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Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Falcons fans get louder, and defense gets happier
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Flowery Branch — Lest we get carried away with the Georgia Dome’s transformation into a noisy mess for opponents during Falcons games, it still has a ways to go. For instance, it isn’t the Frozen Tundra South with an artificial surface. “In Green Bay, it’s tradition, and it’s weather and that kind of stuff,” said Ed Donatell, the former Packers defensive coordinator who works in Atlanta these days. He chuckled, adding of Lambeau Field, “I mean, there are ghosts walking around up there.”
They just have weirdos walking around the Black Hole, where visitors to Raiders games discover in loud and ugly ways that Halloween never ends near the Oakland hills. Defensive tackle Rod Coleman shook his head, when he spoke of his old days with the Raiders and his current ones with the Falcons. “No, I don’t think any other place can be like it is out there,” said Coleman on Wednesday after practice before he qualified his remark.
After all, with the Minnesota Vikings coming to town on Sunday, Coleman remembered when the rocking and rolling Georgia Dome helped the Falcons win their first and only home game this season on a Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles. With racket pounding its ears, the Eagles’ offense earned three false-start penalties, and the racket got louder. “It was just, oh, man, ridiculous,” Coleman said with a smile. “Me and everybody else on the defense, we were just loving it, because we were feeding off the crowd noise. It’s just great, man.”
Actually, it’s about time. Before the 2004 arrival of Jim Mora and his ability to extract passion from a chin strap, the Falcons were a rarity. They were the only domed team in NFL history to lack an overwhelming advantage at home with crowd noise. That’s because the Georgia Dome only had spurts with crowd noise, and here’s the strangest thing: Such was the case only when the Falcons were playing. During Peach Bowls and SEC championship games, the Georgia Dome’s Teflon roof always threatens to rip from all of the high decibels.
Then, just like that, with encouragement from towel-slinging coaches on the Falcons sideline and players frantically waving everything from their arms to their tongues on the field, something began to happen in the Georgia Dome stands last season on a consistent basis. Yep, noise, and it didn’t hurt the situation that the Falcons kept winning at home, all the way to their current seven-game streak. According to team officials, 23 of the false starts committed by opposing offenses last season were due to a bunch of folks yelling as if they were watching the Bulldogs, the Gators or the Vols or something.
Good thing for the Falcons. During these days of parity in the league, where you have the usually pitiful Cincinnati Bengals looking more potent than the New England Patriots, owners of three Super Bowl rings during the past four seasons, every little bit helps. To hear the Falcons tell it, having the Georgia Dome as a mad house helps the home team a lot. And get this: “They’ve actually been packing the place for the last couple of years, but last season is when I really began to fill the electricity inside the dome, because they’ve become educated fans,” said Falcons defensive end Patrick Kerney, in his seventh season.
That’s long enough for Kerney to recall how the Falcons had the only NFL fans who performed The Wave when the home team had the ball. Not good. Not when your offense is trying to hear signals from your quarterback. Even so, Falcons fans continue to get louder and wiser. They just have to remember when the game starts. They leave thousands of empty seats before the opening kickoff, and that often delays the Falcons’ dome-field advantage.
“We couldn’t feel better about what the fans are doing in Atlanta. It’s awesome, because it takes away the ability for the other team to audible, but we just want them to come about 30 minutes earlier and start heckling the other team while they’re warming up,” Donatell said.
Then he laughed, adding, “Come early, and we’ll reward you with gifts.”
Donatell didn’t specify what kind of gifts, but here’s a guess: How about victories along the way to championships?
Permalink | Comments (14) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Cox the best of all-time
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
I’ve written this before, and I’ll do it again: Bobby Cox is not only the best manager in baseball of his time, but of all-time.
One world championship? Yes, I know, but there are a couple of things to consider here. First, the late Gene Mauch was called the game’s best manager for decades by many of his peers, and he won zero world championships. Second, beyond that solo world championship thing, there is everything else involving Cox as a manager, and we’re talking about a lot.
If you include Cox’s last season managing the Toronto Blue Jays, he just won his 15th consecutive division title. Nobody has come close to such a streak — in any sport. And, unlike Cox’s predecessors to managerial greatness such as Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy and Casey Stengel, Cox strung together this run during an era of changing rosters through free agency.
Cox has won with veteran teams, youthful teams and injured teams. Not only that, I’ve never heard a past or current player ever say anything negative about the guy. Even Joe Torre and Tony LaRussa have had their public detractors.
All of that said, another world championship for Cox would just send his astronomical legacy from earth toward the farthest planet.
Permalink | Comments (96) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Fresh chance granted to team, its fans
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
The season opened with John Smoltz allowing a grand slam in the first inning, exiting not long after with a 32.40 ERA stamped on his forehead, and the Braves losing, 9-0, at Florida.
“You want a mulligan,” Smoltz would say later.
See. This is why we don’t compute magic numbers after Opening Day.
“I guess the cowbell rang a little late for us,” Chipper Jones said Tuesday night.
Smoltz got his mulligan — he went on to win 14 games, pitch over 200 innings and lower his ERA by more than just a digit (3.06).
The Braves got their mulligan. What they completed Tuesday night borders on fantasy.
Feel good about this one, because No. 14 is different. Yes, players and coaches and the manager and the general manager will tell you: they’re all different, they’re all special. But seldom do seasons start with such a disaster, evolve so improbably and finish like this.
“Everybody had a reason why we weren’t gonna win,” Smoltz said.
Feel good about this one, but feel even better about what’s about to happen. The Braves go into this post-season with a commodity they didn’t have a year ago: a starting pitcher.
Tim Hudson threw the first pitch of Tuesday night’s 12-3 win over Colorado. How appropriate. Smoltz, returned to the rotation to give the team some power in the post-season, has been stored in bubble wrap until Game 1. Hudson was acquired to give the team a second threat (and briefly a more certain one, given Opening Day.) He went six innings and won his 14th game, tying Smoltz.
“I knew coming in we were gonna clinch it,” Hudson said. “I took this as a playoff game. I went out there with the kind of mentality and the kind of fire you need in a playoff-type atmosphere. You need guys who are able to turn it on in that atmosphere. I don’t know if I did anything special, but I wanted to be out there and I wanted to let guys know that I wanted to be out there.”
Feel good about this team because of this: The first three pitchers in the playoff rotation will be Smoltz, Hudson and Jorge Sosa. Last year, they went into the post-season with Jaret Wright, Mike Hampton, John Thompson and Russ Ortiz. That was their downfall against the Astros.
Since 1991, this team has been about starting pitching. Suddenly against Houston, starting pitching was the four-headed question.
Wright was pounded in his two starts. (Hey Yankees: You can have him.) Hampton looked strong but left his start with forearm tightness, ominous foreshadowing. Thompson’s oblique muscle decided the playoffs would be a great time to blow up. Ortiz was smoked for five runs in the second inning of his start. After the inning, he was told to sell his house.
Feel good about this — even if Braves’ officials didn’t seem to start the celebration.
Officially, the team clinched at 10:08 p.m. when Philadelphia lost to the New York Mets, 3-2. But there was no immediate announcement in Turner Field. The out-of-town scoreboard still indicated the Phils and Mets were in the eighth inning. (The team didn’t even show the game on the screen during the rain delay.)
It wasn’t until 10:24 that an announcement was made — after pitching changes, after “Kiss Cam,” after a camera shot of a fan banging the drum in center field, after a fan hung a makeshift “2005” title pennant in centerfield, after the playing of “Y-M-C-A.” (The dancing old couple was cheered.)
When the announcement was made, the crowd stood and gave an ovation.
The mulligan was complete.
“I don’t think people understand what we’ve been through,” Smoltz said. “Leaving spring training with the team we had, then with the team we have now. This has to be the most special in my 14 years.”
Last year the Braves won two playoff games. The winning pitchers were relievers — Antonio Alfonseca and Smoltz. The Braves didn’t bring either one back to their bullpen.
Fireworks went off after the final out Tuesday night. This one was special. Enjoy it. And feel good about what may come next.
Permalink | Comments (55) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Jeff Schultz
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