Bishop Media Sports Network
Who’s Next?
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
- Cincinnati Bengals: Joe Burrow | QB | LSU
This pick has been sitting on the commissioner’s desk for months. Joe can officially look for real estate in the greater Cincinnati metro area. This is a virtual lock.
Burrow had the greatest season for a QB in college football history, and led LSU to a National Title.
- Washington Redskins: Chase Young | DE | Ohio State
The Redskins need help everywhere. The NFL is a QB league and if you want to be a playoff caliber team you will need to be able to rush the passer.
Young in any other year would probably be the #1 overall pick. I wish my Lions were sitting there with this pick to nab Young. This kid is special.
- Miami Dolphins (from DET)*: Tua Tagovailoa | QB | Alabama
The Dolphins want Tua really badly and trade up from 5 to 3 with the Lions.
Tua will be the franchise QB Miami has been looking for since Dan Marino. Can Tua stay healthy? That will always be the question with him.
- New York Giants: Tristan Wirfs | OT | Iowa
The Giants have their RB and QB of the future, but not much else.
To help protect those investments the Giants need OL help immediately. Iowa has a good history of turning out offensive lineman to the NFL.
- Detroit Lions (from MIA)*: Jeff Okudah | CB | Ohio State
Darius Slay has been shipped off to the Eagles and the Lions needed CB help prior to Slay’s departure.
Okudah is the best corner in the draft. Lions have huge holes on the defensive side of the ball, and Matt Patricia is on the hot seat. The Patriot Way seems to only work in New England.
- Los Angeles Chargers: Justin Herbert | QB | Oregon
The Chargers get their man. A West Coast Kid to take over a franchise looking to gain new fans in LA.
Here is an idea move back to San Diego where you were loved by the masses there. We may look back five years from now and say Herbert was the best QB in this draft.
- Carolina Panthers: Andrew Thomas | OT | Georgia
Teddy Bridgewater needs to be protected and Thomas from UGA will be the man for the Panthers.
Thomas has slid down some draft boards. The kid started from day one at UGA and will be a 10-12 year starter in the NFL. I’m big on Thomas.
- Arizona Cardinals: Mekhi Becton | OT | Louisville
The Cardinals need OL help to protect Kyler Murray. Becton is a monster of a man. Can Murray see over him?
- Jacksonville Jaguars: Derrick Brown | DL | Auburn
I would like to see Jacksonville go WR with this pick, but I don’t think they pass on Brown here. Brown will be a Pro-Bowl DL for Jacksonville.
- Cleveland Browns: Jedrick Wills | OT | Alabama
The run on offensive tackles continues as the Browns take the stud from Alabama, Jedrick Wills. You are starting to hear rumblings in Cleveland that the Browns regret taking Baker Mayfield with the #1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
This pick will be the final straw to give Mayfield the protection he needs to avoid the bust tag.
You have to score points in the NFL and to score points you must have a quality QB, and he must be protected.
Position Breakdown Picks 1-10
Offensive Tackle: 4
Quarterback: 3
Defensive Linemen: 2
Cornerback: 1
The Deep End
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Miami Dolphins are heading into the 2020 NFL Draft with 14 picks, but I do not think they will make many selections between April 23rd and 25th.
The Dolphins have set themselves up nicely to address their needs.
Miami addressed some of their needs by signing free agent Kyle Van Noy (linebacker), Clayton Fejedelem (safety), Ereck Flowers (guard), Kamu Grugier-Hill (linebacker), Emmanuel Ogbah (defensive end), Shaq Lawson (defensive end), Elandon Roberts (linebacker), Jordan Howard (running back) and Bryon Jones (cornerback).
The Dolphins signed 10 unrestricted free agents that bring depth on offense, defense and special teams. Seven of the ten free agents were from teams that finished 2019 with a winning record and made the playoffs.
Let’s take a look at four areas the Dolphins must address in the 2020 NFL Draft.
QUARTERBACK: The truth is the Dolphins haven’t had a top 15 NFL quarterback since Dan Marino, 20 years ago. They have tried several ways to find the next great quarterback, but there is still a hole that needs to be filled before this team can be competitive.
No one truly knows who Chris Grier (Miami General Manager) covets, but we can assume LSU’s Joe Burrow is off limits. That leaves Tua Tagovailo, Justin Herbert and Jordan Love as realistic choices.
I believe the Dolphins will draft a quarterback in the first round of this draft. Forget the speculation about “Losing For Lawrence.” Not happening.
OFFENSIVE LINE: Much like the quarterback, the Dolphins offensive line has been awful. The Dolphins signed two free agents, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
I expect the Dolphins to draft a tackle on day one of the NFL Draft. Unless Chris Grier has to give up all three first round picks to get his quarterback. It would not shock me if they doubled down on the position in day two.
RUNNING BACK: Miami’s rushing attack ranked 32nd in the NFL in 2019. Yes, the offensive line had a lot to do with those dismal stats. The 2020 draft class is loaded at running back.
I expect the Dolphins to draft a running back in the first four rounds. Jonathan Taylor, D’Andre Swift, J.K. Dobbins, and Cam Akers headline this loaded class. Which running back will end up in Miami? Anyone’s guess.
WIDE RECEIVER: I believe the Dolphins could stand pat at receiver. In a year, the draft will have an abundance of wide receiver talent, it would be foolish not to tap in.
Miami has plenty of needs throughout their roster. I expect them to hit the draft hard for offensive talent.
They have 14 draft picks to fill many of his team’s needs, but where will they miss out? After addressing the quarterback and offensive tackle position, Miami can take any best player available.
This is my plan and now all the Dolphins have to do is execute it.
SEC Upper Crust
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Many analysts and fans consider the SEC to be the best football conference.
Depending on the year there may be an element of truth to that. I’m going to look at some of the best teams in conference history and try to determine who the best is.
1998 Tennessee: The Vols were the first national champs of the BCS era. Ironically, everything came together the year after Peyton Manning graduated.
They were led by quarterback Tee Martin and wide receiver Peerless Price. Sophomore running back Jamal Lewis tore his LCL in his right knee, so he only played in the first 5 games.
Price had 920 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns. Travis Henry led the team in rushing with 970 yards and 7 touchdowns. They beat Florida State in the Fiesta Bowl to finish 13-0.
1992 Alabama: The Crimson Tide were led by a strong defense. They led the nation in fewest points allowed (9.2 per game during the regular season).
They won the first SEC Championship Game against No. 12 Florida. In the Sugar Bowl they play defending national champ, No. 1 Miami. They routed the Hurricanes 34-13 to finish 13-0. They also did not allow an offensive touchdown to the Heisman Trophy winner, QB Gino Toretta.
1980 Georgia: This team was led by freshman running back Herschel Walker. He rushed for 1,616, 15 touchdowns and averaged 5.9 yards per carry.
He was talented enough to help the team overcome mediocre quarterback play. Buck Belue passed for 1,314 yards, 11 TD’s, 9 interceptions and completed 49% of his passes.
They beat No. 14 South Carolina and No. 20 Florida in consecutive weeks. In the Sugar Bowl they beat No. 7 Notre Dame to finish 12-0.
1996 Florida: The Gators are the first team on this list with a loss. They outscored their opponents 612-228.
QB Danny Wuerffel threw for 3,625 yards, 39 touchdowns and 13 picks. He won the Heisman Trophy. The offense had a lot of talent with running backs Fred Taylor and Elijah Williams.
They also had Ike Hilliard, Reidel Anthony and Jacquez Green at receiver.
The Gators only loss came in the regular season finale to No. 2 Florida State, 24-21. They got revenge in the Sugar Bowl and demolished FSU, 52-20.
2009 Alabama: They were led by Heisman Trophy winning running back Mark Ingram with 1,658 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns. He also had 3 receiving touchdowns.
Linebacker Rolando McClain won the Butkus Award and Jack Lambert Award.
Greg McElroy threw for 2,508 yards, 17 touchdowns, 4 interceptions and he completed 61% of his passes.
Julio Jones led the team in receiving with 43 receptions for 596 yards and 4 touchdowns.
They beat No. 1 Florida in the SEC Championship and No. 2 Texas in the Rose Bowl to finish 14-0.
2011 Alabama: The defense led the nation in every major statistical category. Running back Trent Richardson won the Doak Walker award, rushing for 1,679 yards and 21 touchdowns.
Seven players were named to various All-America Teams.
The only loss was to No. 1 LSU, 9-6. In the National Championship Game, they avenged the loss and beat the Tigers 21-0. They finished 12-1.
2008 Florida: This was coach Urban Meyer’s best team.
They were led by Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin on offense.
The lone loss came to Ole Miss. They finished 13-1 with a win over No. 2 Oklahoma in the national championship.
2019 LSU: I saved the best for last. Joe Burrow had the best season for a quarterback in college football history and led the Tigers to a 15-0 record.
In The Pocket
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Over the past few years, I feel like I’ve been living in my own personal Groundhog Day when it comes to NFC South quarterbacks; it has become a yearly ritual to write about how the division has the best collection of QB’s in the NFL.
Yet, it never fails that either Matt Ryan will have a down year, or Cam Newton will get injured, or Jameis Winston will, well, be Jameis Winston.
You’d think at some point I would learn my lesson, but apparently this isn’t that time because here I am writing about how our area should once again be privy to the best overall quarterback play of any division in football.
The one constant at quarterback in the NFC South has been Drew Brees. As much as many of us want to talk about Tom Brady’s ability to play at a high level for the better part of two decades- and I’ll be doing just that soon enough- you could argue Brees has been even better.
Over the past three seasons Brees has thrown for an average of 3,768 yards and just over 27 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, and that’s with him missing five games last season.
If this season happens to be Brees’ finale, there’s been recent speculation that is the case, I don’t expect it to be because of his on-field play.
Matt Ryan certainly hasn’t been a bad quarterback, just a bit of an inconsistent one. In his defense, a good portion of the blame can be attributed to the coaching changes the Falcons have had on the offensive side of the ball, but not all.
Ryan followed up underwhelming seasons in ‘15 and ‘17 with two of his best seasons in ‘16 and ‘18. If he continues along that pattern, 2020 should be a very promising season. (It’s smart to base a prediction solely off something as menial as patterns, right?)
Even though Tom Brady showed signs last season that his play could be regressing, he’s still an upgrade over Jameis Winston.
When you combine Bruce Arians coaching with the level of talent the Buccaneers have on the offensive side of the ball, Tampa Bay seems like a fairly obvious choice for Brady to have landed.
Mix that in with the former Patriots penchant for giving all his doubters the middle finger while outperforming expectations, would you be all that surprised if he turned in MVP type numbers this year? At this point, I’d almost be more surprised if he didn’t.
To me, the x-factor in this whole thing is Teddy Bridgewater. Before Bridgewater’s horrific injury that cost him a few seasons, he had one of the more promising futures of quarterbacks in the league.
But he had missed the better part of three seasons before stepping in for an injured Brees last season. The good news for Bridgewater is he performed well in Brees’ absence and many of the things Cam Newton struggled with- accuracy, pocket awareness, decision making- are some of Bridgewater’s strengths.
The bad news is the Panthers offensive line is still awful and as a team, I expect them to really struggle.
So, just to clarify, my prediction is based on one quarterback playing well because it’s an even year, two quarterbacks in their 40’s, and one who has thrown a grand total of 221 passes over the last four seasons.
Maybe this should’ve been the season I learned from my past mistakes.
Best Of The Best
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I know this topic will spark some debate among the faithful UGA fans out there who are sheltered in place waiting for football season to roll around again. These are my personal rankings.
My Top 5 UGA Quarterbacks of All-Time:
Aaron Murray (2010-13): The SEC’s all-time passing yardage and touchdowns leader tossed for 121 TD’s and over 13,000 passing yards as a four-year starter for UGA. If Murray was the QB for UGA in 2017 and 2018, I believe UGA would have won the National Championship during those two seasons.
Murray did not have a Kirby Smart defense helping him out during his time at UGA. Murray is the most productive QB in UGA history, but does not seem to be near the top of these types of lists, but AM was the man!
David Greene (2001-2004): Greene led the Bulldogs to a 42-10 record as a starter, and ranks third all-time for career passing yards in the SEC.
Greene will always have a special place in the hearts of UGA faithful as he led the 2002 Dawgs to an SEC title breaking a 20-year title drought in Athens. Greene was his best with the game on the line with dramatic wins at Tennessee in 2001 and at Auburn in 2002.
Buck Belue (1978-1981): Buck came to UGA from Valdosta High School. We saw flashes of the swagger as a freshman in 78 when Belue led a 20-point comeback against Georgia Tech in a memorable 29-28 win that had a 13-year-old Kipp Branch dancing on the dirt road he lived on.
Belue was involved in the greatest play in UGA football history to Lindsay Scott that beat Florida once again and is the only QB on my list with a National Championship. Buck always will get on my greatest UGA QB list.
Matthew Stafford (2006-2008): Stafford is the most talented QB to ever put on a jersey in Athens, Georgia.
The 2007 team ended the season as the #2 ranked team in the country. Stafford pretty much was a pro quarterback playing college football during his time at UGA.
Stafford went on to be the first selection in the 2009 NFL Draft for the Detroit Lions, and has every passing record in Lions history.
- J. Shockley (2002-2005): Shockley will always have my respect because he was the ultimate team player.
A five-star QB recruit that waited his turn in Athens behind David Greene and started his senior season and led UGA to an SEC title in 2005. Shockley is the last true dual threat QB UGA has had and will always be loved in Athens.
Just missing the list: Jake Fromm (2017-2019): This will make my wife upset because she loves her some Jake Fromm.
Fromm had a great career in Athens, but every other QB on my list would have won a Natty with the defense Jake had while at UGA.
Great wins against ND, 3-0 against Florida, and an SEC Title will rank Jake near the top of some others list but he can’t crack my top 5.
Ray Goff (1973-1976): Ray may not have been a great coach, but he was the SEC Player of the Year in 1976 for the SEC Champion Georgia Bulldogs. I don’t need to say anything else about that.
Eric Zeier (1991-1994): When Zeier left UGA in 1994 he was the career passing yards leader in the SEC. Led UGA to a 10-2 record in 1992.
Fran Tarkenton was in the NFL when I came into the world so he did not make my list.
There you have it. Aaron Murray is the greatest QB in UGA history because I said so. Stay safe folks.
Time Waits For No One
By: Mike Anthony
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
There is still plenty of speculation about how much of the 2020 Major League Baseball season – if any – will be played.
But one sure thing is that when play resumes the Atlanta Braves will still be one of the better teams in baseball, with every reason to believe that a World Series title is within their grasp.
However, the agreement reached by MLB and its players’ association regarding pay and service time could put a dent in the length of the Braves’ current run of great play.
Over the last decade, many baseball teams have adopted a roller-coaster philosophy to competing. They will ride out success for a while, but are now more apt to trade off aging and expensive talent.
The rebuilding process can be painful for fans and is done for financial benefit of the club – the thought being that there’s no reason to pay top dollar for declining veteran talent that won’t make the playoffs when a roster full of marginal veterans and young players can lose just the same at a much smaller price.
That’s where the current pandemic and suspension of play is hurting the Braves. If play resumes this season, all will be fine. Atlanta will contend for a third consecutive NL East title, although a shortened season figures to be a disadvantage for more talented teams better suited to handle the grind of a full schedule.
If a shorter 2020 hampers the Braves’ competitiveness or the worst case scenario happens and there is no baseball until next spring, that’s when the numbers will start working against them.
The biggest item in the agreement is that, in the event of a total cancellation of the current season, all players will receive an identical credit of their MLB service time accrued in 2019.
That would mean the Braves’ big offseason adds of Cole Hamels and Marcel Ozuna would again be free agents as both are signed to one-year deals.
Mark Melancon would also be a free agent as the contract he signed before being traded to Atlanta expires this year.
There is also the issue of age as Freddie Freeman will turn 31 this season and has just one year remaining on his deal.
Losing players is one issue, but adding on payroll seems to be an even bigger concern for Braves ownership group Liberty Media, which had often been criticized for being tight with money prior two the last two seasons of winning baseball.
The wave of youth that has been instrumental in the Braves’ rise is about to get a considerable pay raise. Mike Soroka, Max Fried, Sean Newcomb, A.J. Minter and Chad Sobotka will all be arbitration-eligible next season, guaranteeing a pay raise for all and increasing in accordance with their performance over their first three seasons.
Star outfielder Ronald Acuna will be the biggest hit on the payroll. Acuna is slated to make just $1 million in 2020, but the contract extension he signed last year bumps that to $15 million in 2021 and levels out at $17 million per year after that.
Ozzie Albies will also be breaking the bank as he will make an additional $2 million in 2021.
The Braves’ roster, as currently constructed, will remain relatively young, even if no baseball is played this season. But the contract structure of the team shows that 2020 is definitely the year Atlanta thinks it can make a World Series push.
If the Braves don’t see any action this year and want to be in a similar spot for 2021, they’ll have to make tough decisions on free agents while the payroll begins to soar.
Tide Turning In River City?
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Jacksonville Jaguars traded Nick Foles, the Super Bowl 52 MVP, to the Chicago Bears for the Bears’ fourth round compensatory pick. Foles, who signed a four year, $88-million contract with the Jaguars a year ago, will now compete with Mitchell Trubisky for the Bears starting job.
The Foles trade qualifies as a disaster for General Manager Dave Caldwell and Coach Doug Marrone. He only played four games last season because of a shoulder injury and earned 30.5 million dollars.
Gardner Minshew, a 2019 sixth round pick out of Washington State, for now, becomes the Jags’ starting quarterback. Minshew went 6-6 as a starter with 21 touchdowns, 6 interceptions and a 91.2 passer rating.
The Foles trade is another move in a busy offseason that saw the Jags trade defensive lineman Calais Campbell to Baltimore, cornerback A.J. Bouye to Denver, placing the franchise tag on defensive end Yannick Ngakoue ($19.3 million this season) and declining the option on defensive tackle Marcell Dareus.
The Jags signed former Cleveland linebacker Joe Schobert to a 5-year $53 million deal and former Cincinnati cornerback Darqueze Dennard to a 3-year deal worth 13.5 million dollars.
The Jags will have 12 selections in the 2020 NFL Draft: two in the first round (#9 & #20), one in the second round (#42), one in the third round (#73), four in the fourth round (#116, #137, #140), two in the fifth round (#157 & #165), two in the sixth round (#189 & #206) and one in the seventh round (#223).
If you are panicking, thinking the Jags are “Tanking for Trevor”, let’s take a closer look at the trades. Bouye wasn’t the Jags’ best corner last season (Tre Herndon) and my guess is they will address the cornerback position in the draft.
Dareus only played six games last year, and after 9 seasons the wear and tear is taking its toll on Dareus.
Campbell made the Pro Bowl last season but his production has slipped from the previous two seasons.
No matter how you feel about Dave Caldwell, the reality is, he and Doug Marrone are the ones making the moves this offseason. The further reality is the Jags are having a very good offseason.
The Jags are stockpiling draft capital for a lot of players many believed might have to be released.
Dave Caldwell and Doug Marrone are running out of time in Jacksonville unless they turn it around in 2020. It’s hard to envision such a turnaround with Minshew.
The best hope for Dave Caldwell and Doug Marrone to keep their jobs beyond this season is to sign Cam Newton.
Past Buzzes
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It is very difficult to have one elite team for a university. Having that in multiple sports typically does not happen, especially for football and men’s basketball. I want to revisit 1990, a great year for Georgia Tech.
The basketball team for the 1989-90 season had a great year. They were led by coach Bobby Cremins. They were led by a talented trio of players nicknamed “Lethal Weapon 3”. That consisted of ACC Player of the Year Dennis Scott, National Freshman of the Year Kenny Anderson and Brian Oliver.
They had some big wins during the regular season against ranked teams including No. 18 Pitt, No. 17 NC State, No. 15 Louisville and No. 20 Clemson. They also demolished No. 25 North Carolina, 102 – 75.
During the regular season they were swept by Duke and Virginia. In the ACC Tournament they beat both teams and NC State for the third time to win the conference tournament.
They advanced to the Final Four in Denver. On the way there they beat Michigan State in the Sweet Sixteen. The Spartans were Big Ten champs and the top seed in the region. They were ranked third nationally and led by junior Steve Smith.
In the Final Four they lost to UNLV, 90 – 81. The Running Rebels went on to win the national championship. Tech finished the season 28 – 7.
In the fall of 1990, the football team had a historic undefeated season. They were led by head coach Bobby Ross and quarterback Shawn Jones. For the season the Yellow Jackets offense scored 379 points while the defense allowed 186 points.
Jones passed for 2,008 yards, 13 touchdowns and he had 6 rushing touchdowns. William Bell led the team in rushing with 891 yards, 5 touchdowns and averaged 5.5 yards per carry.
On defense they were led by All-American defensive back Ken Swilling. He had 5 interceptions that season. He is said to have predicted an undefeated season before it started, supposedly based on a dream. Safety Willie Clay was second on the team with three picks.
The Yellow Jackets started the season with a home win against NC State. They beat ranked teams like No. 25 South Carolina, No. 15 Clemson and No. 1 Virginia. The game against UVA was nationally televised.
The tie happened at North Carolina, 13 -13. Overtime was not added to FBS football until the 1995-96 bowl season.
They also beat archrival Georgia 40 – 23 in Athens. They went to the Citrus Bowl and played No. 19 Nebraska. Going into the game the Cornhuskers were 9 – 2. The Yellow Jackets won big, 45 -21.
They finished the season 11-0-1 and No. 1 in the Coaches Poll. Colorado was the top team in the AP Poll and they were 11-1-1. I’m not sure how the Buffalos were voted No. 1 since they had a loss.
They also had a game against Missouri where they were given a fifth down. That led to them scoring a touchdown on the last play to win the game 33 -31.
They also have a common opponent, Nebraska. Colorado beat Nebraska 27 – 12.
“A lot of special things happened that season,’’ said Ross said. It was a great accomplishment by a lot of people. We started all the way at the bottom three years before that and went all the way to the top.’’
1990 was an amazing year for Georgia Tech that will never be duplicated.
Back To 1983
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
In most years the first weekend in April means one thing, Final Four.
Even though that’s obviously not taking place this year, it doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate the Final Four in some capacity.
So, in that spirit I thought I’d hop inside the DeLorean in my mind and travel back to 1983, the one and only year the Georgia Bulldog basketball team made it to the Final Four.
Now, before I start, I should let you know I was only two years old at the time this was taking place, so there’s no firsthand knowledge on my part about what transpired. However, that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few things that stood out while reading up on that team and that season.
The team most people remember from that year’s tournament is N.C. State; their improbable run, the team they beat to win it all (Houston), and definitely the way they won.
What I imagine is most people outside of Athens don’t remember, or like me, were completely unaware of, was how improbable Georgia’s tournament run was compared to State’s.
Back then 52 teams made the tournament, which produced a bracket of preliminary games and abbreviated first round games (5-12 seeds only), in order to arrive at the Round of 32. Luckily for Georgia, they were a four seed and got to move directly past go, to the second round.
After squeaking by fifth seeded VCU, they defeated one-seeded (#3 overall) St Johns, and a second seeded (# 8 overall) North Carolina team, whose roster was made up of players like Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins, and Brad Dougherty, before losing to NC State in the Final Four.
NC State, by comparison, was a six seed, had to win one more game than Georgia to advance to the Final Four, but did not face the same level of competition to get there.
Since I was watching “Sesame Street” and “He-Man” at this point in my life, I can’t accurately judge the talent on the ‘83 roster, outside of the fact the only name I recognized was Vern Fleming.
As far as I can tell the former Georgia and NBA guard is the only player from that team to make it to the NBA. Based on that, I imagine they were a good college team that had a player or two get hot in the tournament, and probably had a little luck in what looks like fairly competitive games.
The other thing that stands out, and this has to do with the regular season as opposed to the tournament, was how balanced the SEC was that year.
Of the ten teams that made up the SEC, only Kentucky (13-5) and Florida (5-13) didn’t finish somewhere between 8-10 and 10-8. In fact, Florida was also the only team that finished below .500 on the season.
Just for the fun of it, this year’s SEC consisted of fourteen teams, ten different conference records ranging from 5-13 to 13-5 and four teams that finished either at or below .500 for the season.
With sports on an indefinite hiatus, it doesn’t mean we can’t go back and watch highlights of the teams we enjoyed watching while we grew up, or in some cases, before we became sports fans.
If you happen to be a Georgia basketball fan and are jonesing for a fix, the ‘83 team is a great to start.
Hollywood Baseball
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It should have been Opening Day 2020.
Unfortunately, global circumstances beyond MLB’s control led them to delay the start of the baseball season. While there’s still hope that we will all get to hear “play ball” before too long, there is currently no end in sight for our collective lack of professional baseball.
If you’re like me, this has been a frankly depressing couple of days but, if you’re like me, you’ve turned to the best substitute available for the hole in your life (outside of re-watching actual games, which for whatever reason I don’t find all that enjoyable): baseball movies.
There have been dozens of baseball movies made and several of them are wonderful and remind me of why I love the game so much. So, in lieu of being able to write about actual baseball, I’m going to provide you with my top 5 favorite baseball movies.
5. A League of Their Own: You know the line. You’ve said the line. Despite the fact that I’ve seen plenty of baseball players cry and in fact I’ve cried over baseball before. Stripping the ideology that “there’s no crying in baseball” of any semblance of truth, the late Penny Marshall’s love letter to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League is a warm blanket of baseball goodness any time you watch it.
Tom Hanks is great, but the focus of the movie is the team of women (not girls), led by Geena Davis. It’s a joyful and funny movie and a notable one. Sports movies starring women continues to be a hole in Hollywood’s resume.
4. Bull Durham: This one feels the most like inside knowledge. Probably because writer/director Ron Shelton actually played minor league ball in the Baltimore farm system.
The main plot of this movie, a love triangle between Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins, doesn’t actually do much for me. However, the on field stuff, like meetings on the mound and Costner’s catcher Crash Davis telling the opposing batter what’s coming is why this movie is in the top 5.
3. The Sandlot: Is this movie great? Probably not. But I’m 32 years old and I dare you to find a single baseball fan anywhere near my age who doesn’t absolutely love this movie. You won’t.
This movie is childhood for so many kids who just loved playing pickup ball anywhere they could. It’s top 3 and I won’t apologize for it.
2. Field of Dreams: I’m a sap. You don’t know me well enough to know that, so I’m telling you.
This movie is sentimental, probably to a fault, but this movie celebrates baseball as a pastoral, innocent, and elegant miracle of a game.
Going to an MLB game early and watching players take batting practice and shag fly balls, while the grounds crew puts the chalk down the first and third base lines is the purest form of contentment imaginable to me.
That’s what this movie strives for (it notably doesn’t strive for accuracy – could they not find a lefty to play Shoeless Joe?!) and often succeeds.
It’s always one that I like to revisit during spring training in order to get reacclimated with the love of the game. So, I may have to watch it a few times this year.
1. Major League: Surprised, perhaps? Major League is neither the most acclaimed work of cinema, nor the most celebrated baseball flick by baseball fans. However, it’s a classic sports movie.
It’s still really funny after 31 years (see: literally everything Bob Uecker says) and believe it or not it’s really the only movie on this list that’s actually about a baseball team playing baseball.
My friends and I quote this one constantly; from opposing teams’ home runs being “too high” to the rapid-fire monologue of “hell of a situation we got here,” Major League is full of joy and it’s my favorite baseball movie.
And right now, that’s all we’ve got.
