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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL SI / isl |% %* / jrofe H John ClarK/NASCAR This Week Ken Schrader, currently one of NASCAR’s elder statesmen, came up with his second top-10 finish of the season at Richmond. With Dover approaching this week, Schrader is sticking with his tested method of racing for the track - turn good and come down on the throttle. Tried and true Busy Missourian keeping it simple as Cup season wraps up By Monte Dutton NASCAR This Week LOUDON, N.H. - Ken Schrader has been around a while. At age 51, he is the oldest driver still competing full time in the Nextel Cup Series. He may also be the busiest man in racing. Like only a handful of his contempo raries, Schrader, from Fenton, Mo., is a throwback to an earlier era when drivers showed up at almost every possible opportunity. Schrader won at the dirt track in DuQuoin, 111., on La bor Day. He owns his own track in Pevely, Mo. And he drives the No. 21 Ford field fed by the famed Wood Brothers team, Which has been racing in NASCAR longer than Schrader has. On Sept. 9, Loss eliminates Braves from playoffs By R. Travis Haney Morris News Service DENVER - Postseason baseball will press on with out fail, but October won’t lbok the same without them. It’s official. The Atlanta Braves will not be a part of the playoffs in 2006, their fifst season without a payoff since 1990. With the whimper of yet another one-run loss, this tiine at the hands of one of the league’s worst teams, Atlanta was eliminated from National League wild card contention here Sunday. l’he Braves sputtered aWay an early five-run lead throughout the course of the afternoon at Coors Field, Colorado’s comeback capped by Brad Hawpe’s two-run, pihch-hit home run in the eighth that lifted the Rockies to a 9-8 victory before a spir ited bunch of 30,216 fans. “We’ve done just about everything you can do wrong in one season,” said veteran John Smoltz, the only guy to have played with the Braves when they perennially had losing seasons. “It was kind of a torturing process.” Perhaps some filed into the venue on a gloriously bright, crisp day to pay their final respects to a run that might not be duplicated in baseball lore for some time. The curtain on the Braves’ “Protecting Health & Property Since 1976” 1 ’eaenftrcc P K S T C O N T R O l. O O I N C Eclusive Perimeter Defense^System FULL SERVICE PEST CONTROL • TERMITE CONTR@jWEitMITE LETTERS ANIMAL-CONTROL • BIRD MWU.hVffVn Residential • Commerco * Industrial V£. WARNER ROBINS * WW'H kl! I / 478-922-1221 • 1877-922-1221 On-line coupons available at: wmv.peachtreepeStcOritrof.com Up to 10% Senior Citizen Discount On All Services "1 Schrader finished seventh in the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond. It was his second top-10 finish of the season. Schrader is also a throwback in that he places a lot of stock in loyalty and personal considerations. New Hamp shire International Speedway has been an important stop for Schrader because of his regard for Bob Bahre, the track’s owner, and his family. “They come by and talk to you,” said Schrader, “and they just care. Some of the others, you don’t ever see. They built a family room when they first built the track. Ann (Schrader’s wife) actually went out there and helped buy toys for it. The Bahres just actually care.” In an age in which racing seems run of 14 consecutive divi sion titles came down a cou ple of weeks back, when the New York Mets pushed them from the East pedestal. But flickering hopes of reaching the playoffs via the wild card remained. No one team had staked seri ous claim to the berth, the Braves explained. Why, they wondered aloud, couldn’t it be them? The answer, it turns out, was that it couldn’t for a wide-ranging number of rea sons - all of which presented themselves over the course of this weekend here. Colorado took the final three games of the four-game series, each in a different manner. Each representing the glaring woes of a doomed Braves ballclub. Friday, Tim Hudson per sonified the struggles of the starting staff, his own mind boggling plight in particular. Riddled by four walks, he gave up six runs in 5 1/3 innings in a 6-3 loss. Saturday, young starter Kyle Davies was crushed in the early innings, but Atlanta rallied from six runs down to ... come up one run short in a 10-9 loss. With the tying run on second in the ninth, Adam Laßoche and Todd Pratt struck out. And Sunday, the first five Braves that batted scored and Atlanta held a 5-0 lead before Colorado even hit. The Braves still led 7-2 in the fifth until Matt Holliday uncorked a grand slam off starter Chuck James to dead center field that made it 7- 6. Holliday, who has 32 hom ers this season, homered three times in four games this weekend against Atlanta pitching. He also tripled and scored in the seventh. The Braves stayed a step ahead, though, until Hawpe, after Jamey Carroll had sin gled, homered off Tyler Yates to put the Rockies ahead for the first time all day. Atlanta’s late collapse wasted a career day for catcher Brian McCann, who had a first-inning grand slam off Rockies starter Juan Morillo, who was making his major league debut. The 22-year-old McCann added a solo shot in the fourth off Morillo for his first career multi-home run game. McCann also singled and, after his three-hit day, is batting .333 in his first full big league season. Chipper Jones, in his first start since Tuesday because of a sore foot, went 3-for-3 with a solo homer, two dou bles and a pair of walks. But none of that was enough. “These last couple of games are indicative of our I a —ios2=3 H'i? would like to introduce you to Fresh Air by Eco Quest: By duplicating the same processes nature uses to clean the air outside, Fresh Air by EcoQuest Tu keeps indoor air fresh and clean-smelling day and night. Collectively known tis SynAirG™, these processes work together synergistically to eliminate smoke and odors as well as kill bacteria, mold, and mildew in unoccupied areas. ifMmr Financing Available Call NOW for a FREE trial offer! Independent Distributor Elton & Verneaze Tucker (478)923-6187 6 (478)923-4111 «|P m SPORTS increasingly complex, Schrader keeps it simple. “It doesn’t make any difference if it’s Loudon or any place,” he said. “It’s all the same thing. The cars have got to be able to turn and be able to get on the throttle. You’ve got to be able to turn good and come down on the throt tle. That’s the two things we fight for Loudon and everywhere else. “You watch what people are doing, and people move from team to team. When you hire somebody, you learn stuff. Everybody talks. You just find out what everybody is doing.” Simple as that, huh? “Yep,” said Schrader. Contact Monte Dutton at hmduttonso@aoi.com. whole season,” Jones said. “Either we’d dig a big hole early and fight all the way back to come up one run short. Or we’d get out to a big lead and just can’t get outs late in the game. ... It’s the same thing hap pening.” At one point this season, Hudson called that the Braves’ “Groundshogs Day,” even adding in that super fluous OS’. See, the Braves (75-81) - 7 1/2 games behind wild card leading Philadelphia with six to play - never could get it right. “It’s been one thing or another all year,” Jones said, and then spelled out the various issues. “We’ve gone through streaks all year where we just haven’t put all the facets of the game together consistently to be anything better than a .500 team.” Oh, but the Braves will have to work feverishly to even reach mediocrity. A 6-0 finish against the Mets and Astros, beginning Tuesday, is required to get to 81-81. Manager Bobby Cox’s run of 15 consecutive winning seasons also died Sunday. And they’ll watch October unfold on TV if at all. “We tried hard to make it,” Cox said. “We just couldn’t do it.” There s nothing quite like walking outside and taking a deep breath of fresh, clean air after a thunderstorm. Wouldn’t you like to be able to step back inside and enjoy that same fresh air all the time ? Like Clean water, fresh air is essential to our well being. Now, having the fresh air you want is as easy as pressing a button when it's Fresh Air by EcoQuest m Smoltz copes with reality; Liberty Media pep visits DENVER - John Smoltz will take the same Turner Field mound Tuesday that he has hun dreds of times in the past decade or so. But it’ll be an entirely different place for Atlanta’s 39-year-old B>m NOTEBOOK R. Travis Haney Morris News Service veteran starter because there’s ultimately nothing on the line. “That’s going to be a little difficult, different,” said Smoltz, who will pitch against the New York Mets club that’s already secured the National League East title that Atlanta had won every year since 1995. The Braves won the NL West from 1991-93, and the league was on strike in 1994. Smoltz joined the team in the late 1980 s, just before the franchise’s ascension. This year, he’s been wit ness to its coming back to earth. “It’s kind of odd to put into words,” said Smoltz, 14-9 with a 3.72 ERA on a starting rotation that he said has been in “disarray” because of injuries, youth and inconsistency. One thing Smoltz has had difficulty coming to terms with is the fact that the wild card winner will finish with somewhere in the neighborhood of 85-87 wins. That’s something that feels so irritatingly attainable to Smoltz, he said, because of the num ber of close games through out the season that Atlanta lost. Take one-run deci sions here both Saturday and Sunday. Philadelphia (82-73), the East’s second-place team, leads the way right now. “Every year, the other teams gave us a chance to win, we did,” he said, referring especially to the past two seasons. “And guess what? Teams gave us another chance to win this year. ... It’s hard to deal with the fact that no one ran away with the wild card. To me, that makes it more gut-wrenching.” Georgia Tech to put national ranking on line against Hokies By Adam Van Brimmer Morris News Service ATLANTA - Georgia Tech is back in the national rankings. The challenge will be to stay there. The Yellow Jackets moved into the Associated Press media poll at No. 24 Sunday. They travel to face No. 11 Virginia Tech on Saturday, though, and will need a victory to hang on to their AP ranking and to impress the coaches panel that votes in the USA Today poll. The Jackets remained unranked by the coaches, with five teams receiving more votes in the listing of other unranked teams receiving votes. The polls are a second ary consideration, at best, for Georgia Tech this week. The winner of the Of Chuck Wagons Ml *•8 TdJe are tuuv the authonifed dealer {pr the ChllcK Wagon •Powered by in 11 IP Ronda Engine 'Available in led, Green or Came •1 Year Parts & Labor Warranty *2 Year Engine Warranty Frank’s Golf Car Center, LLC SALES - SERVICE-RENTALS 1237 Watson Blvd - Warner Robins 1-866-800-7722 • 478-918-0680 • CELL 478-396-5157 www.tranksgoHcarcenter.com TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2006 CUPPER BUR MUUM): Maligned as he often is for how much he’s out of the lineup, you’ve got to hand it to Chipper Jones for the fact that he always resur faces with a bang. For the third time in two seasons, Jones has missed multiple games and returned to the starting lineup with a homer. A solo shot in the fourth, his 24th of this injury-rid dled season, was a part of a 3-for-3 Sunday against the Rockies that included a pair of doubles and a pair of walks. He was on base all five times he stepped into the batter’s box. “He’s swinging great. He’s swinging as good as I’ve ever seen him,” Cox said. “He’s just on every thing.” Jones had to leave in the eighth, after his second walk, because of continu ing soreness in his right foot. He hadn’t started since Tuesday because of lingering pain in the foot. He’s also missed extended time this season because of side and knee iiyuries. Still, the 34-year-old Jones is hitting .323 with 24 homers and 80 RBIs in 105 games. LIBERTY MEETS WITH BRAVES BIRRS: Braves president Terry McGuirk visited Coors Field on Sunday to meet with representatives from the Liberty Media group that is close to final izing its purchase of the team. The Denver-based Liberty might nail down the param eters of the purchase as soon as its November own ers’ meeting. The company, which would take over the club from Time Warner, has said it doesn’t plan to make any immediate or sweeping changes once it’s under its control. That’s the theory that GM John Schuerholz has said he’s been going by all along. The Braves have oper ated the past few seasons with an SBO million payroll - middle of the road rela tive to the rest of the major league personnel budgets. Contact R. Travis Haney at travis.haney@morris. com. 3:30 p.m. game at Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium takes sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference Coastal Division and becomes an early favorite to reach the ACC Championship game. “I think they understand what’s really at stake with this ballgame and we’ll pre pare accordingly,” Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey said. “Rankings only mat ter at the end” of the sea son. The Virginia Tech game is also a chance for atone ment. The Yellow Jackets to a 3-0 record and a No. 16 ranking to Blacksburg, Va., last September only to be humbled, 51-7, by the Hokies. Virginia Tech held the Jackets to six first downs and scored two See TECH, page 6B 3B flfl $3,995] (As Shown) jj J00377W1