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Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Busch tries a right turn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Such inquiries weren’t on the schedule. From the press release: “Kurt Busch will address questions regarding the Goodyear test, Penske Racing and the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup season only.” But asking Kurt Busch just about tires is like interviewing Jennifer Aniston and not mentioning Brad Pitt.
So there he was, standing in the garage area at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Tuesday, responding to the questions he wasn’t supposed to hear. Maybe part of him wanted to turn and stomp off, but a bigger part of Kurt Busch has to know he’s being watched in a whole new way, and how he handles himself in the coming season will go a long way toward solidifying the paying public’s impression of him. And to NASCAR and its many sponsors, the paying public matters.
“There are things in your life that you’d like to press the ‘reset’ button on,” Busch said, and what happened to him in November qualifies. He was stopped by police for running a stop sign near Phoenix International Raceway and charged with reckless driving. (Officers, who contended Busch was abusive toward them, smelled alcohol on his breath, but tests proved he wasn’t drunk.)
Roush Racing, then his employer, might have let him off with a reprimand, but it suspended him for the season’s last two races with this blatant kiss-off from team president Geoff Smith: “It’s the last straw. We’re officially retiring as Kurt Busch’s apologists.”
Busch, see, had gotten crossways with lots of folks — fellow driver Jimmy Spencer bloodied his nose after a 2003 race — and was bound for a new team anyway. The catchall description of NASCAR drivers — good ol’ boys — doesn’t really apply to Busch, who comes across as something of an Eddie Haskell. He’s smart and he’s gifted and he has a bit of a smirk about him. Roush Racing essentially said, “Smirk on this,” and deprived the 2004 Nextel Cup champ of a chance to finish the 2005 season the way a champion should.
But now it’s 2006 and Kurt Busch works for Roger Penske and is working on repairing a damaged persona. “In a career, things get ironed out and evened out,” he said. “This is a unique opportunity to jump in.” He’s driving the Dodge vacated by Rusty Wallace, a car sponsored by Miller Lite. Without irony, Busch likens his orientation to “having a first beer together.” He has nothing but nice things to say about Penske — he says nothing at all about Jack Roush — and he called the chance to work with his new boss “the best medicine you could get.”
Busch has won 14 NASCAR races and is bright enough to fit the profile of what the sport wants to become — if he just could stop ticking people off. Then again, Tony Stewart, once the bad boy of the gearbox set, mended multiple fences en route to the 2005 Nextel Cup title, pointedly saying at the moment of his victory that he’d won this championship “the right way.” Of Stewart’s smoother dynamics, Busch said: “It definitely gives you motivation to be more well-run. You have to be a good guy and take care of your public image.”
And how’s that going? Said Roy McCauley, his new crew chief: “Kurt is definitely giving 110 percent. I believe he feels like he’s in a great situation now.”
Kurt Busch turned 28 a week ago and is scheduled to be married in July. He has a new ride and the chance to make a fresh start. He and Penske will attend the Super Bowl together in Detroit next month, and the only advice Busch said he has received from the car owner is the basic stuff: “Stand on the right pedal, turn left and go fast.”
Did he make any New Year’s resolutions? “Usually those are more personal things,” Busch said, but he shared his anyway. “Spend more time with my fiancée and challenge myself to be a better person.”
The look on his face wasn’t a smirk. It was, by way of contrast, an actual smile.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Auto Racing, Mark Bradley
No reliever will get this elector’s vote
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
To get to the jugular, I’ve never yet voted for a closer for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and I’m rather positive that I never shall. It’s like voting for a guy who only putts as Golfer of the Year, or a guy who only shoots free throws for the Basketball Hall of Fame. He’s only part-pitcher.
Having said that, let me join in the throng slapping Bruce Sutter on the back and say it’s nice for him and his family, but it’s only sending another loser to Cooperstown. There, he joins the only other closer, also the only other losing pitcher in the hallowed hall, though Rollie Fingers did do a few seasons as a starter first. His record is 114-118, Sutter’s 68-71.
It should be said in Fingers’ behalf that he did not go in as somewhat of a last resort. His class included Tom Seaver and Hal Newhouser and Bill Mazeroski, as well as the umpire who belonged on a Saturday Evening Post cover, Bill McGowan, but all the latter three courtesy of the Veterans Committee, which since has been overhauled.
Sutter’s earned-run average was very good, 2.83. His strikeouts-to-walks ratio was good. But he pitched barely over 1,000 innings. Take Bert Blyleven, the right-hander who is running out of time. He pitched 4,970 innings, struck out 3,701 batters — only four other pitchers struck out more, and they’re in (you guessed it) — and won 287 games. Now that’s a career for you. He wasn’t the most obliging cuss when you wanted a word or two, but that has bothered me with only one player, and it wasn’t Jim Rice, for whom I cast a vote this time.
Apparently, Sutter scored heavily in one category, that as a pitcher who created a pitch, the “splitter.” I’ve always heard Roger Craig, manager and coach, get the credit for the “splitter,” but I’ll bet you this, you can go back to one group of players who’ll tell that was the exact same pitch that Elroy Face was throwing with the Pirates around the turn of the 1960s. Only then, they called it a “forkball.”
Along that line of pitch creation, that brings up a case presented by Bob Feller, who had a few pitches of his own. Feller campaigned for a pitcher named George Blaeholder, even said he belonged in the Hall of Fame. Why? Because Blaeholder invented the “slider,” sometimes known as the “nickel curve.” Now, George Blaeholder, in his lifetime, won 104 games and lost 125, hardly Hall of Fame stuff. But you could forgive, even if he’d been throwing bombs. He pitched for the pitiable St. Louis Browns, who were good for more laughs than class. No telling how many careers he saved, for more pitchers have made a living throwing the “slider” than the “splitter.”
But, that just gives you a slant on how much these major league balloteers know about baseball history. Me, I go back an age when pitchers often went both ways. Start a game one day, go in and save one the next. I’m a Firpo Marberry guy.
Now there was a moose. Marberry came from Texas and was built like a sheriff. His real name was Fred, but nobody called him that. One year he started 64 games and saved 22 (before saves became a religion.) Five times he started 50 games or more, and when he was 34 years old, he started 54 with the Senators. You know how many Hall of Fame votes he got? A measly 1.6 per cent.
So don’t feel too wretched Dale. Dale Muprhy got all of 10.6 percent, and I think it’s safe to say we in Atlanta call off our Dale Murphy for Cooperstown campaign.
I know they’re celebrating in the Sutter household this week, and you can’t blame them. This has been going on for years, and the mourners have been wailing at his shrine. But he’s not the only guy who got in without what you and I would consider Hall of Fame credentials. A man I admire exceedingly is Cecil Travis, who does have them but hasn’t made it, but who once said, “There are a lot of guys out there who were better than I was who aren’t in there. It doesn’t bother me.”
Permalink | Comments (121) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Tuesday Countdown: Lil’ Vick, Sutter, Ilya
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: So does this mean Marcus Vick will go to the Hokie pokey, unless he turns himself around? ‘Cuz, that’s what it’s all about.
9: I can’t believe I just wrote that. Just one more illustration why the Pulitzer committee doesn’t hand out awards for blogs.
8: Seriously, I’m not even certain Marcus Vick was going to get drafted BEFORE the gun incident. Yes, he has talent. But it’s not like the guy has proven so much when he actually has played that it compensates for the bag of junk that comes with him. And a bag of stuff for a quarterback is like a bag of stuff times 10. Plus, he is generously listed at only 6-0. Exactly what is it that makes him such a great NFL prospect?
7: I mean, if a guy can’t stay out of trouble in college when so much time is occupied by games, practices, workouts and classes (theoretically, anyway), what’s going to happen when he has cash in his pocket as a pro and he’s got nothing but time?
6: And enough with dumping on Michael Vick for not giving his brother more guidance. Marcus is his own man. Or his own punk.
5: Only one former player (Bruce Sutter) drew enough votes to make it into the Hall of Fame Tuesday. I don’t get it. I voted for 8 to 10 guys. There’s this prevailing attitude among many HOF voters that goes something like this: “Well, Player X deserves to get in one day, but not this year.” I’m sorry. Either a player deserves to be enshrined or he doesn’t. Making Andre Dawson, Jim Rice, Orel Hershisher and others wait another two, three or seven years is nonsensical.
4: The most amusing thing about the Ilya Kovalchuk-Sidney Crosby tiff was Kovalchuk suddenly casting himself as the wise, sage and disciplined veteran. Nothing against Ilya, who is maturing nicely. But he wrote the book on dumb things to say and do as a cocky 18-year-old rookie.
3: From Hall of Fame to Hall of Shame: Marcus Vick, Maurice Clarett, Lawrence Phillips … what a team we could build for the big game against the Guards.
2: The Georgia Force keeps sending me e-mails with practice updates. Who’s the Georgia Force?
1: Jim Mora: $25,000 for talking on a cellphone. Sean Taylor: $17,000 for spitting on a player. Welcome to the NFL.
Permalink | Comments (55) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Quick Hit
