UGA blog finds new home
Morning all. As I’ve said a couple of times this week, we’re converting this blog over to a WordPress platform and it will be a permanent move the first of next week.
Those of you who are regulars probably know that I’m not what you’d call techno-wizard when it comes to these things. But from what I understand the technology offered in this new format should make the blogging and commenting experience better for all. Of course, I’ll be learning as we go along, too. But I’m hoping to provide more pictures and video and things like that which should bring the blog more to life.
Of course, this blog is nothing without all you guys so I want to heartily invite (read: beg) you to come over to the new site by CLICKING HERE ON THE NEW ADDRESS and save it in your browsers. As of Monday, Feb. 23rd, this will be the permanent home of the UGA blog you so love or, in the case of some of you, love to loathe. If you’d prefer to copy and paste or just memorize, the new address is: http://blogs.ajc.com/uga-sports-blog/.
See at the new place!
AJC > Sports > UGA > Blog > Archives > 2008 > June
June 2008
News doesn’t stop for vacation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Howdy folks. I’m back. Vacationed on the Gulf Coast last week and really enjoyed it. Hope y’all had an enjoyable week as well.
Of course, as usually is the case whenever I take some time off, all kinds of news breaks. Where I stayed in Florida, there was no cell service and no wireless access. So I didn’t find out until late Wednesday evening that Georgia basketball player Billy Humphrey was arrested for DUI and subsequently dismissed from the team. Thanks, by the way, to Chris Vivlamore, one of our editors, for handling the news.
Such a shame, but coach Dennis Felton was left with no options after Humphrey’s third arrest in seven months. Too bad because I really believe Billy is a decent person who just made some poor choices. I hope he lands on his feet somewhere. No question it will hurt the team. Billy was just coming into his own as a player.
Then, of course, I learned of Uga VI’s tragic passing Saturday morning. At this point I was traveling home from Northwest Florida and was able to receive the call from our news desk that Uga had died of heart failure. I was able to help out with a couple of calls as I drove. I can’t say it was a complete shock. At nearly 10, Uga was very old for a bulldog and, at 65 pounds, a good bit overweight. But there had been no recent indications he was not well.
I’ll be attending Uga’s burial at Sanford Stadium this afternoon and will file a report for the UGA page as soon as possible. It’ll be the first one of these that I’ll see in person. Oddly enough I’m not sure what to wear.
Anyway, I’m back on the scene and will be providing news and updates daily. So stay tuned.
Permalink | Comments (78) | Post your comment | Categories: Football and basketball
CWS, Open make for awesome TV
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Was it just me or was Saturday night a sports enthusiasts’ TV-watching dream?
I was absolutely wearing out the “last” button on my remote control as I jumped back and forth between the U.S. Open and Georgia’s College World Series Game against Miami. Talk about great television. You couldn’t ask for more drama from a Britney Spears weekend in Vegas.
The best thing is I didn’t miss a critical moment of either event. I was able to watch Tiger limp his way through the back nine and the Bulldogs’ incredible four-run ninth inning with two outs. You know when Lyle Allen and David Thoms are your offensive heroes, something is going right.
Of course, we’ll all get a chance for another double dose today, with the U.S. Open playoff between Woods and Rocco Mediate set for a noon telecast on ESPN and 2 p.m. on ESPN. And the Dogs get Stanford tonight at 7 p.m. on ESPN2. Once again, David Perno’s team draws the prime time marquee matchup. Today may be the least productive day in the modern history of work.
Anyway, a little housekeeping to get out of the way. As most of y’all know Carter Strickland has left the newspaper to pursue private business ventures. Despite some criticism in this forum, Carter is a fantastic writer, a workhorse of a beat man and a good guy overall. I’m going to miss him and I believe y’all will, too.
Meanwhile, I’m at the point in the summer where I’m having to squeeze in a lot of my training (our paper requires many hours per year) and vacation. I’m off to the Gulf Coast next week.
So the blog updating may be a little sporadic for a few weeks. But I will get in here and update as much as possible, maybe even once or twice when I’m otherwise off. It will be up to you guys to keep it vibrant and relevant. And let’s stay away from the trash talk.
OK, time for me to knuckle down on some work (at least until noon).
Permalink | Comments (229) | Post your comment | Categories: Baseball
Dogs-Miami Saturday on ESPN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Good news for Georgia baseball fans. The NCAA and ESPN has slotted the Bulldogs’ game against No. 1-ranked Miami for the prime spot in the Saturday lineup — 7 p.m, Eastern time on ESPN.
And what’s not to like? The Bulldogs, one of the hottest offensive teams in the land, going against perennial college baseball powerhouse Miami (52-9). The Hurricanes, coached by for Georgia Tech coach Jim Morris, are making their 23rd appearance in the College World Series, compared to No. 6 for Georgia (40-23-1).
You could say it’s a tough draw for the Dogs, getting Miami. But the CWS doesn’t reshuffle the teams after they get to Omaha. So Georgia as the 8 seed gets Miami as the first. If there are upsets at the other spots — and Stanford over 5-seed Cal State Fullerton is the only one so far, so be it, they figure.
It sounds like a coach’s cliche but there really is no easy route in the CWS, one of the more raw competitive event you’ll ever see. The Dogs traditionally have drawn some powerhouses and they’ve come out OK. They’re 6-9 in the CWS with three two-and-outs and one national championship.
I was there when Georgia won it all in 1990. The Dogs beat Mississippi State 3-0 in the opening game and that was considered a tough draw. Then they got Stanford three times in a row, beating the great Mike Mussina two times. Finally they knocked off a powerful Oklahoma State squad 2-1 in the final. If I remember right, that was the first time the championship was decided without double-elimination, which the previously unbeaten Cowboys remind folks of often.
In 2001 Georgia lost to 2 seed Southern Cal and 8 seed Tennessee. In ‘04 the Dogs went 2-2 against 2 and 8 seeds Arizona and Texas and they got No. 1 Rice and No. 4 Oregon State in back-to-back in ‘06.
As coach David Perno said, “whoever you get out there is going to be difficult.” And he’s right. I can guarantee you Miami is saying that about drawing the Dogs.
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Hot times expected at Foley Field
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So I’m standing in the Georgia dugout at Foley Field yesterday waiting on coach David Perno to come out of the locker room when the fan a few feet to the left of me begins to make some gosh-awful sounds. It was a smaller version of one of those big mist-producing fans you see on the sidelines at football games. Then it clanked and clanged and finally it stopped all together. Team trainer Mike Dillon quickly came over to tend to it but, after only a short while, pronounced the fan dead on the scene.
Perhaps that’s a good omen for the Diamond Dogs, who come into Friday’s NCAA Super Regional against N.C. State as one of the hottest teams in the nation. With a noon start and their dugout fan on the fritz it doesn’t look like they’ll be cooling off anytime soon.
Speaking of fans, it was a good sign for Georgia when today’s game sold out in one day earlier this week. In fact, the Bulldogs received an extra 400 tickets returned by N.C. State and sold out of them by Wednesday. That’s not unusual for Georgia baseball in the postseason but there was a little concern from UGA administrators when ESPN gave them noon starts Friday and Saturday. The Dogs would have much rather started at 7 p.m. but, as ever, television dictates all in sports.
Anyway, both Carter and I will be in the press box at Foley Field today and I’ll be blogging periodically from there today. The NCAA doesn’t allow you to do play-by-play for constant score updating but I’ll try to give you some periodic sights and sounds that you won’t get from television.
So stay tuned and thanks in advance for hanging out!
Permalink | Comments (100) | Post your comment | Categories: Baseball
Latest arrest interrupts offseason serenity
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
And you thought it was going to be a quiet, uneventful summer.
Offseason serenity was interrupted once again as Jeremy Lomax became the fourth Georgia football player to get arrested this year. Lomax, a senior who is battling for a starting job at defensive end this fall, was pulled over on the 10 Loop in Athens for speeding. He was going 80 in a 55. As is routine, the cop asked Lomax if he had any weapons in the car. Lomax, described in police reports as polite and compliant, told the officer he had an unloaded gun underneath his seat. The officer retrieved a Glock 40, confiscated it and Lomax was arested for speeding and possession of a concealed weapon and hauled off to jail.
So that’s four Bulldogs so far that have run afoul of the law. Fullback Fred Munzenmaier (underage possession of alcohol, standing in roadway) and defensive back Donovan Baldwin (DUI) were arrested in January. They were suspended two and one games, respectively (Muzenmaier got two for smarting off at the police). Starting offensive guard Clint Boling was arrested in May in Alpharetta for DUI but he refused field tests and proclaims his innocence, so his punishment has not been determined.
In so far as we can tell, Lomax will be subjected to similar discipline. Student conduct codes restrict weapons from campus but it’s unclear whether or not that extends to off campus. We don’t know yet the details of who’s gun it was or what Lomax was doing with it but that fact he didn’t receive any additional charges is probably a positive sign for him. So he’s probably looking at one or two games max.
At the very least it would appear four players will miss the season opener against Georgia Southern and perhaps two or three will be out for Central Michigan, too. I’m told there’s no truth to the rumor this is why UGA schedules light at the beginning of the year. By the way, there still are three months before the season starts.
But seriously, I’m on record in this space stating that I don’t think such misdemeanor arrests makes Georgia a “thug program” no more than it does Florida or LSU or Tennessee or Georgia Tech. In fact, after those first two arrests back in January, I wrote then to expect at least one or two more before the season starts.
Such behavior is unfortunate and regrettable but it’s also commonplace among college students 18 to 22 years of age. I also know the Bulldogs harp and harp on their athletes on this subject and have one of the most stringent and iron-clad disciplinary policies around. There’s no way you can say Georgia is soft on discipline. These guys miss games and are subjected to physical punishment and counseling in addition to their legal ramifications.
The easy thing to do in this situation is to stand up on a soap box, point a finger at Georgia and college athletics and say, “shame on you; you’re recruiting bad people and letting them run amok.” But I simply don’t buy that.
Am I wrong? Are they wrong?
Permalink | Comments (333) | Post your comment | Categories: Football
Athens regional is college ball at its best
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For those of you that have said to themselves, “Aw, it’s only college baseball, who cares?”…
For those you that live in Atlanta and thought over the last few days, “I would go but it’s too much trouble to drive over to Athens. I’ll catch it on TV”…
For those of you that have reasoned you had something better to do: I’m here to tell you that you’re missing something special going on at UGA’s Foley Field the past few days.
By now, certainly most of you know that Georgia and Georgia Tech are playing at 7 p.m. tonight for the right to advance to the NCAA’s Super Regionals. The Bulldogs, after losing the opener to Lipscomb, came roaring out of the loser’s bracket and beat Georgia Tech last night 8-0 to set up a winner-takes-all game tonight. And, yes, our good friends at CSS will be there to broadcast it into your homes (those of you with cable at least). But never minding for whom one roots. The real treat lies inside the gates at historic old Foley Field.
Let me first preface my remarks with this: I’m not the biggest college baseball fan in the world. There may be some people that do but I don’t get real excited about a regular-season game lasting four hours before being decided 15-13 in 11 innings. But the NCAA tournament — or college playoffs as they might as well be called — is a different animal altogether.
The NCAA regionals I’ve covered over the years have been some of the most exciting events I’ve ever witnessed. They’re so unpredictable and no lead is ever safe. And when it comes to swinging those aluminum bats with a 314-foot porch in right field and 400 to dead center, you can be sure anything can happen. Add to that formula an intense rivalry such is Tech-Georgia and the loser-goes-home dynamic and you can bet there’ll be some crazy atmosphere tonight.
Besides all that, I’ve had the pleasure of sitting the last couple of days next to veteran sportswriter Jack Wilkinson. “Wilkie” has covered thousands of major-league baseball games and countless events over the years but he said he was taken aback by purity of the scene at Foley Field. And he’s right.
Only a few thousand can fit inside the tiny concrete stadium. Rather than bright lights and fireworks and a 200-square foot matrix board, a good mix of classic rock-n-roll, oldies and dance tunes pours politely from the speakers atop the right-center field scoreboard every half-inning. There are no advertisements on the outfield walls, only understated, white-painted graphics of championships gone by. Venders can be heard barking “peanuts” and “ice-cold Coke” and, no matter what happens on any given play, cheers go up in once section of the grandstands or another. With the name of their school stitched proudly across their chests, the players sprint to their positions and back to their respect dugouts every three outs. And regardless of outcome, the teams shake hands in the middle of the diamond at game’s end. With the exception of aluminum bats, it’s how baseball was meant to be played.
Yeah, you can see what happens on TV. But you can’t smell the hot dogs or feel the breeze; you can’t hear the pop of leather or hear “Blue” yell “strike” when the pitch was clearly an inch-and-a-half outside.
I’d say it’s worth cutting out of work an hour or two early, beating the traffic and going to bed a little late. But that’s just me.
Permalink | Comments (119) | Post your comment | Categories: Baseball
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