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Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Can’t imagine Braves without Cox
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — The Braves held their first full workout Wednesday. The man who traditionally sends them out for the first workout with a little speech was home in Adairsville burying his mother-in-law. Technically those were still the Braves on the field, but can the Braves ever really be the Braves without Bobby Cox?
He was planning to return here Wednesday night, after the funeral for Dell Boswell, who died Monday after a long illness. “It feels weird [not being there],” Cox said by phone, “but it’s like I tell the players: With these types of matters, you’ve got to be there and take care of them.”
OK, so it was only a one-day absence for the best and saddest of reasons. But seeing the Braves without their manager made you wonder what it will be like when, soon enough, Bobby Cox goes away and doesn’t come back.
“It’ll be different,” Chipper Jones said. “It’ll be weird.” And then: “[Derek] Jeter and I were talking about that this winter.”
Just as Jeter hadn’t, until this spring, played for any manager other than Joe Torre, Jones has known only one big-league skipper. And, just as Torre no longer wears pinstripes and works in the Bronx, there will come a February when Cox doesn’t come to spring training and put on a uniform.
He has hinted this will be his last season. He has also hinted it won’t. Even if the exact date is uncertain, it’s clear this astonishing run is nearing its end. Cox is 66. He has managed the Braves since June 22, 1990. (He’d been the general manager since October 1985.) For nearly two decades the Braves have been managed by the best in the business, and pretty soon they won’t be anymore.
Said Tom Glavine, on his second life as a Brave: “I feel bad for the guy taking his place.”
Someone noted that Glavine, having gone five springs without hearing the annual Cox Speech, was unfortunately denied that honor Wednesday. “The pitchers got to hear it last week,” he said. ” ‘Be a pro; wear you uniform right; don’t be stupid; there are a few spots open, so work hard’ — it’s the same thing every year, but he still writes it down. I don’t know why.”
Let the record show that these words were spoken with immense affection. Cox, as has been noted, is a players’ manager. Cox loves all his players, and over time the number of those who haven’t loved him back, Glavine said, “can be counted on two hands.” And those guys never stick around long.
During his exile in New York, Glavine got the same question every former Brave gets: What’s it like to play for Bobby Cox? “Guys wanted to know if he’s as good as it looks, and I’d say, ‘He’s probably even better.’ “
Glavine has actually played for other managers, even other Braves managers (namely, Chuck Tanner and Russ Nixon), but a lot of guys in this clubhouse have known only Cox. “If I try to envision watching and rooting for a team that Bobby’s not a part of,” Glavine said, “I know I’ll feel out of sorts. But the reality is that it is going to happen someday and, as is unfortunately the case, we’ll probably be much more appreciative of him when he’s gone.”
There’s no reason to wait, no reason this manager should be revered only in hindsight. For all the good work done by capable hands these past two decades — Schuerholz and Snyder, Chipper and Andruw, Glavine and Pendleton, Smoltz and Justice, Maddux and McGriff — there’s only one man who can be said to symbolize the latter-day Atlanta Braves, and that man was elsewhere Wednesday.
“It all cranks up again tomorrow,” Cox said, and it does. But there cannot be many baseball tomorrows left for Robert Joe Cox, the managerial likes of whom we will never see again.
Permalink | Comments (49) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
Lehtonen is Thrashers’ saving grace
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Kari Lehtonen has faced 90 shots in his past two starts, 248 in his past seven and way too many this season for a team with a general tendency to keep its goalie just this side of extensive therapy and, maybe, a drool bucket.
But there is an upside to all of this. Lehtonen has not only survived, he has thrived, faculties and most major organs intact. If Ilya Kovalchuk has largely carried the Thrashers on the front side of the red line, Lehtonen is holding things together on the backside, even if “NHL Playoff Contenders For Dummies,” would suggest this probably isn’t the way to do things.
Sometimes, even flawed building projects can hang by a thread. It’s that blind squirrel/acorn thing.
“This year, certainly, the games have been tougher for the goalie than last year,” Lehtonen said. “We’ve been giving up more scoring chances. We were a lot better overall with our defensive game last year. That’s something I hope we can still turn around because you really need that in the playoffs, or just getting there.”
Getting there is going to be a problem. The Thrashers are approaching the trade deadline more famously as probable sellers (Marian Hossa) than buyers. Their erratic tendencies can best be summarized by their past two outings: a 4-3 shootout win in New Jersey, followed by a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders, during which they were outshot 49-10.
The Islanders game set two team records and tied two others for shot infamy. If this franchise should be anywhere by now in its evolution, it’s past the point of establishing new lows. (The 39-shot differential in the Islanders game broke the mark of 27 set in a 1999 game, the expansion season.)
But there is this: They found a goalie.
Lehtonen has started to turn the corner in maturity, durability and certainly consistency. Going into tonight’s game at Carolina, he has allowed only 10 goals on 248 shots (.960 saves percentage) in his past seven starts. He has had really only one bad outing in the past six weeks.
The team’s play in front of Lehtonen (and backup Johan Hedberg) generally has been awful. The Thrashers are allowing a league-high 33-plus shots per game, and have outshot opponents in only eight of 61 games. Lehtonen isn’t a goalie so much as he is a rotating duck in a shooting gallery.
It’s so bad at times that defenseman Niclas Havelid admits, “Kari gives us some of those special Finnish words sometimes.”
Remarkably, he has remained sane, the result of increased patience and confidence.
“I guess that’s why it’s been easier for me to live in this roller coaster this season,” he said, “because as a goalie I feel I’ve been doing a pretty good job. But I know it’s only going to get tougher, and I really need to play at this level the rest of the year if we want to go somewhere.”
He is their only real hope. The roster has holes. If the team has a system under the temp. coach Don Waddell, it’s not working.
The effort is uneven — and players only seem to wake up after associate coach Brad McCrimmon plays bad cop and yells at them between periods.
Twenty-one games to go, and this is where the Thrashers are: Barely over .500 (29-28-4), at least as the NHL defines over .500. But look deeper. Their record is only that healthy because of a league-best record of 14-4 in relative gimmick hockey: 4-on-4 overtimes and shootouts (which are like deciding football games with field goal contests).
In regulation-time games, the Thrashers have the second-worst record in the NHL. They are only 15-28 in those games, just one win ahead of Edmonton (14-29). Goaltending becomes an even bigger factor than usual in overtimes (when more open ice creates more scoring chances) and shootouts (when it’s one-on-one).
In short, their margin for error is slim.
“When you have a goalie who can play the way Kari’s playing, you know he can steal games for you,” said Mark Recchi.
It’s not where the team wants to be. But it’s where they need their goalie.
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Jeff Schultz, Thrashers / NHL
Bibby will be fine
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
These things happen. New guy comes to town. Hasn’t had time to get acclimated to a different system. Takes the court on the road in a hostile environment.
I mean, those were the suddenly rejuvenated Los Angeles Lakers who clobbered the Hawks Tuesday night at Staples Center.
Mike Bibby will be fine. It just might not be any time soon, especially with the Hawks playing his former Kings teammates Wednesday night in Sacramento and closing out a monster road trip with stops at Golden State, Utah and San Antonio.
Let’s put this into perspective. Chances are, the mostly stationary Shaquille O’Neal will struggle at the start with Phoenix’s approach of running before running some more. He makes his debut Wednesday night at home with the Suns against his old Lakers team.
Then there is Jason Kidd seeking to become the same engine with the Dallas Mavericks that he was for years with the New Jersey Nets. He also plays with his new team Wednesday night when the Mavericks face the Hornets in New Orleans.
The difference for O’Neal and Kidd is that they’re joining established rosters. The Hawks are the youngest team in the NBA again. Still, you would prefer that your new point guard with the fancy resume finish his first game with more than five points and a heel injury in 16 minutes.
If nothing else, a gimpy Bibby is better than a healthy Anthony Johnson or an even healthier Tyronn Lue.
Permalink | Comments (41) | Categories: Hawks / NBA, Quick Hit, Terence Moore
