MATTHEW BROWN: Rewrites and rematches

Published 6:10 pm Friday, October 11, 2024

By Matthew Brown | mbrown@unionrecorder.com

Arizona State hosted Utah in a Friday night Big 12 football clash. Don’t know the outcome, but was it the winner or the loser who goes back to the revamped Pac-12?

This just in: Rumors have it the WNBA season continued even after Caitlin Clark’s team was eliminated from the playoffs. Despite a halt to discussions about the league, the Finals supposedly began Thursday in of all places, the biggest of media markets, NYC.

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Okie dokie. The word of the week on this page seems to be rematch.

How many of my fellow Georgia Bulldogs are screaming for a rematch? How many were ready for one immediately after the thrilling loss to Alabama? How many more were calling out the Crimson Tide after the monumental upset they suffered at the hands of … as if you didn’t know already … Vanderbilt?

Everybody wants a rematch with somebody. You don’t think Alabama wants another crack at Vandy? That Vandy doesn’t want another go with Missouri? That Notre Dame doesn’t have an immediate score to settle with Northern Illinois? That Florida State doesn’t want … a whole do-over?

When it comes to rematches – and if you never followed this advice before, now is the time – be careful what you wish for. The rematch Georgia football may ultimately get is with an ever-improving Clemson bunch. That’s four-game winning streak and now No. 10 in the country Clemson. That’s the now big threat to win the Atlantic Coast Conference or at least get into the playoff if it can upend the likes of Virginia and Pittsburgh Clemson.

That’s also the Clemson of now ACC all-time leader in coaching wins Dabo Swinney. The reason given for Clemson’s inability to beat Georgia on Labor Day weekend was Swinney’s lack of transfer portal players. He has this strange idea that he wants to recruit his players, bring them in fresh out of their prep days and develop them into the type of Tigers that had won him a pair of national titles.

Somebody else I think likes to do it that way. That would be Kirby Smart, or King Kirby on some programs.

Yes, Georgia is using a transfer in a key role for 2024. Running back Trevor ‘E-T-N’ (how about ‘The News’ as a good nickname?) shined the most in the latest victory against Auburn. Two touchdowns and 124 total yards, both season highs. I’ll remind you, though, that he missed that Clemson game for disciplinary reasons (a spring DUI).

Ole Miss is the team built through the portal. Ohio State backers divvied up $20 million to build a championship roster. I’m not saying Georgia has a terrible record with transfers, but one receiver is already out the door with another one suspended indefinitely. Again, not every Bulldog running afoul of the law came to Athens from another program.

I for one do not play fantasy recruiter trying to see who would look great in the solid red jersey with silver britches. My stance has always been that I want players who want to be in the Georgia program from day one until their time in college is done. You name the sport. But if they choose to go elsewhere to get their playing time – great example being Brock Vandagriff now with the Kentucky Wildcats – thank you for your service and best of luck.

It was a bit hard to root against Vandagriff in that hard-fought contest a few weeks ago in Lexington. Is that a rematch we want? Looking at the schedule, it’s the StarkDogs coming over to Sanford next followed by trips to Austin and Jacksonville. Sorry, but it doesn’t seem to be time to fret over somebody we already played, win or loss.

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Did you know the Atlanta Braves had a lot of injuries in the 2024 season? I know you couldn’t tune into a broadcast or any program that might talk about in-state sports and hear about the list of games missed by the team’s slew of All-Stars, but the news is still shocking to hear for the umpteenth time.

Major League Baseball doesn’t have any rules that allow for compensation, like extra runs before the games start, to make up for players on the IL. As long as you can find 10 healthy bodies to put in a lineup card, you have a team. What happens after first pitch … point is you aren’t going to find much in the way of sympathy for this or any successful franchise.

I for one credit the 89 wins Atlanta achieved in that snake-bit regular season to a winning culture set by Brian Snitker in the dugout. You still had Matt Olson. You still had Marcell Ozuna. Down the stretch you had the bat and glove of Michael Harris II. You still had pitchers performing above their heads like Reynaldo Lopez and Spencer Schwellenbach, plus the underrated great closer Raisel Iglesias.

But then you had the most untimely injury of all, one that came later than I think some people expected. Here comes one of the game’s best left-handers over the past 15 years. Chris Sale won pitching’s triple crown in the National League (which doesn’t carry the hype of the hitting version) with 18 wins, 2.38 earned run average and 225 strikeouts.

Where was the concern? Durability. Sale had 11 combined starts from 2021-22, then 20 in 2023 in Boston. When was he going to hit that same IL?

Well, Sale gave the Braves 29 regular-season starts, his most since 32 in 2017, and 177.2 innings, the most since 214.1 in 2017. But he last took the mound on Sept. 19 at Cincinnati, and the Braves won for the eighth time in a row that he started (five were his W’s). Maybe it was when the Braves couldn’t play the Mets with Helene on its way that the back started flaring up, but Sale saw no action against the Royals, that makeup doubleheader with New York, or San Diego in the wild card round.

There’s the answer: the worst moment possible. There will be a worthy World Series winner whoever it is, even if it’s the Mets and the Tigers in a Battle of the Sixes. Can’t say if Atlanta will set the record books on fire with all sticks blazing in 2025. Just remember how fortunes shifted from 2023 – when the worst health issue was Max Fried’s 14 pitching starts – to 2024.

(If at all possible, give pet adoption a try through the Animal Rescue Foundation in Milledgeville. Donations of any kind are also in great need. ARF is a little red building at 711 S. Wilkinson St., and more information is available at animalrescuefoundation.org.)