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Thursday, August 17, 2006
Andrade third after quick turnaround
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Medinah, Ill. — Once in awhile, an alternate will win a tournament on the golf tour. But rarely. An alternate is a player who makes the field only when one of the other players develops a crick in his back or there’s a baby on the way. And when one does, all thoughts flash back to John Daly, who arose from the ashes of ninth alternate and won the PGA Championship at Crooked Stick in 1991.
(Get this, though. Since then, Daly has made only three cuts in the PGA Championship and never come close again.)
So Billy Andrade’s week started like this: Monday, the kids started school. (He was seventh alternate for the PGA Championship at Medinah.) Tuesday, he and his wife Jody went to a matinee. (When they went in to watch “You, Me and Dupree” he was third alternate.)
“When I came out, I had a call. I was in the tournament. Go see [‘You, Me and Dupree’], something good may happen to you.”
He drove over to Capital City Club, played 18 holes by himself and shot a 61, best round of his life at the Brookhaven course.
“I’m ready,” he said.
Caught a plane to Chicago at 8 o’clock Wednesday, got here at 11, went out to Medinah, had lunch and played a leisurely nine holes, by himself. “Then I went to dinner at Maggiano’s, by myself. Got up at 4:30 a.m., came out to the course, warmed up and took the shuttle out to the 10th hole and teed off at 7:30.”
He was paired with two former PGA champions, Rich Beem and David Toms, filling the hole left by another, Steve Elkington, who has a habit of making sudden withdrawals. This is not a forgiving golf course, Medinah No. 3, where Cary Middlecoff won the U.S. Open in 1949, Lou Graham won it in 1975 and Hale Irwin in 1990, and Tiger Woods won the PGA in 1999, but this a different golf course now. It was originally laid out, which is basically what they did in those days, by Tom Bendelow, who did the same at East Lake. But four years ago, Rees Jones, sometimes known as the “Great Course Rejuvenator,” was commissioned to apply his magic to No. 3.
“I played here in 1999, but it was a quick two [rounds] and out,” Andrade said. “I played horrible, so I don’t remember much about the course. So I kept asking marshals and officials, ‘Gee, isn’t this different?’ I’d say, ‘I don’t remember this,’ ” and came to find out it was all different, but they did a wonderful job. Hey, if they called me in the morning and say you want to play, I’d be there in the afternoon. It’s very exciting when you get in. It’s a bonus. But if it doesn’t happen, I’m going to have a wonderful week at home with my family.”
Billy birdied the second and third holes, the fifth, the 13th and 14th and parred in for a soothing 67, leader at the time, later surpassed by another onslaught of the South by Lucas Glover. All of this taking some of the electrical charge out of the pairing of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who, in case you weren’t caught up by it all, slipped home with equalling 69s.
There’s hardly anything in life to which the Andrades can’t find a way to contribute, Jody as a community participant, and Billy, with his friend Brad Faxon, in the Rhode Island CVS Charity Classic, for which they have been cited by the Golf Writers Association. Friends of the tour come to play, and over the years this event has raised over $5 million for their children’s fund.
I can hardly let this day go by without referring to something has hung heavily over the heads of us in this huge communications center and in the players’ headquarters. This morning, Heather Clarke, wife of Darren Clarke, was laid to rest at Portrush in Northern Ireland. She died of cancer, leaving Darren with two sons, 8 and 5. It was the crushing conclusion to a long period of anguish, one that left a pall of gloom over not just our European friends, but all of us here.
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Holyfield, legacy take a step down
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Dallas — Having been there for the upset of Mike Tyson, the “Real Meal” rematch, a “Fan Man’s” descent into an outdoor ring, a title loss that led to emergency room chaos and a misdiagnosed heart ailment and endless themes of “It’s over,” exceeded only by “It’s not over,” I figured I had seen it all in Evander Holyfield’s career.
Then on Thursday, Jeremy Bates handed me his business card: “J.W. Potts Insurance. Jeremy Bates, Agent.”
“I saw Evander’s house on ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ or something like that,” said Bates, Exhibit A of Andy Warhol’s 15 minutes theory. “Maybe I can land that one. That premium would be pretty good.”
The way Bates figures it, he’s taking a financial loss to become “a footnote” in Holyfield’s career. He’ll make $20,000 Friday night — far less after training and incidental expenses — as Holyfield’s hand-picked comeback meat when the two meet at American Airlines Center. Bates figures he could’ve made more selling insurance if he hadn’t taken two months off to train.
“But I told the guy I’d fight for half that,” he said. “I want to go to war one more time with my childhood idol.”
Figures Bates would take a discount. Everything else is marked down. Holyfield, who is promoting the fight, will be fortunate to make $500,000, his lowest take since fighting Michael Dokes 18 years ago. Tickets are modestly priced. The fight is mostly viewed as an unfortunate extension of Holyfield’s career.
He is fighting for the first time in 21 months. He has lost three straight bouts. The last win: four years ago, following two accidental head-butts that inflated Hasim Rahman’s forehead. It has been six years since he won a title bout (John Ruiz I), and nine since he looked impressive doing so (Michael Moorer II).
But this “final chapter” (his words) of Holyfield’s career is important enough to the 43-year-old that his entire family will be in attendance. That means 11 children and his wife, Candi.
They’ll watch. Others will cover their eyes.
“This is something nobody wants to see,” said Emanuel Steward, one of Holyfield’s former trainers. “What does it lead to?”
Steward trained Holyfield for his 1993 title rematch upset of Riddick Bowe. “Then he had the two wins over Tyson, and he was on top of the world,” Steward said. “I said at the time, ‘He can’t go any higher than this. He can only go down.’ That’s what’s happened. I really hate to see this.”
Steward believes Holyfield’s ability to operate with blinders on, a strength in the past, is now his weakness. “He never accepted anything people said after he took a terrible beating the first time against Bowe. He put it out of his mind. That’s what made him great. But if you can’t control that, it will destroy you. Great athletes sometimes are in denial. That can be good. But there are times when the body doesn’t agree with anything.”
Holyfield’s body looks fits as always, even at a relatively heavy 220. He says shoulder problems that have plagued him for six years are gone. Not that it should make a difference against Bates.
This isn’t supposed to be a fight. It’s supposed to be a setup. Bates has never been closer to the spotlight than Wheeling. He’s 21-11-1. That’s a suspicious record even before you break down the résumé.
Consider Bates’ 21 victories: Only six came over opponents with winning records (even at that, only 69-50-1 combined). Eight came over creatures who hadn’t won a fight (and for all we know, still haven’t). The composite record of his 21 victims: 135-200-1. Bates said he retired at the end of 2005 to start selling insurance. But fought in April (a loss) only because, “I really needed the money.”
Holyfield knows dropping Bates won’t prove a lot, even in the lightly regarded heavyweight division. But he needed a beatable opponent who would come at him — and possibly walk into what remains of his left hook.
“I had to put all my pride aside and say to myself, ‘I need to fight somebody different,’?” he said. “This isn’t like when I was heavyweight champion, and they put me in against the toughest guy they could find. If this is the last chapter of my book, I’m going to have to go down and build this back up.”
The question is how far he can separate himself from the bottom.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Jeff Schultz
African-Americans haven’t abandoned baseball
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
For the next three days, the biggest lie in the history of sports will be exposed with a bunch of swinging, throwing, fielding, sliding and running at Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston. More than 100 high school baseball prospects, mostly from the South, will flash their considerable skills on campus, and here’s the thing: The prospects will be darker than the ball.
So much for the first part of the Big Lie, and that is, African-Americans are so enthralled with the likes of LeBron James and Michael Vick that they’ve forgotten the legacy of Jackie Robinson. Contrary to the belief of many and to the wishes of some, the reason the number of African-Americans on rosters in the majors has dwindled to less than 10 percent isn’t because they’ve stopped playing.
They’re still playing. They were playing 24 years ago when I wrote a weeklong series for the San Francisco Examiner on the drop of African-Americans in the game back then from 24 percent during the early 1970s to 18 percent. Those from Marvin Miller, the former head of the Players Association, to Bill White, the future president of the National League, said there was talk of a quota system in the game to limit the number of African-Americans on the field. I also discovered that the computerized free-agent reports used by the Major League Scouting Bureau at the time had a slot for race. Neither the NFL, NBA nor NHL had anything similar.
When I contacted former commissioner Bowie Kuhn about the practice that Miller, White and others said could be construed as a way to run a quota system, Kuhn said he was stunned. He issued a memo ordering team officials to keep slots for race off scouting forms.
“They [baseball officials] knew what they were doing at the time by putting race on those forms, and that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing now to highlight that there are a lot of good kids playing who are African-American, and they just need a chance,” said Roger Cador on Thursday. He’s the splendid baseball coach at Southern University, and he is part of an Atlanta group called Mentoring Viable Prospects. It’s a group that spent last autumn brainstorming this weekend’s MVP Showcase into existence.
In addition to Cador, the group includes Milt Sanders, a local businessman who first proposed the tournament, and Greg Goodwin, the assistant principal at Redan High School. “We’ve never been under the impression that baseball is dying out in the African-American community, because we’ve seen the Little Leagues at Gresham Park and at Wade Walker Park and at Brownsmill Park and at Old National just filled with kids playing,” said Goodwin, who also coached Redan’s baseball team that had 16 players sign pro contracts, including Brandon Phillips, the second baseman for the Cincinnati Reds.
Then there is Cador, in his 28th year coaching at Southern University, where one of his proteges was Rickie Weeks, the Milwaukee Brewers second baseman who was voted the top amateur athlete in the country during his Jaguar days. “I’m telling you that, right now at Southern, we have a minimum of 10 players who really can play,” said Cador, bringing us to the second part of the Big Lie. That is, officials in the majors just don’t know where to look for African-American players.
See Phillips. See Weeks. Mostly see this weekend’s collection of African-American talent, with a heavy emphasis on those from Georgia and Florida. According to Goodwin, college coaches will attend the tournament for recruiting purposes, and he said that, after he contacted all 30 teams in the majors, 14 said they were sending scouts, including the Braves.
Not only that, Danny Montgomery, the assistant scouting director of the Colorado Rockies, spoke with passion this week during a scouting directors convention in Las Vegas about the importance of attending the MVP Showcase. “There will be some first-round draft picks there, and [my peers] could hear the passion in my voice,” said Montgomery, an African-American, in his 18th year in scouting. “I told them, ‘If you think black kids aren’t playing, then you’re going to come and see six teams [featuring those prospects] absolutely full of them.’ They were very receptive to what I had to say.”
Montgomery added that there was even discussion at the convention about whether to resume the practice of putting a slot for race on scouting forms. This time, he said they want to make sure the number of African-American players in the game is going up instead of down.
Said Montgomery, “No question that from what I saw this week, [baseball officials] don’t want to put a Band-Aid on the problem anymore. They truly want to heal the wound.”
Yeah, well.
We’ll see.
Permalink | Comments (70) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Fail-safe predictions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Time to put some numbers on the ol’ season. I see the Falcons going 11-5. (Yes, the Falcons.) I’m not entirely sold on Carolina, and I’m really not sold on Tampa Bay. I think the local team can win the NFC South or, failing that, grab a wild card with room to spare. I don’t think this is quite a Super Bowl team, but I think it can win a playoff game or two.
I think the defense will be really good again. I think Michael Vick will never quite re-invent the sport but will continue to do as he has done fairly consistently — keep putting his team in position to win. I think Greg Knapp will call better plays. (If not, I think Greg Knapp will be calling plays elsewhere next season.) I think the bounces that went against the Falcons last year will go their way this fall.
And, just to cram all the numerical prognostications into one convenient cubbyhole, I think — and have written already — that both Georgia and Tech will go 9-3. Georgia will lose to South Carolina, Florida and Tech. Tech will beat both Notre Dame and Georgia but, being Tech, will still contrive to find three losses along the way.
I can’t imagine anyone out there will disagree with any part of this cutting insight.
Permalink | Comments (65) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
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