this and say, ‘I can do that.’ It’s just a high — the runners are on a runners’ high, and we’re on a high from watching them.”
At a time when it seems everything has changed for the worse — a gas station along the course advertised a gallon of regular for $4.19 Friday — the Peachtree serves to remind us that not all has been lost. Every Fourth of July, we Atlantans bear witness to a gentle reaffirmation. Ken and Dyanne Louko have been watching the race for 23 years. They, too, have their routine. They catch the start on TV, and then they proceed from their home in Garden Hills to their spot by the fence outside the Peachtree Battle shopping center. Why not watch the whole thing via television?
Said Dyanne: “There’s nothing like seeing for yourself just how many people there are.”
No matter how often you’ve seen it before, there’s something warm and fuzzy about seeing it again. And there’s your answer: What is the Peachtree Road Race? It’s the tradition that always feels brand new.
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Is it time to trade Teixeira?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you’re a Braves fan, which would you rather see: The team reach the All-Star break as it is now (six games back), or the team go 3-7 over these next 11 days and fall 10 games behind as of July 13?
Those are radically different scenarios. At six games back, the Braves would still feel as Chipper Jones suggested Tuesday: That they’re still in the division race and, given all that has gone wrong, their best days remain ahead.
At 10 games back, a colder sort of reality would begin to set in, and the organization’s thoughts would to turn to the kind of cold-blooded move this team hasn’t had to make since it dealt Dale Murphy to Philadelphia in 1990. The club that’s always looking to buy at the trading deadline would have to consider selling Mark Teixeira.
A stipulation: Having loaded up on veterans in what was seen as a kind of last stand, the Braves will reach the point of surrender only grudgingly. As long as Bobby Cox thinks they have a chance - and Cox always thinks his team has a chance - Frank Wren will be reluctant to concede anything. But sometimes concession is the only prudent course. If Teixeira is going to leave anyway (and he surely is), why keep him for two meaningless months?
The Braves have been buoyed by the recent stream of returnees, a strange sensation in this deflating season: Mike Gonzalez is back, and so is Mark Kotsay, and Chipper Jones didn’t have to go on the disabled list and Yunel Escobar started Wednesday’s game. And yet again we’re hearing that He Whose Name Cannot Be Uttered Lest He Tweak Another Muscle is looking good in his rehab starts.
That’s the good news. The bad is that the Braves have lost twice to Philly and are again headed south in the standings. These next 11 days could well determine the course of the final 2 1/2 months. Go 7-3 and Teixeira figures to be a Brave all summer. Go 3-7 and he could (and should) be gone.
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July 1 could be turning point for Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
About those 14 division titles: Didn’t at least four come when the Braves weren’t the most talented team?
“Yes,” Chipper Jones said.
And if the Braves could somehow finish first this time, wouldn’t 2008 trump all the others — 1999 when Andres Galarraga and Javy Lopez were lost; 2001 when both the Mets and Phillies seemed more robust; 2004 when the Braves were under .500 on the Fourth of July; 2005 with all the rookies — for improbability?
“Yes,” Jones said. “Having the injuries we’ve had, yes. I said before the season the one guy we couldn’t lose was [John Smoltz], and we had him for what, one month? [Mike] Hampton hasn’t pitched, and [Tom] Glavine’s been gimpy, and now I’ve been out.”
The coming of July found the Braves three games under .500 and four games behind Philadelphia, which arrived at Turner Field on Tuesday. This isn’t where the Braves thought they’d be when they broke camp, but it beats the heck out of where they ought to be, which is in the vicinity of the Washington Nationals.
Jones again: “Back in February, if you’d projected all the things that were going to happen to us, you’d have said, ‘If that team doesn’t lose 100 games, it’ll be a decent year.’ To hold it together this long is a tribute to Bobby, to Roger McDowell and to some young pitchers.”
In a season where so much has gone wrong, something big went unexpectedly right Tuesday. On a day when it was believed Jones would land on an overstuffed disabled list, he arrived for work and, wonder of wonders, pronounced himself fit to play.
“I woke up yesterday and did the quad stretches that had been hurting,” he said, speaking before the game, “and they didn’t hurt anymore. I’m about 85 percent now, so there’s no sense going on the DL. In fact, I’m lobbying to get in there right now.”
Maybe we’ll remember July 1 as the day an unfortunate season began to turn. Mark Kotsay exited the DL, and Jones dodged the dreaded list and talked his way into the starting lineup. The game itself wasn’t half as cheery — the Phillies chased Charlie Morton in the third and Blaine Boyer in the ninth and won 8-3 — but these past five weeks have been so bleak that any glimmer of light seems a new dawn.
Said Jones: “I don’t know how everybody else feels about it [his return], but I’m pretty excited.”
And if you’re the three NL East teams ahead of the Braves, maybe you’ll look back in September and curse what might have been. You let an opponent of such pedigree linger at your peril, and pedigree is about all that has kept the Braves this close.
“No other team that has gone through what we’ve gone through health-wise would be in the same position,” Jones said. “I know people say the NL East isn’t a good division, but it’s not that bad. It’s really even … We’ve got parity. And I’m glad we do. Otherwise we’d have gotten our doors blown off.”
It’s July. Doors have been buffeted but remain intact. The Braves should be 10 games out but are half that. If guys follow Jones’ lead and get healthy, who knows what this team could do?
Here’s one thing the Braves do know: Better health must be followed by improved performance. “We’ve got a shot, absolutely,” Bobby Cox said. And then this: “But we’ve got to win some of these types of games.”
Seventy-eight games remain. That doesn’t sound like very many, but it might just be enough.
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