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Friday, May 25, 2007
Moylan delivers the tonic to pick up bullpen
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Don’t let the word get around, but the Braves have a drug dealer in their bullpen. I mean the real stuff, cough syrup, aspirin, vitamins, muscle rub and such, but not a lot that would get Bud Selig’s attention. Remember when Rafael Palmeiro was the poster boy for Viagara, another drug store product?
Actually, Peter Moylan was a pharmaceuticals salesman for about three years, mainly to support his baseball habit in Australia. Baseball in Australia? The Melbourne Roos? The Brisbane Bombers? A lot of us had no idea the Aussies had taken up our national pastime. Just as likely to find baseball on Mars.
Well, let me tell you, they’ve been playing baseball in Australia since 1879, some form of it. They have their own version of the World Series, called the Claxton Shield. It was a long time developing. It had a lot of competition, and still has — Australian football, cricket, rugby, tennis, even our own U.S. golf champion is an Aussie. Baseball plodded along, but a few of their prize exports began dropping in on us in 1986, when Craig Shipley came up with the Padres after schooling at Alabama. A few others came along in driblets. The Brewers brought in a battery, Dave Nilsson, the catcher, in 1992, and Graeme Lloyd, the pitcher, the next year. Of the Aussies, only Nilsson finally made headlines back Down Under when he played for the American side in the All-Star Game in 1999.
But today we deal with the dealer. He isn’t the Braves’ first Australian pitcher. Damian Moss came before, won 12 games one season, then was traded to the Giants in the Russ Ortiz deal and has drifted out of sight. You need an atlas to track Moylan’s route to the Braves. If it had not been for that so-called World Baseball Classic two springs ago, we probably would never have heard of him. But this is not his first trip to the United States.
He was offered a full scholarship to Georgia Southern in his youth. You see, the Braves chief scout, on what is known as the Eastern Rim, is Phil Dale, who schooled at GSU. Instead, Moylan signed with Minnesota and spent two seasons in Fort Myers, a rookie league farm. That was in the mid-90s. He never surfaced again in this country until 2006, pitching, playing anywhere for Team Australia. In fact, Peter was an infielder first, then began moving all about. Down Under, you play anywhere they decide they need you. He did pitch one inning in the WBC against Venezuela, and struck out three major leaguers, including Bobby Abreu.
“Phil Dale had seen me pitch before, but he hadn’t seen me pitch against guys who could really hit,” Moylan said.
By this time, he had completely reconstructed his delivery, dropped his arm and developed a natural sinker. “I throw it 95 percent of the time. I had shoulder surgery that made it natural for me.”
It was in between seasons that he became a pharmaceuticals salesman. “Three years I did it, while I was playing club ball. Club baseball is what we play in Australia,” he said. “Our team was the Blackburn Orioles, and our colors were almost the same as Baltimore’s.”
He is a quite sociable sort who turns the Braves clubhouse into a personal refuge. It isn’t an easy life, with a wife and a 6-year-old daughter — and another offspring on the way — on the other side of the world. When the Braves offered him a shot at Richmond after the WBC, he jumped at it. The Australia National roster listed him as a first baseman, pitcher second. But he was a different pitcher now than the one who toiled in Fort Myers, with his readjusted sidearm delivery.
“I’m a pretty good hitter,” he said, quite modestly. He can put his bat away here. He has had one time at bat as a Brave. He struck out.
Coming out of the bullpen, though, he has given the Braves what they were looking for. “We were a little worried about his delivery against left-handed batters,” manager Bobby Cox said, but his concern has abated. “He throws that sinkerball, and it sinks just as much to left-handers as to right-handers.”
It got a few laughs when the word got around that the Braves had signed a drug salesman out of Australia. Well, the snickers have stopped. A shrinking earned run average will do that for a fellow. He’s 28 years old and the Braves seem to have discovered a worthy property. After all, you’re talking about an Aussie who has known what it’s like to play in the Claxton Shield.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Feds must expand their presence in Vick case
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
One moment, prosecutor Gerald Poindexter is saying there is evidence of dogfighting in the two-story house formerly owned by Falcons quarterback Michael Vick along the backroads of Virginia. The next, Poindexter is saying there might not be enough to file charges.
Now Poindexter is getting amnesia by saying he’s moving forward in the investigation.
Huh? The law folks in Surry County are doing their imitation of Mayberry R.F.D. regarding Vick’s possible role in illegal dogfighting. That’s why three things must happen for the sake of everybody, including Vick, who likely wants all of this to end sooner than later.
Come to think of it, one of those three things just happened: NFL commissioner Roger Goodell got heavily, but quietly, involved with the investigation this week, and he is no Barney Fife.
Here are the other two things that must happen: (1) More participation by the feds, and (2) those law folks around Surry County sending this dogfighting case to the state’s attorney office in Richmond. Sort of like Sheriff Andy Taylor deferring something larger than moonshining to the bigwigs in Raleigh.
Anyway, Goodell wants a conclusion to Vick’s latest controversy. Like now. The longer this goes unresolved, the more chances you have for an ugly trial that could expose a slew of NFL types under rocks with the lowlives of dogfighting. In recent years, Nate Newton was arrested for dogfighting, and LeShon Johnson was convicted. You also had Clinton Portis and Chris Samuels of the Washington Redskins giggling before cameras over Vick’s possible role in dogfighting, with Portis saying, “I don’t know if he was fighting dogs or not, but it’s his property, it’s his dog. If that’s what he wants to do, do it.”
The commissioner was not amused. Despite just months on the job, he banished Pacman Jones for a season after his various antics. When it comes to protecting the league’s image, Goodell means business. So he spent this week dispatching some of his former FBI agents, who serve as NFL security, to Surry County. Not only that, Goodell did so without waiting for an invitation, especially after the league made a couple of calls to local authorities that weren’t returned.
This is just a start. Now the feds must expand their presence in the case. Well, if they haven’t already.
Somebody from the U.S. Department of Agriculture met for two hours on Monday with those law folks around Surry County to review the evidence. Whether the feds just came to assist the local prosecutor, investigators and policemen isn’t known. The feds won’t say, which means there still is hope they’ll take over a case that is too much for Poindexter, a Commonwealth attorney who only works part time as prosecutor in a county of 7,000.
The crime is low around Poindexter’s portion of Hampton Roads, but the celebrity worshipping is high. In addition to Vick, other high-profile people from the area include Alonzo Mourning, Pernell Whitaker, Bruce Smith, Allen Iverson and D’Angelo Hall. So it’s enough to make the overwhelmed Poindexter a little cautious (as in too cautious) with an explosive case that could involve Vick and dogfighting, especially with Poindexter up for re-election at the end of the year.
Did Poindexter once say there might not be enough evidence in this case? Even Gomer and Goober would disagree with that. Along with damaged pit bulls among the 66 dogs found at Vick’s old home, there was a slew of dogfighting paraphernalia and blood splatters on the floor of a room above the garage. The AJC also has quoted dogfighting experts as saying others have been indicted, convicted and sentenced for much less. There is the case of Richmond’s Stacey A. Miller, for instance. He currently is facing up to four years in prison for dogfighting, and this is with 50 fewer dogs than the Vick case and without blood found on his property.
Authorities did discover a dead dog, which probably didn’t help Miller’s case, but you get the point. Those law folks around Surry County need help.
They’ve got the NFL, whether they like it or not, and they already may have the feds, and they should take our Richmond suggestion, just to make sure.
Permalink | | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
