The Win Column: Andruw heads to Cooperstown

Y’all get your Masters rejection emails this week?

Yeah … me too.

Always a bummer, but remember: The Win Column loves you no matter what.

A CHILDHOOD, ENSHRINED

Soon-to-be Hall of Famer Andruw Jones celebrates a win in 2002. (Sunny Sung/AJC)

With reasonably strict guidelines applied (i.e., not including guys who spent a year or three here but are better known for their accomplishments elsewhere), 11 Atlanta Braves are enshrined in Cooperstown.

Three of them — Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Phil Niekro — are old-school legends.

The rest are from those ’90s teams.

Bobby and Chipper. Glavine and Maddux and Smoltz. Schuerholz counts, of course. McGriff’s plaque hat is logo-less, but we’ll claim him.

Andruw completes the set.

Atlanta’s “other” Jones — the best defensive center fielder of a generation, if not all-time — officially enters the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend. The Sunday afternoon ceremony (1:30 p.m., MLB Network) will again remind us of how lucky we were back then.

• Victor Mederos is awesome
• Anthopoulos eyeing deadline action

And if you’re roughly my age, “back then” amounts to most of your childhood … now fully embossed in bronze.

It’s enough to make a man misty-eyed.

I was born in 1987. One of my first memories of any kind is sitting on my parents’ bedroom floor, craning my neck to watch the ’91 World Series on the old TV atop their dresser.

The Braves remained a constant in my life ever after.

I watched every second of every game, even on the West Coast. Being a decidedly nerdy glasses-wearer myself, I fell in love with Maddux in particular. I bonded with my grandmother. I read baseball almanacs for fun.

• At 15, I complained about getting my first job (Target, Mall of Georgia), but only because that after-school evening shift meant missing the game.
• I was a sophomore in college when the Braves didn’t make the playoffs for the first time in my fully sentient life.
• I didn’t cry then. But I did when Skip Caray died a few years later. (Also poured a Natural Light out on the sidewalk, for good measure.)

More to the point: Reading what Furman Bisher and Mark Bradley and David O’Brien and Jeff Schultz wrote about those Braves made me fall even deeper in love. Made me want to be them, even.

It’s quite possible I wouldn’t be here, in your inbox, without Andruw et al. If they hadn’t been so good for so long.

Curse them for that if you want.

I say thank you. For everything.

📲 Hall of Fame festivities start Friday. The AJC’s Gabe Burns will be on-hand through it all, so follow him at @GabeBurnsAJC.

PROOF OF JONES’ DEFENSIVE PROWESS

Just a few moments ago, I fearlessly stated that Andruw Jones may be the best defensively center fielder.

Ever.

Lots of folks who played and coached with or around him agree. But you don’t have to take their word for it either.

We’ve got ~data~ to prove it.

“Total zone runs” is a fancy metric that calculates how many runs a fielder saved (or cost) his team compared to an average counterpart.

The data goes back to 1953 ... and Mr. Jones is tops among all center fielders.

In addition to, you know, the 434 home runs he hit.

Pretty good ballplayer, that one.

OTHER INTERESTING THINGS TO KNOW

🏈 Georgia football coach Kirby Smart said a lot of things at SEC media days (including, uh, labeling Lane Kiffin an “Adonis.”) The most relevant on-field update: Running back Dante Dowdell, a transfer from Kentucky, is out indefinitely.

ESPN reports Dowdell suffered serious injuries in an ATV crash.

🐝 Does Buzz, Georgia Tech’s humanoid yellow jacket mascot, belong in the Mascot Hall of Fame? Of course! And you can vote for him through the end of the week.

• The Savannah Bananas mascot, Split, is also on the ballot. Don’t vote for him. Not this early in his existence. And not on a ballot full of legends like Purdue Pete and, ahem, Mrs. Met.

⚽ Atlanta United visits Charlotte tonight (8:15 p.m., FS1 and Apple TV). If you’d like a comprehensive, less-snarky-than-Tyler look at where things stand post World Cup, this is your link.

🏀 The Dream’s Rhyne Howard accepted an invite to Friday’s WNBA 3-point contest in Chicago (8 p.m., ESPN). Howard makes the second-most 3-pointers per game in the league — trailing only Toronto’s Marina Mabrey, who’s also competing.

Howard also joins Allisha Gray and Angel Reese in Saturday’s All-Star Game. That one’s at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.

TALKING GOLF WITH KYLE PITTS

The Kyle Pitts Foundation held its fifth annual charity golf tournament Tuesday at Chateau Elan. (Daniel Flick/AJC)

I generally avoid just copying and pasting from my esteemed colleagues’ stories. And you should definitely check out Falcons beat writer Daniel Flick’s ongoing roster breakdowns (QB, RB, WR and TE posted so far).

Buuut I also enjoyed the fact that he went to Kyle Pitts’ charity golf tournament to ask the tight end some tough questions … about golf.

Pretty good answers too. An excerpt:

• Lowest score: 81, last summer at St. Ives.
• Favorite club: 8-iron. “That’s a scoring iron,” he said. “From 170 in, I’m going to get on the green.”
• On the fringe — chip or Texas wedge? “I’m a chipper,” Pitts said. “I love my hands. They pay me to catch the ball, so I’ve got to have soft hands.”
• Longest drive: 340 yards — with a bit of help. “I did catch a hill,” he said, smiling. “But that doesn’t matter, you know?”
• Longest putt: 80 feet.
• Favorite approach shot number: 165 yards from the pin. “If I’m 165, I know I’m going to have a birdie look. I’m going to get on that thing,” Pitts said. “A par 5, if I get to that yardage, I know I’m going to be able to have a birdie opportunity for sure.”
• Short game or driver? “Short game,” Pitts said. “That’s what saves strokes.”

Eighty feet? I’m gonna need to see the tape.

BAD CHOICES ALL AROUND

In the wake of the Hawks shipping former No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher out of town, we asked for your thoughts on Atlanta’s worst draft picks of all time.

We certainly got ‘em — from deep cuts to the obvious.

Hawks legend Marvin Williams (could’ve had Chris Paul!) popped up. So did Calvin Ridley (not bad, really, until the whole gambling thing) and Devonta Freeman (feels pretty harsh, but people don’t forget missed blocks in the Super Bowl). Even had a Thrashers reference (Patrik Stefan, the team’s first selection).

But the most “popular” answer?

😬 That was Aundray Bruce.

The Falcons drafted Mr. Bruce, a linebacker from Auburn, at No. 1 overall in 1988. He put up six sacks in each of his first two seasons but petered off rather rapidly after that. Atlanta gave it four years, total, before cutting bait.