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June 2008
Driesell happy to see football at Georgia State
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Long before Georgia State officially had a football program, folks already were suggesting that Georgia State should have a football program.
Just take it from Lefty Driesell, the man who gave Georgia State that big-time attitude in athletics after he arrived in 1997 with his accomplished credentials as a college basketball coach. He made Panthers hoops relevant in the land of Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets during most of his five-plus seasons on campus, but it mattered only to a point. He discovered the truth, and that is, there always is that pigskin thing in the air around here.
“I remember one time we went to a basketball something at a sports club (in the state of Georgia), I don’t know, somebody put it on, and they had little footballs on the table,” said Driesell, over the phone on Monday from his summer home in Bethany Beach, Del. “I made a joke out of it, and said, ‘Hey, this is a basketball banquet, not a football banquet. It just told you that it is a great football area.”
Maybe too great. That pigskin thing in the air has combined with Driesell’s basketball success at Georgia State to cause university officials to get carried away. He retired in January 2003 with a record of 103-59 that included a trip to the second round of the NCAA tournament after winning 29 games for the 2000-2001 season.
Now Georgia State has come out of nowhere to invent a I-AA football program that will compete in the Colonial Athletic Association starting in 2010. With former Falcons coach Dan Reeves as the point man, university officials spent a year raising more than $1 million in pledges. They later enticed the student-faculty committee to raise the activity fee $85 per semester. Then they hired college coaching veteran Bill Curry. “So they’re going to play (home games) in the Georgia Dome?” said Driesell, with a slight chuckle. “I don’t know how they can afford that.”
Driesell wondered about Georgia State’s ability to fund football, period, especially since he said, “In basketball, you’ve got 13 uniforms that cost maybe $75 apiece, and most of them are free from Nike or somebody. In football, you’ve got all of those players on the team, and then you’ve got to buy pads and cleats and, well, you know what I’m saying.”
Here’s what Driesell isn’t saying: That the Panthers shouldn’t play football. He said they should. Then again, he has to say as much, because he set the foundation for all of this. After joining the Panthers following celebrated stints at Davidson, Maryland and James Madison, he kept promoting this crazy idea that a massive commuter school in the middle of a southern city could do wonderful things in sports.
“They say location is important in real estate, and that’s also true in athletics,” Driesell said. “I liked Georgia State’s possibilities because it is in Atlanta, and Georgia State is a big, state university in which you can get about any major you want there. So I could see it doing well for recruiting in basketball, and the same goes for football recruiting.
“People love football down there. They’ve got Bill Curry, and that was a great choice for them. Then you’ve got Georgia State with 30,000 students. I mean, there probably are some pretty good football players already there.”
The Panthers will need them, along with fans. And a few more pennies wouldn’t hurt their cause, either.
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No need to panic about Francoeur
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
There are too many voices dancing inside of Jeff Francoeur’s mind. Some tell him this about hitting. Others tell him that. Later, when the Braves right fielder strolls to home plate, he is thinking so much about things other than the guy standing on the pitcher’s mound that his ears are threatening to explode from his head.
Who’s to blame?
Jeff Francoeur.
Just because folks are talking, you don’t have to listen. And who cares if those folks are your hitting coach with a batting title on his résumé, your future Hall of Fame manager, your teammate with more switch-hit home runs than anybody but Mickey Mantle or Eddie Murray, your prominent high school baseball coach, and your father?
Enough is enough, and Francoeur said as much. Finally.
“The hardest thing for me, especially when you’re young and you’re going through a slump, is knowing who to listen to and who not to listen to,” said Francoeur, referring to the formidable likes of Terry Pendleton, Bobby Cox and Chipper Jones, along with former Parkview High baseball coach Hugh Buchanan and Francoeur’s father, David.
Do the toe tap. No, don’t do it, and place your hands higher. Spread your stance.
If you add those bits and pieces from Francoeur’s growing number of advisers to his habit of studying and copying the mannerisms of successful hitters from the past and the present, well, you’ve got a mess. Francoeur chuckled, while shaking his head and adding, “These are credible people, and they’re telling you something, but, you know, they might contradict each other a little bit. There are different styles and stuff, so the biggest thing is to listen to everybody, take what you want and let the other go in one ear and out the other.”
That is, if Francoeur’s ears aren’t still flying around somewhere after that explosion of voices.
It sounds like Francoeur finally gets it, which means neither the Braves nor their worried followers should panic over Francoeur spending much of his third full season in the majors as clueless after entering a batter’s box. Before the Braves played Friday night in Toronto, their former cover boy for Sports Illustrated was a candidate for the cover of Psychology Today. He had a .248 batting average, eight home runs, 41 RBIs and ghastly results with runners in scoring position.
Francoeur is just 24, though, and remember: He showed his ability to rip for power in his first full season (29 home runs). Then he showed his ability to swing for average last season (.293). He is doing neither now, but his days as a complete hitter are in the near future. That’s because he is learning selective hearing.
It took awhile. “It got to a point where I was changing something every day,” said Francoeur, who also had another problem until recently: He couldn’t rest. “I’ll wake up one morning, and I’ll start thinking about hitting right away. You can’t do that. I’ll get home and start watching ESPN, and a guy is getting a couple of hits, and I’ll be like, ‘What if I put my hands up there like he does?’ You over-analyze everything, and as an aggressive hitter, I’ve never been a guy who has done that.”
So, Jeff, guess what?
Don’t do that.
Just become Jeff Francoeur. “Just see it and hit,” he said, nodding.
Permalink | Comments (57) | Categories: Braves/MLB
Urban Meyer draws a crowd in Braves’ clubhouse
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You had Urban Meyer right there in a hallway on Wednesday afternoon at Turner Field. So, even though the setting was outside of the home clubhouse, and the Braves were struggling to go north instead of south in the NL East standings, you had to talk football. You had to ask the Big Gator about what nearly was the Big Brawl last October between his Florida team and the victorious one from Athens.
Meyer said, “It wasn’t a brawl.” Then he paused, before adding after he flashed a smile, “It was … I don’t know what you would call it.”
You would call it a classless move by normally classy Mark Richt, the Georgia coach. With his Bulldogs having dropped 15 of their previous 17 games against Florida, he decided they needed additional motivation. That’s why, after Georgia scored first in the game, he ordered his players to rush into the end zone and act crazy enough to get an unsportsmanlike penalty.
One, two, and then a slew of Gators threatened to leave their sideline to charge the massive Dog Pile, but Meyer kept pulling them back.
That was then. Will Meyer be as kind this year when the two teams meet in Jacksonville, with Georgia supposedly chasing a national championship and with Florida likely seeking revenge for the near-brawl, or whatever you call it? “Well, it’s not like we’re in a conference where you just have one game to play,” Meyer said. “We’ve got Tennessee. We’ve got Miami. We’ve got LSU. We’ve got Arkansas. We’ve got South Carolina. We’ll be ready to go for that [Georgia] game, though, but I’m not worried about that now. I’m not having my team worry about that game now.”
Instead, there is the meantime for Meyer in his fourth year at Florida. On Wednesday, “the meantime” had Meyer taking his daughter, Nicole, on a visit to Georgia Tech, where she is interested in playing for the Yellow Jackets’ perennially successful volleyball team. Then Meyer and his 9-year-old son Nate took a taxi from The Flats to Turner Field to watch some of the Braves’ 4-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers with roving passes for the ballpark.
Meyer also huddled with Mark Lemke, the former Braves second baseman and a current radio guy for the team. They roomed together when they were minor-leaguers for the Braves in the early 1980s. They both were infielders, but Meyer obviously had other plans. That was good for Florida, which won a national championship in his second year. Before the Gators, he was working miracles at Bowling Green and Utah.
So there was Meyer, sitting with his son near a picnic bench in the home clubhouse with a constantly beeping Blackberry in one hand and a sparkling new baseball in the other. He had a captive audience that kept growing. There was third baseman Chipper Jones, the Florida native, with blue and orange in his blood. There was right fielder Jeff Francoeur, who almost was a Clemson Tiger in football. Mostly, there were a bunch of curious Bulldogs lovers and others with allegiances to SEC teams away from Gainesville.
Braves pitcher Tim Hudson shook his head while walking and ignoring the crowd around Meyer. “If I’m going to sit in on that powwow, I need to put on my Auburn gear,” said the former War Eagle star, still walking and ignoring.
Permalink | Comments (102) | Categories: Braves/MLB, UGA/SEC
Stop paying attention to Imus
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
No, Don Imus shouldn’t be fired. Yes, he has an inalienable right to say as many wrong-headed, bigoted and ridiculous things as he wishes on the airways.
And, yes, all of this is getting too much attention.
Way too much.
Haven’t I said all of this before slightly more than a year ago?
Actually, I have, and it was back when that other Imus “controversy” involved the famous shock jock using a derogatory term in regard to African-American members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team during his former national radio show. Just like that, he was fired after much screaming from everywhere.
This time, Imus is causing public howling after his Adam “Pacman” Jones comments on Monday during his current radio show in New York. After Imus’ on-air partner mentioned some of the issues involving Jones as the NFL’s poster child for trouble, Imus asked, “What color is he?” When his partner replied, “African-American,” Imus replied, “Well, there you go.”
So here we go again. While many say Imus’ remarks were racist and want Imus fired again, Imus says he was defending Jones with what he claimed was a reference to the evils of racial profiling.
Whatever. Who cares what Imus meant or really meant? If you don’t like Imus or anybody else on the airways for that matter, just use your clicker. Otherwise, you’re giving the Imuses of the world exactly what they want - attention.
And higher ratings.
Permalink | Comments (101) | Post your comment | Categories: Falcons/NFL
A lot for Dogs to bark about
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now the baseball team is causing the loudest barking around Athens for its resiliency before and during the College World Series. Remember that red-and-black miracle earlier this spring, when Georgia won the SEC basketball tournament out of nowhere?
There were other impressive things involving Georgia athletics since the start of this academic year. We’ll get to them after mentioning that the sum of those things makes the Bulldogs of Mark Richt, Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno favored to become the elite of the elite during the Bowl Championship Series.
“Without a doubt,” said Georgia baseball coach David Perno, over the phone from Omaha, Neb. That’s where his streaking team will open the best-of-three championship round tonight at 7 p.m. at Rosenblatt Stadium in search of the fourth national championship overall for the Bulldogs’ athletics department since April.
Added Perno, “Baseball, being the last sport [in the academic year], it can ignite things for the following year. It can lead you right into football, and, obviously, you know the importance of football at Georgia.”
It’s always about football at Georgia. For the moment, it’s also about baseball at Georgia, especially after Perno’s bunch kept discovering ways to eliminate Stanford on Saturday to remain undefeated during the College World Series.
Prior to that, Perno’s Bulldogs had to survive a shocking loss to Lipscomb during their own regional, and then they had to take two of three from North Carolina State during the super regional. After reaching Omaha, the Bulldogs slew No. 1 seed Miami before taking care of Stanford.
So Georgia will end the month as nothing worse than the nation’s second-best college baseball team.
That’s OK. It’s just that becoming the nation’s best college baseball team is more Georgia-like these days. In April, the Bulldogs won it all in women’s gymnastics, and they did the same after the equestrian team events. Then, in May, they took the national title in men’s tennis.
If you’re counting, Georgia’s various sports teams have 11 top-10 finishes during this academic calendar season. In other words, it sounds like coaches and players for the Bulldogs motivate each other. Either that, or they scare each other into success since nobody wants to become the mediocre oddballs on campus.
“Iron sharpens iron, and there’s nothing but great and class coaches over there [throughout UGA],” said Perno, in his 12th year overall as a coach for the Bulldogs’ baseball program, including the past seven as head man.
Added Perno, “You have coaches at Georgia with a lot of tenure, from the gymnastics coach, Suzanne Yoculan, Andy Landers [women basketball], Manny Diaz [men’s tennis]. … These are pioneers. They’re just phenomenal. You can learn a lot from them, and they definitely know how to win.”
Perno forgot to mention Perno, because Perno is a prolific winner, too. He played on Georgia’s baseball team that took the national championship in 1990. He later reached the College World Series as a Bulldogs assistant coach, and now he’s reaching it for the third time as their head man. I mean, given this baseball thing, and that basketball thing, and all of those other things involving UGA teams, is there any doubt the college sporting gods are preparing to slip on football cleats this fall in Athens?
Georgia athletics director Damon Evans responded quickly over the phone while chuckling, “I hope so.”
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Young Braves must not panic
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Even though the baseball season will reach its midway point by the end of the week, the struggling and aching Braves aren’t panicking, and they shouldn’t.
It’s still early. Not only that, the National League East isn’t a scary place. The division-leading Philadelphia Phillies and the surprising Florida Marlins are a collapse waiting to happen. You also have the New York Mets, the NL’s most dysfunctional team, and the Washington Nationals, as ghastly as advertised.
Plus, despite the Braves’ woes, which were interrupted Saturday night at Turner Field with a 5-4 thriller over the Seattle Mariners after scoring twice in the bottom of the ninth, they have as much talent as anybody. That’s why they’ve stayed among the league’s top two in hitting and pitching for weeks. They’ve also yet to hit their stride. Even so, they began Saturday night just six games out of first, and they have the pleasure of knowing that one or more of their wounded will return at various points to help them spurt.
No, the Braves aren’t panicking, but will they, especially if that spurt doesn’t happen sooner rather than later?
“It’s hard not to expect them to [panic], because they’re young and they haven’t had the experience of winning as much as we have and did,” said Tom Glavine, the Braves’ future Hall of Fame pitcher, in his 21st season in the majors. “You’re young, and you’re looking around at a team that doesn’t resemble the one that we thought we’d have coming out of spring training. You have all the injuries, especially to the pitching staff. It would be really easy to look at it and feel sorry for yourselves and say, ‘Well, geez. Look at all the stuff we have to deal with and how we’re going to win?’ But you can’t think that way.”
The Braves aren’t thinking that way. Then again, they are getting close. After they dropped the opener of this series to a Mariners bunch so wretched that it fired its general manager and manager during the past few days, the Braves had lost 18 of the previous 28 games. They’ve had trouble winning on the road and grabbing one-run games. They’ve also had too many innings that resembled the first inning Saturday night that had the Mariners scoring thrice courtesy of two booted balls at shortstop and a wild pitch.
Come to think of it, maybe the Braves are panicking — you know, a little. “There are guys like Glav [Tom Glavine], and [John] Smoltz and Chipper [Jones] who have that not-panic attitude,” said Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur of the trio that survived the peaks and valleys associated with most or all of the Braves’ record trip to 14 consecutive division titles through 2005. It’s just that the rest of the 25-man roster is a novice at such things.
Which is why Francoeur said, “You have guys like myself, where, it’s not so much panic, but we want to get it done now and get back in it. So, we don’t want to say, ‘Hey, if we keep playing our butts off now, come August, we’ll be back in it.’ I don’t like to say that, because I like to say we need to win now.”
The Braves aren’t winning now, at least not consistently. “Still, even with our injuries, we’ve had guys come in here to show that they can carry the load, and that’s what your mind-set has to be,” said Glavine, who won’t pitch for a month or so after damaging his 42-year-old left elbow. In addition, Smoltz is out for the season after shoulder surgery. Then there is Jones, who reinjured a quadriceps that will keep him out of the Braves’ starting lineup for the next few days and that manager Bobby Cox said may never improve.
That leaves those Braves not named Glavine, Smoltz or Jones to play and not panic through this mess. That’s the problem, and that’s a big one.
Permalink | | Categories: Braves/MLB
Is there some truth to Donaghy’s claims?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Lee Harvey Oswald was JFK’s lone assassin, and Tim Donaghy was the only referee in NBA history ever to fix a game or to think about it.
Yeah, that makes sense.
This makes better sense: There were more shooters on the grassy knoll, and Donaghy is telling much of the truth regarding his allegations of league-wide attempts through the years to fix playoff games.
He says top NBA executives were the masterminds of the attempts. He says referees were told to protect star players. He says those same referees were asked repeatedly by those top NBA executives to call bogus fouls in an attempt to manipulate the outcome of games.
Whatever Donaghy says, he likely isn’t telling the whole truth, because he is trying to shorten his future stay in prison after pleading guilty to felony charges regarding his alleged taking of cash payoffs from gamblers and betting on NBA games.
It’s just that Donaghy makes more sense than Richard Buchanan, the NBA executive vice president and general counsel, who said of Donaghy’s allegations, “The only criminal activity uncovered is Mr. Donaghy’s.”
And the only shooter in Dealey Plaza was in the Texas School Book Depository.
Anyway, according to Donaghy in a letter to a federal judge, those top NBA executives had referees manipulate playoff games in an effort to make each series reach a highly lucrative seventh game. He gives an example from 2002 involving the Lakers and the Kings, and another from 2005 involving the Rockets and the Mavericks.
Both examples are plausible, especially given the controversies surrounding both series at the time. Donaghy’s conspiracy remarks become even more plausible after hearing NBA commissioner David Stern Tuesday night before the Lakers-Celtics playoff game in Los Angeles.
Said Stern, “The U.S. attorney’s office, the FBI, have fully investigated it, and Mr. Donaghy is the only one who is guilty of a crime.”
That’s nearly the same thing Buchanan said about Donaghy’s claims. Sounds like talking points, as in top NBA executives are trying to be careful with their words here.
For all we know, the league conspired earlier during the playoffs to keep the Hawks from whipping the Celtics in that Game 7 in Boston.
Well, probably not.
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Cubs fans live in despair, Braves fans unaware
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Suddenly, the choppers and the chanters are getting skittish. They’ve always fretted over the aches and pains of Mike Hampton, but now they have the Braves’ horrors in most road and close games. John Smoltz also is history for the year with a bum shoulder. Mark Kotsay has that creaky back. Plus, the bullpen often implodes, and injuries threaten to quiet Chipper Jones’ bat more than pitchers.
Yeah, well. To see baseball fans who really are obsessed with searching for dark clouds in the brightest of skies, you needn’t go further than the shores of Lake Michigan. That’s where the Braves are spending the next few days seeking to end their recent struggles against the traditionally jinxed Cubs. It’s a franchise that nevertheless owns the game’s best record. It’s also a franchise that entered Tuesday night’s action at Wrigley Field among baseball’s elite four in hitting, pitching and expectations.
None of that matters when it comes to the doomsday psyche of the Cub Nation. I mean, you think Braves fans are panicking right now after just a few rough spots? Chip Caray laughed, before saying over the phone from Chicago, “Fans panic here when the first pitch of the game is ball one.”
Caray laughed some more, because he’s an expert on those who follow the Cubs and the Braves. He spent seven seasons through 2004 as a play-by-play announcer for the Cubs, who once featured the famous voice of his grandfather Harry. And he’s in his fourth season as a play-by-play man for the Braves, who still feature the famous voice of his father, Skip.
Added Chip, laughing some more, “In Chicago, every game is a microcosm of, not just a season, but of a Cubs fan’s life. There are people who live and die — literally — with the way that this team plays.”
Not so much in Atlanta. If the Braves disappoint the local masses just a little during a season, there always are the Bulldogs and Larry Munson — at least, that’s the way the feeling goes. That’s also partly why you had all those empty seats during home playoff games at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and later Turner Field despite the Braves managing 14 consecutive division titles.
In contrast, the Cubs haven’t won much worth mentioning in decades. They last took the National League pennant in 1945, and maybe you’ve heard: Courtesy of a billy goat curse or just shaky players, they haven’t grabbed a world championship in exactly 100 years. Still, they are hugged everywhere. They even are doing the outrageous at the moment by playing before home crowds that are nothing less than 97 percent of capacity.
It’s like this: The majority of the choppers and the chanters like the Braves, especially when they flash signs of possibly winning it all again, but those in the Cub Nation love the Cubbies no matter what.
The choke of ‘69.
Leon Durham becoming Bill Buckner before Bill Buckner.
That Steve Bartman thing.
Cubs fans are there mentally, physically and spiritually within reach of the flowing ivy, but they are fretting all the way, wondering when — not if — a choke, a Durham or a Bartman is coming.
Here’s another difference between Cubs and Braves fans: the timing of their panics. “Often times the Braves start slowly and turn it on, and they just seemingly have found a way to win,” Caray said. “In Chicago, the Cubs are noted for their fast starts, and they call it the June swoon. … So, for lack of a better way to put it, to be a Cub fan, you have to be fatalistic. The metaphor would be summer up here. It’s very short. It’s very sweet. It’s very wonderful. But you always know it’s going to come to a bitter end.”
Caray said the Cubs will go farther this time. How much farther? Holy cow, only that billy goat knows.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves/MLB
Life will go on without AT&T Classic
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you’re a major league city, and if you want to remain that way, you never want to lose things.
Things such as the AT&T Classic on the PGA Tour, not so much.
With the news on Monday of that tournament’s death at 41, most around Atlanta will go on with the rest of their lives. We’re talking about losing things within these city limits such as Super Bowls. Well, those things don’t count so much, either, because neither Atlanta nor any other cold-weather climate should have those things in February.
Let’s move on to things such as the men’s and women’s versions of the Final Four, which always have a splendid chance of returning to town. Then there are other things such as the SEC football championship game, which makes an annual stop at the Georgia Dome. There also are occasional trips here by the basketball tournaments of the SEC and the ACC, and we’ve had All-Star games for the NBA, NHL and baseball. We used to have an LPGA event each year, along with one involving professional tennis. We even had a summer Olympics.
We won’t have that PGA Tour tournament anymore in Duluth each May, and you may yawn for several reasons. First, its departure was inevitable since its officials couldn’t find new sponsorship in this brutal economy. Plus, we still have that little golf gathering each spring among the dogwoods and the azaleas to the east. Not only that, the best of the best still will come to Bobby Jones’ old place at East Lake each autumn for The Tour Championship. And it’s not as if the wonderfully challenging course at Sugarloaf will be invaded by tumbleweeds any time soon.
Indications are that Sugarloaf will begin playing host to a Champions Tour event next year. Not that anybody cares. That’s because nobody cares about the Champions Tour that once featured old stars but has increasingly featured no stars.
As for the future, the egos of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson never will let them admit to becoming golfing fossils (i.e. Champions Tour material) after their 50th birthdays. We’re seeing as much now with Nick Faldo and Greg Norman, both capable of drawing crowds, but both preferring to defer Champions Tour duty to the underwhelming likes of Mark Wiebe, Denis Watson and Lonnie Nielsen.
It’s just that the Champions Tour for Sugarloaf is better than nothing.
I guess.
“You know, it’s really hard to say. Until you try it and go out and do a little research, you really don’t know,” said Dave Kaplan, who spent nearly three decades as an official for this suddenly defunct PGA tournament that once was sponsored by Georgia Pacific before BellSouth/AT&T came along. “At Sugarloaf, we certainly have a client base as far as fans and companies that are willing to do hospitality. Now whether they are willing to come in and do it for a Champions Tour event, who knows?”
This is what we do know: The AT&T Classic had to go.
There were just too many “AT&T” entities on the Tour (four, to be exact) for the budget-conscious folks at that company to handle. There also was timing. Once the Atlanta event was moved two years ago from its chilly spot in March to the warmth of May to the delight of AT&T clients, it lost a slew of prime golfers. It was an inconvenience to the big boys since it was slotted between the Wachovia and Players Championship at the start and the Colonial and Memorial at the end.
“Obviously, having done this for 26 years, it’s part of the fabric of my life,” Kaplan said. “It is a bit of a surprise that it’s been [eliminated], but it’s business. I know the sun is going to come up tomorrow, and I feel the worst for our volunteers. There are people who have worked in this tournament for all 40 years. But it’s not like it’s the end of the road. It appears … that we still have an opportunity to do that Champions Tour event.”
Whatever that means.
Smoltz still valuable to Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Braves will be fine the rest of this season, because this John Smoltz news could have been worse. They will lose their legendary pitcher of toughness and potency in a physical sense but not in a mental one. So that mighty wind you’ve felt the last few days coming from the direction of Turner Field is the collective exhaling of those in the home clubhouse.
He’ll still hang around. Despite having season-ending surgery next week on his 41-year-old shoulder, he’ll still do those other things that have made him nearly as valuable to the Braves as his sizzling fastball. He’ll still do them in the dugout, on the field and around the clubhouse, and he’ll still do them at home and on the road throughout his recovering process.
He’ll still be John Smoltz, and an extremely active one at that, which is why Blaine Boyer was among the Braves players who couldn’t stop grinning after discovering as much. “When he first told me that he was having surgery and that he was done for the year, my first thought was almost a selfish thought, and that was, ‘Oh, no,’ ” said Boyer, 26, a reliever from Marietta, who grew up hugging Smoltz and his perennially division-winning Braves of the 1990s. “But he said, ‘You know what? I’m still going to be around.’ It was like, wow. That’s great, because he’s John Smoltz. He’s basically the Atlanta Braves.”
Then, with emotion in his voice, Boyer added, “Along with Tom Glavine, John Smoltz has more knowledge and more wisdom, than anybody around here. He’s always in our corner, which is just big, and we’d love to have him back on the field, but just having him here …”
Boyer didn’t have to finish. Neither did Bobby Cox. Even so, Cox couldn’t say enough about the future Hall of Famer who will ignore his inactive status as a player to continue his role with the Braves as a revered coach in the shadows. “John has always helped guys. Whether it’s a position player, a pitcher, it doesn’t matter,” said Cox, who not only has managed Smoltz since 1990, but was the general manager who brought Smoltz to town 21 years ago. “He has a way of doing things. You enjoy listening to him, and you feel better after you finish talking to him.”
Such a thing isn’t a given for greatness, by the way. Often greatness is selfish, especially after an injury that could end a career of more than 200 victories as a starter and 150 saves as a reliever.
As for Smoltz, he has been his typically impressive self since his jarring announcement this week about his upcoming surgery. He has been serene, and he has been reflective. He also has been playful, even sauntering into the clubhouse wearing a cap and a jersey representative of the Detroit Red Wings, the Stanley Cup winners from his hometown.
Mostly, Smoltz has been available to help any of his young teammates. “At some point, I hope I’ve left enough here for people to figure out what to do when I’m gone,” said Smoltz, softly, glancing around the room from his locker. “With all of this technology and the various philosophies and the psychological tests, I’m always amazed that we still can’t figure out what makes people tick. Certainly I have no degrees to speak of, but I’ve seen people go through a lot and deal with a lot, and I don’t know which is which. Do we uncover things or do people discover things about us?
“I’d like to think it’s a little bit of both in me. I think I’m pretty consistent. I don’t come at this thing with any master plan or agenda. I’m not trying to promote myself. I literally love what I do and go after it as hard as I can.”
That even applies to Smoltz, the unofficial Braves coach. Which means all of that exhaling will continue in the land of the choppers and the chanters.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves/MLB
400th homer highlights career of brilliance
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s all about names at this point for Chipper Jones. We’re talking about magical ones, too. Earlier this week, when the wonderfully gifted Braves third baseman dropped No. 399 for his career over the wall in right-center field at Turner Field, some of those names involved Dale Murphy, Al Kaline and Andres Galarraga.
Just like that, Jones roared past Murphy on baseball’s all-time list for home runs to become co-sluggers with Kaline and Galarraga at No. 43.
Then came Thursday night, when Jones strolled to home plate at Turner Field in the bottom of the sixth inning to rise closer to Duke Snider, Darrell Evans and Billy Williams. They are the next three guys above Jones on that list after he took another one of his easy left-handed swings to push a shot 10 rows into the right-field bleachers for the 400th homer of his ongoing career of brilliance. After the ball reached its destination, there were fireworks, a standing ovation among the 27,238 and Jones receiving a quick set of hand-slaps from teammates in the dugout before leaving to satisfy the screamers.
Twenty-five seconds into Jones’ noisy and impromptu party, he scampered up the dugout steps with cap in hand to wave toward the crowd before disappearing back inside. At the end of the inning, there was a video tribute on the scoreboard with highlights of Jones’ home runs over 15 seasons, featuring No. 1, No. 100, No. 200, No. 300 and his latest entry.
“I was blushing the whole time,” said Jones, still blushing with the memory that occurred before a slew of relatives from his native Florida. They saw the people’s choice receive only his second curtain call during his 15 seasons with the Braves. The last came in 1999, and the way Jones is threatening to swing this well for longevity, it won’t be his last. Added Jones, “This was way up there. This was probably in the top one or two greatest moments of my entire career. Obviously a World Series [title] is what we all shoot for. I got one of those during my rookie year, and this would be a close second.”
Then again, maybe not. Maybe the best is yet to come for Jones, flirting with the territory of Ted Williams, another magic name. After all, this is a 400th homer for somebody hitting over .400 this late in the season for one of the few times ever. In fact, the last player to finish an entire season over .400 was Williams.
That’s why those watching Larry Wayne Jones Jr. these days need to realize that the game didn’t even see the likes of this with a couple of other magical names — Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray. They are the only switch-hitters with more career homers than Jones. Neither Mantle nor Murray could hit for average like this during a season (.418 at the moment), and the only other switch-hitter with a higher career batting average than Jones’ .310 after a minimum of 6,000 at bats was Frankie Frisch, another magical name.
In case you’re wondering, Pete Rose, another switch-hitter with a magical name, finished with a career batting average of only .303. So here’s the point: Chipper Jones already has a magical name, and provided his historically aching body holds out (feet, oblique, wrist, knee, quad, hamstring, back), he’ll add more pixie dust to his resume as a 36-year-old who is just rolling through his prime. In the meantime, there was the Braves’ 7-5 victory over the Florida Marlins.
In the midst of it all, Jones went 4-for-5, and he even ignored his bad feet to steal a base. But the highlight of the night was his latest blast into history.
Or was it? Jones formed one of his crooked smiles, saying, “I don’t know what I was happier about — the home run or the stolen base. I’m a little far away from 400 [stolen bases] for my career.
He’s 265 steals away, to be exact, but who cares when you’re Jones, and your magic comes from other numbers?
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If anything, pro athletes are underpaid
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Matt Ryan was the wrong choice. If you have the opportunity to draft the next Warren Sapp in Glenn Dorsey with the No. 3 pick overall in the NFL draft, you do it. Instead, the Falcons did the historically risky by taking a quarterback that high in the first round.
That said, nobody is overpaid. In fact, most folks are underpaid. Others are within several pennies of what they should be making, including shortstops, point guards, defensemen and even quarterbacks making something like $72 million.
I was an economics major in college, so trust me when I say Ryan isn’t overpaid, OK? Neither is any professional athlete, and there are many reasons why.
Here are just five of them.
USA, USA, USA
We’re talking about supply and demand, free-market system, survival of the fittest, rugged individualism. All the American things that have generated cringing through the decades from Lenin to Mao to whoever invented the salary cap.
In this country, whatever somebody is willing to pay you, then that’s what you’re worth — and likely more. The economic structure in professional sports is just a microcosm of this process, where attendance records and ticket prices have kept rising this century in the NFL, the NBA and baseball.
That’s why, with the Falcons playing before a stuffed Georgia Dome for the past six years, Michael Vick ($130 million) was Matt Ryan before Matt Ryan.
No soup kitchen here
The next owner of a professional sports franchise to go bankrupt after paying a bunch of money to one of his players will be the first. Owners give all of that money to certain players, because owners have all of that money to give.
Such is especially true in the NFL, where Forbes magazine estimated this year that five franchises are worth more than $1 billion. According to Forbes, the Falcons are ahead of only Minnesota in total value in the league, but the Falcons still are worth around $796 million.
Not only that, Arthur Blank, the co-founder of Home Depot whose worth is placed at $1.3 billion by Forbes, bought the Falcons in 2002 for $545 million.
You do the math.
It doesn’t work that way
Essentially, this is how the average fan thinks when — oh, say — a quarterback who hasn’t played a second in an NFL game gets something like $72 million.
How can they pay that guy all of that money when you have school teachers barely making it? The same goes for nurses, law-enforcement officers and others around the minimum wage with oil prices soaring by the millisecond.
Sorry to deliver the truth, but if that quarterback we just mentioned didn’t get $72 million, it wouldn’t translate into higher salaries for school teachers, nurses or police officers and relief at the gas pump for the weary. It would translate into more money in the pocket of that owner.
A bleacher seat or the mortgage
Here’s Part II to our previous point: The average fan also thinks that, if an owner doesn’t give something like $72 million to a quarterback who hasn’t played a second in an NFL game, such a scenario would lead to friendlier ticket prices.
Not.
There have been a slew of studies through the years to show there is no correlation between the rise of players salaries and the rise of ticket prices.
Owners traditionally will raise ticket prices no matter what. And get this: Despite Ryan’s supposedly outrageous contract, the Falcons even lowered ticket prices for next season in the upper parts of the Georgia Dome.
Just wait
These things work themselves out. We’re back to the free-market system. For instance: Blank just put a $72 million bull’s-eye on the back and front of Ryan’s jersey. That means before the Falcons’ season reaches Halloween, Ryan has to start, and he has to play well.
If Ryan becomes a pumpkin, that means he wasn’t worth all of that money, but only to Blank. It’s nobody else’s business, because it’s nobody else’s money.
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