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Thursday, September 29, 2005
Mazzone the backbone in the background
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
We say, “14 in a row,� and we think, “John Schuerholz and Bobby Cox.� A Hall of Fame GM finds the players for a Hall of Fame manager to turn into a functioning and seamless whole. We ask, “How do the Braves keep winning?� Well, we figure, that’s it.
Actually, that’s 66.7 percent of it.
Given that ballpark estimates hold that pitching is between 75 and 90 percent of baseball, we need to add a name and thereby render the great managerial pairing a triumvirate. If pitching is the key to baseball — and we all know it is — then Leo Mazzone merits at least 33.3 percent of the credit for these 14 in a row. He’s the third leg of the tripod that has served as the greatest foundation the grand old game has seen.
Ten days ago, ESPN.com ran a story in which Jeff Merron posted that Mazzone is the best assistant coach in any sport ever. As outlandish as such a claim might sound — what, you’re wondering, about Mickey Andrews? Bill Guthridge? Jim Harrick Jr.? — it’s an argument that can be made and substantiated. The Braves have built themselves on pitching and their pitching coach has a particular (some would say peculiar) method of instruction. This method has yielded results with talents great and small, tarnished and freshly minted.
The 2005 Braves have a middling ERA — 10th-best in the big leagues — by this team’s exalted standards, but it’s a wonder these pitchers have done this well. Every starter has been hurt and the bullpen has been patchy and too many rookies have been rushed to the front (Joey Devine in particular), and still these pitchers have held up their end. Come what may, the Braves’ pitchers always do. The 2004 staff led the majors in ERA without a No. 1 starter. It is at such times that Mazzone has given lie to the label that some in baseball have attached to him: Leo Mazzone, the luckiest man since Ringo Starr.
Detractors say that anyone could look clever with Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine headlining his rotation, and it’s true that Maddux and Glavine are as close to self-taught as any pitchers could be. But somebody had to keep them healthy. The Mazzone mantra: “Your horses have to go to the post.� Maddux and Glavine did without fail, and whole years have passed without any Braves starter missing significant time. When three members of the rotation were ailing four months back, it only served to remind us how fragile arms really are and how rare it has been, over these last 15 seasons, for even one Braves starter to come up achy.
For sake of this discussion, let’s forget Maddux and Glavine. Let’s focus instead on the reclamation Mazzone has done with John Burkett and Chris Hammond and Jaret Wright and now Jorge Sosa. Let’s ask how many of his pitchers have gotten appreciably better elsewhere. (The answer is one: Jason Schmidt. It’s two if you count either Jason Marquis or Odalis Perez, which I don’t.) Let’s note the number of Braves pitchers who have fizzled when separated from Mazzone’s care. (Think of David Nied, Kent Mercker, Damian Moss and the once-wondrous Steve Avery.)
From 1992 through 2004, the Braves ranked either first or second in ERA among big-league teams every season but one. Even Ringo Starr didn’t get lucky for that long. Yeah, Leo Mazzone makes an odd paradigm — he tells the worst jokes and laughs really hard at them — but he has strung together a run of coaching excellence the likes of which we haven’t seen before and won’t see again. He has won big when he had the horses, won big when he didn’t. As smart as Schuerholz and Cox are, the little man rocking back and forth has made them seem that much smarter.
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All of a sudden, I get smart
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
As we come to the end of a three-day school week, courtesy of Gov. Globey Head (inflate to 12 pounds), please take a moment during this light college week to recognize the comedic talents of Maxwell Smart and the Harris Interactive poll.
For if Don Adams hadn’t passed on to that great Cone of Silence in the sky this week, I’m sure he’d be asking … “Would you believe me if I told you this poll is surrounded by 200 Control agents?â€?
No.
“Would you believe a German Shepherd with an overbite?�
No.
“Would you believe 0-4 Idaho was given five points?�
No.
“No really. I’m serious about that one.�
The inaugural Harris poll, the BCS’s road to credibility — Ha! Yeah, I got a million of ’em — came out this week. Congratulations to the 114 voting members, some with a pulse (although it was John Mackovic, the former coach, who observed: “To tell the truth, I did not know a couple of them were still alive.â€?) The Harrisians voted USC No. 1. Visionaries.
Most of the yuks centered on those schools also receiving votes. Illinois tallied 13. Illinois is 2-2 and coming off a 61-14 loss to Michigan State — at home. Its defense is ranked 106th in the nation. That’s two spots behind Custer.
Idaho is 0-4. It lost to Hawaii, which had lost two games, 105-31, give or take an organ. The Vandals received five points in the Harris poll. If they lose to Utah State this week, they’ll move into the top 20 and become BCS bowl eligible.
One of two things likely happened. Five Harris voters ranked Idaho 25th in the country. Or one ranked the school 21st. Harris officials hope it’s the latter. It’s a lot easier to hide one body.
Georgia and Tech are both off this week. But we do have some leak-proof investments.
Would you believe …
Florida at Tuscaloosa Correctional Institute: What is this — Talk Stupid week in Alabama? Presumably heady from the Tide’s best start in several prison terms, linebacker DeMeco Ryans said, “We always win big games here.� Umm. Huh? Actually, factually, Bammy has never beaten a Top 5 team at Bryant-Denny Stadium (0-5) and is 1-7 against ranked teams in the last two years under Mike Shula. He’s done a nice job this season, but Florida is ranked, unlike four previous opponents. Reality check: Gators cover 3 1/2.
Middle Tenn. St. at Vanderbilt: Turns out dissolving the athletic department was all the football program needed to take off. Win this and the Commies are 5-0 for the first time since 1943 and will be one short of bowl eligible for the first time since ’82. Must be cocky. Even scheduled softy Georgia as their homecoming in two weeks. Nurse: oxygen! Vandy covers 16.
South Carolina at Auburn: Last week Steve Spurrier beat up Troy. In a previous life, Troy was a chance to fatten stats. Now it’s a diversion. Like ’shrooms. Spurrier (0-2) has never lost three SEC games in a row, but then he had never coached in Columbia, either. Since losing to Tech, Auburn has outscored three opponents, 128-17. Tigers, your Troy just arrived. Auburn covers 13 1/2.
LSU at Missy State: After blowing a 21-0 lead at home last week to Tennessee, LSU coach Les Miles defied all odds. He made it out of the parking lot. Forget living up to Nick Saban. Suddenly, he’s living down to Gerry DiNardo. Losses like this sting a while. And Starkville’s not the place to be with a hangover. LSU wins but take the Bulldogs and 15.
Colonel Sanders at Tennessee: Nothing gets past Phil Fulmer. After Rick Clausen came off the bench to lead the comeback at LSU, Fulmer said he doesn’t plan to rotate quarterbacks anymore. Genius. Mississippi, meanwhile, will be missing a quarterback and a linebacker this week, both of whom suffered broken middle fingers. So now there’s two less players flipping off the coach. Vowels win, but won’t cover 20.
Virginia Tech at West Virginia: Marcus Vick. Not bad for a right-hander. Hokies cover 10 1/2.
REPORT CARD Last week: 5-1 straight up, 3-3 against the line. To date: 21-5 straight up, 14-12 against the line. Lock of the week: Deadbolt.
Permalink | Comments (80) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
In praise of Fulmer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
He has won a national championship. He has won the tougher half of the nation’s toughest conference four times in the last eight seasons. He has won 10 games or more eight times in 12 full seasons. He has won 78.3 percent of his games. And if he looked as sleek and stylish as, say, Steve Spurrier (who has won 77.1 percent of his games as a collegiate coach) or Mark Richt (82.1 percent), nobody would ever suggest he can’t actually coach.
But Phillip Fulmer, who played offensive guard, looks like an old offensive guard. He’s plus-sized and rumpled and, owing to the dictates of his surroundings, he’s usually clad in orange, which not even Cary Grant could bring off. His record suggests — nay, screams — that Fulmer is among the absolute best at what he does, but somehow his name never comes up in any discussion of the nation’s best and brightest. Indeed, more than a few folks seem to believe Fulmer is, not to put too fine a point on it, a dim bulb.
We should all be so dim. He won a national championship the year after his best-ever player (Peyton Manning) left for the NFL, the year his best-ever back (Jamal Lewis) tore up his knee at Auburn. Fulmer won the SEC East last season with what was manifestly the division’s third-best team, and this week he won maybe the greatest game of his distinguished career. Down 21-0 at LSU, his offense having managed 24 points in the season’s first 10 quarters, his team clearly addled by the game’s logistics (due to the lack of hotel rooms in Baton Rouge, the Vols had to fly in the day of the game) and postponement (due to Hurricane Rita)…well, there was no way Tennessee could win.
But it did.
Truth to tell, Fulmer wins more than his share of such games. There was no way Tennessee was supposed to win at Florida in 2001, no way it could beat Georgia in Athens last October, no way it was going to upset Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl with the national championship at stake.
And maybe that’s his secret. Maybe opponents expect a team coached by a rumpled old offensive guard to play like a team coached by a rumpled old offensive guard. The cold truth is that you underrate Phillip Fulmer at your peril. He might not look like anyone’s notion of a mastermind, but he knows his business. He could coach for me anytime anywhere.
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