Good morning. This is LEADOFF, the early buzz in Atlanta sports.
Sunday afternoon presented sports fans many options on Atlanta TV, including two NBA playoff games, a NASCAR race, a Braves game and an Atlanta United game.
Here’s how those events fared in the local Nielsen ratings:
The NBA playoff game between the Jazz and Clippers commanded a 3.9 rating and the Wizards-Celtics playoff game a 3.7 rating in the Atlanta market.
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race from Richmond, Va., attracted a 3.2 rating here.
The Braves-Brewers game drew a 2.2 rating.
And the Atlanta United-D.C. United match drew a 1.2 rating.
The rating is the percentage of homes in the Atlanta TV market watching each event on average.
RELATED: How many Atlanta homes watched first round of NFL draft Thursday night?
* * *
As Todd Holcomb compiled for the AJC, 29 former Georgia high school football players were chosen in this year's NFL draft.
And the amazing part is that those players were drafted out of 25 different colleges — none of them out of UGA and only one (kicker Harrison Butker) out of Georgia Tech. (The only UGA draftee, Isaiah McKenzie, is from Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)
The website coachingsearch.com noted that Georgia's 29 former high school players were the most drafted from any state, topping Florida (27), California (26) and Texas (24).
Read DawgNation's Seth Emerson's take on the topic here.
* * *
The Braves on Monday night opened their second homestand at SunTrust Park, and the hitter-friendly ballpark picked up right where it left off in the first homestand.
Both teams’ first batter of the game hit a home run, the Mets’ Michael Conforto and the Braves’ Ender Inciarte.
Inciarte’s homer was his third at SunTrust Park. He hit only one all of last season at Turner Field.
The Braves’ Matt Kemp barely missed a home run over the center-field wall in the fourth inning Monday, settling for a double.
The Mets’ Jose Reyes hit the game’s third home run in the eighth inning, giving the Mets a 7-5 lead that held up as the final score.
Nineteen home runs have been hit in SunTrust Park’s first eight games, an average of 2.375 per game. By comparison, 130 home runs were hit in 80 games at Turner Field last season, an average of 1.62 per game.
About the Author
