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Saturday, June 23, 2007
Pro baseball glamorous but uncertain
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
A newlywed wife of one of the young Braves asked her husband the other day, “What kind of business is this? They move players around like cattle.”
Professional baseball is, indeed, harsh and heartless. Nothing is guaranteed. A Brave one season, on the road to Pearl, Miss., or on a bench in the Kansas City, or even riding as bus over the Appalachians the next. The Braves once had a corps of young prospects, and they banded together like a Scout troop. They stayed in touch after the season. They went to each other’s weddings. Atlanta was hometown to a lot of them. They thought it would never be over. You belonged, your membership was good forever.
Then reality set in. It began to come apart. Adam LaRoche was traded to Pittsburgh, and there went one of the golf guys. A couple of the pitchers came down with arm troubles. A month after the season opened, Ryan Langerhans was traded to Oakland, and what the Braves got in return was that embarrassing Joe PTBNL. In other words, “player to be named later.”
Before he even got unpacked in Oakland, Langerhans was on his way to Washington. Two games and out. What did the A’s want with him in the first place? With the Nationals he would be just one of three guys with the first name of Ryan. He, Church and Zimmerman. At least Pat Corrales was Manny Acta’s bench assistant, and he knew him from Braves days. Things never got much better. His batting average is still under .200.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, some of the guys were kicking up some dust. Kelly Johnson, one of the Texans, had stamped his label on second base. Marcus Giles wasn’t being missed at all. Scott Thorman, Canadian, also a newlywed, wasn’t another Adam LaRoche, but the kid was outhitting him. Adam had developed a critics chorus in Pittsburgh. Thorman had his good days, a long ball now and then, but he was still on learning status around the bag.
The Braves have made some strange moves this short season. All of a sudden John Schuerholz announces that Brian McCann has been signed to a six-year contract for about $26 million. Good investment. Could stand some defensive polish, but he’s a prize commodity. Quite a sight, seeing the bearded kid walking off the field with the bearded old guy, Bob Wickman, after they’ve put a good finish together. No doubt, you want McCann around a long time, but this goes against the business line.
It was early in David Justice’s days as a Brave. He was already a star, but hadn’t reached arbitration stage yet. He was given a modest raise, when I said to Schuerholz one day, “Why don’t you go ahead and give him a big contract, then he’d be easier to deal with when the time comes.”
He looked at me as if I was mad. “You think he’d settle for less because we were generous with him now? It doesn’t work that way.” But now it does, and McCann benefits from the change in executive stance. Now along comes Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and they’re overstocked with catchers, and down the road there’s more heavy negotiating ahead.
Now, to get around to the case of Macay McBride. Signed for a plump bonus out of Sylvania a few seasons ago, a first-round investment. Surely his future was here, only left-hander in the bullpen, but he came with the traditional left-handed problem — control. Suddenly last week, McBride was told he had been traded to Detroit. Shock. Disbelief. He wouldn’t have to leave town, only switch clubhouses. The Tigers were coming in.
Here was a kid who had grown up in Georgia, a Braves fan, found his home with them, concluded that he was a Brave for life, and now he was a Tiger. Traded for another left-hander, Wilfredo Ledezma, who had walked more batters than he struck out. You want a Spanish accent, he’d speak Spanish. It was the suddenness of it. Lifted one night with two out in the ninth, traded the next day. Just one of the cattle, eh?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Reading college football crystal ball
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
If I thought Georgia could ever win in Jacksonville, I’d pick the Bulldogs to take the SEC East. But I don’t, so I won’t. If I thought Georgia Tech would benefit from Reggie Ball’s absence as much as many Jackets fans do, I’d pick Tech to win the ACC Coastal. But I don’t, so I won’t.
Yes, it’s time for the annual long-range look at college football, a feature guaranteed to bring me nothing but grief once the actual games begin. So why do I continue to offer up such predictions? Because deep down you know there’d be a void in your lives if I didn’t.
— Georgia will go 10-2 and come within an eyelash of rendering the reigning BCS titlist a runner-up in its own division. I see the Bulldogs winning in Knoxville but losing in Tuscaloosa. Part of me even envisions Georgia beating Florida on Oct. 27. Then another part — the brain, I believe it’s called — recalls that the Bulldogs stopped enjoying Jacksonville about the same time Vince Dooley stopped coaching.
— Alabama will win as many games (nine) as Auburn. That sound you hear is the Tigers’ window of opportunity slamming shut. Nick Saban isn’t a very nice guy, but he’s a very good coach. He’ll have the Tide playing for the SEC title within two years.
— Auburn had the schedule to play for the BCS title last season but lost twice at home. This year the Tigers must face those conquerors — Arkansas and Georgia — on the road. They must also go to Baton Rouge and to Gainesville. That’s not a championship schedule. That’s a bound-for-the-Chick-Fil-a Bowl schedule.
— Virginia Tech will win the ACC and will, for obvious reasons, become an even bigger story than last year’s ACC champ (Wake Forest) was.
— Wake Forest will finish 6-6 as reality rears its head.
— Southern Cal will play Texas for the BCS title. Southern Cal will win this time.
— LSU will again have the SEC’s most talented team and will again lose twice — once when the Tigers go to Tuscaloosa and get outcoached by the guy who used to coach them and then against Florida in the SEC championship game. That will serve as payback for the Gators’ loss in Baton Rouge on Oct. 6.
— Georgia Tech will go 8-4. One magazine projects the Jackets as a Top 15 team, but I can’t imagine how losing the nation’s most talented player and a four-year starting quarterback makes you better. Yes, Taylor Bennett looked good throwing to Calvin Johnson in the Gator Bowl, but Johnson could make any quarterback look good. (Even Reggie Ball — sometimes.) Tech was staring at a breakthrough season last November and couldn’t beat Georgia or Wake. Sorry, but I don’t see this year’s Jackets being quite as good.
— I see Florida State being lots better with Jimbo Fisher calling plays. I see the Seminoles winning the ACC Atlantic.
— Darren McFadden won’t win the Heisman because he’ll get hurt. (Louisville’s Brian Brohm will take the trophy.) Stripped of his best player and fan support, Houston Nutt will step down before Thanksgiving. He’ll announce his resignation via text message.
— Speaking of the ‘Ville: The Cardinals will lose at West Virginia on Nov. 8 in a Thursday-night matchup of unbeatens. And the Mountaineers will go 12-0 but will be barred from the BCS title game because Southern Cal and Texas will be similarly undefeated. And the drumbeat for a playoff system will sound again. And it will, as ever, go unheeded by those in position to make it happen.
— Phillip Fulmer will be replaced by David Cutcliffe the first week in December. (The final straw will be Tennessee losing to Kentucky for the first time since 1984.) Hearing the news, Johnny Majors will laugh deep into January.
Permalink | Comments (219) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Tech / ACC, UGA / SEC
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