Hey y’all.
At the moment, we don’t know anything new about Tua Tagovailoa’s back issue or if Cooper Rush will start Sunday’s season opener in Pittsburgh. (What a fun sentence to write on a Friday morning!)
More uplifting Falcons talk after a brief intermission to reflect on Atlanta’s role in a seminal American moment.
‘DOING OUR PART … FOR AMERICA’
10 days after the unimaginable events of Sept. 11, 2001, baseball returned to New York City.
The Braves were there.
“I feel really proud to be part of it,” manager Bobby Cox said. “I feel the Braves are a lucky team to be here. We’re doing our part for the city and for America.”
Marc Anthony sang the national anthem at Shea Stadium, home of the Mets, that night. Diana Ross sang “God Bless America,” and the top of the home dugout made the same request in writing.
The faux skyline above the center field scoreboard bore a red, white and blue ribbon where the twin towers had stood.
And when New York catcher Mike Piazza hit the game-winning home run, the sold-out crowd did not chant “let’s go Mets,” as ritual demanded.
It opted for “U-S-A” instead.
“Having ballgames shows we’re moving along,” Brooklynite Brian Carter told a reporter. “And not being afraid.”
Yes, the Braves lost on Sept. 21, 2001.
Jason Marquis put together a stellar outing on the mound. Ken Caminiti and Brian Jordan plated runs.
It wasn’t enough.
But it was only right.
For New York, on this night, 3-2 was reason enough to cheer.
“From Diana Ross to the 21-gun salute, from the moment of silence to Marc Anthony, the pregame ceremony was scripted,” columnist Mark Bradley wrote. “Who knew the game would be, too?”
“On the night baseball returned to the Big Apple, New York’s finest player won the game with a home run in the eighth inning. Mike Piazza drove a Steve Karsay pitch far into the night, just to the right of the section of bleachers bearing signs with the initials of the New York Police Department and the Fire Department of New York. And as the ball left Piazza’s bat, you had to ask yourself: Could this impassioned game have unfolded any other way?”
🔗 Bonus Braves linkage: Chris Sale’s resurgence rooted in unique offseason program
KYLE PITTS: TIGHT END OF INTRIGUE
Another Falcons season begins Sunday afternoon, in Pittsburgh.
The depth chart is set (minus the latest quarterback question). The season predictions are locked in (I spy lots of 7-10s). The first “Dirty Birds Dispatch” of the season has hit inboxes (read here; sign up here).
And fam? Beat writer Daniel Flick has also blessed us with a rather riveting — and personal — look at one of Atlanta’s most divisive athletes.
Tight end Kyle Pitts. The Unicorn.
Do take advantage of this free gift link to read the whole thing … but here’s an excerpt to whet the old whistle.
Kyle Pitts is more than the Unicorn. “That’s for my job,” he says. Somewhere along the way — maybe it was the Under Armour All-America honors as a high school senior, or the unanimous All-America nod at Florida, or becoming the highest-drafted tight end in NFL history — the world forgot about KP, or Peezy.
He’s a self-proclaimed “smooth cat,” the son of an Amtrak-working father and a nurse mother, a cologne-wearing, blues-listening, actively-aspiring All-Pro dad. And he’s still only 25 years old.
It’s the dichotomy of life, but Kyle Pitts never let the player change the man. He rarely reads your comments — the ones saying he doesn’t care or doesn’t try — and when they cross his feed under social media posts, he’ll delete them.
Rat poison. People are with you when you’re good and attack when you’re bad.
Oooh. Juicy. Y’all go read it now, ya hear?
CAN TECH TAME THE VOLUNTEERS?
Have really enjoyed new Georgia Tech beat writer Fletcher Page’s “everything you need to know” stories. The pre-Tennessee edition is no different.
As Fletcher points out, the Jackets will always try to run the ball … but things could get interesting when the 18th-ranked Volunteers roll into Bobby Dodd Stadium on Saturday (7 p.m. on ESPN).
Quarterback Alberto Mendoza completed 74% of his passes in Week 1 against Colorado and only got better as the game progressed.
🧐 More from the story: (Head coach Brent) Key revealed the plan called for opening it up through the air, but that idea didn’t fully materialize as the game played out. Colorado maintained a field-position advantage, and Tech spent much of the night starting drives deep in its own territory.
“I’ve got full confidence in our quarterback to be able to move the football now,” Key said. “We’ve seen him out there on the field, we’ve seen him play, seen how he throws the football, see how he avoids pressure, makes people miss.”
MORE WATCH-WORTHY COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMES
🏈 No. 23 Missouri at Kansas (8 p.m. Friday, Fox): Kansas (the school) posted an insane hype video calling out Missouri (the state) for supporting slavery. Long live college football. And John Brown.
🏈 No. 11 Oklahoma at Michigan (noon Saturday, Fox): Wolverines need a lot more than one extra second to make this competitive.
🏈 No. 1 Ohio State at No. 4 Texas (7:30 p.m. Saturday, ABC): Don’t get much better than that now does it?
🏈 We’re also keeping tabs on HBCU action this season.
THE WORST GEORGIA UNIFORMS OF ALL-TIME
No. 2 Georgia is hosting a white party for Big Red this weekend, donning all-alabaster* uniforms for the first time.
We’ll wait to see ‘em on the field before rendering a final judgment, but they’re pretty good — which hasn’t always been the case with alternate Bulldog duds.
After an extensive sartorial investigation, I’ve arrived at two finalists for the worst Georgia football uniforms of all time.
🅰️ At left, the downright bizarre getups Aaron Murray and the 2011 squad sported in their Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game loss to Boise State.
🅱️ At right, the atrocious black helmet-black pants ensemble the 2009 Bulldogs wore while catching a beating from Urban Meyer, Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators. (I really really hate those helmets for some reason.)
Which one’s worse?
*They’re just regular white, but I didn’t want to say white twice in one sentence.
SOME OTHER GOOD THINGS TO KNOW
📊 Remember Wednesday’s poll about who (besides LSU) we should kick out of the SEC? I expected a lot of rivalry-based answers, to be honest — but Arkansas was the top answer. Big geographical beef there, apparently.
😬 Just what they needed: Buford High officially added the country’s No. 1 recruit to its roster. He had a fumble recovery in the Wolves’ Thursday night win over nationally ranked Miami Central.
📈 Jamal Lewis, Fran Tarkenton and Hines Ward walk into a bar … and the bar is called “Georgia’s All-Time Leaders in Various High School Statistical Categories.” That girl you like is there, too.
😀 It brings me great pleasure to report that Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark’s on-court chemistry is all the rage for Team USA at the FIBA World Cup
THE MOVIE SCENE I THINK OF AT THE END OF EVERY NEWSLETTER
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of the Win Column. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tyler.estep@ajc.com.
Until next time.