Let’s tend to our business first.
Here’s Paschall on UT football after a media availability with Hendon Hooker. (Side note: Media availability is a twisted term. It’s been my experience, the media is always available. That’s kind of our job – much to the chagrin of spouses and offspring – is to be available when needed. But the term takes on a different feel these days because players, and especially assistants, are so seldom made available to the media.)
As for the week’s Rushmores, let’s go here (and gang, we are winging them without a lot of feedback from you big-brained commenters since, well, the comment section took an early spring break):
Rushmore of people with a specific bird for a last name: Russell Crowe, Captain Jack Sparrow, Tony Hawk, and Dan Quayle. (And sorry, but I ruled Donald Duck and all his kin inadmissible.)
Rushmore of Paul Rudd movies, and this one was way more challenging than I expected: “Ant Man,” “Anchorman,” “I Love You Man,” and a personal fav of “Role Models.” And leaves “Clueless” and “This is 40” off. (Side note: “Too much of a supporting character in “40 Year Old Virgin” for it to be on Rudd’s Rushmore for me.)
Rushmore of sports logos for events, leagues or venues: Augusta National, the Olympic Rings, the Ryder Cup and Jerry West in the NBA logo.Rushmore of 4: “Four score and seven years ago,” Four square (yes, retired undefeated at Greater Atlanta Christian School grades 2 thru 5), “Four-wheelin'” and Four corners. As for jerseys, 4 is pretty sneaky awesome and with a better basketball player could contend among the best four major sports numbers of all time since you have Bobby Orr, Brett Favre and Lou Gehrig in the other three, which is pretty stout. Technically you could say Chuck Barkley in hoops – he wore 4 with the Suns – but he felt more 34 to me.
To the bag, and we are going to try to move quickly.
From too many of you to name
What the (bleep) is going on with the comments, Jay. This stinks.
Gang –
I don’t know what to tell you other than these things:
– It’s a company-wide site issue that affects our stories and the other sister papers;
– It is being worked on by a slew of folks who are the opposite of my technologically challenged self;
– I greatly appreciate everyone’s patience, and hope you continue to frequent our space until the problem is fixed;
But it’s so frustrating, it makes me want to Will Smith someone.
From J Mac
What did you think of what Acuna said when asked what he was going to miss about Freeman?
J Mac –
I have for years railed against the unwritten rules that appear to be at the core of the very well-hidden tiff between Ronald Acuña Jr. and Freddie Freeman during their time with the Braves.
Baseball needs more fun. Baseball needs more bat flips and players showing passion and excitement while they are playing. Baseball needs the energy to be honest. And the celebrations.
No, not to show anyone up or some scripted “Look Ma, no hands” rehearsed skit nonsense, but it’s OK to have fun playing a game. (And the baseline as always is if a pitcher does not want to see a bat flip or a slide step out of the box after Acuña or anyone else hits one 450 feet, well make better pitches, don’t hit the next batter in the ribs. Because even Brian McCann knows that no one has every flipped a bat or celebrated their way back to the dugout after strike 3.)
I love Acuña. He’s my favorite player not named Shohei Ohtani. And I love the way Ronald plays the game.
But his comments about not liking Freddie or Freddie not liking him are less about that for me than about maturity to be honest. (And it sounds like a lot of the stuff that Freddie and Acuña got cross on were “Braves way” things like the sunglasses over the ‘A’ on the hat and eye black protocol more than the game-playing stuff. That said, that grown men even have to worry about eye-black protocol brings a whole other level of silliness to this dang thing.)
Heck, we’ve all had workplace relationships with people we truly do not like. That’s part of it. But you make the best of it and move on.
I hope that Acuña had already told all this to Freddie at some juncture before it was released in the press, because that’s just not a grown up way to handle something like this in my view.
It also could help explain why the Braves really did not fight to keep Freddie either since Acuña is one of the five best talents in the sport and on arguably the most team-friendly deal in baseball.
Still, if Acuña is going to fill the role of being the face of this organization, well, locker room leaders – like Freddie and Chipper before him and Smoltzie and Glavine before him – with any successful organization do not air the dirty laundry through the media.Regardless of the language it’s spoken in.
From Matt
Jay, I love your writing and have been reading your 5-10 for a while now.
I took (Thursday) off from work because I love the Masters too. What will you watch more of this week – golf or all other sports combined?
Thanks and keep up the good work.
Matt –