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Should Braves go after Bonds?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A guy asked me something the other day that I decided to run by the masses. I shrugged it off, by the way. That’s because this particular thing would rank somewhere between ludicrous and outrageous if it happened.
Barry Bonds.
That’s the name the guy mentioned to me while nodding. To paraphrase what the guy proceeded to say: “With the Braves struggling in the clutch at the plate along the way to a slew of one-run losses [or losses, period], why not grab the biggest free agent out there that nobody wants?”
Well, here’s why: It would be absolutely insane. The primary reason Bonds hasn’t signed with anybody to date is because nobody wishes to have the circus that would come with such a move.
In case you haven’t heard, Bonds is slated to have a federal trial next year on perjury charges involving his (ahem) alleged dabbling in performance-enhancing drugs. Not only that, he hasn’t been the most accommodating athlete regarding teammates, reporters and fans.
None of that mattered to this guy, though, because he said the positives involving Bonds on the Braves would override the negatives. He is baseball’s all-time leader in home runs, and he even slammed 28 last season. He turns 44 on Thursday, but he still is younger than former Braves first baseman Julio Franco.
He could show the Braves’ young hitters how to remain disciplined in the batter’s box no matter what. He could give the Braves much needed pop off the bench. Despite his fading defensive skills, he could play occasionally in left field. He could help the Braves’ attendance that has slide below the major-league average.
And don’t forget: Braves executive John Schuerholz mentioned in his book two years ago that he once tried to trade for Bonds and almost had him.
I’m sorry, but I’m back to visions of a Bonds-induced circus at Turner Field, and remember: The Braves traditionally haven’t been into sideshows.
Then again, what do you think? And if you agree with this guy who wants Bonds in Atlanta, would you prefer elephants or giraffes to go with the clowns?
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Braves still have a chance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since the Braves were scheduled to play their 100th game Tuesday night in Miami, this is the optimum time to explain why those choppers and chanters should stop exchanging their foam-rubber tomahawks for ones shaped like white flags.
It’s not over.
For one, the fourth-place Braves have 62 games left to discover ways to become the first-place Braves. Then again, they could slump so badly this summer that they could eliminate themselves by Labor Day from snatching the National League East or a wild-card berth. “I don’t know if I’d say we have a good shot [at the playoffs],” said Braves general manager Frank Wren. “I think we’ve got a shot. We’ve put ourselves in a position where I don’t know if you can describe it as good. We have to play better to have a good shot.”
That’s true. Still, despite their various issues, the Braves have an easier shot at the playoffs than you think.
For instance:
• The Division: These are the same New York Mets who blew that seven-game lead last year with 17 games left to play. These also are the same Mets who exposed their lack of character earlier this season by playing just sorry enough to get the clubhouse-unpopular Willie Randolph fired as their manager.
The Philadelphia Phillies?
Not impressed. Courtesy of an offense that is home run or bust, the Phillies haven’t scored much in a month. They also could use another starting pitcher.
The Mets and the Phillies are ahead of the Braves, along with the Florida Marlins, among just two teams in the majors with 80 or more errors. The Florida offense also is flimsy since it depends on the power game, and it gets worse: The Marlins rank among baseball’s bottom four in team ERA.
• The wounded: Many of the Braves’ injured will become the Braves’ healthy down the stretch. That means they could become the Braves’ catalysts.
Just look at the impressive ways of reliever Mike Gonzalez since his return from the disabled list. So, in the coming days and weeks, the Braves should receive jolts of goodness from a combination that involves Rafael Soriano, Yunel Escobar, Matt Diaz, Tom Glavine, (dare we say it?) Mike Hampton and others.
• The odds: No way the Braves will continue to play this badly on the road and during one-run games. They began Tuesday night’s game against the Marlins tied for the third-worst record in the majors on the road at 16-32. They were a wretched 5-22 in one-run games, including 24 consecutive losses in a row on the road to top baseball’s old record by three and counting.
“It’s been our lack of run production, and everybody needs to step up just a bit,” said Braves first baseman Mark Teixeira. “It’s like one hit here, moving a runner over there, and those one-run losses turn into one-run wins.”
• The schedule: Let’s say the Braves get that road thing and that one-run thing together sooner than later. Let’s say they stay within striking distance of the division leaders. Let’s say the Marlins fade as expected and the Mets and the Phillies are NL East contenders by default.
The Braves would control their own destiny with six games each against the Mets and the Phillies in September.
• The manager: Bobby Cox, a future Hall of Famer, with 15 division titles, five pennants and a world championship.
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Braves must keep Teixeira
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s not going to happen. Well, they sort of suggested as much on Saturday night at Turner Field. That said, if Braves officials do trade Mark Teixeira before the July 31 deadline, they should apologize to everybody on their roster, and then they should give rebates to those entering Turner Field the rest of the season.
Surrender never should be rewarded in sports. That’s especially true when you’re part of an underwhelming division, and you’re a medium-sized winning streak from first place, and you have this Teixeira guy who is pretty good as both a cleanup hitter and a first baseman.
Teixeira can become a free agent after this season, but so what? If he leaves, the Braves get a couple of draft picks. If he stays, it saves Braves officials the difficult task of trying to find another slugger as good or even better. So you keep him through September no matter. In fact, to hear all parties involved tell it before the Braves’ 8-2 loss to the Washington Nationals, he isn’t going anywhere. Braves manager Bobby Cox informed Teixeira and others as much on Friday in a team meeting.
“Bobby pointed out that there had been rumors about me and [reliever Will Ohman], and he told us not to listen to media reports and to those rumors, because this team is still trying to win the [National League East],” said Teixeira, 28, giving one of the two primary reasons those rumors never made sense. Here’s the other primary reason: He is pretty good.
Since joining the Braves on last year’s trade deadline from the Texas Rangers, Teixeira has shown often why he has two Gold Gloves and counting. There was the sixth inning Saturday, for instance, when he converted a nasty hop into an easy out to increase his major-league lead in putouts by a bunch. He also is a switch-hitting terror at the plate. He has hit safely in nine of his past 11 games, and after a slow start earlier this season, he has accumulated 12 homers and 38 RBIs since late May.
No wonder Cox said emphatically before the game, “We’re buyers, not sellers. We’re trying anything to improve. We’re not seeking to move anybody. I don’t know where [people] got all of that stuff from. There’s a time to [start trading players], I suppose, but we’re in this thing.”
Which brings us to the question that causes Braves officials to waffle regarding Teixeira’s future: What if the Braves tumble out of “this thing” in a hurry? Their next seven games are against division foes. After the Nationals leave town today, the fourth-place Braves travel to Florida to face the third-place Marlins. Then the Braves head to Philadelphia for a series against a first-place team that has whipped them eight out of nine times this year.
Said Braves general manager Frank Wren, whose team had more than a few uneven moments in this one at the plate, on the mound, around the bases and in the field, “I think we all have to be realistic. We have to play better baseball in the second half to continue to stay in this thing. As long as we’re in it, we’ll keep this approach. But once, I think, we realize that it’s a situation where we need to start looking toward ‘09, then we’ll try to do what’s best for the organization.”
Keeping Teixeira is best for the organization, period.
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Ex-GT hoopster Forrest ‘gets it’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
We’ll take a break from the slew of Bulldogs arrested in Athens, the pending bankruptcy of what was a $130 million quarterback and the inability of the Braves to hit or score on most days to bring you James Forrest, a 6-foot-7 example that some former pro athletes actually get it.
No question, Forrest has done much since leaving the Georgia Tech basketball team in the early 1990s as the guy who nailed that miracle shot against USC. He also spent three days carrying the Yellow Jackets on his massive back to a title during the ACC tournament. Then he dribbled professionally for more than a decade in Greece, Italy, Israel and Spain.
After Forrest retired from professional basketball two years ago, he returned to his hometown of Atlanta, where he runs a construction company, is part owner of several local restaurants and sells vehicles in Newnan. Mostly, at 35, he has evolved into an instant Pied Piper for underprivileged youth, and it began last summer with his first basketball camp that became more than that at Southside High School, his alma mater.
“The first two days, it was more of a matter of talking to them and trying to discipline them,” said Forrest, of the 80 or so boys and girls at his five-day camp that he paid for himself. The sessions featured tutoring and mentoring between picks and rolls. Added Forrest, “By that Friday, a couple of kids said, ‘See you tomorrow, coach.’ I was like, ‘Nah, tomorrow is Saturday.’ And they were like, ‘Well, we’ll see you on Monday.’ And I had to tell them that the camp was over.
“Some of them were crying, because they didn’t want to leave, and that’s when it really hit me like, ‘Wow. We have to have more of this. We have to do whatever it takes to make more of these things happen for these kids.’”
Forrest’s “we” involves athletes from the Atlanta area with the cash and the fame. Whether they have the will is another matter. For every Forrest and former Braves star Marquis Grissom, who was Forrest before Forrest regarding local philanthropy, there are scores of others who need to do something to help the cause.
That’s opposed to whatever they’re not doing now.
“It’s a lot of work, and guy’s schedules may not allow them to do this, but look at Reggie Bush,” said Forrest, referring to the New Orleans player who hosted a summer camp in his hometown of San Diego and had 2,000 youth and participation from 33 current and former NFL players. “I can’t speak for everybody who has made it from Atlanta, but Atlanta should be one of the best cities for athletes doing those types of things.”
Atlanta isn’t, by the way, but Forrest is doing his part. He staged another camp last month, and his next one is July 21 at Southside High School. He can be reached through his e-mail address at jfbbcamp@yahoo.com.
Among those slated to assist Forrest at his upcoming camp is former Hawk Anthony Johnson, as well as former Tech players Dennis Scott, Travis Best and Brian Oliver.
“There is so much unnecessary violence and things going on that there aren’t enough men giving hope to these kids,” said Forrest, who has three children ages 12, 8 and 4. “All of these kids need role models. It doesn’t necessarily come from us being athletes but from us being men.”
Active men.
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Favre to Falcons? Stop dreaming
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Let’s dream a little. That’s because none of the following ever will happen for so many reasons, but what the heck?
Brett Favre wants to play again, and if you read between the lines of what his former bosses in Green Bay aren’t saying, they don’t want him back. They want to start fresh at quarterback with the Aaron Rodgers regime. They want Favre to keep his word after last season about retiring - at least from the Packers.
So, since Favre still wants to play (and he should after a splendid 2007 despite his 38-year-old arm), he will have to do so somewhere else in the league.
See where I’m going?
In this wacky dream of mine, Favre would go back to the future and return to the same Falcons franchise that drafted him before mindlessly trading him to the Packers 17 years and a bunch of Hall of Fame moments ago. Favre would bridge the gap for a year or three until Matt Ryan, the Falcons’ first-round pick this season, is ready.
We all can wake up now.
There is a $72 million reason why Ryan won’t be anybody’s backup any time soon with the Falcons. Plus, at this stage of his career, Favre isn’t interested in playing for a team in the midst of a massive rebuilding program.
Then again, Favre is from Kiln, Miss., which is closer to Georgia than Wisconsin.
So maybe …
Zzzzzzzzzzzz.
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Latest comments
This is a poor poor baseball team that needs something to stimulate it. Watching this team play is like watching the lions hunt anteolopes….Bonds would bring attention and several more wins to this team just by his presence in the clubhouse. Yes... read the full comment by Andrew | Comment on Should Braves go after Bonds? Read Should Braves go after Bonds?
Bond should be BANNED from ever playing again. If the Braves were to get him, that’s it for me. I will not return.... read the full comment by HB | Comment on Should Braves go after Bonds? Read Should Braves go after Bonds?
For the first time EVER, I am breaking my self-imposed rule of NEVER responding to a TM article, but my disdain for TM’s journalism is outweighed by my disdain for Bonds. My response to this question, even when Bonds’ was healthy, was... read the full comment by cobbdawg | Comment on Should Braves go after Bonds? Read Should Braves go after Bonds?
I lived in Atlanta for 20 years and fell in love with the Atlanta Braves, cannot get enought of them. Barry Bonds is nothing but a self-centered, non-team player, liar and anything else I can come up with. I live out here in California and did not want... read the full comment by gmarie | Comment on Should Braves go after Bonds? Read Should Braves go after Bonds?