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Friday, February 8, 2008
Pull for Vick if he’s learned lessons
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
It’s time to start cheering for Michael Vick again. This doesn’t apply only to those who have ignored everything to hug the most polarizing force in the history of Atlanta sports, but to everybody.
We’re talking about everybody, ranging from those who thought Vick was a running back disguised as a quarterback to those who cringed over his involvement in the fighting and killing of dogs to those who never liked the guy, period.
There is a condition associated with our request, and it is a reasonable one for the former Falcons icon-turned-prison inmate courtesy of his self-inflicted mess over those dogs: He has to realize he received three lifeboats in recent weeks despite repeatedly lying to the feds.
First, after serving time in his native Virginia, Vick was transferred to Leavenworth, but not that Leavenworth. He’s in a minimum-security environment with no prison bars, military-style dormitories and inmates resembling Jim Bakker more than Charles Manson. Second, he has the ability to slice up to a year from his 23-month sentence through the completion of a generous drug-rehabilitation program. Third, a judge ruled that he can keep most of the $20 million bonus money that the Falcons wanted to strip from his bank account for wearing No. 33765-183 these days instead of No. 7.
So Vick can continue to sink by ignoring those lifeboats, or he can climb aboard and hope to sail toward continuing his NFL career someday. “I just feel like Mike is sitting there in prison and stewing and feeling that there isn’t another kid that will come out in this draft who possesses the ability that he has,” said Jamal Anderson, the Falcons running back great, who occasionally sent encouraging text messages to Vick before his incarceration.
That’s because Anderson still has emotional ties to the franchise despite six years of retirement and a successful post-playing career in entertainment.
Added Anderson, “You have an athlete in Mike who throws like Steve Young or John Elway, who runs like Barry Sanders, who is as fast as Deion Sanders and who is playing the quarterback position. I love it, because the pundits sit there and say, ‘Oh, when he gets out of prison, he’ll be 29 or 30.’ No, no, no. He’ll be mad, and he’s not going to be able to wait when he gets out, just to prove something. That, then, will be the most dangerous Michael Vick we’ve ever seen. That’s what I’m hoping for.”
Hope is one thing. Results are another, which Vick must produce in positive ways from now through the aftermath of his prison release. Then he must do something that he should have done years ago along the way to celebrity, and that is, he must divorce himself from the posse.
It’s the posse that contributed to Vick’s issues spanning from that dogfighting thing to that water-bottle thing, to most of those other silly Vick things. It’s the posse that ultimately deserted Vick when the feds came knocking. It’s the posse that Anderson has seen other prominent folks befriend since he grew up watching his father serve as a bodyguard for the likes of Muhammad Ali, Donna Summer, Sugar Ray Leonard, Diana Ross and Mike Tyson.
It’s also the posse that Anderson featured during his days of turning the Falcons into the Dirty Birds.
“Mike and them screwed up in a major way. There’s no doubt about it, but sometimes it’s like, ‘OK, I’m trying to help my friends generate some money,’ but all of that other stuff, gosh, just nip it in the bud, man,” Anderson said. “It’s tough, and that’s the sad part about being the major figure attached to some of these things. When you’re the hero of the family and of the community, and when people grow up with you, it’s like we’ve all made it.
“We, particularly in the minority community, feel this great responsibility to take care of every one around us who always has looked up to us. You just have to monitor everybody around you, or they can bring you down.”
Somewhere, Vick is nodding with such a thought, or he should be.
Permalink | | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Terence Moore
Getting acquainted with the Braves
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
The clubhouse was a-bustle with Braves. Spring training was in the air. You could smell it, a sort of masculine fragrance that flows out of a gym laundromat. It formerly was Camp Leo, now under new management and operating as Camp Roger. Mazzone was long gone. McDowell was in command, but there’s one difference there. Roger never comes at you like a commander.
Walking in just ahead of me was an athletic figure with a duffel bag over his left shoulder. A little later he would appear in the clubhouse with a wrap around his left elbow as big as the duffel bag. Mike Hampton was just reporting from Arizona, where he had spent the off-season giving his arm one more winter under repair. The second in a row.
The last time Mike Hampton threw an official pitch for the Braves was Aug. 19, 2005. He was hammered by the Padres and left in the fourth inning. Since that time, he has collected an enormous amount of money while his left arm was being surgically repaired, but not all Tommy John surgeries are as successful as it was on the pitcher whose name will forever be branded in sports medical history. But not every patient runs into the setbacks that Hampton did. Once last spring, just as he was warming up for his first start since August ‘05, then again back in the fall, when he made his first start for Navajoa in the Mexican League. One inning, a false step, a pulled hamstring — everybody has them, but only athletes seem to pull them — and now on the mend again.
This is the pitcher who could have made all the difference in the Braves’ past two seasons. Might have added two more pennants to that line of 14 mounted over left field at Turner Field. A pitcher who has won 138 major-league games, but only 22 for the Braves. And for a fellow who looks husky enough to pin a bear. A linebacker in high school who attracted college scholarships.
“I’m five feet, ten inches tall,” he said, “and I decided that I had a better future as a lefthanded pitcher than as a five-foot, ten-inch linebacker.”
A decision wisely made, from the point of personal finance. “I’m due one [a break] now, and they [the Braves] are due one,” he said. “Just don’t do anything stupid.”
So, perhaps this was looking at the pitcher who finally can repay his debt to the Braves. Hampton is one of several key pieces that will have to fall into place for the Braves to find their way back to the playoffs. Edgar Renteria was a sore loss to the offense and, with his glove, to the pitchers. Now it will be seen how Yunel Escobar stands up under the stress of a full season. Andruw Jones is gone, and in no way is Mark Kotsay capable of filling in his figures, even those of a below-standard season. The bullpen still has holes to fill. Peter Moylan is solid as a middle man, and after a season short on lefthanders, they have Will Ohman, Royce Ring and Jo-Jo Reyes on hand. All with hope but everything to prove.
Catching is solid. Brian McCann is an all-star beyond reproach, and after seasons of muddling about, Javier Lopez, once the star, comes home to apply for the job as backup at a wage considerably marked down. No matter what, down the road Clint Sammons is one for the future.
This, though, is getting ahead of the game. This is merely loosening-up time. Getting acquainted. For some, first look at the inside of a major-league clubhouse. None of them has lost a job yet, these are just applicants dropping in to show their stuff, get a feel for it all and hopeful candidates for Camp Roger’s Best-in-Show.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Tech’s turnaround may not be too late
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Paul Hewitt, who was fairly well beaten up publicly for the first three months of this season, finally admits what we could have assumed: He was blindsided by losing two freshmen to the NBA after last season.
The problem isn’t that Hewitt can’t coach. The problem is that college basketball coaching has become less about X’s and O’s than about avoiding the temptation of recruiting too many one-and-done playground legends — and anticipating when you make that mistake.
Georgia Tech plays Saturday at Connecticut (17-5), having already played nonconference games against Notre Dame (17-4), Indiana (19-3), Vanderbilt (19-4) and Kansas (22-1), all Top 25 opponents.
“You look at our schedule,” said Hewitt, “and we’re like a mid-major team, for crying out loud.”
Yes, and notwithstanding a recent turnaround that has jolted Tech’s once-dead NCAA tournament hopes, the misguided schedule-maker who set up all of this was Hewitt. He laughed, in that I-know-I-have-only-myself-to-blame kind of way.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said. “Well, I know what I was thinking. But I was wrong. I thought I’d have at least one of those guys back. There was a point last year when I thought both would be back. I thought it would be good to have a strong schedule. It would challenge us.”
The referenced absentees: Javaris Crittenton and Thaddeus Young, both freshmen, both starters, both of whom turned pro after relatively average seasons, individually and team-wise.
Hewitt: “We all knew there was a chance they would be gone. But as the year went on, the way it was going, I thought they’d be back. You throw in Mouhammad Faye [who struggled and eventually transferred] and Ra’Sean Dickey [academic and injury problems], and we’re a different team than what I expected.”
There is an upside to all of this. In the past three weeks, the Yellow Jackets have evolved into as mentally and even physically tough a team as Hewitt has had in three seasons. Only supremely talented or resolute teams win road games in the ACC, and Tech has won three straight.
The Jackets are now 5-4 on the road this season. In the previous three seasons combined, they were 5-24. They haven’t won this many road games since going 7-5 in 2003-04. That season they went to the Final Four.
No, that doesn’t mean we’re projecting a duplicate feat this March. Nor even a win Saturday. But it does suddenly make Tech a team worth watching. After consecutive losses to Georgia and Miami dropped them to 7-8, they won four of six. The losses: to North Carolina by one point, to Maryland by two. In the last two wins, they trailed by double-digits in the second half at Virginia and Wake Forest.
Hewitt knew there would be early struggles, even if he could not have foreseen face-plants against UNC-Greensboro and Winthrop. The changeover largely began when Moe Miller took over at point guard.
“Moe has gone from being just a sweet kid to understanding that you’re either going to hit somebody or get hit,” he said.
After several body blows, here’s where Tech is: still six feet deep in a 12-foot hole. But at least now there’s a season to salvage. Maybe even a tournament bid.
How many wins will it take?
“I don’t know,” he said. “We just have to keep playing well. What you don’t know is who else is going to be in contention. I don’t know what it’s going to take because I think this year more than ever it’s going to be impossible for the selection committee to get it right. If you asked me that question five years ago, I’d say 17 wins. But the criteria now is so up-down.”
He’s not surprised his team has turned it around. He just didn’t know when it would happen, saying, “I knew we were running out of time. We still have very little margin for error. But with the way we’re playing now, the Connecticut game is actually like a Godsend for us. If you win it, you’re right there. If you lose it, well, people will say, ‘Go back and finish your conference.’ “
Godsend might be overstating things. But at least the rest of the season isn’t looking like a funeral procession.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Tech / ACC
