Sports Page Atlanta

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

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

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

There has been a lot of hype this offseason about Georgia signing wide receiver A.J. Green.  Yesterday he practiced for the first time and looked good overall.  If he plays this season and lives up to the hype he could break the reception mark by Bulldog freshman.

Here are the most receptions by a Georgia freshman and the most those receivers have had in their Bulldog careers…

Terrence Edwards: 53 in 1999 (59 in 2002)

Mohamed Massaquoi: 38 in 2005 (current career-high)

Damien Gary: 36 in 2000 (43 in 2003)

Lindsay Scott: 36 in 1978 (42 in 1981)

As you read, heard or seen already today or yesterday, longtime Braves announcer Skip Caray passed away on Sunday.  He has lots of memorable moments on the air, but probably none bigger than the 1992 NLCS Game 7 game against the Pirates.  Every Braves fan remembers that game, but I want to take you back to that October 14th night and tell you how incredible that game was…

The Braves were down 2-0 in the bottom of the 9th… actually when I start the story it is now 2-1, with the bases loaded and 2 out.

Stan Belinda pitches, Francisco Cabrera singles, David Justice and Sid Bream score before Barry Bonds gets it home… (now here is where it gets tricky).

Belinda was a solid pitcher… a career 4.15 era in 585 games… He also had a 0.87 career postseason era.

Francisco Cabrera sinlges… the man was a .254 career hitter and had only 62 career rbi in 196 games…

Barry Bonds throws home… he was a 8-time gold glove winner… only 5 outfielders have won more gold gloves than he did… he also had 173 career assists from the outfield.

David Justice scored… nothing wow… he was a solid player

Sid Bream… chugging from 2nd base… he’s very slow… in 1,088 career games he had 50 career stolen bases and has never made an attempt in 28 postseason games.

Even with all those all odds against them, the Braves won 3-2.

You can hear Skip Caray now…

Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win! Braves win!

Pitcher Jorge Campillo dominated as the Braves shut out the Brewers 5-0.  The right hander went 7 innings, 6 hits, 0 earned runs, striking out 6 and walking no one.  This was not the first time Campillo took control of Milwaukee, nor it was the 2nd time.  In fact it was the 3rd time as he improved to 3-0 against the hard hitting central team.  He is not doing horribly against the rest of the majors, but there is a difference as you can see…

                                    Season vs Brewers                Rest of Majors

Record                                      3-0                                       3-4

ERA                                         1.42                                    2.83

Opp Average                           .200                                   .239

Walks                                           0                                       21

Strikeouts                                 18                                        54