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Thursday, September 22, 2005
Thrashers must win quick to draw fans back
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Joshua Stewart had waited 537 days for this night. So as not to miss a thing, he arrived at Philips Arena two hours before the doors opened Thursday. See, Joshua Stewart is a hockey fan.
For the first time since April 2, 2004, big-league hockey was played in Atlanta. It was just an exhibition game, but when you love the sport and you’ve gone so long between puck sightings you’re grateful for anything. Stewart came ready, wearing his blue-and-copper Thrashers sweater and equipped with blow-up ThunderStix, and 45 minutes before the opening faceoff he sat in his seat behind the goal with the dedicated fan’s air of expectation. But this was no ordinary preseason home opener, and even a zealot like Stewart couldn’t pretend it was.
The NHL is coming off a lost season, and the NHL in Atlanta was never to be confused with the NHL in Detroit or Toronto or Montreal. Hockey in Atlanta is a niche sport in a trendy city, and what fans the Thrashers had developed in their first five seasons have had 17 1/2 months to find other interests. Did Stewart, a season-ticket holder since the beginning, ever doubt he’d be back?
“Never,� he said. “But I grew up in Calgary.�
Stewart is 21, a journalism student at Georgia State. He follows the NHL the way undergrads in Athens track the SEC. Part of Stewart’s afternoon had been spent online, debating the merits of the Thrashers’ powder-blue third uniform. (For the record, he hates it.) He loves this sport and this team, but he isn’t so blind that he sees only blue skies ahead.
“It appears fans are still relating to [Dany] Heatley and [Ilya] Kovalchuk,� Stewart said. “As of now, we don’t have either.�
Much has happened since last the Thrashers played here. Heatley is gone. Kovalchuk remains in Russia, unsigned for the coming season. The biggest names among Thrashers are now Bobby Holik and Peter Bondra and Marian Hossa. A team that hasn’t yet qualified for the playoffs fully expects to get there this time, and if it doesn’t somebody might get fired. And then there’s the lingering effect of the lockout, which rendered a low-profile sport an even lower one.
Jason and Melissa Williams are graduate students at Georgia Tech. They’ve followed the Thrashers for years — Melissa grew up in Buffalo, which helps explain her thing for hockey — and they, like all the other hard-core folks who turned out Thursday, were tickled the game had returned. “The real fans are glad,â€? Jason said. “For the other people, it might take a few weeks.â€?
It might. It might take much, much longer. After so long out of sight, the Thrashers can’t wait until February to find their stride. Said Don Waddell, the general manager: “The response we’ve gotten from our fans has been very encouraging, and I think the buzz around town is pretty good. But I’m hearing that from hockey people. The bottom line is that we need to win.�
There has always been a pocket of hockey love in Atlanta — it existed here even after the NHL bolted for Calgary, existed during the tenure of the defunct minor-league Knights — but the lost season has made crossover success even more problematic. Even a diehard like Joshua Stewart admitted as much. “It’s interesting,â€? he said, “but it’s also scary. We’re about to find out what’s going to happen to Atlanta as far as hockey is concerned.â€?
We are. And it might not be all that pretty. Let the record show that, 537 days after the NHL last played in this city, the announced attendance at Philips was 10,218. Truth to tell, the place wasn’t even half-full.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Thrashers / NHL
College picks: Dictionary works against Jackets
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
As you know, we’re all about research here at Weekend Predictions. (Hey, I heard that.)
So on Thursday, after hours of film study and rock-paper-scissors with my dogs (they stink at it — they always do “rock”), I decided to reach for the dictionary. Had to look up meningitis.
A serious, sometimes fatal illness in which a viral or bacterial infection inflames the meninges, causing symptoms such as severe headaches, vomiting, stiff neck and high fever.
This caused me great concern, in part because I didn’t even realize I had meninges and wondered if ignoring them for so long had caused them to rebel and make my hair fall out. So now I had to look up meninges.
The three membranes that surround and protect the brain and the spinal cord, called the dura mater, the arachnoid mater and the pia mater.
It was at this point when I realized why the dictionary, despite selling billions and billions of copies, has never been made into a movie.
I liked it better when athletes just sprained ankles. Reggie Ball had the “good� kind of meningitis last week, which I think is sort of like saying, “Hey, stop complaining. It was only a bowling ball that fell on your head, not a Chevy.�
Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey says he hasn’t decided if Ball will play Saturday against Virginia Tech (which, as ACC opponents go, is more like the Chevy). He only says, “I don’t at all see him playing the whole game.�
This is my new rule of thumb: When I have to use the dictionary to look up an illness, you sit out a week. The last thing I need is meninges with an attitude.
The Hokies are favored by 11.
Now that I can understand.
It’s covered.
Daily Specials
Dawgs at Dogs: Thanks to another College Football Soul Closeout Sale with ESPN, kickoff in Starkville isn’t until 9:12 p.m. This is always dangerous for a road team. It gives visiting players more time to take a city tour and roam among the cow patties, after which they begin to look for sharp objects. Maybe the sights will scare Georgia into some offense. It’s not good when you make Louisiana Monroe look competitive. Ugas win but won’t cover 15.
Tennessee at LSU: Three weeks later, the Tigers finally get to play a home game. They’d probably be the sentimental favorites even if they weren’t playing Tennessee, but of course that makes it easier. The Vols have yet to produce a point after halftime, which is a statement on either Phil Fulmer’s halftime speeches, the play calling or both. LSU covers six.
Ty Bowl: Ty Willingham was fired from a program (Notre Dame) with good players and hired by one (Washington) with flotsam. But it’s not all bad: Seattle has better views and Willingham doesn’t have nearly as many knives in his back. Irish will win. But take Washington and 13¸ with a clear conscience.
Sacrificial Lambs at South Carolina: I admit it — I did a backstroke in the Spurrier Kool-Aid before the Alabama game. But if I’m the Troy defensive coordinator, I’m not real comfortable playing a Steve Spurrier team the week after it was embarrassed at home. I know, 19 is a bunch. But Spurrier humiliation goes a long way. Roosters cover.
Arkansas at Alabama: It’s Week 4, and Mike Shula has more job security than Houston Nutt. Yikes. Southern Cal scored four touchdowns on its first eight plays against the Piggies last week. Nutt can study the other four plays before the next meeting. There’s no such problems at Alabama, where Shula has the Tide back in the rankings. The fact he hasn’t cheated or been sued for sexual harassment, of course, just qualifies as gravy in Tuscaloosa. Tide goes to 4-0, covers 15.
Almost Perfect (sort of)
Last week: 6-1 straight up, 5-2 against the line.
Toteboard: 16-4 straight up, 11-9 against the line.
End of Summer Blowout: Winner of this week’s pick contest wins a copy of Dave Wannstedt’s autobiography, “That First Step Off The Ladder Of Success Is A Doozy.�
Permalink | Comments (50) | Categories: Jeff Schultz
Braves need to pull for, against Phils
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The Braves are in a weird position. They’re rooting against Philadelphia because, duh, they want to win the NL East. But they have to be rooting for Philly, if just a bit, because they don’t want to play Houston in the Division Series.
If the Phillies take the wild card — they trail Houston by two games — the Braves will get the break of all breaks and open the playoffs against San Diego. (I know, I know. The Braves were 1-5 against the Padres in the regular season. No matter.) If the Astros prevail, as you figure they will, the Braves might not see Round 2.
That’s what the wild card has done: It has skewed October past the point of logical handicapping. The Phillies have a much better lineup than the Astros, but the Astros have three terrrific starting pitchers. Even the Braves can’t match Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt and Andy Pettitte as a threesome. That’s the kind of 1-2-3 rotation that was built for a best-of-five series.
The Astros had a better team than the Braves last fall, but they’re missing Carlos Beltran and Jeff Kent from that roster — and Morgan Ensberg, among the best of the holdovers, has been hurting — and the formerly bashin’ ‘Stros really don’t hit much at all anymore. But that’s the thing: Nobody hits much in October. It comes down to pitching. The Astros have those three starters and Brad Lidge to close. At least in Round 1, they’re the most intimidating opponent on the board.
And the Braves will play them. Unless the Phillies get hot. Talk about mixed emotions.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Club’s past offers a link to fall trend
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
One said it didn’t matter. The other said it did. As for the truth, Braves historians Chipper Jones and John Smoltz are both correct on whether a seemingly little thing that happened five Octobers ago at Turner Field has evolved into an historically big thing that still affects the franchise whenever the leaves start changing.
This is about momentum, and about why the Braves must find a bunch of it through the rest of September, and about why the lack of it during their 13 consecutive trips to the playoffs and counting has contributed to their habit of evolving into The Great Pumpkin before Halloween.
Don’t look now, but if you go by momentum (or the lack thereof), the Braves are on the verge of becoming big and orange again. They suddenly can’t sustain victory during a time of the year when such a feat matters the most. Earlier this month, they had a raggedy road trip. Then, after Jorge Sosa used his Houdini routine (six walks, no runs in 6 2/3 innings) to win on Tuesday night at home against the Philadelphia Phillies, you had Wednesday night’s 10-6 loss in 10 innings.
There was good news for the Braves, though: The Phillies kept surging ahead, and the Braves kept clawing back on clutch hitting, fielding and pitching. You know, just like you need in the playoffs. Unfortunately for the Braves, they rarely get any of those things in the playoffs.
Ever since Jeff Cirillo’s ridiculously easy grounder skipped off Jones’ glove at third base on the last day of the 2000 regular season to cost the Braves home-field advantage, they’ve dropped four of their past five trips to the National League Division Series.
If you didn’t know better, you’d conclude the Braves’ epidemic of first-round collapses begins and ends with that 5-year-old memory. You had a two-run lead for the Braves in the ninth against the Colorado Rockies. You had two outs. You eventually had Jones’ error leading to seven unearned runs and to the Braves going from hosting the Cardinals in the playoffs to hustling for a plane to St. Louis.
The shock of it all contributed to the Braves getting plastered by the Cardinals during a sweep. To that and to Jones’ error that continues to haunt the Braves in the playoffs.
Jones thought and thought about our theory at his locker, before he said, “I don’t think so. When we played the Cardinals and lost, it was just a situation where we ran into a hot team. They had momentum, and they just continued to ride it. Will Clark was unconscious at that point. Couldn’t get him out. At that particular time, they were the hottest team in baseball.”
Two things: First, the Cardinals were only baseball’s “hottest team” against the Braves, because the Cardinals were cooled in the NLCS by the New York Mets. Second, while Smoltz doesn’t necessarily agree that Jones’ error has become a generational problem in the playoffs, he does see the correlation between Jones’ error back then and the Braves’ meltdown in the postseason back then.
“When it happened (the Braves’ quick loss of home-field advantage in 2000), it was one of those things that made you go, ‘Shoot. We just blew an opportunity,’” said Smoltz, who joins Jones as the Braves’ elder statesmen. “It had a mighty affect on our team from the simple fact that it changed the routine. I mean, we knew we were starting at home, and all of a sudden now, everything changes. If we hadn’t of entertained the thought from the beginning of starting at home, it wouldn’t have mattered the way we lost that game and that we even lost the game. It became psychological at that point, which shows you how quickly momentum can change and why it’s important.”
For instance: Courtesy of a 10th inning grand slam Wednesday night, the Phillies have more momentum in search of a wild-card spot than the Braves have in search of staying their team colors of red, white and blue instead of big and orange.
Permalink | Comments (19) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
