Sports Page Atlanta

Today Jason Marquis will be pitching game one for the Cubs against the Braves.  Marquis as you remember starting his big league career with the Braves, pitching for Atlanta from 2000 to 2003.  He finished those seasons with a 14-15 record.

Since then, he has done better than average.  His record entering today since leaving the Braves is 61-53.

In that time period, Tim Hudson has 66 wins, John Smoltz 47 (he was a closer for one year in that period) and Tom Glavine had 54.

Trinton Sturdivant will miss the entire 2008 season.  He started every game last season for the Bulldogs.  He is 1 of 6 returning players for the Dawgs that started every game for Georgia in 2007.

Here are the other 5 that are returning…

QB - Matthew Stafford

C - Chris Davis (played guard last season)

DE - Roderick Battle

DT - Jeffrey Owens

FS - CJ Byrd

According to many sources, Georgia starting tackle Trinton Sturdivant tore his ACL, MCL and PCL in his left knee on Monday and will miss the entire upcoming season. The sophomore will have reconstructive surgery in the next few days.

Last season Sturdivant started all 13 games and was named freshman all-american.

Possible replacements for the left tackle position could be Vince Vance, Josh Davis or Cordy Glenn or maybe guard Clint Boling could change to the tackle position or Kiante Tripp could change from right tackle to left.

On Saturday, former Georgia Bulldog and current Atlanta Falcon Thomas Brown had his first game action in the NFL. Even though it was just a preseason game and the stats do not count, he ended up with 19 rush yards on 4 attempts.

Georgia has had many successful running backs over the years, but here is a list of the most rush yards a former Georgia Bulldog has had in their rookie season since 1980. The number one guy might surprise you… then again so might the number five guy might surprise you even more…

1. Olandis Gary (1999) 1,159 rush yards

2. Terrell Davis (1995) 1,117

3. Robert Edwards (1998) 1,115

4. Tim Worley (1989) 770

5. Herschel Walker (1986) 737 ***

*** Herschel did have 1,812 rushing yards in his rookie season with the New Jersey Generals of the USFL in 1983.

On August 1, 1966, the Atlanta Falcons played their first ever preseason game.  They lost 9-7 to the Philadelphia Eagles.  The game was played in Atlanta Stadium (later called Atlanta Fulton County Stadium) in front of 26,072 fans. 

The Falcons led 7-6 at halftime when in the 2nd quarter quarterback Dennis Claridge threw a 1-yard TD pass to Tom Wilson for the team’s first ever score.  Bob Jencks provided the extra point.

Jair Jurrjens will be going for his 11th win this season as the Braves play the Diamondbacks. The rookie hasn’t won a game since July 25th.

But with a win, the right-hander will be in the top-5 of most wins by a Braves rookie since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966.

Here are the top 6…

Craig McMurtry: 15 in 1983

Damian Moss: 12 in 2002

Horacio Ramirez: 12 in 2003

Chuck James: 11 in 2006

Ron Reed: 11 in 1968

Jair Jurrjens: 10 in 2008

It was announced yesterday that Chris Redman will get the start for the Falcons for their first preseason game against the Jaguars this Saturday.

After a stellar career at Louisville, Redman has struggled in the NFL and has only 17 TD passes in 17 career games. 

Redman was the 3rd quarterback taken in the 2000 NFL Draft.  Here are the top 3…

Chad Pennington: (1st round/18th overall) from Marshall to the Jets

Giovanni Carmazzi: (3rd round/65th overall) from Hofstra to the 49ers

Chris Redman: (3rd round/75th overall) from Louisville to the Ravens

22 Georgia Bulldogs and 8 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are among the many olympians from around the state that are competing in this year’s games.  Other countries besides the United States are included, so if the USA can’t win maybe we can semi-cheer for these athletes.

From Georgia Bulldogs:

• Reese Hoffa: Shot Put (USA… he is also the men’s team captain) 
• Chris Colwill: 3 meter springboard and synchronized springboard (USA)
• Hyleas Fountain: heptathalon (USA)
• Shelia Taormino: modern pentathalon (USA)
• Kara Lynn Joyce: 4 x 100 meter freestyle (USA)
• Allison Schmitt: 200 meter freestyle and 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay (USA)
• Gil Stovall: 200 meter butterfly (USA)
• Jack Bauerle: Head Coach of Women’s Swimming (USA)
• Dan Laak: Assistant Coach of Women’s Swimming (USA)
• Jenny Dahlgren: hammer throw (Argentina)
• Thory Elisdottir: pole vault (Iceland)
• Debbie Ferguson: 100 meter dash, 200 meter dash (Bahamas)
• Sultana Frizell: hammer throw (Canada)
• Andras Haklits: hammer throw (Croatia)
• Josh Laban: 50 meter freestyle (US Virgin Islands)
• Sarah Poewe: 100 meter breaststroke and 200 meter breaststroke (Germany)
• Troyden Prinsloo: 1,500 meter freestyle (South Africa)
• Sebastien Rouault: 400 meter freestyle and 1,500 meter freestyle (France)
• Levern Spencer: high jump (St. Lucia)
• Patricia Sylvester: long jump (Grenada)
• Wendy Trott: 400 meter freestyle and 800  meter freestyle (South Africa)
• Neil Versfeld: 200 meter breaststroke (South Africa)

From Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets:

• Chris Bosh: basketball (USA)
• Chaunte Howard: high jump (USA)
• Angelo Taylor: 400 meter hurdles (USA)
• Fatmata Fotanah: 100 meter hurdles (Guinea)
• Gal Nevo: 200 meter individual medley and 400 meter individual medley (Isreal)
• Onur Uras: 100 meter butterfly (Turkey)
• Caitlin Lever: softball (Canada)
• Jen Yee: softball (Canada)

Brian McCann had 3 more hits yesterday and now is batting .303 this season. He also has a .298 career batting average. That average is the highest batting average by an Atlanta Braves catcher ever by players with at least 1,000 career at-bats in an Atlanta uniform.

Here are the top 4

1. Brian McCann: .298
2. Joe Torre: .290
3. Javy Lopez: .287
4. Biff Pocoroba: .257

By the way, McCann only trails Javy Lopez and Earl Williams for the most home runs by an Atlanta Braves catcher (but he will need a lot more homers… McCann has 67 and Lopez had 214).

Mike Hampton got the win last night when the Braves defeated the Giants 11-4.  It was Hampton’s first win since August 14, 2005.  In that game Atlanta defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 13-8.

Here is what the Braves lineup was the last time the southpaw received the victory.  Most of them are no longer with the team.

SS - Rafael Furcal

2B - Marcus Giles

3B - Chipper Jones

CF - Andruw Jones

1B - Adam LaRoche

RF - Jeff Francoeur

LF - Ryan Langerhans

C - Brian McCann

P - Mike Hampton