Year in sports: From ‘infield’ fly to a Bulldog cry

Bobby Petrino to be named man of the year for both Time and Easyrider magazines.

World to end.

Cut them a little slack on that last one. The apocalyptic signs seemed unmistakable enough. Not one, but two, women were admitted as members to Augusta National. All compass readings were suspended when Georgia opened its SEC football schedule in Missouri. Evander Holyfield was beaten by a foreclosure clerk. At December’s end, Thrashers-less Atlanta had exactly as many NHL wins as Montreal.

But the world keeps turning and those games not run by Gary Bettman do go on. Before, however, we rip the last page from the tattered, grease-stained desk calendar, let us recollect the stories that most defined sports in Atlanta and Georgia in 2012.

A spike through the heart

Dec. 1: The SEC Championship game at the Georgia Dome was a classic in the way Shakespeare used to write them. And the Georgia Bulldogs were as tragic as Macbeth with a speech impediment.

Medicine uses a variety of scales to determine the level of pain a patient is suffering. Georgia will have but one measure for the effect of all future defeats: How did that one rate against the 32-28 loss to Alabama in the 2012 SEC Championship?

Playing for the right to meet Notre Dame for the national championship, Alabama and Georgia volleyed back and forth that afternoon, into the night. A last desperate Bulldogs drive, covering three-quarters of the field in less time than it takes to soft boil an egg ended when a hurried Aaron Murray pass was tipped and caught 5 yards short of the goal. The clock bled out before Georgia could run another play.

“We just ran out of time,” lamented Georgia coach Mark Richt.

The debate will live for as long as collegians play: Should Georgia have spiked the ball in order to take one or two more controlled shots at the end zone? It is, like all eternal debates, ultimately unanswerable.

There is no certainty, other than the sting.

The longest goodbye

March 22-Oct. 5: In the annals of great farewells, no one — not Johnny Carson, not Douglas McArthur, not Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca" — wrung as much prolonged sentimentality out of the experience as did Chipper Jones.

The man just knew how to take a bow. And then hold it for better than six months.

It began with a spring-training announcement that 2012 would be his last of 19 seasons with the Braves. And continue until the loss to the Cardinals in the one-game Wild Card playoff. Along the way, Jones enjoyed the kind of sustained affection not usually afforded our sporting mercenaries.

He played steadily, hitting .287 with 14 home runs at the age of 40. He had a five-hit game. And a walk-off home run off Philadelphia’s Jonathan Papelbon. Along the way his first name was changed to Future Hall Of Famer.

He even caught a break in the otherwise lamentable game against the Cardinals. Atop his throwing error that kept alive a three-run inning for St. Louis, Jones very well could have gone hitless if not for a generous scoring decision on his last at-bat. But a misplayed broken-bat grounder was such a trifle to overlook. Give him a hit.

Jone took one last bow, shuffled off, not to be heard from again until reports surfaced that he was dating a Playboy model. The official scorer has yet to rule hit or error on that.

Mr. Blank’s wild ride

Jan. 8-today: The Falcons used 2012 to stress test their fans. Those who have survived the extremes of the year are qualified to ride in whatever's left in the space program.

The year began with a crushing 24-2 playoff loss to eventual Super Bowl-champion New York. Scoring on only a safety, while unusual, fell somewhat below parade-on-Peachtree standards.

The staff picked itself up a couple of shiny new coordinators, and the team roared into the 2012 season with eight consecutive wins. By late November, there even were some in the national media who could tell you the name of Atlanta’s NFL franchise — if you spotted them the “f,” “a” and “l.”

The Falcons will ease into this postseason with the NFL’s best record, an offense that has a Maserati dealership worth of wow factor and home field for all activities this side of the Super Bowl.

Now it is the fans who are being tested, the limits of their belief stretched like John Goodman’s Speedo. After witnessing the Mike Smith-Matt Ryan combo go 0-for-3 in the postseason, the followers are being asked to click their heels together three times and recite: “This time it will be different.”

What do you stand for Danny, goodness or badness?

June 25: When the Atlanta Spirit hired Danny Ferry to generally manage the Hawks, how could the oft-maligned ownership group have known they were also getting the world's foremost snake-oil salesman?

For if you can get another team to take on Joe Johnson’s contract, you surely can talk the birds out of the trees, the fish from the sea, the guy in the 42 stout overalls from the buffet line at Golden Corral.

Who knew you could make such a huge splash by subtraction? It really is the Fredo of the math family.

Ferry came in intent upon clearing cap room and upgrading image. Thus far, he’s making a difference. The team seems to be playing a more fluid, eye-pleasing type of ball in Johnson’s absence. There have been superficial improvements in the team’s facilities. And, importantly, the pregame press meals are now free.

The next step — actually turning the franchise into a top-tier contender — is the toughest job of all. The Hawks remain stuck in middle ground, talented enough to stay out of the draft lottery but possessing one piece too few to win it all in a star-driven league. Ferry’s salesmanship gift will be severely tested on the free-agent market.

It’s not a riot, just think of it as bottled rain delay

Oct. 5: Atlanta's fans have worn the slander of indifference long enough.

In the eighth inning of the Braves’ playoff game vs. St. Louis, they changed all that. Down three runs with two on and one out, the Braves’ Andrelton Simmons lobbed a mortar shot to shallow left. The ball fell between Cardinals shortstop Pete Kozma and left fielder Matt Holliday. It appeared the Braves had the bases loaded, until left-field umpire Sam Holbrook at the last moment signaled that the infield fly rule was in play. That meant two on and two out. The Braves would score no more.

As the reality of the call became apparent — it took a moment for the “infield” fly landed at least 50 feet from the infield — fans realized the last best hope was gone. They showered the field with water and soda bottles. Some even let loose with only half-empty beer cups, which at those prices was a significant investment in ire.

Most observers agreed that there hadn’t been that much trash on Turner Field since the last visit by the Houston Astros.

The game was delayed 19 minutes and, for better or worse, the image of the Atlanta fan was reconfigured.

Does this jacket come in cammo?

April 9: With a daring shot from the trees on the second playoff hole, a guy named Bubba won the Masters. Bubba Watson beat Louis Oosthuizen after parring from the pines in the low light of early evening.

While not one of those rabid kind of Bulldogs, the former Georgia golfer Watson still inspired an outbreak of barking by some of the overjoyed patrons. It is uncertain whether the very proper lords of the Masters will require them to be spayed and neutered before being allowed back on the grounds in 2013.

A bit dizzy after winning his first major, Watson missed cuts in two of his next three events. He did not win again in 2012.

It is a rule when writing golf that you have to mention Tiger Woods. He finished that Masters in a tie for 40th.

A pocket dynasty grows off I-985

Dec. 14: Dog bites man. Sun rises. Traffic stinks. Buford wins state football championship.

These are the givens of life. As a matter of formality, the Wolves did show up and play in the Class AAA final at the Georgia Dome before claiming their fourth title in five years.

It doesn’t matter at what level Buford competes. In the past dozen years, it has won eight titles in three different classifications.

With the next conference realignment, Buford should not be surprised to wake up and find itself in the Big East.

Building the better playhouse

Nov. 9: Georgia Tech basketball opened the sparkling new McCamish Pavilion with a 79-61 victory over Tulane. The building was unveiled as an expensive symbol of renewal at Tech, giving form to the promise of better days of basketball.

Meanwhile, the drumbeats for a new Falcons stadium to replace the 20-year-old Georgia Dome began growing more insistently.

Bigger, better, flashier has long been part of the Atlanta building code. But now the economic realities of sluggish growth and financially tapped governments have called into question the public’s role in building news stadiums for hugely profitable teams.

New stadiums are cool. But now Atlanta wonders: Should we expect our old ones to have a significantly longer lifespan than a Chihuahua?

Mr. Bisher, it was a pleasure

March 18: Former The Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Furman Bisher died prematurely at 93. He had so much more context to lend an age that otherwise treats yesterday's Tweet as ancient and irrelevant.

He was many things: a singular Southern voice; an master word carver; a driving force to bring major league sports to Atlanta; history on the hoof; always the most fascinating man in the room.

Above all, Bisher was the bard of the Masters. At this year’s tournament, his work station in the press center was left vacant save for his trademark yellow bucket hat displayed in silent tribute. He would have loved the poignant understatement.

An old year passes. The memory of friend Furman does not.

Selah.