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Sunday, April 1, 2007
Tough to judge this book by its cover
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
If you want to know about the past, you’ll find it on banners in the outfield. Otherwise, the Braves are pretty much devoid of reminders. We are now like old men sitting on the porch, complaining about the cost of a bowl of soup and the fact that nobody has ever really replaced Mark Lemke.
The media guide cover? It depicts two kids. Brian McCann and Jeff Francoeur are less than two years removed from being a major league novelty and their first legal beer.
The roster has only two leftovers from the 1995 World Series team, one (John Smoltz) possibly gone after this season and the other (Chipper Jones) possibly soon to follow, assuming his body parts hold together. The only other reminder in the dugout from even a pennant team is Andruw Jones, and this season amounts to a farewell tour.
These are the Braves today. They have talent. They have youth. They have a bullpen (we think).
What they don’t have is much of a résumé. They’re a blank page. Maybe they go back to the playoffs. Maybe, as Chipper Jones said, “Just because we lost last season doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten how to finish first.”
But this is what we don’t say: “The Braves? They’ll figure out a way. They always do.” Because last season, for the first time since we finally got over the Nick Esasky hangover, they didn’t.
Bobby Cox, the Braves manager, generally gives his players the same speech every spring training. In so many words, it’s, “We’re here to win a championship.” This year, he tweaked it slightly.
“I just told them a lot of good things happened last year,” he said. “Losing sucks and all that. But it happened, and I told them why it happened. We had a good team. We had one soft area, and that was it. I thought last year’s team worked harder than any team we ever had. We had a lot of great things that happened. But when you blow 30 games in the bullpen — it doesn’t mean we had a bad team.”
No, the Braves aren’t a bad team.
We just can’t be sure how good they are.
General manager John Schuerholz certainly strengthened the bullpen with the additions of Mike Gonzalez and Rafael Soriano. Losing the division, Schuerholz said, created “an intensity and a focus in our meetings even sharper than most offseasons. And once we made the deals for the bullpen, the countenance and the spirit of our team changed.”
That said, it would be overly simplistic to conclude all is well. There are too many issues.
The entire right side of the infield, Kelly Johnson and Scott Thorman, is untested. Johnson also is hitting leadoff, which has been a black hole since Rafael Furcal left. Three months from now, we may still be asking, “Who starts in left?”
The starting rotation may be very good. Or not. There was an attempt to bring back Tom Glavine that failed. Smoltz shows no signs of breaking down. But wouldn’t you feel more comfortable if he were the No. 2 starter at almost 40? Tim Hudson, the intended staff ace, has been going the wrong way in his two seasons. Mike Hampton is coming off major surgery and injured himself taking batting practice. Chuck James — suddenly he’s No. 3 as a sophomore.
How many games does Chipper miss? How will the distraction of impending free agency affect Andruw?
The Braves are a team devoid of assumptions.
“We had less question marks last year at the beginning of the year, but there’s more upside this year,” Smoltz said.
He will tell you that, despite failing to win the division, the start of this season didn’t feel different. Failure is failure, whether it’s losing in the playoffs or not getting there at all.
“When I sit and watch other teams play,” Smoltz said, “that’s about the worst feeling for me, whether it’s Oct. 1, Oct. 18 or Oct. 20. It all feels the same. It infuriates me, and that’s a feeling that I hope carries over to 25 players.” Better? Maybe.
Different? Certainly.
If you want comfort, you’re in the wrong era.
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The year in review - in preview
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
This is the year we learn if last season was the raging exception or the new rule.
This is the year we discover if the Braves can seize on the benefit of the doubt they’d accrued in finishing first 14 times running.
This is the year we find out if it’s better to have a bullpen than a rotation.
This is the year we see if Marcus Giles was as indispensable as the fans thought or as overrated as the Braves believed.
This is the year Bobby Cox says will be his next-to-last, and if you don’t think that’s cause for concern, you know nothing about baseball and shouldn’t even be reading this.
This is the year Chipper Jones will be lucky to play 110 games.
This is the year Mike Hampton needs to earn at least one-quarter of his massive salary.
This is the year the Braves get a new PA voice, and to that we can only say, “Now that’s HOT!”
This is the year the Braves get a whole new broadcast operation, and to that we can only say, “So what was bad about just having Skip and Pete and Don and Joe?”
This is the year Kelly Johnson proves he can play second base. Or doesn’t.
This is the year — actually, it’s another in a series — when the Braves really need a quality backup for their third baseman. And Wilson Betemit’s gone.
This is the year Ryan Langerhans proves he’s more than just a fourth outfielder. Or doesn’t.
This is the last year we’ll see Andruw Jones in a Braves uniform. Enjoy it while you can.
This is the year Liberty Media gets a big, fat tax writeoff. Bully for LM.
This is the year the Mets are defending NL East champs, and how strange that sounds.
This is the year Tom Glavine wins his 300th game for somebody else. Rats.
This is the year Chuck James becomes either the next Tom Glavine or the next Damian Moss.
This is an awfully big year for Roger McDowell.
This is an even bigger year for Terry Pendleton, who’s suddenly auditioning for Cox’s job.
This could be the biggest year of all for John Schuerholz, who has to be asking himself: “Do I really want to go on doing this without the best manager in baseball to handle my personnel?”
This is the year the jostling for Schuerholz’s job, which has been ongoing for the past decade, gets really serious.
This is the year Scott Thorman hustles more conspicuously than Adam LaRoche but accomplishes significantly less.
This is the year Jeff Francoeur learns the strike zone. Or doesn’t.
This is the year Brian McCann proves he’s worth the Braves’ long-term investment.
This is the year Jarrod Saltalamacchia learns a new position in the minor leagues.
This is the year John Smoltz hits the big 4-0.
This is the year Tim Hudson either turns it around or pitches himself off the roster.
This is the year the Braves have three closers but no proven big-leaguer on the right side of the infield. This is the year — actually, it’s another in a series — when Edgar Renteria gets his hits and plays a highly professional shortstop.
This is the year Kyle Davies finds a place in the rotation or an apartment back in Richmond.
This is the year Cox achieves immortality by breaking John McGraw’s record for career ejections. No word on whether Bud Selig plans to be on hand to witness the gala event.
This is the year — the second in a row, to be precise — the Braves finish third in the East.
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Storylines and a prediction
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
There’s one dance to go, two if you count the one Joakim Noah figures to perform after Florida has taken its second consecutive national championship.
(For a look at the last dance Noah unveiled in the Georgia Dome, check out YouTube.) There’s one dance to go, and here’s how it will look and sound.
Team of destiny vs. team for the ages
Ohio State is the former, having rallied from 11 points down to beat Xavier and from 20 behind to beat Tennessee. Florida, duh, is the latter. Florida is the team that never sticks together in neo-basketball, but somehow this one did, retaining all its starters despite ample reasons for at least three of them to bolt for the NBA.
Asked how long it will be before we see such a thing happen again, Thad Matta, the Ohio State coach who has freshmen Mike Conley Jr. and Greg Oden at his disposal for at least one more game, said: “I hope next year.”
Burning questions (and really hot answers)
• Can Ohio State play the zone defense that frazzled Georgetown and still defuse Lee Humphrey? (Probably not.)
• Can Greg Oden (right) get in foul trouble yet again and expect his team to win yet again? (Nope.)
• So: Can Oden stay out of foul trouble? (Nope.)
• With history waiting to be written, can Florida focus, as Billy Donovan keeps saying, on the process and not the outcome? (Probably. The Gators have gotten this far, haven’t they?)
• Is Billy Donovan going to Kentucky? (Nope, but folks in the Bluegrass State will tell you the introductory news conference is set for Wednesday.)
Overrated, yet also underrated
• Corey Brewer, Florida: His man-to-man defending has slipped a bit — the belief is that he’s looking more for steals than stops — but his offense has improved exponentially. He kept the Gators afloat early against UCLA with his 3-point shooting and lane-slashing, and he remains the single best Florida player.
A fun thing to do: Watch Brewer stand next to Joakim Noah, who’s listed as 6-foot-11, and realize that the Gators’ small forward is a legitimate 6-9.
• Greg Oden, Ohio State: He’s not the man-to-man defender he’s believed to be, which is somewhat understandable given that he’s 19 and hasn’t played against many guys half as talented as he is. Georgetown’s Roy Hibbert scored rather easily against Oden on Saturday.
But there’s a flip side: Oden scored on Hibbert, too. Oden has beautiful footwork and fundamentals, and his jump hook — not the sweeping sky hook of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s — is swift and efficient.
Third-most overblown storyline
Ohio State’s Ron Lewis described his team as “great” Sunday. It was then pointed out that he had characterized Florida as merely “good.” Was this a slap at the reigning champ? Said Lewis: “I go bad teams, middle teams and good teams. They’re a good team. If you want a great team, look at the Bulls.” (Presumably he meant the Bulls with Michael Jordan, not the Bulls as coached by Tim Floyd.)
Asked about being merely “good” to Ohio State’s “great,” Noah said: “Oh my God. He said that? He’s a bad person.”
Noah was, it should be noted, kidding.
Said Corey Brewer, the voice of reason: “At least he said we were good. He could have said we were bad.”
Second-most overblown storyline
The game in Gainesville on Dec. 23. Florida won by 26 points. Big deal. It was a set-up game for the Buckeyes, who knew it going in. The Gators, who had already lost to Kansas and Florida State, were out to prove they were still a great (as opposed to good) team, and they did. It was only the Buckeyes’ second road test — the first, also a loss, was in Chapel Hill — and it was only Greg Oden’s fifth collegiate game after wrist surgery.
“I don’t think December has anything to do with April,” Billy Donovan said. “Greg Oden wasn’t healthy. … He was still shooting free throws left-handed.”
Most overblown storyline
Unless Ted Ginn Jr. runs back the opening kickoff for a touchdown tonight and then sprains his ankle in the celebration, the basketball game will in no way mirror what happened in Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 8. This is a different sport. These are different players.
Said Joakim Noah: “Revenge is so overrated. Does revenge at this point make you play harder? If it does, you’re playing for the wrong reason. UCLA said things about wanting revenge.” And the Gators just beat the Bruins by 10 points 12 months after beating them by 16.
Key numbers
9.6: The average number of shots taken by Brewer, who leads the Gators in field-goal attempts.
7.3: The average number of shots taken by Noah, fifth among Gators starters in field-goal attempts.
13: The number of turnovers in five NCAA games by Conley, Ohio State’s great freshman point guard.
16: The number of tunovers in five NCAA games by Taurean Green, Florida’s very good junior point guard.
2: The number of shots missed in the NCAA tournament by Chris Richard, Florida’s superb sixth man.
86,334: According to Al Horford, it’s the number of times the Gators have been asked about repeating as champions.
Worst question in Final Four history
On Sunday, someone asked how Ohio State’s backup center got the nickname of Twig. Said Greg Oden, whose deadpan sense of humor is also greatly undervalued: “Because his last name is Terwilliger.”
The bottom line
Ohio State will make the Gators work harder than any team has in this tournament, but Florida will win because Florida never gets rattled, not even on the biggest of stages. Gators 72, Buckeyes 67.
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Streak ended, but East still chasing Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Philadelphia — He’s not backing off, which is fine. I mean, he’s wrong, but that’s not the point. If Jimmy Rollins, the efficient shortstop and undisputed leader of the Philadelphia Phillies, believes his team will take the National League East this season, he has the constitutional right to put his cleats in his mouth.
In fact, Rollins mentioned what he first predicted last month again on Sunday during a players-only meeting at Citizens Bank Park after his team’s workout for its opener today against the Braves.
Said Rollins, nodding in the home clubhouse toward another room, “We got together back there, and the point was that spring training is over. It’s just a matter of us getting our minds right. The work is done. Now it’s putting all of that together and finding a way to win. No matter what it takes. Regardless of who you are. Just find different ways to be special today.”
The Braves are not amused. Said right fielder Jeff Francoeur, speaking for those in the visitors’ clubhouse who wish to stuff the Liberty Bell down Rollins’ throat, “I know his comments motivate the heck out of me. I’ll tell you that. When you start getting guys making predictions like that, it really does get you going, especially after the Mets won it last year, and we won it for 14 seasons before that.”
Consider, too, that the Mets have fossils Tom Glavine and El Duque leading a ghastly collection of starting pitchers. Many of those nice freshmen from last year’s Florida Marlins bunch are likely to become duds as sophomores. The Washington Nationals are the worst team in baseball. That leaves the Phillies, who haven’t won anything in 14 years, and the Braves, who are flashing signs with a rejuvenated bullpen of becoming the Braves again.
This isn’t 1991, when they were a young miracle and oblivious to the word “pressure.” This isn’t 1995, when they clearly had the players to do what they should have done two or three times earlier in the decade, and that is win it all. This isn’t 1996, when they went from defending their world championship to the greatest choke in World Series history. This isn’t 1999, when they won a pennant despite a slew of aches and pains throughout their roster. This isn’t 2005, when 18 rookies somehow gave them a 14th consecutive division title. This isn’t 2006, when their bullpen crashed and burned, along with their record streak for reaching the playoffs.
This is the Braves returning as winners. That’s because they have fewer “ifs” throughout their overall pitching staff than anybody else in the NL East, and because Bobby Cox is baseball’s best manager, and because everybody in the division is still chasing them.
Mentally, if nothing else.
Even Rollins said as much indirectly. This was after he praised his Phillies with an everyday lineup that features rising slugger Ryan Howard, impressive second baseman Chase Utley and Rollins. The Phillies also have decent pitching that nevertheless has significant bullpen issues beyond closer Tom Gordon. Not good. Just ask the Braves, whose NL-high 29 blown saves last season made them less than ordinary.
Anyway, back to Rollins and the mighty psych job that the Braves continue to do on division foes. “Before the Mets knocked them off, the Braves found a way to beat you every year, no matter what changes they made, or who they lost, or who went down during the course of a season,” Rollins said. “They know how to win. Whatever it is, they have that ‘thing.’”
Realizing what he just said (especially since he is suggesting the Phillies have that “thing”), Rollins added in a hurry, “Or I should say the Braves had that ‘thing’ for years.” Then Rollins paused before reflecting more on that ‘thing’ for the Braves. “Something like that just doesn’t go away,” he said. “They had a down year, but now that somebody has knocked them off, you have to expect them to be good.”
Makes sense to me.
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Team of veterans will earn repeat title
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
The designation on my Final Four credential read “MUP,” which stood for “Media Upper.” That meant the football press box at the Georgia Dome. Hot dog, I’d get a view of the Final Four like I was in the Goodyear blimp. Those basketball behemoths would be shrunk to dwarf-size, scurrying about on the distant floor below like figures in a pinball machine.
So, where was I when the buzzer sounded for the start? Imprisoned by my television screen, victim of a back spasm, a situation that did not represent disinterest. We have seen three Final Fours in our town, beginning in 1977, when Marquette upset North Carolina, after which Al McGuire never coached again, took off to another continent, rented a motorcycle and did another one of his spontaneous solo tours.
The coming of the Georgia Dome, and its expanded seating, aroused renewed NCAA interest in Atlanta. If the Final Four of 2002 came off like another downtown convention of chicken-pluckers, this one was like Las Vegas East. Downtown was turned into a roiling outdoor circus. Just as many visitors milled about the streets as found seats inside the Dome. Some people just like to be part of the scene, even though this was a Classic FF, with two No. l and two No. 2 teams on the bill.
It bears repeating, I think, that two of them were lucky to be there. Xavier missed a free throw that would have taken Ohio State out. An official — or three — missed a traveling call that would have eliminated Georgetown. They don’t have a replay rule in college basketball, thank heaven. If they did, games wouldn’t be over until breakfast.
It was destiny at work. History laid its hand on the Hoyas, another John Thompson, another Patrick Ewing, all those parts that reassemble past dramatics. All along, it had appeared to this non-student of the game that Georgetown might be the surprise team of the lot at an early stage, but as it played out Saturday night, this is the Final Two that some mystical force with a sense of history designated. There is powerful evidence berthed in these teams that breeding will out.
Look at ‘em. Joakim Noah, son of Yannick. Mike Conley, son of Mike Sr. Al Horford, son of Tito. Taurean Green, son of Sidney. Jeremiah Rivers, son of Doc. Darren Collison, son of June, and the Ewings and the Thompsons. And in passing, have you noticed how much Thad Matta, the Ohio State coach, resembles Gene Hackman, who played the winning coach in “Hoosiers”?
There is something about Noah that lights up a court — beyond that hairstyle. (Did I hear it referred to as a “pony- tail”? A barber could only handle that bale of hair with a bush-hog.) He draws attention to himself when it isn’t necessary. He attracts enough just naturally. He wears his temper prominently, and at the required interviews after play, comes off with repugnant insolence.
This is a remarkable band of athletes, the five Florida players, four juniors and a senior, who took the pledge to return and defend their championship. They have two long-range gunners, Lee Humphrey and Corey Brewer, but this is not the offense they live by. North Carolina found out how self-destructing that can be when the Tar Heels turned their offense over to the bombers against Georgetown and did nothing but clank the rim.
Fate would designate this one to Ohio State. But there is something about “team” in this game that I have deep respect for. Not being one heavy on basketball history, meaning I have no prognostication license, nevertheless I take my stand. Florida again, with little doubt. And frankly, I have no idea where Billy Donovan will coach next, and care little.
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Anybody doubt Gators now?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Asked yet again about this repeating business, Billy Donovan said Friday: “You’ve got to get to Monday night first.” His Florida Gators are there now, there with the same stubborn players who have pointed toward this Monday night since that Monday night in Indianapolis 12 months ago.
“I think our guys know,” Donovan said Saturday, “if the result [Monday] is for us, what that means.”
The Gators are back in the NCAA final, their long slog toward basketball immortality almost done. They haven’t yet had the Christian Laettner moment that Duke needed to repeat in 1992, haven’t yet run upon an opponent with the skill and the will to make them consider the dark possibility of elimination. Maybe Ohio State will be that test. Then again, maybe these Gators are so good that nobody can graze them.
UCLA was thought to be a severe impediment, the UCLA that Florida had handled easily 12 months ago, the UCLA of razor-wire defense and Howlin’ Ben Howland. But the Bruins, who’d stared down a hugely gifted Kansas team in the West Regional final, were reduced to a series of blinks Saturday night.
Their best player, Arron Afflalo, was whistled for his second foul in the game’s second minute and his third in the ninth. Florida let the Bruins linger for a bit, but soon the Gator lead was 16 points and Howlin’ Ben was calling his last — yes, his last — timeout with 13:49 to go. Once again, Florida had reminded us that it’s nice to be tough, but it’s better still to be tough and talented.
Florida can take a blow and deliver one. Florida can win with its big men playing big or its little men punching above their weight. Should the Gators prevail Monday, they’ll be ushered into Hoops Valhalla, but truth to tell they belong there already.
They’re exactly the sort of team — big and swift and deep and seasoned — we weren’t supposed to see in latter-day basketball. They’re a retro bunch in a microwave world. They play the sort of game that wouldn’t have been out of place in John Wooden’s day or even Hank Iba’s. They share the ball and defend like demons, and obviously they love playing with one another. If they didn’t, three of them would be in the NBA.
And they fit together. Unlike Kansas or North Carolina, there’s no duplication of resources. Every Gator has a clearly defined (and willingly accepted) role. As Lee Humphrey, whose four baskets in the first eight minutes of the second half drained the life from UCLA, said Friday: “Each one of us brings something the other guys can’t.”
Consider Humphrey. Without Taurean Green to get him the ball and Joakim Noah and Al Horford to draw double-teams down low, he’d be just another standstill jump shooter. On Florida he’s the game-breaker, the man who hits no shot except those that cause the opposition to drop its head in submission.
Or consider Chris Richard. He’s the third-best big man on his team, but if you put him on UCLA he might well have been the Bruins’ leading scorer. For two seasons Richard has been content to spell Noah or Horford, and Saturday he outplayed both. He scored 16 points, and a succession of Richard putbacks had the neutrals in the crowd headed for the exits before the game’s final TV timeout.
The big rematch had long since been rendered a numbing rerun, and now the Gators must play one more team they’ve already dispatched. They beat Ohio State by 26 points on Dec. 23, and 16 days later their football team whipped the Buckeyes by 27. Don’t expect a similar rout this time, but at this late date does anybody really envision Florida losing?
Somebody? Anybody?
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Buckeyes can write saga in indelible ink
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
The NCAA can level a program in a number of ways. Few are worse than with a bottle of Wite-Out.
Turn to the first page of Ohio State’s postseason media guide and you will find its history of successes and face-plants in the NCAA tournament. What you won’t find is any reference to 1999, when the Buckeyes went to their previous Final Four.
There is something about paying players and orchestrating academic fraud that leads NCAA investigators to lose their sense of humor, which is to assume they ever had one.
Nothing Ohio State can do will ever completely erase what, well, the NCAA already officially has erased. But win one more game and it’ll be as close to memory whiteout as the Buckeyes can get.
Their 67-60 win over Georgetown Saturday night has put them in a national title game for the first time in 45 years. It has been 47 years since Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek led the school to its only championship, a feat the school actually was allowed to keep.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Not this soon. Not even with a freshman center who seemed NBA-ready (Greg Oden) and a freshman guard (Mike Conley Jr.). Not with a team that is forever dwarfed by the football program. When Thad Matta, the third-year replacement for the fired coach Jim O’Brien, handed players a Final Four pamphlet in the summer and spoke of the team’s goals this season, even some of them didn’t believe it.
“He talked about what we wanted to achieve and stuff — that was the first time we talked about it,” Conley said. “To tell you the truth, I probably didn’t believe him. I figured I would see how it went the first couple of games, and see if we’re as good as Coach says we are.” Let’s assume Matta was right.
This makes 22 straight wins.
Has there ever been a less talked-about team with a 22-game winning streak?
Ohio State did not do it the easy way Saturday. It had no choice. Hyperventilating referees gutted the game’s biggest sideshow when Oden was called for two curious offensive fouls in the first 2:41.
At that rate, Oden would’ve fouled out long before CBS could squeeze in another 17 commercials. So he was pulled. His first-half stats: 0 shots, 0 rebounds, two fouls.
“It was real tough, just sitting there,” Oden said.
His recap: “What happened was the referee blew the whistle.”
Fortunately for Ohio State, it was well practiced in these situations. It played the first seven games of the season without Oden while he recovered from wrist surgery. It has played several games with him in foul trouble. All the Georgetown game did was reaffirm what we should have already known — that this isn’t a one-man team, especially not with the quickest player on the floor (Conley).
Twenty-two straight. OK. They’re good.
Georgetown had become the feel-good story of this tournament. A famous coach’s son. A famous alum’s son. The Beast returns.
Fans wore T-shirts with “III” on the back, a reference to coach John Thompson III, and the caption: “Respect is back. Fear is next.”
Well, when “next” gets here, be sure to tell Ohio State.
Oden returned in the second half. The totals: 13 points, nine rebounds, in 17 minutes. “I told Greg at halftime, ‘You should be well-rested,’ ” Matta said.
His return actually was punctuated by a thunderous missed slam-dunk when he nearly knocked Georgetown’s Jeff Green into an altered state. “I was out for 17 minutes,” Oden said. “I wanted to get in there and just tear the rim down.” (As if risking life wasn’t enough, Green was called for a blocking foul.)
The Buckeyes have one more game to vent. Their football team was drilled by Florida in the BCS title game. Their basketball team was humiliated by the NCAA (and lost to the Gators by 26 points in December).
“It’s amazing,” said senior Ron Lewis, an O’Brien-era holdover. “Excellent coach, excellent team, and I’m looking forward to getting this ring.”
And to the moment not being erased.
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