Fresh Loaf

Ya know that baseball stadium under construction in Gwinnett County? The one the county commission recently agreed — without any public input — to support with an additional $19 million of taxpayer dollars?

From the AJC:

“I’m still trying to figure out how this is going to pay for itself,” [Gwinnett County resident Don Shaw] said, echoing an oft-quoted line from County Administrator Jock Connell in January, on the day county officials announced they’d reached a deal to build the stadium and relocate the top minor-league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves to Gwinnett.

Connell said he anticipated the stadium “paying for itself from day one.”

It might seem that way, “Jock.” (Gwinnett is a land rich with irony.) But a bunch of academics — as well as our very own John Sugg — politely disagree.

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OBAMA: Will hold a town hall meeting at McEachern High School in Powder Springs Tuesday that’s open to the public, although no more tickets are available.

THIS BUD’S NOT FOR YOU: Anheuser-Busch continues to fend off the hostile takeover bid by Belgian beeremoth InBev, which wants to replace the American company’s board of directors.

BUZZ KILL: While Georgia has mostly avoided colony collapse disorder, the phenomenon continues in 24 other states and could spread here, scientists say. UGA will spend the next four years studying disappearing bees as part of a $4.1 million research grant.

BEAR MARKET: Bear populations are up in North Georgia.

SWAMPWISE: Clayton County’s 140-acre manmade wetlands water-treatment site, which treats 10 million gallons of water a day, has become a model for such facilities, drawing visitors from as far as Australia, Mexico and Newfoundland.

THAT’S SO RAVEN: Commerce man is training two ravens to be the official mascots for the Baltimore Ravens, the first task of which will be doing a season-opener stadium fly-through in front of 70,000 fans on Sept. 7.

WILY COYOTES: Berry College biologist is studying the behavior and ecological role of urban and suburban coyotes.

BRAVES: Beat the Astros on Teixeira’s 17th-inning, bases-loaded RBI single in the longest game in Turner Field history.

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PETS AND DEBTS: The NYT reports on foreclosures and layoffs leading Georgians to part with their pets, which is overcrowding no-kill shelters.

CRESCENT BOON: In trying to draw more attention to Georgia’s life-sciences corridor between Atlanta and Athens, the state has dubbed the region the “Innovation Crescent.”

CLAYTON: Two candidates for the school board have prior arrest records — one was busted for selling cocaine when he was 22 and the other was charged with two misdemeanor counts of deposit-account fraud two years ago.

SURGE: U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that soldiers with injuries and medical conditions that should have prevented them from being sent to war were nonetheless deployed from forts Stewart, Benning and Drum to Iraq and Afghanistan as part of last year’s troop surge.

DYLAN: The Georgia Aquarium’s former celebrity sea turtle, who was rescued a decade ago on Jekyll Island as an infant, will be released back into the wild near Brunswick Monday.

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES: UGA loses to Fresno State in the rubber match.

TURNING OVER A NUDE LEAF: A Savannah man is released from jail, then rearrested less than a mile away walking naked down a busy road.

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EVERGLADE PLUG-IN: United States Sugar agrees to sell 187,000 acres in the Everglades, and all of the company’s other assets, to the state of Florida for $1.75 billion, which will allow natural water flow from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay for the first time since the 1890s.

OBAMA: Leads McCain in two polls by more than 10 points, although June poll results rarely hold steady through November. Hillary Clinton begins campaigning for Obama today. Obama asks his supporters to help alleviate some of her campaign debt.

UNIONS’ UNION: Delta and Northwest pilot unions agree on a joint contract.

CYBER RATTLING: Atlanta is the 10th-largest cybercity and largest in the Southeast.

COLLARED: Police pull over and arrest an Atlanta man in Macon driving a U-Haul loaded with $150,000 worth of Polo shirts that had been stolen in Valdosta.

GAS PRICE WAR: Two gas stations in Buford are in an arms race of affordability, with a gallon dropping as low as $3.45 over the weekend.

DOG BEAT DOG: Fresno State downs UGA to tie the series at 1-1; Game 3 to decide the national champion is tonight at 7.

JOHN THOMPSON: The Clayton County corrective superintendent says he was misheard in the video he posted online Monday, that he said Clayton schools “had a very slim chance” of maintaining accreditation, before he became superintendent, not “have a very slim chance.” Two Board of Education members back up the misheard version, saying Clayton will not maintain its accreditation.

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BOWEN OUT: HUD approves of the Atlanta Housing Authority tearing down Bowen Homes in northwest Atlanta; AHA says renovating the housing project would cost $100 million and tearing it down will be less than $6 million.

UGA: Beats Fresno State in Game 1 of the College World Series; now one win away from winning the national championship.

SHELL SHOCK: Four advocacy groups have filed an emergency petition to the Georgia DNR seeking to repeal the state’s turtle collection law, arguing turtle species are dropping due to unrestricted trapping.

TRAIN TAX: MARTA holds informational meeting in Gwinnett about moving rail service into the county; Gwinnettians will vote on the measure, which would be funded with a 1-cent sales tax, on July 15.

CODE RED SMOG ALERT: Atlanta’s now in the red in more ways than one.

EVIDENCE: The zebra found grazing in an I-75 median in April will be recuperated enough for public viewing July 12.

COLOR GUARD: Don Imus says he only asked “what color” Adam “Pacman” Jones is to make the point that Jones has been unfairly targeted by police in his six arrests since 2005. It might have been clearer if Imus had actually said that instead of just, “Well there you go. Now we know,” after being told Jones is black.

CLAYTON: Superintendent John Thompson, who one month ago said Clayton County Schools would meet the SACS mandates by July 15, now says the school system has a “very slim” chance of maintaining accreditation at all. Who cares, though — I want to know how John Thompson’s spirits are holding up:

“After talking to all the politicians, people and powers that be, we have a very slim chance of maintaining accreditation at all. It could have dampened my spirits, but it did not.”

Whew.

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OBAMA: Clinches the Democratic nomination, gives rousing victory speech to thousands in St. Paul.

DRYEST BEFORE DAWN: State climatologist expects drought will get worse before it gets better.

HIGH ON THE SMOG: Atlanta’s under a code orange smog alert today.

FOR GOV OF COUNTRY: Sonny Perdue hosts a gaggle of GOP governors, many of whom are also VP candidates for John McCain, in Atlanta this week for the Republican Governor’s Association luncheon.

TRAFFIC DESIGNER: Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle tells the Cobb Chamber of Commerce Chairman’s Club that he’ll unveil a new transportation plan within the next two months.

ANOTHER BEAR HIT: Again on I-75.

GROWING OUR OWN: USA Today profiles Georgia’s ascendant young baseball talent pool.

UMP IRE: High school pitcher and catcher are under investigation after the catcher ducked away from a pitch during a state championship game, allowing it to hit the home plate ump, who had called nine of their teammates out on strikes during the game.

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After 23 years of minor-league coaching in places such as Gastonia, N.C., and Daytona Beach, Fla., Chino Cadahia finally was called up to the big leagues last year as the Braves’ bench coach. The Havana, Cuba, native is a former minor-league catcher.

How did you find yourself being the Atlanta Braves’ bench coach? Well, 23 years of coaching, you know; I did it all in the minor leagues. I started off as a pitching coach, managed for 10 years.

In the minors? Yeah, all in the minors. Started in ‘84 as a pitching coach [at Salem for the Carolina League]. Started managing in 1986 [at Daytona Beach for the Florida State League]; managed for 10 years [in Gastonia for the South Atlantic League and for the Rangers' Gulf Coast League rookie squad in Port Charlotte, Fla.] and came to Atlanta as a [minor-league] catching instructor in 1996. ‘96 to ‘97 I did that, and then I became the minor-league field coordinator in ‘98, and did that until last year [2006].

In batting practice, what do you throw these guys? How do you approach batting-practice pitching? Well, most of the time the ways these guys like to do things is the first one or two rounds they like to work the ball the other way — so you try to throw the ball middle to the outside half of the plate. And then [after the first couple rounds] of working the ball the other way, then you just start trying to throw it as fat as you can down the middle of the plate, and let them decide what they want to do with it. Every hitter is different. At this level most of the hitters have been around, so they know exactly what they want to do. You know, [Edgar] Renteria for instance, he works the ball the other way consistently; every once in a while he’ll ask to throw him a few inside so he can turn on it. Chipper [Jones] likes to work the ball the other way for the first couple rounds and then he’ll start hitting the ball gap to gap. Andruw [Jones] is the same way, you know; [Brian] McCann likes it the same way. So you pretty much, in general … they’ll ask you where they want the ball according to what they want to work on during any specific round.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Well, it could come down to this: The Braves start up a four-game series at San Francisco tonight, which sets up the slight chance that Barry Bonds could surpass Hank Aaron as the home run king while facing Aaron’s old team. Bonds sits at 753, two shy of tying the mark.

There’s an interesting article by Sandy Tolan on Salon.com, calling for Commissioner Bud Selig to be there for No. 756 to make up for then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn’s ridiculous snub of Aaron’s breaking Babe Ruth’s record (714) back in 1974. (Kuhn decided to honor a previous commitment instead. Nice.) Tolan’s argument that Bonds’ record should be appreciated (and placed in proper historical perspective) in spite of the taint of steroid use is a compelling one, though I’m not sure if it holds.

But here’s what I’d like to know: Where were you in 1974, when Aaron ripped one off Al Downing for No. 715? I remember sitting in my parents’ living room as a kid, oblivious to all the death threats Aaron endured, and so oblivious to the issue of race that clouded his magical run. I was pretty oblivious in general until I heard the crack of the bat, and as Aaron trotted dutifully around the bases — looking more relieved than jubilant — that fan trying to join in on the victory lap. Then it finally hit me: Aaron had become one for the ages. It was probably then that I made the Braves my second-favorite team behind another team with Boston ties: the Red Sox.

Where were you when the Hammer hit No. 715?

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In case anyone hasn’t been fortunate enough to see this yet, this is Class AA Mississippi Braves manager Phillip Wellman on Friday having one of the most inventive tantrums in recent memory.

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If there is an upside to the Atlanta Braves being sold as a stock/tax write-off, it’s thank the heavens and stars above that Time Warner/AOL (or whatever that company is called now) no longer owns the team.

Under Time Warner’s, er, leadership, the Braves went from the dominant team in the National League to a “winning mediocrity” not unlike the Atlanta Hawks of the ’80s — good enough to make the playoffs, but not strong enough to stand a chance of winning.

If nothing else, look at the Whos? (a Who?, by the way, is a player so obscure that you have to go: Who’s that?) the Braves have employed in recent years. The Braves have a Who? playing first base this year. And second base. And left field. And there are Whos? all through the pitching staff.

When Ted Turner owned the team, they didn’t have Whos? They went out and got Fred McGriff to play first base. They signed the best pitcher in baseball, Greg Maddux, as a free agent. When’s the last time the Braves were even in the hunt for a name free agent? Instead, they now lose their star players to the free-agent market (Maddux, Tom Glavine, Rafael Furcal and, upcoming, Andruw Jones).

And replace them with Whos?

That’s thanks to Time Warner and the “budget constraints” it placed on the Braves. Getting to the playoffs was good enough. Winning the World Series? Nay.

Any time a professional sports franchise doesn’t have a local owner, it’s bad news. Simply because it isn’t a part of the community and has little emotional investment in the team. There’s talk of Liberty adding a local partner (Arthur Blank’s name was mentioned) who would eventually buy the team and return it to Atlanta ownership.

But, for now, the Braves are owned by a Who? and while it’s liberating to finally be free of Time-Warner, I will always lament the day Ted Turner got rooked by Time Warner and lost control of his empire.

Especially the part of it that was the Atlanta Braves.

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The AJC’s David O’Brien has an interesting blog on the return of Greg Maddux (in a San Diego uniform, unfortunately) and Maddux’s unique sense of humor.

As O’Brien tells it, when Chipper Jones was a rookie and got his first major-league hit, he understandably wanted to keep the ball. When he returned to the dugout, he discovered that the ball had been, er, doctored:

“I came off the field, and sure enough, there was a big ol’ loogie on it,” Jones said. “[Maddux had] picked his nose and wiped it on the baseball.”

Which reminds me of an even better, and slightly less disgusting, Greg Maddux story.
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The NFL just recently fined Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher $100,000 for drinking Vitaminwater and wearing a Vitaminwater hat during media day in the week that precedes the Super Bowl. Vitaminwater is not an official drink sponsor of the NFL — only Gatorade is the NFL’s official drink, hence the extreme fine.

Now, I don’t know what Vitaminwater is and I’ve never heard of it (but I think I might try some now), but this fine got me thinking about Atlanta sports figures and some of the fines they’ve been handed over the years …

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OK, baseball fans, the last-place Chicago Cubs (5-8) begin a two-game series with the division-leading Braves (9-4) tonight, so I thought a small comparison of the team histories was in order — that is, considering they are so drastically different.

Being a Braves fan has been easy. It’s like being a baby: Every time we open our mouths, someone shovels more food in; when we take a shit, someone else cleans it up. There are no curses, no bad joo-joo, nada. The only thing difficult, it would appear, about being a Braves fan is showing up to the games! This is not true for Cubs fans.

All of that said shit has been dumped on the Cubbies, those lovable losers from the North Side of Chicago. Not since 1908 have the Cubs won a World Series — the longest dry spell in all of baseball and of every major sport in the United States. I’d list the huge events that have occurred since the last time the Cubs won the championship, but you are probably planning on going to bed tonight before 3 a.m. (If not, well, maybe you should get a job.)

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