5-at-10: Braves swooning, college football newcomers, Stewart's future, best scary movie directors

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Gang, Friday's mailbag is on the horizon. Whatcha' got?

From the "Talks too much" studios, time to make the doughnuts.

photo Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Dan Haren (14) works in the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014, in Atlanta.

Braves

We spoke Tuesday about the magnitude of the next nine games for your Atlanta Braves. Last night's sloppy and lethargic 4-2 loss to Los Angeles was hardly the jumpstart this limping club needed.

The good: Not much, and considering that everyone is glad-handing about a decent Mike Minor start is more a testament to how far he has fallen to how good he was Tuesday.

The bad: There are a slew of options, but the emotional state of a club that has now lost 11 of 13 and is five games out of third - and but one game clear of third-place Miami - is fragile.

The Uggla: Well, not much. Danny Struggla was released from thew Giants four days ago. He's still with out a job (but not without a paycheck since the Braves will owe him eight figures through next year). So Struggla's not doing much of anything - a lot like his former teammates.

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photo Football tile

College football questions

Feel free to fill the mailbag with any questions you may have.

We are matriculating our football preview magazines down the press, so we are a little uneasy about a few items of interest of teams of local priority.

So, as we can often do we'll call in an expert or three. And we are going to give each of you the same opportunity. If you have a UT, UTC, UGA or Alabama question, we'll pass it along to one of the TFP beat aces and get you an answer.

Deal? Deal.

Here is the question with which we'll being, and we'll apply it to each of those four:

What player that is a relative unknown commodity right now will be a familiar name come October? Go.

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Still looking

photo Tony Stewart

There is still whispers about possible criminal charges against Tony Stewart for his role in the death of Kevin Ward Jr. on a dirt track in New York last weekend.

We don't believe Stewart should be charged with a criminal act. Still, this raises two points worth discussing:

First, are there sports moments that should be viewed as potentially criminal? What about a bean ball in a testy baseball game? Or charging the mound? Or any of several parts of high-level football that would be viewed as complete criminal if not for the setting?

Second, at what point have we lost complete sight of self-acceptance and individual responsibility? Whether Stewart meant to 'scare' to 'get near' Ward to not, Kevin Ward would still be alive today if he had not gotten out of the car. (Side note: This will be a mandatory rule of high importance sooner rather than later.)

This and that

photo Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling, right, sits with his wife, Rochelle, during a Clippers NBA basketball game against the Detroit Pistons in Los Angeles in this 2010 file photo.

- Speaking of questionable legal actions, we read that the NBA is countersuing Donald Sterling. Hey Adam Silver... dude, let it go. You won. Wener dropped the big one. Move along now.

- Rough time for iconic celebrities. Lauren Bacall died Tuesday.

- We had a Rushmore of Robin Williams movies on Press Row on Tuesday after the comedian's suicide. The final four were Good Will Hunting, Dead Poet's Society, Good Morning Vietnam and Best of Times.

- Trenton Thompson, a five-star defensive tackle from Georgia, picked Bulldogs on Tuesday. Great get for Mark Richt and Co.

Today's question

We thought about continuing the Robin Williams lovefest but opted against it.

If you want to chime in on the legal issues facing Tony Stewart or Donald Sterling, be our guest.

If you still need a talking point beyond those, well, today would have been the birthday for two all-time greats. Aug. 13 would have been Alfred Hitchcock's 115th birthday and Ben Hogan's 102nd. That'd be a lot of candles.

So what's our Rushmore of horror movie directors and golfers?

Go.