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Saturday, April 7, 2007
Ward’s G-Day homecoming long awaited
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Athens — Ten years later, the eternally vibrant smile was back, and it warmed the chilly breezes on Saturday zipping throughout Sanford Stadium. That his Red team whipped the overmatched the Black one in Georgia’s spring game was irrelevant to Hines Ward, an assistant coach for the afternoon. He was the giddiest person among the assembled 21,407 for the simplest of reasons.
He was back. Prior to this, Ward hadn’t returned to Bulldog Country since his three seasons of doing all sorts of wonderful things to keep folks barking whenever they saw No. 19 for Georgia functioning as a blur against defenses.
No question, Ward has wanted to stand between the hedges again — for a game, for a practice, for something. Plus, his good friend and former Georgia teammate Mike Bobo has spent the past six years evolving from quarterbacks coach to offensive coordinator. It’s just that Ward’s job has kept him away. “When I have my off week, either Georgia is off or they are playing away or the timing has just been totally off, and it’s really been that way my entire career,” said Ward, referring to his nine years as a prolific receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The schedule was friendly this time around for Ward, who was an honorary assistant coach of the Red team with former Georgia linebacker Will Witherspoon. As a result, Ward was able to stand in the old locker room, filled with a new generation of Bulldogs, and flash that smile. “This all has brought back memories,” he said, referring to 1994-97, when he became the Bulldogs’ most productive offensive player not named Herschel Walker. “There was me, trying to make a name for myself, trying to do what was best for the team. My spring game was kind of weird. I think I played a new position every year.”
That’s because Ward did, ranging from quarterback to split end to slot back to tailback to anything else that would get a former Forest Park High School standout noticed by his hometown team during the 1998 NFL draft. Instead, the Falcons did what they often have done through the years when they’ve been on the clock: They lost their minds. They selected the great Jammi German instead of Ward, and Ward has spent the subsequent years obsessed with a couple of things. Staying nearly great with the Steelers, and trying to keep his teeth from clenching whenever he thinks of how he could have spent the last decade or so driving from his Smyrna home to Falcons games and practices.
“All the time. I mean, I think about it all the time, especially whenever we face Atlanta,” said Ward, a four-time Pro Bowl player and Super Bowl MVP for the Steelers two seasons ago. “That’s why I just want to do something extra special and play extra hard whenever we face them.”
Take last season, for instance, when Ward caught three touchdown passes against the Falcons at the Georgia Dome. He even punctuated a 70-yard scoring play by outrunning DeAngelo Hall, supposedly the NFL’s fastest player, to the end zone while losing a shoe. “Luckily, everything has worked out for the best, because I’ve had a great career at Pittsburgh, and I don’t want to change that, but …” said Ward, pausing, losing that smile for a moment.
Then that smile returned, with Ward adding, “I grew up a Falcons fan. I loved Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, where you could get tickets for $10 and walk your way down to the good seats. I saw Deion [Sanders] when he was playing, before they went to the all-black uniforms. I grew up there. I’ve been a Georgia boy, and I thought it was just a natural fit. You just drafted Keith Brooking, who had some productive years at Georgia Tech. You’re going to take a receiver anyway. Why not stay with your own?”
Because for those Falcons, it just made too much sense.
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Reality remains: Nobody’s perfect
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
So long as they kept winning, each division title was an extension of that dominance. But what happens if the Braves finish first this year after running third last time? Would it mark the beginning of something new or the semi-continuation of something old?
Said Chipper Jones: “It’d probably be part of the same era.”
Said Bobby Cox: “We’re trying to make a new start.”
So the Braves don’t know, either. And it could, over the fullness of 162 games, be a moot point. But when a team sweeps its opening series in a geared-up opponent’s ballpark … well, that spawns all sorts of fanciful thinking.
“One hundred sixty-two and oh,” said Cox, eyes dancing. “It’s been a dream forever. It’s like a football play; you practice it over and over. So why doesn’t it work every time?”
What worked in Philadelphia was that the Braves got good starting pitching, even better relief and a series of well-timed home runs. None of the above worked Friday night, which is why the 2007 Braves won’t go 162-0. (The 2007 Mets still have that chance.) A sellout crowd gathered Friday night for the chilly home opener and was reminded that, unlike scripted football plays, baseball games can fly off on tangents.
The Braves trotted out a starting pitcher who hadn’t begun training camp on their roster or anybody else’s. Mark Redman was home in Oklahoma when Mike Hampton tweaked his oblique, and now he’s their No. 4 starter. If he’s their No. 4 starter three months from now, something will have gone badly wrong. He’s keeping a spot warm, trying to eat up enough innings with his 85-mph fastball - sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? - so as to deliver a winnable game to the new-and-improved bullpen.
He couldn’t do it Friday. The Mets led 2-0 after 1 1/2 innings and 3-1 with two outs in the sixth, whereupon Redman yielded a single to pitcher Oliver Perez. That impelled Bobby Cox to summon Oscar Villarreal, who surrendered a two-run triple to Jose Reyes. Matters soon deteriorated to the extent that Jones was booed for not catching a wind-blown foul pop with his team 10 runs behind. And then the postgame fireworks were canceled due to wind.
After three games of good starting pitching and better relief, the Braves whiffed on both fronts Friday. Only time will tell if this was a glimpse of grim reality or simply a rotten night in April. Baseball seasons last six months, and the bedrock of those 14 division titles was the rotation’s capacity to stack inning upon quality inning. At issue, at least until Hampton and Lance Cormier get healthy, is whether these Nos. 4 and 5 starters can do such stacking.
Because those three de facto closers will matter only if the Braves are, ahem, close after six innings. How often in the late ’90s did we see the Yankees do what the Braves are trying to emulate? But how often has Mariano Rivera been rendered a non-factor in recent postseasons because his starting pitchers spit the bit? The three-closer ‘pen is fine in theory, but the Braves’ decision to bank on an aging and/or infirm rotation could undercut the grand design.
Then again, they’ve played four games. “I’ll take three of four the rest of the year,” Cox said, and if the Braves manage that over six months they’ll win more games than any team in the history of baseball.
They can’t go 162-0, but these Braves have a chance to extend the era of good feeling. Or, depending on your slant, to start a new one.
Permalink | Comments (10) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
