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Home > Terence Moore > Archives > 2009 > January
January 2009
UGA should give Tubby a call
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athens - The worst thing to happen to Georgia basketball in recent years was the miracle that wasn’t.
It was a fluke. In fact, when the Bulldogs interrupted another season of mediocrity or worse under Dennis Felton last spring to win the SEC tournament, it kept Georgia’s athletics director Damon Evans from doing what he eventually did emphatically on Thursday.
He pushed Felton into the past for the Bulldog Nation with a justified firing, and he brought hope into its future when it comes to hoops. Sooner than later, courtesy of Evans’ vision, Georgia will show that it isn’t just a football school anymore. It will show that it is a Florida or a Texas, which means Georgia will show it can punt, pass, kick and dribble, too.
“I know how difficult it is, in this or any other business, to fill an important position with the right person for the right opportunity at the right time,” said Evans, just shy of his fifth year as Bulldogs’ head boss. “This is the right time. This is the right opportunity. And I can assure you that we will identify the right person.”
They will. This isn’t the old days, when the state of Georgia basketball was exemplified by the pre-renovated Stegeman Coliseum, the most depressing place on earth. Hoops ranked in the Bulldog Nation behind regular-season football, spring football and off-season football.
Then came nice spurts of goodness for Georgia basketball under Hugh Durham and Tubby Smith. The Jim Harrick era produced victories but also scandals, which led to Felton in 2003.
No question, Felton had Harrick’s mess to overcome. There were depleted rosters due to probation and the tragic death of a player before one season. Plus, Felton had the apathy that has smothered Georgia basketball since Vince Dooley caused barking to explode for football on campus after his 1964 arrival.
Still, there is no excuse for this: 33. That’s how many games Felton’s Bulldogs were under .500 in SEC play. Or this: $30 million. That’s how much Georgia spent on its peerless basketball facility to give Felton a chance to prosper. Or this: Numerous. That’s how many Georgia natives have helped other college basketball programs prosper in recent years, mostly because Felton wasn’t signing them.
So, here is what Evans wants from his next basketball guy.
“When I say (I want) a CEO, you have to have leadership qualities and understand the broad scope of what it means to be a basketball coach at an institution of this magnitude,” Evans said. “We’re high on academics at the University of Georgia, and I want a coach that will embrace the academic side of the equation.
“Of course, we want somebody who has a thorough knowledge of the game of basketball … But at the end of the day, we need to get an individual with a high level of integrity. Someone who will help our student-athletes to grow and develop and that will allow us to put a competitive program on the floor.”
Sounds like Tubby Smith, 57, in his second year as a miracle worker at Minnesota after doing the same at Tulsa and Georgia. He also took Kentucky to a national championship.
Smith told reporters after practice this week in Minneapolis that, contrary to rumors, he isn’t interested in the vacant Alabama job. But what about that other vacant SEC job, especially since Smith told me two years ago that he once dreamed of becoming the Vince Dooley of Georgia basketball?
It’s worth a call.
Permalink | Comments (74) | Categories: UGA/SEC
Bowden’s return to FSU good news for GT fans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If anybody wants to coach forever, they should. So, if Bobby Bowden wants to coach forever, he should.
Nobody should retire. I mean, if somebody wants to keep hiring you, and if you want to keep working for that person at whatever price they are willing to pay, then so be it.
That’s the American Way.
Here’s my point: The bosses at Florida State just agreed to bring the owner of more career victories in college football than anybody not named Joe Paterno back for a 34th year to coach their team. Bowden will turn 80 during the middle of the upcoming season. That means Florida State is bucking the trend throughout the college and professional game of hiring coaches less than half of Bowden’s age.
Is this Bowden move a wise one for the Seminole Nation?
Well, no. Not unless you’re into the combination of sentimentality and mediocrity.
Florida State hasn’t been a top 20 program since 2004. In fact, prior to the Seminoles’ 9-4 finish last season, they hadn’t won more than eight games during any of their previous three years. Their dip to where they are now came after a wonderful stretch from the late 1980s through earlier this century when they always ranked among the elite of the elite.
It happens: The game has sprinted past Bowden, and it has shown. But Bowden wants to keep coaching, and Florida State wants to keep bringing him back.
Good for them.
It’s also good for Georgia Tech and the rest of the rising contenders in the ACC.
Permalink | Comments (34) | Categories: Tech/ACC
Falcons’ White paying attention during SB week
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Roddy White has spent most of his 27 years watching the Super Bowl. It’s just that when he does so Sunday from his Braselton home, he’ll leave that fan stuff behind.
He’ll study the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals with a physical or mental notepad in hand.
That’s splendid news for the Falcons, but only if White’s teammates do the same. You see, they blew it during the first round of the playoffs. So White will have a slew of objectives whenever he sits in front of his television screen this week, not only for Super Bowl Sunday from Tampa, but for Super Bowl Week in general.
“I’ll be learning how to win in big games and being in crucial situations and how to handle them,” said White, the Falcons’ rising wide receiver. “I’ll be learning how not to give up big plays and how to have big drives near the end of games. I’ll be looking at the attitude of the teams. That and their confidence. You can see those things in how hard they play, and that’s something our team can learn from those cats, because we have such a young team.”
They also have a frustrated team, or at least they should.
Every cleat step the Cardinals take toward an unlikely, but possible world championship, should cause those in Flowery Branch to cringe when they aren’t inclined to fume. With just a decent effort instead of a jittery one earlier this month at University of Phoenix Stadium, the Falcons of then could have become the Cardinals of now. They could have replaced Arizona as the NFL’s magic team. They could have been preparing for Tuesday’s Media Day at Raymond James Stadium.
It could have been this simple for the Falcons: They beat Arizona, and then they travel to Carolina, where they meet a Panthers bunch that the Falcons slammed during the second of two meetings this season between division rivals. The Falcons win again, and they face the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game at the Georgia Dome.
Remember, too, that the Falcons were within a controversial play of surging past the Eagles earlier in the season.
Hear that loud sound? It’s White joining others with the Falcons. They’re exchanging screams over the thought of those “could have been” situations.
“Yeah. You think about how we played those guys right down to the wire (in Arizona), and without a few mistakes and turnovers, it would be different,” said White, who also keeps imagining the missed opportunity of making a second Super Bowl trip for the franchise exactly a decade after the Dirty Birds. “I was really kicking myself after Philly beat the New York Giants in the playoffs, because we would have had that home game.”
Oh well. This gives White more time to learn from Larry Fitzgerald in particular. No athlete with a breath these days is hotter than Fitzgerald, and he plays the same position as White for the Cardinals. He just plays it at a significantly higher level than White or anybody else.
“The guy has the best natural hands of anybody in the NFL, because he catches the ball very clean,” White said. “He’s always going downfield. He just goes up and catches the ball at its highest point, which everybody is taught to do. But he just does an excellent job at it, and you can learn a lot from that.”
Just so you know, White can keep learning from Fitzgerald after the Super Bowl in Hawaii.
They’re both in the Pro Bowl.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Hawks’ patience with Woodson pays off
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since the Hawks have gotten it right involving that patience thing with their head coach, let’s ask one of their primary owners why so many of his peers around the NBA have continued to get it wrong.
First, here’s a memo to those peers of Hawks owners: In pro sports, it’s about the players (or lack thereof), especially in basketball.
Coaches? Not so much. They only matter a lot in the NBA if they can get their naturally offensive-minded players to defend more often than not — you know, like a particular coach in Atlanta.
That said, talent-challenged Memphis just became the seventh NBA franchise this season to whack its head coach. So, courtesy of previous firings in Washington, Toronto, Sacramento, Philadelphia, Oklahoma City and Minnesota, the league is two firings shy of tying its record of nine during the 2004-05 season.
It’s outrageous. In contrast, when it comes to the Hawks, it’s outstanding, with their young roster maturing, and with Mike Woodson spending his previous four seasons as their defense-minded coach watching his team surge in victories from 13 to 26 to 30 to 37. Now, after their 117-87 thrashing of the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night at Philips Arena, the Hawks are dribbling toward their most victories during a season in more than a decade at 26 and counting.
“You kinda gotta be patient with coaches,” said Michael Gearon Sr., the noted everyman of the Hawks. He has spent 30-plus years with the franchise, including the past five as one of its nine owners. Added Gearon, who joins his son, Michael Jr., in making the key basketball decisions for Atlanta Spirit, LLC, “I think there is a tendency to look for immediate solutions and to look for scapegoats. But you should treat this in the same sense as if you’ve started a restaurant, and you’ve just hired a new cook.
“He’s back there, cooking stuff up, and you may be getting a lot of smells out of the kitchen, but you’re not going to know what you’ve got until that new cook puts it on the table and people eat it. You don’t want to start messing with him based on those smells out of the kitchen.”
Those smells were awful for the Hawks after general manager Billy Knight blew up the mess of roster that he inherited. He handed the cooking duties to Woodson, a rookie NBA head coach, whose recipe involved defense, defense and more defense. Even so, his young team refused to digest it all.
It didn’t help Woodson’s cause that Knight kept ignoring brilliant point guards in the draft (In case you’re wondering, the aforementioned Chris Paul and Deron Williams rank first and second in the league in assists).
Then, after Knight acquired veteran Mike Bibby last February in a trade, Knight told the Gearons and the other Hawks’ owner that they should fire the cook.
The Gearons ignored Knight and the smells. As a result, Woodson’s Hawks made the playoffs for the first time this millennium, and then they gave the eventual world champion Boston Celtics fits during a seven-game series.
Knight resigned.
Woodson is still around.
“I am very humble and appreciative of [the owners] being realistic about what I walked into five years ago,” Woodson said. “I’m a realist. I know that when you gut a team, regardless of what the media and fans say, and you start young — you know, this is 26 years for me [associated with the NBA], and I’ve never seen a young team win.”
You never will, but you will see coaches get the blame for it.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Hawks/NBA
Though tempting, Falcons shouldn’t bite on Pacman
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
While contemplating the present and the future of their suddenly reborn NFL franchise, Falcons fans should slap high-fives with Arthur Blank, Thomas Dimitroff, Mike Smith and…
Michael Vick?
Yep. And …
Bobby Petrino?
Definitely.
Courtesy of Vick and Petrino, the Falcons may never threaten to become the prototype for a soap opera again.
Good. The prospect of acquiring overwhelming talent often has punted away common sense for folks in the NFL. As a result, if Falcons’ decision-makers didn’t have those disasters involving Vick and Petrino surrounding the 2007 season, they might be tempted to add the disaster of the past four years that has been Adam “Pacman” Jones.
He’s an Atlanta native. He’s available after getting dumped by the Dallas Cowboys. He’s also a nice cornerback — at least when he’s not sitting out a suspension or getting interrogated by the cops. Not only that, the Falcons’ secondary was shaky last season, with Chris Houston struggling at one cornerback and an uneven combination of Domonique Foxworth, Brent Grimes and Glenn Sharpe at the other.
If you plug in Pacman, who also can return kicks, you’ve got the poor man’s version of Neon Deion.
You’ve also got the antithesis of the environment that Blank, Dimitroff and Smith are trying to build for the Falcons these days as owner, general manager and head coach. They want a productive team without the hint of a drama.
Such was the case last season when the Falcons went from 4-12 the year before to the playoffs at 11-5.
With the gifted Pacman, the Cowboys didn’t make the playoffs, by the way.
Permalink | Comments (63) | Post your comment | Categories: Falcons/NFL
Thrashers need some fire on the ice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The issues are many for the Thrashers, but the solutions are few. Despite three straight victories after Tuesday night’s 4-2 slaying of an impressive Montreal bunch at Philips Arena, the Thrashers still need many things just to become decent after this weekend’s All-Star break.
They need to rise further from the bottom of the NHL in defense. They need to do more than flash signs here and there that they actually can score. They need to have Ilya Kovalchuk continue to resemble other true stars around the league, and that is, he must continue to lead on the ice as well as in the locker room. They need to keep more fans from becoming allergic to their turnstiles, with Philips Arena less than half full again despite having the historically popular Canadiens in town.
Mostly, they need to acquire more talent, period, especially with the trade deadline barely six weeks away.
They don’t need a coach, though. They have John Anderson, the plain-speaking Toronto native who nevertheless has a considerable problem: As a veteran head guy in the minor leagues, he frequently won (12 trips to the playoffs in 13 years with no losing seasons). As a rookie NHL head skipper with the Thrashers, he frequently has lost. Among other horrors for Anderson these days, only the New York Islanders have fewer points.
It’s enough to make you wonder if Anderson wants to spend most of his Atlanta days and nights slinging a slapstick at something or someone.
“Uh, well, I think this is disappointing like you can’t believe,” said Anderson, who has tried so many things this season with marginal results. There was his constant shifting of the lines. There were his various team captains before settling on just Kovalchuk. There was his threat of drastic changes to the roster after lethargic performances. Until recently, little has worked for Anderson in search of the magic that produced five championships during his 11 years with the Chicago Wolves, the Thrashers’ primary minor-league affiliate for the past eight years.
Added Anderson, sighing, “As a coach, it’s almost personal [when you’re losing]. You know, here, it’s a process. It’s a thought-out way of doing things, and we’re going to get to that point. You just wish it was sooner than later, but sometimes, we’re going to need some patience. We’ll build our team one or two players at a time. Then, when we get to a certain point, I think that’s where we have to go after some free agents, which I think we’re going to do.”
They haven’t a choice, not after following last season’s first and only trip to the playoffs for a decade-old franchise with those issues of now.
Those issues weren’t apparent for the Thrashers against the Canadiens, among the Eastern Conference elite. Courtesy of the Thrashers’ high intensity in the early going and resiliency near the end, Anderson had few reasons to fume after this one. Anyway, he keeps whatever fire he has on his tongue from heating the ice after games. He doesn’t speak to his players about their just-completed highs and lows until the following day. He did such a thing in the minors, where he also employed the same offensive and defensive principles that he has brought to the Thrashers.
Defenseman Nathan Oystrick laughed. He was asked the difference between this Anderson and the one he played for during the previous two years in Chicago.
“Maybe a couple of [new] jeans, that’s all,” said Oystrick, referring to the plain-dressing Anderson, too.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Post your comment | Categories: Thrashers/NHL
Mazzone admits he erred leaving Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In addition to Cy Maddux, Cy Glavine and Cy Smoltz for the Braves, there was Cy Mazzone, the pitching coach who helped push those other Cys into the city limits of Cooperstown.
Then Cy Mazzone blew it.
He left. He should have stayed with the Braves forever. Instead, he put his splendid 26 years with the organization in his rear-view mirror after the 2005 season by heading to a dysfunctional Baltimore franchise. He joined the coaching staff of then-Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo, his best friend. He also was enticed to leave by the big bucks and the proximity of the team to his hometown in Maryland.
Now, for the first time, Cy Mazzone admits to what I just typed.
He blew it, all right.
“If I had to do it all over again, I would have never done it,” said Leo Mazzone, mostly a national television analyst on baseball these days, reflecting from his home in Roswell. He inherited a bunch of soft pitchers in Baltimore who couldn’t adjust to his hard but effective style. He was booted after two seasons.
To hear Mazzone tell it, his firing was a relief. “Once I got there and saw how they operated compared to the Braves, I knew I made a mistake the first week of spring training,” he said, before chuckling and adding, “I said to myself, ‘You know what? I done messed up.’
“The lack of organization. The lack of discipline. The lack of overall professionalism. I was shocked, and I couldn’t believe it.”
Just like the choppers and the chanters couldn’t believe this: The free-agent exits of their Cys. John Smoltz ended his 21 years with the Braves this week to join the Boston Red Sox. Tom Glavine left after the 2002 season for the hated New York Mets. Greg Maddux bolted after the 2003 season for a return to the Chicago Cubs. Mazzone was gone two seasons later.
Still, this was more unbelievable than all of that: Those Cys staying together for 11 years. That’s an eternity in professional sports. Those Cys contributed to the Braves winning their division every season during that stretch and grabbing three pennants and a world championship.
“Ain’t nothing ever topping that in the history of baseball,” Mazzone said. “You’ve got three guys going to the Hall of Fame with a Hall of Fame manager [Bobby Cox] and a Hall of Fame general manager (John Schuerholz) that stayed together for that amount of years. And when you look back on that, no matter what happens in the rest of the history of the Atlanta Braves, that’s going to be its greatest history — besides Hank Aaron’s home runs.”
Which brings us to the Braves’ present and future. They have a revamped starting pitching rotation in search of ending the franchise’s slide during the past three years (two third-place finishes before dropping to fourth last season). They just acquired historically durable veterans Derek Lowe and Javier Vazquez. They signed Kenshin Kawakami, who once won the Japanese version of the Cy Young Award. They’ll also have rising star Jair Jurrjens and maybe Glavine, who is recovering from elbow surgery.
“They’ve done a great job of rebuilding innings pitched from starting pitchers, and that’s something that has been lacking,” Mazzone said. “It doesn’t overexpose your bullpen. Some of the guys they had starting last year wouldn’t be starting on some of the staffs we had in the past.”
Some? Try none, beyond Tim Hudson and what remained of Cy Smoltz and Cy Glavine.
Permalink | Comments (53) | Categories: Braves/MLB
Derrick Favors brings hope to Georgia Tech
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
All they wanted to know inside Alexander Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday night was the answer to a simple question: Is he coming? That’s all. Oh, and if their Yellow Jackets ended their shaky ways in the ACC against lordly Duke, well, they wouldn’t mind that, either.
But is he coming? Inquiring minds wanted to know, ranging from your average screamer in old gold and white to the person who would benefit most (hint: the head coach) from Derrick Favors bringing his splendid gifts from South Atlanta High School to the extremely needy basketball program at Georgia Tech.
He’s coming. The top recruit in the nation according to Scout.com is coming to the Jackets, and just so you know coach Paul Hewitt is ecstatic. He just can’t say it. Nobody around the Jackets can say anything about their 6-foot-9 gem in waiting, because it would violate NCAA rules until he signs in April.
So, before, during and after the Jackets showed how far they haven’t come by turning a wonderful spurt throughout much of the first half into a dreadful fade near the end of a 70-56 loss against their No. 3-ranked opponent, there was non-verbal joy everywhere among Tech officials. A wink here from associate athletics director Wayne Hogan. A nod there from athletics director Dan Radakovich.
Mostly, there was a little extra bounce in Hewitt’s step, especially with his Jackets trying to escape a third season of mediocrity in four years.
“I think he’s going to be real happy. He might get emotional a little bit,” said Favors, referring to Hewitt after choosing Tech over Georgia and North Carolina State on Wednesday at his news conference at ESPN Zone. Hewitt was at Favors’ South Atlanta game on Tuesday night at Eagle’s Landing, but Favors said he purposely avoided his future collegiate skipper.
Said Favors, easing into a grin, “I just wanted to mess with his head a little bit. I think deep down, he probably knew I was coming.”
Hewitt isn’t saying. If he could have said something about Favors, it would be something like, “We needed that big guy right now.”
For the longest time, the Jackets looked nothing like the 0-2 bunch in the conference that dropped games to mediocre Virginia and beatable Maryland. They used high energy and exceptional defense for an eight-point lead of 25-17. They had much help from a highly charged crowd doing its poor man’s version of Cameron Indoor Stadium with a steady diet of noise and chants favoring the hometown.
Then Duke became Duke in the second half, with Kyle Singler making shots and grabbing rebounds when Gerald Henderson or Jon Scheyer weren’t. It also didn’t help the Jackets’ cause that they continued their season-long embarrassment by failing to understand that it’s called a “free” throw for a reason. They missed 12 of 19. Then again, only four teams in the country are worse at the foul line than Tech.
Suddenly, the only buzz in the crowd was Tech’s mascot by that name. That is, until the man of the moment strolled down the aisle toward a seat about five or six rows behind the Jackets’ bench. The more Favors came into view with 14:53 left to play in the game, the more the crowd roared. It didn’t matter that Tech trailed 33-38. It didn’t matter that Favors likely will join Stephon Marbury, Chris Bosh, Javaris Crittenton and Thaddeus Young as one-and-done Jackets.
What mattered was that Favors represented hope. At 9-7, and with three losses in their past four games, that’s exactly what the Jackets need most.
That and Favors’ talent.
Permalink | Comments (81) | Categories: Tech/ACC
Good wishes to Asher Allen
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For years, I was a hardliner when it came to whether your average college player should stay in school or jump to the pros before the end of his eligibility.
Don’t go. Get your education. Win one for the Gipper, or at least try.
Well, I’ve changed my mind. Except for rare cases, I now look at it like this: If somebody wants to go, they should go. Only they know the full extent of their financial situation. Plus, only they know the full extent of their commitment (or lack thereof) to the dual responsibility of studying playbooks and textbooks for another year at their old university.
Which brings me to the case of Georgia cornerback Asher Allen, among the most enjoyable collegiate athletes I’ve encountered. He’s sharp. He’s polite. He’s charismatic. He also can play.
The thing is, unlike Allen’s more celebrated Georgia brethren on offense during the last couple of seasons - Matthew Stafford and Knowshon Moreno - Allen isn’t a cinch to get drafted in the first round. In fact, there isn’t a guarantee that the Tucker High School graduate will go before the third round by skipping his senior year with the Bulldogs. He was a good college player, not a great one.
That said, Allen has it exactly right in saying that his ultimate worth to the NFL will be determined during individual workouts with teams.
I wish Allen well.
So should you.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Post your comment | Categories: UGA/SEC
Tough job replacing Skip and Pete
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So you think the Braves replacing John Smoltz will be tough? Well, try finding the successors by spring training for Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren, both nationally known broadcasting gods and both as associated with the franchise as Aaron, Spahn and tomahawks.
That’s bases-loaded pressure until the new Skip and Pete are hired. In other words, the Braves can’t afford to blow this.
“No doubt,” said Derek Schiller, the Braves executive vice president for sales and marketing. He also is the point man for this decision. “For any team, broadcasters represent the primary way in which fans learn and follow your team. They are an extremely important mechanism in everything that the team does on the field and in the community. They become powerful messengers of the brand.”
Not only that, Schiller knows true baseball fans huddle more with the radio and television guys of their favorite team than with family members and friends. He knows his choice of the new Skip and Pete will affect choppers and chanters for maybe a couple of generations.
He also knows a wrong decision can get somebody fired. That is, if you don’t get it, but Schiller gets it. He said he hopes to have the new Skip and Pete by the end of the month. He confirmed that Milwaukee Brewers announcer Jim Powell is among the finalists for one of the spots.
“This is an unusual situation in that we are searching for two broadcasters at the same time, and I think in a lot of cases, you’re looking for one, where you’ve had one person retire or one person move on to another job,” said Schiller, who was forced into this situation. First, Caray died in August after 33 years with the Braves. Soon afterward, his broadcast partner for that stretch, Van Wieren, retired.
You had the humor and sarcasm of Caray to complement the professional and analytical ways of Van Wieren. You had them during those horrific days for Braves from the mid-1970s through much of the 1980s. You also had them during those unprecedented days of the 1990s through the early part of this century when the Braves won 14 straight division titles. So, if you’re a Braves fan, you’ll always have Skip and Pete in your heart. Thus the major problem for Braves officials: They won’t find another Skip and Pete.
“Having gone through a lot of different tapes and videos of broadcasters out there, one of things I’ve noticed is the difference of style,” said Schiller, stressing that he won’t hire a screamer. “What we believe is important, and what we believe has been the essence of Skip and Pete through the years, is that they’re very conversational. You almost feel like you’re sitting in on two people next to one another on your couch and talking Braves baseball.
“My hope is that anything that we do with our broadcasters going forward (that same Skip and Pete feeling is) what we’re trying to represent. It should be very easygoing, comfortable and, certainly, a bit entertaining, but at the end of the day, it should be informative about what’s going on with the game.”
Just a personal note: I was a Big Red Machine fan, and I fumed with others after Cincinnati Reds officials fired the great Jim McIntyre as their radio voice after the 1970 season. They hired a 26-year-old nobody without major league experience. I couldn’t stand him at the start, but I couldn’t get enough of him by midseason.
His name was Al Michaels.
Permalink | Comments (54) | Categories: Braves/MLB
Time to calm down about Smoltz departure
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After three decades writing for major newspapers, I rank John Smoltz among my top 10 favorite athletes. I’m also a baseball Hall of Fame voter, and he already has my checkmark next to his name. So his leaving the Braves as a free agent after 21 seasons is like a blow to the back of my head with one of his fastballs.
That said, it’s time for everybody to take a deep breath and move on.
For one, Smoltz is in a different place mentally as well as physically these days (and likely for his own good, which I’ll explain in a moment). For another, icons have a tendency to vanish in baseball, especially from a franchise known for tomahawks.
What do all of these folks have in common? Warren Spahn. Eddie Mathews. Hank Aaron. Phil Niekro. Dale Murphy. David Justice. Tom Glavine. They were all John Smoltz before John Smoltz. They were all icons who never spent their entire careers with the Braves.
“In the old days, I thought Spahn, Aaron, Mathews, all of those guys would remain with the Braves forever, and I thought I would, too,” said Niekro on Friday from his Atlanta-area home. He spent the first 20 of his 24 years in the majors pitching exclusively for the Braves before his symbolic one-game retirement in a Braves uniform in 1987.
Added Niekro, “Nowadays, there’s so much money on the table. When contracts are up, you become a free agent. It’s more difficult now, I think, to stay with one team throughout. The toughest job for a general manager is to make these types of decisions. Who would say what we would do if we were in their position?”
Consider this: Except for Niekro and Justice, none of those Braves icons did much after they left the Braves either willingly or by force.
Smoltz will become another Niekro and Justice, though. Even at nearly 42, with a history of aches and pains, he is too competitive not to prosper with the Boston Red Sox. Which brings me to the primary reason I suspect Smoltz bolted: The Red Sox are exceptional. The Braves aren’t, not after following their record 14 straight division titles with two third-place finishes before dropping to fourth last season.
It isn’t coincidental that Smoltz holds the record in the majors for most postseason victories by a pitcher. He is obsessed with trying to win world championships. Despite Braves rosters that included future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, along with Cy Maddux, Cy Glavine and Cy Smoltz, his only World Series ring came in 1995.
This Boston move is Smoltz’s best shot at grabbing another one before his arm finally drops from its socket.
You probably know about that money thing involving Smoltz’s departure. Both the Braves and the Red Sox offered him a one-year contract with incentives that could reach $10 million or so. While the Braves mentioned a $2.5 million guarantee, the Red Sox promised $5.5 million.
“I’ve actually reached out to John, and I have not been able to contact him,” said Braves CEO Terry McGuirk, suggesting that Smoltz wasn’t seeking a Braves counteroffer — thus my theory that it’s about winning instead of money for Smoltz at this point of his career. Added McGuirk, “I consider him to be a wonderful guy and a good friend. I’d like to have thought I would have had a conversation with John before he would have lurched off into this direction.”
It’s a direction that Smoltz eventually wanted to go. So you should stop fuming over the situation.
Permalink | Comments (112) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves/MLB
Hawks can learn from loss
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
They were dribbling for the present Wednesday night at Philips Arena, but they also were dribbling for the future. So pick one. Maybe both.
The Hawks or the Magic.
Then again, you might have the Hawks and the Magic settling just below the elite of the Eastern Conference at the end of this season before evolving into the real things someday to replace the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
For the moment, the Magic are in a solo gallop toward that elite duo in the East after a 106-102 victory over the Hawks. This was the first of a home-and-home series between the two, with the next game Friday night in Orlando. Except for the ridiculously sparse crowd of around 14,000 in this one, it had the feel of a possible matchup to come in the playoffs. If so, the Hawks have much to do between now and then, and it starts with this: little things. They become huge things in the postseason.
Take free throws, for instance. The Hawks can’t make them. They sank only 14 of 25 attempts against the Magic, which is pathetic but not surprising. They began the evening with the fourth-worst percentage in the league at the line.
The Hawks also were inexplicably lethargic for large portions of the game while the Magic were energetic. Consider, too, that the Magic played Tuesday night, and the Hawks had three days’ rest.
Then, down the frantic stretch, when the Hawks turned their 21-point deficit into a two-possession game inside the final two minutes, well, Hawks coach Mike Woodson will tell you the rest.
“If Mike Bibby makes that layup, who knows?” said Woodson, of his usually solid point guard who somehow missed that layup. “We were flat. We were just very, very flat, and it showed.”
Still, the Hawks are at least the Magic’s equal, and that means both are in the vicinity of NBA prominence.
Dwight Howard has more than a few thoughts on this subject, and he’s the prolific rebounding and blocking machine for Orlando at center via Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy. While his team leads the Southeast Division by five games over the Hawks and has the East’s third-best record behind the Celtics and the Cavaliers, the Hawks are second in the division with the conference’s fourth-best record.
“We’re going for the No. 1 spot [in the conference] right now, and the Hawks are right behind us,” Howard said. “We’re two teams rising, trying to be great, and we’re both going to continue to get better. You look at the teams at the top now [in the East], and they’re pretty much older teams. We’ve got a couple of old guys here and there, but for the most part, we’ve got a lot of young guys, and the core guys have been around each other for a while.”
Sounds like the Hawks, a legitimate force out of nowhere in the NBA. Look at it this way: The Magic are loaded with an impressive frontcourt of Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis to complement Howard. In the backcourt, they have rising point guard Nelson, and promising rookie Courtney Lee. The Hawks’ starting five is slightly better than that.
Few guard combinations rival that of Joe Johnson and Bibby. You have the special gifts of Josh Smith, the consistent goodness of Al Horford and the growing efficiency of Marvin Williams. Instead, you had the Magic winning this one, and the Hawks learning a lesson: In the battle for the elite, little things aren’t so little.
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Andruw good fit for Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Yes, I know. Andruw Jones never will be Andruw Jones again. He’s got that Steve Blass thing going. He’s lost whatever it was that made him a prolific baseball player, and he can’t get it back.
That said, whatever is left of Andruw Jones is still good enough for the Braves right now.
This is especially true since this version of Andruw Jones will come cheap by the end of next week. That’s when he’ll likely become a free agent after his release from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Remember? The Dodgers signed Jones to that two-year contract worth $32.2 million before last season when he left the Braves as a free agent after a decade of mostly goodness at the plate and greatness in center field. He bombed in Los Angeles, though. In fact, he has imploded as a player since the 2006 All-Star Game.
According to the calculations of our David O’Brien, Jones has spent the past two seasons hitting .205 with 25 home runs, 108 RBIs, a .297 OBP and a .369 slugging percentage in 229 games.
Not good.
Worse, Jones is rather larger. He was listed as 210 pounds during his last impressive season with the Braves in 2006 (41 homers, 129 RBIs). His agent, Scott Boras recently told O’Brien that Jones is currently “down” to 230 pounds.
Definitely not good.
This is good: If the Braves could get Jones for a one-year deal at nearly $1 million with a bunch of incentives, they could see if he is close to his old self (and weight) in spring training. If he is, they could use Jones to keep center field warm until prospect Jordan Schafer is ready — which he isn’t.
If Jones isn’t anywhere near the vicinity of his old self, the Braves could move on to Plan B with Josh Anderson, Gregor Blanco or somebody else.
My hunch is that the Braves’ Plan A will work. That’s Plan A, as in “A” for Andruw, as in somebody who will spend more time in the batting cage this season than at the postgame buffet.
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Falcons need more playoff-type players
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just because you soared or slid from the regular season into the playoffs, that doesn’t mean you’re a playoff team.
Ask the 2008 Falcons.
Better yet, ask Steve Wallace, the former San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle with three world championship rings.
Said Wallace, combining his 49ers past with the Falcons’ present and future, “To win Super Bowls, you have to have those guys that will be playmakers — those guys that won’t sit back and watch somebody catch a ball in front of them. That won’t sit back and make a half-hearted effort at pushing a guy out of bounds. That always will have the mind set that this particular moment in a playoff game could be the difference in the game.”
To hear Wallace tell it, the Falcons don’t have enough of those players.
That’s because they don’t.
You could see as much during the Falcons’ defeathering on Saturday in the Arizona desert. After their miracle regular season that included rookie NFL head coach Mike Smith and his rookie quarterback, Matt Ryan, leading a mostly youthful bunch to an 11-5 record, the Falcons were exposed in so many ways as a wild-card team. In the end, they lost 30-24 to the supposedly underdog Cardinals.
Wallace watched it all. Then again, he hadn’t a choice. The Falcons are deep inside his still solid frame of 6-foot-5 and 280-something pounds. He’s an Atlanta native who lives in Buckhead, where he remains so enthralled with the hometown team that he rarely has missed a millisecond of its games since his retirement as an NFL player 12 years ago. “You know how much of a diehard Falcons fan I am?” said Wallace, 44, who graduated from Chamblee High School along the way to Auburn. “As a kid, they were always blacked out locally, so I was glued to the radio listening to Bob Neal and Harmon Wages.”
Wallace laughed. Then he sighed while recalling how the normally soft defensive and offensive lines of the Cardinals crushed their Atlanta counterparts.
There were numerous gaffes by Falcons linebackers and defensive backs. Star defensive end John Abraham and his aching thigh finished with just two tackles and no sacks. Michael Turner was tied for second in the league’s MVP voting, but he couldn’t run. Ryan was named NFL offensive rookie of the year, but he couldn’t pass (at least not like he did throughout his prolific regular season).
Ryan fired two interceptions, contributing to the Falcons’ three turnovers.
So this isn’t surprising: More than half of those on the Falcons’ roster on Saturday hadn’t been in a playoff game before. “Sort of like deer in headlights,” said Wallace, who detected a more specific problem regarding these Falcons.
They weren’t prepared.
“I know the Falcons are used to crowd noise when they travel to New Orleans for a rivalry game in the Superdome or even in Dallas or other places, but playoff crowd noise is at a whole different level,” said Wallace, who went to the playoffs every year during his decade with the 49ers. “You walk into the stadium, and you can barely hear yourself talk. It can pretty much handicap your offense if you’re not ready, and the Falcons weren’t ready.
“You could see early in the game where their offensive line wasn’t even putting a hand on guys. The crowd noise was bothering them and the whole team. After a while, you could tell that (offensive coordinator) Mike Mularkey made some adjustments.”
It was too late then.
Maybe next year, but the Falcons have to get those playmakers first.
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No gimmicks for these Falcons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hear that sound coming from the direction of the Falcons? You shouldn’t, because it doesn’t exist. Well, at least not regarding a catch phrase, a gimmick or any of those other silly things that this historically insecure franchise used during other playoff runs to promote its worth.
No Gritz Blitz. No big belt buckles, with the likes of MC Hammer, Travis Tritt and Elvis Presley’s ghost on the sideline. No cornerback high-stepping into the end zone after kick, punt or interception returns. No quarterback with magic legs.
No folks flapping their arms while performing disco moves, the Holy Ghost dance or whatever.
That’s why, with the current Falcons preparing to face the Cardinals Saturday in Arizona as a wild-card team, defensive tackle Grady Jackson frowned when asked if he joined his teammates in viewing themselves as something like the 21st century Dirty Birds.
“No, not really,” said Jackson, frowning some more. “You know, we just go out there and play, man. We don’t look at the nicknames or anything like that. We just keep playing and keep forcing people to believe in us. I mean, if we had a gimmick, it would just be ‘believe.’ “
Works for me. More importantly, such an approach works for a youthful Falcons team that jumped out of nowhere after that Michael Vick and Bobby Petrino mess during last season’s 4-12 finish to win 11 times this year. They have a rookie quarterback (Matt Ryan) who is prospering with a businesslike approach on and off the field. They acquired a free-agent running back (Michael Turner) who ranks among the rushing elite by letting his legs speak more than his mouth. Even their dominate force on defense (John Abraham) lacks the loudness and brashness that characterizes many of his peers.
The Falcons also have a slew of other rookies who join Ryan in actually listening to their elders. Then there is that grounded group of veterans. Finally, there is first-year NFL head coach Mike Smith bringing a professional approach to his job, and his assistants do the same.
Imagine this: These Falcons of the postseason mostly are into just playing football to the best of their ability and keeping their mouths shut.
“I don’t mean this in a negative sense, but the best thing about this team is that there is no emotional baggage here,” said Gerald Riggs, a local television analyst, who began his NFL career as a Falcons running back at the end of their Gritz Blitz run to the playoffs in 1982. “There is not anything hovering around this team to try and unify them with the city or whatever. Me, personally, I’m glad they don’t have those things. I still remember all of that Jerry Glanville stuff (“Too Legit to Quit”). Please, let’s not go there anymore.
“In the past, those types of monikers made for something that everybody could latch onto from a city and also from a fan standpoint. But as a player, those types of things always had a tendency to come back on you in a negative way.”
Take the Dirty Bird, for instance. That was the rage during the Falcons’ 1998 sprint to the Super Bowl.
Even so, more than a few opponents have spent the 10 years since that season mocking the Falcons with their own little dance of yore after touchdowns and other significant plays.
There is nothing to mock with these Falcons. Said linebacker Keith Brooking, the last remaining player from that Dirty Bird bunch, “I think the way you sum us up right now is ‘team.’ “
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