5-at-10: Friday Postbag on Comments, Acuna Hates Freddie, Masters Memories, Vooto’s Star Power

Let’s take care of our business first.

Here’s an A2 column from a round-faced writer who, as Ed Grimley would say, seems like a pretty decent bloke, I have to say.

Here’s Paschall on UT football following a media availability with Hendon Hooker. (Side note: media availability is a twisted term. In my experience, media is always available. That’s sort of our job—much to the chagrin of spouses and descendants—to be available when needed. But the term takes on feels different these days because players and especially assistants are so seldom made available to the media.)

As for the rushmores of the week, let’s go here (and Gang, we’re cheering them on without much feedback from you big-brained commenters since, well, the comments section was on an early spring break):

Rushmore by people with a specific bird as their last name: Russell Crowe, Captain Jack Sparrow, Tony Hawk, and Dan Quayle. (And sorry, but I’ve disqualified Donald Duck and all his relatives.)

Rushmore of Paul Rudd movies and this one was way more challenging than I expected: Ant Man, Anchorman, I Love You Man and a personal favorite from Role Models. And omits “Clueless” and “This is 40”. (Side note: “Too big a minor character in 40 Year Old Virgin for me to be in Rudds Rushmore.)

Rushmore of sports logos for events, leagues, or venues: Augusta National, the Olympic Rings, the Ryder Cup, and Jerry West in the NBA logo Greater Atlanta Christian School, Grades 2-5), “Four-wheelin'” and Four corners. As far as jerseys go, 4 is pretty sneaky and with a better basketball player it could rank among the top four major sports numbers of all time since you have Bobby Orr, Brett Favre and Lou Gehrig in the other three which is pretty strong. Technically you could say Chuck Barkley in hoops — he wore 4 with the Suns — but he felt more like 34 to me.

To the bag and we’ll try to move quickly.

From too many of you to name

What the hell is up with the comments, Jay. That stinks.

gang —

I don’t know what to tell you except these things:

— It is a company-wide website issue affecting our articles and the other sister newspapers;

— It’s being worked on by a lot of people who are the opposite of my technologically challenged self;

— I really appreciate everyone’s patience and hope you will keep visiting our space until the issue is resolved;

But it’s so frustrating that I want to do Will Smith with someone.

By JMac

What did you think of what Acuna said when asked what he would miss about Freeman?

J Mac —

For years I’ve railed against the unwritten rules that seem to lie at the heart of the very well-hidden feud between Ronald Acuña Jr. and Freddie Freeman during their Braves days.

Baseball needs more fun. Baseball needs more bat flips and players who show passion and excitement while playing. Baseball needs the energy to be honest. And the celebrations.

No, not showing anyone or rehearsing some scripted “Look Ma, No Hands” sketch nonsense, but it’s okay to have fun while playing. (And the baseline is always, if a pitcher doesn’t want to see a bat flip or slide come out of the box after Acuña or someone else hits a 450 foot, well, make better pitches, don’t hit the next one Batter in Because even Brian McCann knows no one has thrown a bat or celebrated their way back to the batter after Strike 3.)

I love Acuna. He’s my favorite player, his name isn’t Shhei Ohtani. And I love how Ronald plays the game.

But his comments about not liking Freddie or Freddie not liking him relate less to that to me than to maturity, to be honest. (And it sounds like a lot of the stuff Freddie and Acuña were mad about was more “Braves Way” things like the sunglasses over the ‘A’ on the hat and the Eye Black protocol than the gameplay- Stuff. That means the grown men even have to worry about the eye black protocol, which brings a whole other level of silliness to this damn thing.)

Hell, we’ve all had relationships at work with people we really don’t like. That’s part of it. But you make the best of it and move on.

I hope that Acuña told Freddie all of this sometime before the press release, because I just don’t think that’s a grown-up way of dealing with something like this.

It might also help explain why the Braves really haven’t been fighting to keep Freddie since Acuña is one of the top five talents in the sport and has arguably the most team-friendly deal in baseball.

Still, if Acuña wants to take on the role of the face of this organization, well, dressing room managers — like Freddie and Chipper before him and Smoltzie and Glavine before him — don’t let the media run the dirty laundry on any successful organization. Regardless of the language, in who it is spoken to.

By Matt

Jay, I love your writing style and have been reading your 5-10 for a while.

I took (Thursday) off because I love the Masters too. What will you be watching more this week – golf or all sports combined?

Thank you and keep it up.

Mate —

Such a great question and I wrote to Paschall on Thursday that I would miss being in the sport full time because I am with Augusta. Wow what a scene Augusta National was all day yesterday. Just unbelievable.

Side note: Uh, TV people, what’s in the bleep? We couldn’t get live tiger footage at all? And yes, I know about contract obligations and what not, but come on, people are finding out this stuff. Tiger did historical stuff and all we got were infographics where his tee shot landed on a 5, which made me think I was playing Nintendo NES – the original – golf video game.

Still, what a great day of TV Thursday was. When the Masters went live it was excellent and we got to see Tiger’s finish as well as the rest.
Side note, Part II: Man, it’s easy to forget that Dustin Johnson is still the best player in the world when it clicks. Sorry, not sorry Jon Rahm or Scottie Scheffler, but when the DJ hangs up everyone else plays for second place.

After the Masters, the Braves came along.

(SIDE, Part III: Missed the first part of the Braves’ loss to the Reds – if they’d signed Freeman I believe they’d win this one ((joke, joke, mostly)) – because the lil 5-at- 10 had a 12U softball game. She threw three innings. Nine Ks. No hits. They squeaked 12-1.)

The final half of the Braves game was disappointing in terms of baseball but enlightening in terms of the next former sports star who will be the target of a monster bidding war. Gang, if you’ve been watching, you already know where I’m going.

When the ESPN show Reds first baseman Joey Votto put on a mic, it became a must-watch on TV. He was huge. TREEEE mendous.

It was insightful. It was appealing. It was entertaining. It was awarded to Manning Megacast. Dude will be a TV star sooner rather than later. We then ended the night with Ohtani pitching and batting leadoff, which I described on Twitter as the perfect start to an opening day that reminded me of being a kid when pitchers were also the best hitters. As I wrote before, things could only have been better if all the Angels had driven to the game in manager Joe Maddon’s F150.

As for the question? Come on. I’ll watch more Masters.

With great distance.

By Joe Don

JG:


Remember your memory of Augusta National


If you stood at the 18th tee on Sunday and looked down that long, narrow tunnel lined by thousands of people, should the guests be afraid of a mistaken tee shot?


I think this is the most intimidating tee shot at The Masters slightly edging #12. What do you say?


The prettiest approach shot I think is in green #10. You? (And TV definitely doesn’t give you the true feel of #10’s elevation change)



JoeDon —

Of course if there were the rows of people on the sides when playing, they would have been in danger and of course my knees would have been knocking.

Dropping to 12 wasn’t intimidating at all for me on either game; it was more impressive and awe-inspiring.

But then again, I was on a bucket list, taking it all in one round of golf, and didn’t want to put my name in the pantheon of golf legends.

The second shot on 10 was intimidating. I hit it pretty decently — at least that’s what I did then, don’t play that much anymore — and I was standing 150 yards from the pin in the middle of the fairway.

(Before you call BS, no, I haven’t hit a Drive 350. If they let the media play, you’ll have to play from members’ tee shots, the Augusta from the 7,500-yard monster that the pros tangle with, at about Turn 6,600 yards And 10 goes from 500-plus to closer to 430, and the ride goes steeply downhill.)

But there I am 150 away, which to me is usually either a hard 9 or a smooth 8. But that’s such an elevated green, my caddy stands there with a drawn club and hands it to me. “Trust me,” he asks as I look down at my 4-iron.

I do. I did. And I hit it at about 15 feet and double putted for par.

But the most intimidating ride for me was at 1 because you’re standing there in a group of four people you’ve never really spoken or played with, there are four caddies who are for sure much better players than the Yahoos they are working and you can’t help but think, “Damn, this is God’s golf course and I’m about to mess this thing up.” So, with all these things happening – and with Jim Nantz starting to mumble: “Some time today,” as he waited behind us – a media guy from London was the first in our group and smashed hard and right off the first tee that found the main entrance hall, rattling away from the buildings like an automatic rifle firing off until someone yelled, “(Bleep). Who hit that?”

I hit next and figured, well, it can’t get any worse than this and smoked one right down the center next to the big fairway bunker on the right.

Good times. Great question.

By Thomas

Why does everyone hate Duke so much?

Thomas

Because they are dukes.

Yes, that sums it up.

Have a great weekend friends and enjoy the Masters.

We’ll get back together on Monday with the contest results and hopefully some comments. (#Fingers crossed.)

Jay Greeson

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