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Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Death of young athletes shocking
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
You didn’t know them. Now everybody does. During the time it took for a bus to flip over a concrete barricade, tumble 30 feet and crash sideways onto an Atlanta expressway, Tyler Williams, David Betts, Scott Harmon and Cody Holp entered our consciousness. They were The Baseball Players who perished on Friday, along with the driver and his wife.
No disrespect to the driver and his wife, but it is The Baseball Players who make us ache the most.
They were so young, so innocent, so vibrant in our minds. Mostly, they were athletes.
There is something about the tragic death of those who play and coach games that make the inexplicably horrible even more difficult to take.
“When it comes to a lot of folks who follow sports, I guess athletes are the equivalent to the gladiators that they had back in the old days, where, for a lot of people, athletes are heroes in their own way,” said Dr. Patrick J. Devine, a professor at Kennesaw State University, after spending much of the 1980s as the Braves’ sports psychologist. “People have a tendency to look up to [athletes], because they are supposed to be the most physically fit, and you expect them to have good self-control and great discipline. Plus, they generally are on the way up, not down. Then, suddenly, they’re gone, and that adds to the sense of an awful loss.”
The famous or the obscure. It doesn’t matter. When we heard last summer about those high school deaths of a football player from Rockdale County and a cross country runner from Mundy’s Mill, the news stung nearly as much as discovering that Payne Stewart was among the ghostly passengers on a Learjet drifting aimlessly through the sky after a loss in cabin pressure.
Speaking of the obscure, you probably never heard of Damien Nash. Well, not until a few days ago. Soon after he dribbled in a basketball game, he collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack before his wife and 7-month-old daughter.
He was 24. That made it tough for the senses to comprehend. He also was a backup running back for the Denver Broncos. That made it tougher, especially since this was less than two months after teammate Darrent Williams was killed in a random drive-by shooting. He also was 24. The Baseball Players weren’t even that old.
“In the case of that bus accident, you realize that, not only were they just kids, but while coming up in a Mennonite community, you know they were hard-working, and they were pretty straight-laced,” Devine said.
“They weren’t drinking on the bus. We know that. They had this thriving vitality, and you just say to yourself that this was about the last way you could take them out.”
Yes, indeed. There was Reggie White stunning reality by passing away the day after Christmas from a sleep disorder. One moment, Len Bias was slated to become the next Bill Russell, John Havlicek and Larry Bird for the Boston Celtics. The next, Bias was slam-dunked out of life by a nasty snort of cocaine.
Prior to Sept. 11, there was Sept. 6. We’re talking about 1972, when 11 Israeli athletes were murdered during the Summer Olympics.
All of that said, troubled aircrafts have been the most common link between sports, catastrophe and public mourning. Long before Stewart, there was Knute Rockne never reaching California on a trip from Florida after his plane crashed into a Kansas cornfield. Roberto Clemente and Thurman Munson also had fatal flights, and so did a football team from Marshall and a basketball team from Evansville.
Nobody put sports deaths in better perspective than Tommy Lasorda, the former Los Angeles Dodgers manager and occasional theologian. While giving a eulogy 14 years ago after two Cleveland Indians pitchers died in a boating accident during spring training, Lasorda said the question shouldn’t be “why?” in these situations. The question should be “What?” as in what do you believe.
Among other things, you should believe that athletes and other sports personalities are only human.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Falcons / NFL, High School, Terence Moore
Waiting for answers to Braves’ questions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
‘Tis that time of the year when the flame of hope burns high in the breast of the baseball hopeful. And sometimes for aging stars who may be running low on the same. Also in the hearts of crosscheckers and scouts who look out across the field, fearing for the fate of one so prized they would stake their careers on him. It may not have occurred to you that how you played has no bearing at all on your status as a pursuer of talent.
What occurs to me is that this is not your usual spring training for the Braves. They are charged with having to rebuild on their first losing season since 1990. They must restructure the right side of their infield with Adam LaRoche and Marcus Giles gone. That means there are 43 home runs and 150 RBIs to be replaced. Not like pulling rabbits out of a hat. As they went into rehearsal, the two jobs had been handed over to a first baseman who’d had been to bat 128 times in the major league, the Canadian Scott Thorman; and second base had been reserved for Kelly Johnson, who’d come up as a shortstop, moved to the outfield, and now, after a season spent in surgery, would replace the pugnacious Giles.
Of course, it could be an all-Canadian side, should Johnson fail. Pete Orr, who comes from Ontario, might move in at second, though Orr’s value has been coming off the bench, a .300 hitter two seasons ago.
On the left side, there is age to be dealt with, not that Chipper Jones and Edgar Renteria are ready for the boneyard. Jones will be 35 in April, but a chipper one only when his underpinning is firm. Renteria is sound, not the flashy Rafael Furcal type. He’ll hit a few home runs and drive in a decent number for a shortstop, but the better part is that he made only 13 errors last season. He had made 30 with the Red Sox and was grateful to find refuge from the booing. Harsh, demanding fans, those Beantowners.
After seasons of dealing with gypsy mercenaries to complete the outfield — Gary Sheffield, J.D. Drew come to mind — they are now dealing in homebodies, Andruw Jones and Jeff Francoeur. (And speaking of millionaires, wait’ll Jeff comes to bat at the bargaining table next year.) If Matt Diaz played Ryan Langerhans’ kind of defense, and if Langerhans swung Diaz’s kind of bat, the Braves would have the perfect left fielder. Oddly, though, last season the left-handed Langerhans hit .308 against left-handed pitching, the right-handed Diaz .295. Who knows? If things don’t work out at first base for Thorman, he might find himself in left field. But then who would play first?
Glad you brought that up. A year ago James Jurries arrived in camp full of promise. He’d hit .284 with a generous sprinkling of 21 home runs at Richmond. No threat to Adam LaRoche, still a study on defense, but a right-handed batter. Then he dropped out of sight, and his average plunged to .205 at Richmond, and pffffft! He’s back this spring, still swinging the bat, but no threat, from what I see.
You’ll notice that pitching has not been mentioned, and that’s because only the brave broach that subject. We have already spoken on the displeasure of sending LaRoche away for another bullpen body, Mike Gonzales. Makes no difference how strong your bullpen is if the closers have no lead to close on. John Smoltz, Tim Hudson, Chuck James, Mike Hampton and Kyle Davies make a comforting sound for starters, but there are ticklish doubts there. Hudson has to become the pitcher he was in Oakland, and from what I read, the news coming out of Disney World about Hampton gives you the shingles.
He hasn’t thrown a business pitch in nearly two years. The Braves have a big paycheck on their hands and Hampton has a long way to go, the way it seems. Actually, this team is well stocked in pitchers with possibilities, a corps of setup guys, but only two left-handers who might start, Macay McBride, who’d love it, and Gonzales, whose future is invested in the bullpen. There’s a lot to be threshed out at Lake Buena Vista, and I can’t wait to see it live.
Permalink | Comments (20) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
The Tuesday Countdown
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
10: Don’t know how the Falcons’ next season will play out. But I have pretty good feeling about Seattle’s. Just wondering how it’s going to go over in Flowery Branch when Patrick Kerney and Jim Mora are in the Super Bowl.
9: The NFC lacks a dominant team. The chance of Chicago going 13-3 again - and getting home field advantage through the playoffs - seems remote. Seattle is a talented team that just filled a huge need with Kerney and will be motivated coming off a sub-par season. As long as Mora can make it through the season without talking about the Washington job, the Seahawks should be fine.
8: Happened to be talking Tuesday morning to John Schuerholz (ranked 42nd by Forbes among pro sports general managers) when he checked his Blackberry and noticed an e-mail from Don Waddell (ranked sixth). “Stan [Kasten] hired both of us, so I guess he made one good decision.”
7: Seriously, this is not meant as a slap at Waddell, whose trade deadline moves (Alexei Zhitnik, Keith Tkachuk, Pascal Dupuis, Eric Belanger) make the Thrashers a legit Stanley Cup contender. But what possible reasonable, sensible, logical set of criteria could Forbes have been using that would rank the Thrashers’ GM No. 6 out of 98 and Schuerholz 42nd? Now Billy Knight at 75 - at least we’re moving in the right direction.
6: You may have noticed that we here at ajc.com are running a poll ranking the local four GMs. As of this morning, 17 out of 1,403 respondents put Billy Knight first. Please, if any of you “17” are out there, I want to hear from you. That includes you, Billy. (By the way, Billy, you can only vote once an hour.)
5: So if you’re Evander Holyfield, are you really upset that you have been linked to a steroid/HGH investigation, or are you just happy that somebody is talking about you again?
4: So I used to think, “Ann Coulter - she’s psycho, but she’s hot.” Now, I’m thinking, “Fatal Attraction. Dead bunny in the pot. Don’t even think about it.”
3: Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — This is my last day at the “Happiest Place on Earth,” which retains its title despite the fact I have been sharing a house with David O’Brien and his cat, Coltrane. For anybody wishing to sublet my room, please send an e-mail. Also, upon arrival at our Kissimmee abode, please take Coltrane out of the dryer and tell David that you have no idea how he got there.
2: I know Bobby Cox is trying to back off the retirement projections now. But this is a man who doesn’t like to be the story and certainly doesn’t want to be a distraction to his players. Trust me on this: When Cox starts waxing on about farming, grandchildren and taking vacations in Maine and Prague, he’s gone.
1: Terry Pendleton, your table is waiting.
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