Coach Paul Hewitt

For the Georgia Tech men’s basketball team, winning the ACC will be very difficult, if not impossible, considering how well North Carolina, Duke, and Wake Forrest are playing. However, the Yellow Jackets (7-2) have assembled a team that will surprise some people, and could cause some damage in the NCAA tournament.

Gani Lawal

The team is built around 6’9” sophomore Gani Lawal. Lawal is third in the ACC in scoring, first in rebounding, and fourth in field goal percentage. He also leads the ACC in double-doubles.
“[Lawal] is tough. He is an NBA player. He can do everything. He is strong and physical,” said Pepperdine head coach Tom Asbury, who witnessed Lawal have a double-double in the Yellow Jacket’s 86-58 victory over the Waves on Saturday.
In addition to Lawal, the Yellow Jackets have senior forward Alade Aminu, 240-pound forward Zachery Peacock, and 7’0” center Brad Sheehan to bang inside and grab rebounds.

Alade Aminu

“The key to the game is rebounding. With us staying on top of the boards, getting second chance points and extra possessions, it causes a lot of problems for other teams,” said Alade Aminu.
Gani Lawal added, “I try to hit the boards hard every time.”
Georgia Tech’s weakness, according to head coach Paul Hewitt, is its perimeter defense due to the injury to senior guard D’Andre Bell. However, senior guard Lewis Clinch is a reliable scorer, and freshman guard Iman Shumpert has been impressive handling the ball.
It will be an interesting test to see how the Yellow Jackets handle forward Taj Gibson and the USC Trojans Monday night.

Jim Brown: Initiating Social Change

By Seth Rubinroit

Photo by Sam Rubinroit

            Jim Brown became famous by knocking people down. As a fullback with the Cleveland Browns who was named NFL MVP three times and inducted into both the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame, he was known for his punishing running style that would leave would-be-tacklers sprawled on the field. Now, as the CEO of the Amer-I-Can Program, Brown has earned the reputation as someone who helps people up.

            The Amer-I-Can Program has given Brown the opportunity to create significant social change. The program consists of a 60 to 90-hour curriculum that teaches people life-management skills, and to take responsibility for themselves. Over the past twenty years, people ranging from gang-members and criminals to police officers and corporate CEOs have experienced positive changes in their lives as a result of the lessons taught in the Amer-I-Can Life Management Skills curriculum.

            “The reason I started [Amer-I-Can] was because of the gang violence,” Brown said at a celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Amer-I-Can program at his house, which is nestled in the Hollywood Hills. “I decided I would do something about it. One night, I had a group of gang members from different gangs up here, and I found out that most of them wanted to change their lives. Then, I had more meetings and more gang members would come up, and we would work on peace between them, and we developed the academic curriculum.”

            In addition to the Life Management Skills curriculum, Brown started the Amer-I-Can Foundation for Social Change to raise money to fight crime in low-income communities by helping people improve their lives and exercise self-determination. To achieve this goal, Brown has partnered with Rudolph “Rock” Johnson, a former gang member who spent two terms totaling 17 years in jail before Brown helped him turn his life around. Johnson now runs a club basketball team in association with Amer-I-Can for high school students who otherwise would not be able to afford the cost of a traveling team, which gives the student-athletes the opportunity to display their basketball skills and hopefully earn a college scholarship.

            What separates Brown from other philanthropists is his belief in change rather than charity. Rather than throwing money at society’s problems, Brown has dedicated his time and energy to fixing them. For example, Brown has hosted rival gangs at his house to discuss peace between them, and personally intervenes to guide those who need his help.

            “[People] love to do charity because you can give someone ten percent of your income, and you are done with it,” Brown said. On the other hand, “change takes every ounce of everything you have in your body. But change is what is going to make the major difference. That is what is going to affect our kids.”

            In addition to his work with the Amer-I-Can Program, Brown is Executive Advisor to the Cleveland Browns, with whom he spent his entire NFL career. Brown commented on the situation with Brett Favre, the former Green Bay Packers quarterback, who recently joined the New York Jets after changing his mind about retiring from football.

“I was saddened by it because I would have hoped that [Favre] would have stayed in retirement and let his legacy stay intact,” Brown said. “[Favre] is a great player, and evidently is a decent human being. But, this pursuit of the game, to me, has gone to an extreme. However, he is within his rights. I left because I wanted to leave my legacy intact. I left at 29 years old. I was the MVP of the league, and we won the world championship in 1964, so I wanted to be able to tell you that 40 years later. Sometimes, an athlete stays around too long, and there are more things to do than just athletics, and there is a time to leave. But, if he wins a Super Bowl, we will all be wrong. ”

Brown, who retired after playing only nine years in the NFL, says he was never seriously tempted to return to football.

“When you have a cause bigger than sports, you do not think about going back and playing sports.”

Goose Gossage--Photo by Sam Rubinroit

            At first glance, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the 547 saves Trevor Hoffman has posted in his career, and the 469 saves Mariano Rivera has recorded. These extraordinary numbers might appear to make Goose Gossage’s total of 310 seem pedestrian.

            However, putting these achievements in their proper context, there is no simple way to compare Hoffman and Rivera’s save totals to Gossage’s. Today’s closers rarely pitch more than one inning on any particular outing. Teams now employ long relievers and setup men to bridge the gap between the starter and the closer. But, for most of Gossage’s career, there were no setup pitchers, and Gossage often had to pitch multiple innings to record his saves. In fact, Gossage saved 52 games in which he required at least seven outs to secure the win, compared to two such saves for Hoffman and one for Rivera.

For many years, the Baseball Hall of Fame voters failed to appreciate how drastically the role of the closer had changed. When Gossage, a nine-time All-Star selection, was first eligible for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000, he received only 33% of the votes, which was well below the required 75%. Gradually, the voters became more astute, and Gossage earned greater support. Finally, in 2008, Gossage was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, garnering an 85.8% vote.

            I spoke to Gossage in February of 2006, long before he knew he was going to be elected into the Hall of Fame, at the RBI Dinner, where Gossage was being honored with the RBI Save the Children Award. RBI, or Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, “gives kids who might otherwise not play baseball the opportunity to play baseball” according to Derrek Lee, the All-Star first baseman of the Chicago Cubs, who was honored at the same dinner.

            My conversation with Gossage in February of 2006 is revealing in light of his recent induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

On why he has not been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame:      

“I do not know. I think the bottom line is they have really forgotten how the game and the role of the relief pitcher has changed. I did a job it takes three guys to do now. To me, it has evolved into what it should be. Any time you can have a guy like Mariano Rivera or Eric Gagne available to your team every night, it is a huge advantage. Sometimes I was not available to the team because I had pitched multiple innings [the day before], and I think therein lays the difference. I think a lot of the voters, especially the young voters, have forgotten how the role has changed.”

On why the role of the closer has changed:

“I think it is how it has evolved. When I broke into the bullpen in 1972, it was kind of like a junk-pile down there– where old starters who could not start anymore went. Then, the specialty of relief pitching really became a huge part of your team, and now it has evolved further from what I used to do. Starters used to pride themselves on going nine innings, and finishing what they started. That is no longer the case. Now guys go five, six innings and that is a quality start. I do not think there is anything in baseball that is the same as it used to be. Home runs do not mean what they used to mean with the offense that has been put into the game by design. I just wish they would remember how the game has changed. It is still a great game, but it has changed.” 

On the lengths teams go through to fortify their bullpens today:

 “I am a firm believer you can never have enough pitching. Injuries always happen. With the Yankees, there were so many relief pitchers that we were wondering what we were going to do with all of them. Then, all of the sudden, come June, you had three or four guys go on the disabled list. They were veteran pitchers, so guys were breaking down and by the time August rolled around, we barely had enough guys to finish the season up, so I do not think you can ever have enough pitching.”