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Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Will Vanderbilt take donations at gate?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH: Vanderbilt? Fined $25,000 because students stormed the floor after the Commodores beat Florida, No. 1 in NCAA basketball at the time? Grounds for exuberance, wouldn’t you say, and by the most intelligent student body in the SEC? What about those celebrants who storm the field and rip down goalposts after their team has won a big one? Are they fined $25,000? … And whatever became of Randy Johnson, the Falcons’ first quarterback?
• Offhand, wouldn’t you have to say that Troy Smith’s shabby performance in the BCS Championship Bowl diminishes the status of the Heisman Trophy? Thirty-five yards on offense for the player voted best in the nation? There is no Best Player in the Nation, there are several of them, and Smith isn’t the first Heisman winner to fall on his face. But the ballyhoo will go on.
• Dan Magill, who has been watching tennis players since racquet frames were wooden, says the hardest serve he has ever seen may now be found at Georgia, delivered by John Isner, a Bulldogs senior. Makes it seems as if he’s serving from a podium. He’s 6 feet, 9 inches tall. (And, he’s a journalism major.)
• Mark Wilson is a man of his word. The PGA Tour player promised a percentage of his earnings to the Midwestern Athletes Against Childhood Cancer Fund, and he delivered $30,000. Not that he had a lot to spare. The Wisconsite earned $444,318, but he’ll have to go back to qualifying school.
• Television golf isn’t off to a roaring start this year, even when it switches from the Golf Channel to one of the networks. During the third round of the AT&T at Pebble Beach, in which those showpersons were still playing, the rookie John Mallinger was hanging in second place — at one time holding the lead — but CBS never showed him hitting a shot. Lots of George Lopez, Ray Romano, some guy named Kevin James, and a goofball named Danny Gans, but never a shot of the guy in Phil Mickelson’s shadow. Worst day of golf TV ever to pass before my eyes.
• Russell Baze has won more races than any jockey in the USA, passed Laffit Pincay Jr. awhile back, and Shoemaker and Longden and all the rest. But his fame is limited, for Baze hardly ever rides east of the Rockies. He’s a West Coast guy who rarely ever rode in Triple Crown races. He had his territory, and he stuck to it.
• Bobby Ross’ unexpected retirement from West Point football is one of the saddest stories of the year. He hadn’t been interested when the offer first came up, he said, “My wife changed my mind. She said she thought it was duty to my country.” The Rosses have been busy in the military for years, beginning with Bobby’s playing career at Virginia Military. Four years at Army was enough to convince him of the futility of it.
• Longest hole-in-one in golf has been stretched out, and confirmed. A college student in Hawaii, Brett Nelson, knocked it in from 448 yards on a course named Ko’olow on the Big Island. Must have been downhill, or on a paved fairway. A baseball pitcher named Lou Kretlow once nailed one from 427 yards, on a course suffering from a drought.
• For Pete’s sake, are you getting as tired of this annual Roger Clemens Name-Your Team Derby as I am?
• It happened that the day our astronauts first landed on the moon, Pat Jarvis pitched the only shutout of his career, and one of his Braves teammates was moved to say, “I always said the day Pat Jarvis pitched a major league shutout, man would walk on the moon.” … Selah.
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Johnson has his second thoughts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — Kelly Johnson doesn’t feel like a second baseman. “Not yet,” he said. “I don’t think I can stake that claim until I get a few games in.”
To recap: Drafted as a shortstop in 2000, Johnson was moved to the outfield in the minor leagues; he arrived in the majors in 2005 as a left fielder; he missed nearly all of last season after surgery on his right elbow, and now he’s considered the front-runner to become the Braves’ everyday second baseman. That’s a heap of upheaval in a ridiculously short time, and occasionally Johnson feels dizzy from the motion.
Over the winter, he worked with coach Glenn Hubbard, once a second baseman of distinction himself, and Johnson would often feel he was turning double plays with all the grace of Herman Munster. So Hubbard would roll tape of Marcus Giles, whose departure created the positional void, working with shortstop Edgar Renteria. Said Johnson: “Every time I’d do something, it wouldn’t look good. I’d feel shaky. And then I’d watch the tape and see I didn’t have to be perfect.”
Most professional athletes have an arrogance about themselves and their physical capabilities. (“Beat Dwyane Wade in H-O-R-S-E? Sure, I can do that.”) Johnson is more circumspect, more given to doubt. The Braves feel strongly that he can make the switch. “If I brought a scout in here right now, he’d say, ‘He looks like a second baseman,’ ” Hubbard said, “and gradually the man himself is coming to share that conviction.
“I’ve always thought second base would be a good position for me,” said Johnson, who last manned the spot as a high school freshman. “Sometimes I’d wonder in the back of my head if I should have made the change [to second] in the first place.”
He’s there now, and moments of disorientation are sure to come. “The thing between the shortstop and the second baseman, who’s going to cover the bag on a steal, I know there’s going to be times the shortstop will say, ‘Hey, hey! Pay attention!’ ”
And he realizes taking grounders from Hubbard isn’t the same as fielding balls launched by big-league hitters. “I’m ready for games to start, so it’s not just punters and kickers down here.”
The first full-squad workout is Wednesday.
Manager Bobby Cox has seen enough of Johnson to think he can handle second base — “When you’ve played shortstop, you can move to or from any position” — but not enough to hand him the job. “He’s got to earn it. [Martin] Prado is in there, too, and nobody ever talks about Peter Orr.”
From an organizational standpoint, the Braves would prefer Johnson because he represents the best offensive option. “He was our top hitting prospect,” Cox said. “He takes a walk, he’s got power, and he can run. He’s too good a hitter not to be playing.”
And if Johnson can handle second base, he’d also fill the hole atop the batting order. Cox again: “If he would be the guy to win the job, he would lead off.”
In sum, there’s much at stake for Johnson and his team this spring. His rehabbed arm is coming along nicely, although there are some throws he hasn’t yet tried. He’s trying not to feel like a novice, even though he’s fully aware that’s what he is.
“Some guys, it doesn’t matter where you put them,” said Johnson, who turns 25 on Thursday. “Like [the Angels’] Chone Figgins. They’re freak athletes. But for the average person, [changing positions] is harder than people think.”
That said, he believes his winter’s work has prepared him. “I probably feel more comfortable than I did [playing left field] my first year in the big leagues. Maybe it was because guys were bigger and stronger and hitting the ball a lot harder, but I lost confidence that year.”
He needs not lose any now. The Braves need Johnson to fill the vacancy opened when Giles was allowed to leave. They need him to make them look smart.
They need him to believe in himself the way they believe in him.
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A bunch of trouble for Brady
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
THE TUESDAY COUNTDOWN…
10: I’ve had a million conversations with Evander Holyfield - in gyms, hotel rooms, at his kitchen table. The conversations often turn to kids, and sometimes his past problems with infidelity. Because of his very public religious beliefs, some perceive him as a fraud. Fact is, he’s anything but a fraud. He’s merely flawed — like the rest of us. Which gets back to what Holyfield would always say about having so many kids out of wedlock: “I’ve made mistakes. I never told anybody I was perfect. I’m just a man.”
9: Tom Brady: Welcome to the Just A Flawed Man Club.
8: When Brady’s former girlfriend, Bridget Moynahan, announced she was with child, Mr. Perfect was at a fashion show in France on the arm of Victoria’s Secret boom boom girl Gisele Bundchen. Brady’s fans are putting this one on her because that’s what fans do. But if he doesn’t take a significant public hit for this, something’s wrong. And, yes, I’ll play the race card: To what extent does being white and Mr. Apple pie allow him to skate publicly?
7: Jonathan Babineaux got mad at his dog. Turns out Babineaux smelled a dark particulate behind a trap door in the dog’s water bowl.
6: On a related note, a TV station reports the dog is dead, thereby opening a roster spot on the offensive line.
5: If the Falcons let Patrick Kerney get away, a locker room that already woefully lacks leadership will get even worse.
4: I understand the general safety concerns, but the SEC’s decision to fine Vanderbilt $25,000 for not better preventing fans from storming the court in celebration following a win over Florida seems excessive. First of all, it’s a celebration - college sports at its best. Secondly - it’s Vanderbilt!
3: Prediction: The Thrashers will make the playoffs even if Don Waddell doesn’t make a trade. They just won’t do anything when they get there.
2: The Hawks will have a salute to “Bald Guyz” at their game Wednesday night (and no, wiseguy, I wasn’t invited). A press release refers to it as a “record-setting event,” which begs the question: If a Wednesday night Hawks game can draw that many bald guys, why can’t the team have a salute to point guards? Or centers? Or general managers?
1: I know Britney Spears has lost it, but did she have to shave her head just to go to a Hawks game?
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