Prelude to a play

Sporting News, The, Sept 7, 1998 by Terry Frei

Kurt Murphy is intent on snapping the ball on the correct "hut," but he also has Thornton over him, and if Thornton has had onions for breakfast, it can be a problem. If Thornton emulates other nose tackles, he might be talking, too.

"They'll be saying that they own you, stuff like that," he says. "Most of the time, they're this far (he holds two fingers a couple of inches apart) from your helmet, and they know they can do just about anything to you. I snap with my fight hand, so I'm sitting there, knowing I can't get my right hand up as quickly to block. I've got to be thinking about snapping the ball, but getting my fight hand into the block quick enough so he can't grab my fight shoulder and pull me down."

"Hut!" Germaine yells.

Kurt Murphy doesn't snap the ball. Wiley is too far back to hear the snap count all the time, so he's going to go on the ball movement. So are the wide receivers. A defensive lineman jumps, but doesn't make contact, and gets back across the line of scrimmage. None of the Buckeyes flinches or jumps. "Hut!" Germaine hollers.

Kurt Murphy explodes, firing the ball between his legs to Germaine, setting off a chain reaction of motion on both sides of the line of scrimmage.

And the play--the play the Buckeyes already have been thinking about since the huddle broke--begins.

RELATED ARTICLE: Not that tough

In his first full as a closer, Tom Gordon is closing in on the Red Sox saves record (40, by Jeff Reardon in 1991).

Gordon's success illustrates why relief pitchers have never gotten the same level of respect as starting pitchers--particularly when they become eligible for the Hall of Fame.

Gordon was a solid-but-unspectacular starter who has made the most of a late-career change. The man he beat out for the Red Sox closer's job, Dennis Eckersley, did the same thing after spending about half of his career as a starter.

Obviously, it isn't as difficult to be a 40-saves reliever as it is to be a 20-game winner, and that likely will be reflected in the Hall of Fame voting when some of the top closers of this generation come up for consideration.

RELATED ARTICLE: Moving on up

Houston's record ranks No.3 among the National League's division leaders, but if the Astros close strong and overtake the No. 2 Padres, they would have a chance to play the lowest seed in the playoffs.

The Braves likely will finish with the league's best record and the Mets currently lead the tight wild-card race. If the Mets end up in the playoffs, the division winner with the second-best record would draw the Mets in the Division Series. (The wild card can't be matched against a team from its own division).

That would position the Astros very well for a run at the World Series.

"I think Houston is the team to beat in the National League this year," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones says. "A lot of us in this clubhouse thought Randy Johnson would wind up in New York or Cleveland. But when Houston got him, guys were saying `Whoa.' They are going to be tough, very tough."