Enjoy!
By far the biggest news that the Atlanta media got to play with last week was the Chipper Jones non-retirement news story. Last Tuesday, a source to the AJC let slip that Jones was meeting with team brass to potentially discuss his future with the team. After the local paper banged out about three different versions of the story on its website, a press conference was originally announced for later that night, though a few hours later it was revealed that the presser would not happen. The next day at the ballpark, all of the local television stations were in attendance, all angling for a piece of Jones. Instead the cameras had to settle for shots of Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons not taking batting practice but throwing out the first pitch. Then Thursday, Jones had had enough of all of the hubbub on local radio, television, websites and print media, so he called a quick powwow at his locker and announced that he would not be discussing the “R word” until after the season. Score Atlanta’s Stephen Black was on the scene and had a report on the “announcement” almost immediately after it happened. Black’s blog on www.scoreatl.com noted that Jones said, “I have not yet made my decision, but we all know which way I am leaning.” The non-announcement was also discussed by all of the radio stations, though not on the Braves pre-game show that Thursday.
I guess what makes me chuckle a bit is that Jones didn’t think that this news would spread like it did, when “the cork was let out of the bottle.” Said Jones in his impromptu conference, “I was becoming concerned with the firestorm.” I guess Jones didn’t realize how powerful of a figure he is here in Atlanta. When a future Hall of Famer’s retirement is hinted at, yes, people will care. It is a BIG news story.
Score Atlanta’s IJ Rosenberg wrote a nice piece on Chipper in his weekly Sitting in the Cheap Seats column and the AJC’s Mark Bradley stated the obvious (at least to him and myself and plenty of others here at Score Atlanta) that Jones is a lock for the Hall of Fame, but numerous callers to 790 The Zone’s Pollack & Bell seemed to disagree with logic. Several callers suspected, without proof, that Jones had dabbled in steroids. Instead of laughing off the insinuation, the pair instead spouted off the asinine logic of “in this day and age, you are guilty until proven innocent.” Really? You REALLY think he was juicing? So that’s why one of the best pure hitters ever in high school and one of the best pure hitters ever in the minor leagues and perhaps the third-best switch hitter ever in the major leagues lasted for so long? You think he was guilty until he proves himself innocent? Really guys?
In other coverage news, new Hawks head coach Larry Drew appeared on the Zone’s Mayhem in the AM last week. Steak, Nic, and Chris peppered the new coach with questions, including several about Joe Johnson. Drew skirted the issue of whether or not the free agent-to-be Johnson is a max-contract player, saying that in this system he is. Drew also deflected some criticism of Johnson that he doesn’t have “that killer instinct,” by saying that there are many players in the NBA that don’t possess the killer instinct that fans want to see their superstars have and wield. The AJC had a feature on Drew where he promised a new offensive scheme and the paper wondered if Johnson was the right fit for that new system. On Score Atlanta Sports Sunday (tune in this Sunday from 3-6 p.m. on 790 the Zone), I pondered if perhaps it was right to let Joe Johnson go and attempt to bring back Josh Childress from Greece and plug him into the starting lineup. I argued that the combination of Childress and Jamal Crawford would be more effective than the combination of Crawford and Johnson in that Crawford’s minutes would likely go up as well as his scoring to combat the loss of Johnson’s points. It was my argument that Horford’s rebounds and points total would also increase due to his new leadership role. Overall, with the subtraction of Johnson, it would be addition overall to this team and its locker room.
During last Sunday’s US Open coverage on NBC, analyst Johnny Miller cracked a joke that was maybe too soon. “After looking at the field right now, I don't know who's leaking more oil — the field or British Petroleum." The thing is, people will be up in arms about this comment, but who cares? I can just see it now, a bunch of activists (for what, I don’t know) demanding the Miller give an apology, but honestly, the joke was relevant and was something that you could see Leno saying. I want to get out ahead of this thing and tell people to NOT get offended. PLEASE.
Finally, 680 The Fan has announced that the official home of the Braves will also be the home for the 2011 PGA Championship, which will be held in Atlanta at the Atlanta Athletic Club. Buck Belue made the announcement earlier this week on his show after the station hyped up an announcement that will “change the future of the station.” Well not really. The station will air golf play-by-play on the air? which if you’ve ever listened to radio play-by-play of golf on XM radio can be VERY exciting. And by that I mean people might drive off the road due to falling asleep.
Can you believe he said that?
“The two chubby guys are doing it, Hinske and Glaus.” That crack analysis was delivered by David Pollack on 790 The Zone’s Pollack & Bell. A couple of things here Pollack: first, I’ve been in the locker room and Hinske isn’t chubby and Glaus is pretty muscular. I wouldn’t call them chubby, especially to their faces. Number two, I went to Georgia when you were there, Bro. You were a porkchop back in the day. Just because you don’t play anymore and you have lost a person’s worth of weight doesn’t mean you get to make fun of guys still in the game that aren’t even fat. Grady Jackson, I would give you. Not Eric Hinske. hink small, I think many of us are just grateful that someone
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