Last week's THEFLETCH

Did you miss it on Friday? You DID? Why didn't you just go to QuikTrip and grab a copy of Score Atlanta? Well, here it is......enjoy!

The Atlanta Hawks finally were able to close out the Milwaukee Bucks last weekend and in Sunday’s ONLY Game Seven, surely the do-or-die game would get top billing on SportsCenter, correct? Well surely the do-or-die game would get top NBA billing on SportsCenter, correct? Well surely the do-or-die game would at least get mentioned by the NBA on ABC crew, correct? I mean Jon Berry lives in Atlanta, so he’ll HAVE to talk about the Hawks, right? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. As I watched the Hawks dismantle the Bucks last Sunday, I was thinking that FINALLY Atlanta would get its due on SportsCenter that night with all of the talking heads discussing how Atlanta was able pull through, having been down three games to two in the first round series. I figured maybe they’d talk about how the Hawks are back in the second round after three straight seasons of a first round Game Seven. Nope. The Lakers/Jazz series-opener got all of the top billing with the better play-by-play crew on ABC. On ESPN, the Lakers led the show and then after about 6 minutes of highlights, followed by four player interviews, the Hawks were given two minutes (maybe) of highlights. When the SportsCenter hosts kicked it to ABC, they discussed the Lakers with nary a mention of the Hawks game. No Hawks love?
I would feel more slighted by this if I had not listened to 790 and 680 last Friday where people were openly calling for the Hawks to lose Game Six. Callers wanted the team to lose to end the season and potentially blow the squad up to start over. What? Don’t you remember all of those years before the 2007-08 season? We don’t want those again. Chris Bosh isn’t coming to Atlanta, where he spent one season at Georgia Tech. The Houston Chronicle is reporting that the Rockets will make Bosh target No. 1. Do we think Dwyane Wade will come to Atlanta? Really? Amare isn’t coming here. Do we want to shell out for Boozer when Al Horford is already the undersized post player? No. This team has to stay as is (even if that means maxing out a guy that scored just eight points on 4-14 shooting), and hope that Josh Smith continues to get better.

The Atlanta Braves were “streaking” according to AJC after just two games against Houston. The Braves finished off a horrible road trip on a nine-game losing streak and last weekend took the first two games of the three game set with the Astros. When I opened up the AJC Sunday morning, the Braves had started a “winning streak.” Um, I guess I have a different view of what a “streak” is, in that I take my definition from the movie Major League. To paraphrase, “you win a game, then you win the next day and that is two in a row. If you win the day after that, you have a ‘streak!’” I always thought that it took three straight games to have a streak of either wins or losses. Maybe I am just old school (or WAY too into pop culture), but that is how I roll. And I wonder if Mark Bradley still feels that this team won’t win anything as currently constructed. Hey Mark, it is the first week of May. You want to calm it down a touch? Wait, I forgot. You are the guy that said an April hit was the same thing as Francisco Cabrera’s NLCS pennant-winning RBI. That’s right. You are a gun-jumper.

The Kennesaw State University women’s soccer team and the Atlanta Beat will be playing in the country’s first soccer stadium built specifically for women’s soccer. Kudos to the Marietta Daily-Journal for covering the ribbon-cutting. While Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia get most of the headlines from the AJC, Georgia State and Kennesaw State both have big-time programs as well that the city paper sometimes misses. Score Atlanta is all over the city, covering events from not just high school championships and the pro teams, but the Panthers and the Owls as well. If you miss the big story from the AJC’s website, check our website at www.scoreatl.com. We had the link to the Daily-Journal’s story before most of Atlanta went to work.

After 680 The Fan’s Buck & Kincade and 790 The Zone’s Pollack & Bell go off the air at 7 p.m. weekdays, barring a baseball or basketball game, both stations typically go to network radio, either ESPN for 680 or Sporting News for 790. Usually I prefer the self-righteous Brian Kenney show on ESPN Radio, but last week on The Monty Show, the silly, scatterbrained host was quite funny that I laughed out loud in my car, something that is pretty hard to do for sports talk radio. The Monty Show was discussing the potential Tiger Woods divorce settlement for $600M and the host was going on and on about how Elin had done her part to “earn” that money. He wondered how many times Elin had scrubbed the marble floors in the Isleworth Estate with pledge or taken the cars in for an oil change. I’m not sticking up for Tiger here, but HE earned that money and just because he screwed around on the wife, that doesn’t mean she should win the divorce lottery. Did she help him earn the money? No. Did she keep the house while he earned that money? No. Did she take care of the kids while he earned the money? Interestingly enough, despite her background as a nanny, she had her own nannies to care for the children. I would have to agree with The Monty Show in regards to Elin not deserving that money. Do I think Elin should get something? Yes, but not $600M.
Hey ESPN, just a heads up: we don’t care about Lorena Ochoa’s retirement. If you didn’t have “W Golf” on the ticker beside her name, we wouldn’t even know who she is. Stop cramming her down our throats. And NO, it ISN’T like if Tiger Woods had decided to retire after the Tiger-Slam. We KNEW WHO HE WAS back then. Ochoa could have won 82 straight tournaments and I STILL don’t think I’d have a clue as to who she is. Just saying.


CAN YOU BELIEVE HE JUST SAID THAT?
“And the Yankees play the…Orioles. I hope the Orioles lose 100 games this year!” That was Leo Mazzone sort of introducing Mitch Williams onto the Rude Awakening last week. Leo, we get it. Things didn’t end well with you in Baltimore, though I believe the organization still paid you an obscene amount of money after you left the Camden Yards locker room. As listeners we can tell when some people “don’t like” programs or teams, but it is in jest. You however don’t hide your bitterness well and it is awkward to listen to. We also remember you left for the guaranteed contract (and to work with your friend), so please don’t ever be upset at an athlete that wants to get his because you went and got yours. Lost a golden goose situation, but you got yours, right?