The following, a new weekly feature of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, allows our reporters to open their notebooks and provide even more information from our local teams that we cover daily. We think you’ll find in informative, insightful and fun.
One Hawks draftee had eye on Alabama for football
Getting picked by the Hawks in the second round of the NBA draft was a fortuitous turn for Seth Lundy. The guard out of Penn State is now close enough that his favorite football team is only a few hours away by car.
“My dream was to go to Alabama and play football,” Lundy said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday when the Hawks introduced their newest team members to the media.
Lundy has no connection to the Crimson Tide – he grew up outside of Philadelphia – but aligned himself with Nick Saban’s team as a boy for a simple reason. The colors of the high school in his hometown – Paulsboro (N.J.) High – are red and white, and that was close to enough to the Tide’s iconic crimson and white to secure his loyalty. As he grew older, he figured out what a fortuitous selection he’d made.
“I’m like, hold on, they’re actually really good,” Lundy said. “They’re the best team every year.”
Lundy’s devotion has not waned. He said he watches every game that Alabama plays and made his fandom so clear that friends at Penn State sometimes asked who he would root for if the Nittany Lions football team matched up against the Tide.
“I’d say, ‘I’m sorry, but I’m rooting for Alabama,’” Lundy said. “‘I’m sorry, that’s a no-brainer to me. Obviously, I go to Penn State and I’ve got a lot of friends on the team, but I love Alabama.’”
Football was Lundy’s first love, and he imagined himself someday playing at Bryant-Denny Stadium. He played all over the field as a youth. But he switched to basketball before his freshman year at Roman Catholic High in Philadelphia and didn’t play football after eighth grade, despite entreaties from the school’s football coaches. At 6-foot-6 and a well-built 220 pounds, it’s not hard to envision him as a dynamic receiver.
He’ll have to settle for being able to watch the Tide in person.
“I’ve never been,” he said. “I want to go to a game so bad.”
Fun ride
Marcell Ozuna and Matt Olson did not take the Braves’ bus on one of the days in Cincinnati last week.
The hotel was walkable – well, ride-able – so they rode scooters.
“It was a fun trip,” Ozuna said.
Charlie Morton and the mascots
Sunday’s mascot race in Cincinnati had a surprise entrant: Charlie Morton.
At the end of one inning, the Reds held their mascot race. The mascots ran from the first base side all the way around home plate, staying on the warning-track dirt the entire time.
Just as the mascots went parading past the Braves’ dugout, Morton ran out. Oops. He quickly realized he was in their way, stopped in the middle of them, then sidestepped his way out of trouble.
Morton was impressive. He actually didn’t get in the way too much.
Woeful Mets
The Mets, despite their record $360 million payroll, were a season-worst 17 games behind the Braves on Thursday. A day earlier, owner Steve Cohen indicated the team could be sellers at the trade deadline, an unfathomable outcome entering a season in which the Mets felt they could dethrone the Braves atop the division.
“I’m preparing my management team for all possibilities,” Cohen said during a press conference. “If we don’t get better, we have decisions to make at the trade deadline, and that’s not my preferred end result, but I’m preparing all contingencies.”
The Marlins were 13 games over .500 on Thursday. The Phillies, who’ve had an excellent June, were 42-37. The National League East is increasingly looking like a formidable division, but not how it was expected. The Braves are comfortably the best team to this point, while the Mets are a non-factor.
Wes Johnson rebuilding Georgia baseball roster
Having just helped LSU to the program’s seventh College World Series championship, new Georgia baseball coach Wes Johnson arrived in Athens this week with much work to do.
The roster the Tigers’ pitching coach inherited from outgoing UGA coach Scott Stricklin is in tatters. Currently, at least 19 players who competed for the Bulldogs during last year’s 29-27 have departed. A third of those individuals saw their eligibility expire, a third are entering the MLB draft and the other third entered the transfer portal.
What’s left, though, is enough for Georgia and Johnson to build on. That starts with rising sophomore slugger Charlie Condon, who announced last week he intends to remain with the Bulldogs.
The reigning SEC Freshman of the Year batted .386 this past season, with 25 home runs and 67 RBIs. After a brief turn in the Cape Cod League, Condon went to Cary, North Carolina, where he earned a spot on the Team USA roster. Condon will compete in series against Chinese Taipei and Japan in July before returning to UGA before fall semester begins in mid-August. In the meantime, Johnson stayed busy in the transfer portal while he was with the Tigers in Omaha.
The Bulldogs have added at least six players via the portal in the past couple of weeks. They include outfielder John Marant (College of Central Florida), outfielder Dylan Goldstein (Florida Atlantic), first baseman Luke Farris (Western Kentucky), third baseman Slate Alford (Mississippi State), pitcher Brian Zeldin (Penn), catcher Weston Eberly (Columbia) and outfielder Clayton Chadwick (Sam Houston State).
Georgia has lost some key players in the portal as well, including infielders Jonathan Little and Josh Tate and pitchers Charlie Goldstein, Luke Wagner, Jake Poindexter and Michael Polk.
Tech’s Willingham makes major league
Former Georgia Tech baseball standout and 17th-round draft pick Amos Willingham was promoted to the Washington Nationals and made his major league debut Wednesday. He became the 74th major league player in program history.
Willingham pitched in the eighth, giving up one hit (a home run) in the Nationals’ 4-1 win over the Mariners.
One of seven Yellow Jackets drafted in 2019, Willingham has emerged as one of Washington’s top prospects, posting a 1.90 ERA and 4-1 record in 23.2 innings this season – 13 of them for Triple-A Rochester. Before Rochester, he was Double-A Harrisburg’s closer, recording five saves. The 6-foot-4 24-year-old had 10 shutout appearances, striking out 14 batters, in 10-2/3 innings for Harrisburg.
In his four-season minor league career, the Summerville native has posted a 3.84 ERA in 90 appearances and two starts. He is 12-7 with 11 saves.
Willingham spent one season at Tech after transferring from Snead State Community College in Alabama.
Credit: Photo courtesy of Atlanta Falcons
Credit: Photo courtesy of Atlanta Falcons
Falcons group went on USO tour in Europe
Falcons coach Arthur Smith, defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen, outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter, kicker Younghoe Koo, tight end Feleipe Franks and vice chairman of AMB Sports & Entertainment Steve Cannon recently visited U.S. service members deployed overseas when they went on a United Service Organizations (USO) tour to Germany, Romania and Bulgaria.
They toured U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden in Frankfurt, Germany, Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base in Constanta, Romania, and Novo Selo Training Area in Sliven, Bulgaria.
The group served meals to service members, signed autographs and took photos with troops at meet and greets and participated in military training workouts.
The group also participated in an event for fans from the Falcons Germany Fan club in Frankfurt. Earlier this year, the NFL granted the Falcons international marketing rights in Germany as part of the league’s Global Markets program. Germany fans have a chance to enter a raffle to win tickets to the Falcons’ Week 4 game against the Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London.
Falcons name Bill Walsh diversity coaching fellows
Brandon Cuevas, Justin Manning, Adrian McDonald and Angela Rowe were named Bill Walsh diversity coaching fellows by the Falcons for the coming training camp.
Cuevas is the current offensive line coach at Princeton. Manning is the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Tufts. McDonald is the defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Texas-Rio Grande Valley. Rowe is the head flag football coach at Bethel College in Kansas and also is the quality control/advisor for the Atlanta Empire of the X-League, a women’s indoor football league.
-Staff writers Justin Toscano, D. Orlando Ledbetter, Ken Sugiura, Gabriel Burns and Chip Towers contributed to this report.
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