The Macon Telegraph from Macon, Georgia • B1

THURSDAY MAY 2 2019 1BFACEBOOK.COM/TELEGRAPHGA TWITTER.COM/TELEGRAPHGAMACON.COM Sports days at Fort Lauderdale High, rolled to the right, kept his eyes downfield, and zeroed in on his target: Mathis, who was run- ning a wheel route up the side- line. Landers set his feet, like an experienced quarterback, with a defender bearing down on him, and let fly up the field towards the streaking Mathis. His throw found the wide-open Mathis, who outran the safety to the end zone. was ready for (the trick Landers said. to see the outcome of it, because, you know, a lot of trick plays work.

My first trick play ever and we accomplished For a moment, a flash of life in an otherwise not-flashy spring game. On that frigid April afternoon, fans have much to cheer about. For about six seconds, they did. Landers probably throw many more double- reverse-pass touchdowns (when was the last time UGA called one during a His high school coach, Joe Fabrizio, said Landers mostly played quarterback out of the wildcat formation. The St.

Petersburg Green Devils never ran any plays for Landers similar to that G-Day trick play, Fabrizio said. But, somewhat-quarterback past aside, Landers just might be answer at a posi- tion group Kirby Smart ad- mitted he does not feel confi- dent in. Only two real contrib- utors at receiver remain on the roster from last season (Tyler Simmons and Jeremiah Hollo- man), and Demetris Robertson missed the spring game with an undisclosed illness. ATHENS, GA Mathis, freshman quarterback making his first appearance for the Bulldogs, took the shotgun snap and handed the ball to running back James Cook. Cook darted left, then pulled up and flipped the ball to re- ceiver Matt Landers, who sprinted towards the Georgia in the center of Sanford grass field.

Landers waste one second. The redshirt sopho- more, who took snaps at quar- terback during his high school FOOTBALL JOSHUA L. JONES AP Georgia wide receiver Matt Landers (5) misses a catch while being defended by Georgia defensive back DJ Daniel (14) during a spring game in Athens, on April 20. BY JOSHMIXON Landers could be answer at wide receiver SEE LANDERS, 3B NEW YORK Cincinnati manager David Bell notices the difference from his playing days. just no question that swings are geared for more home he said.

swings are different than they used to be. pretty obvious when you pull up a video of 20 years ago, 30 years all-or-nothing trend accelerated in the sea- first full month, as batters binged on home runs and pitchers thrived on strikeouts. Players hit 1,144 home runs in 874 games through April 30, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, an average of 1.31 per game. That is on track to break the record average of 1.26 set two years ago. think starting to see more and more, some of the miss-hits are going pretty far, Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said.

Even more significantly, the barrage took place during a time when cold weather in much of the country usually causes many fly balls to die on warning tracks. There were 912 homers in 838 games through April last year, an average of 1.09 in a season that ended at 1.15 the second-highest ever. This weather was better to some degree; there have been 15 postponements, down from 28 through last April. been flying here more than ever Mets manager Mickey Call- away said after New York and Minnesota combined for a Citi Field-record 10 long balls. time of year, the balls usually travel like they Perhaps more alarming to baseball officials is the rise in strikeouts.

Batters are averag- ing 8.86 strikeouts per game, up from 8.48 last year the 11th consecutive record year for whiffs. Strikeouts are on pace to top 43,000, up from 41,207 last year and 30,644 in 2005. just continues to get better and better, more wipeout stuff. Just nastier Los Angeles Dodgers infielder David Freese said. age guys are start- ing to learn even in their teens to get the ball in the air, not necessarily to hit the ball up the middle, other way type of Before 2017, strikeouts never exceeded hits over a full calen- dar month.

There were more whiffs than hits in April, June and September last year, and there were 187 more strikeouts than hits over the full season. This year already there were 949 strikeouts and 848 hits in March and 6,799 strikeouts and 6,371 hits in April, leaving strikeouts 529 ahead. pitchers are throwing 95-plus (mph). Starters are throwing 93 or higher with Mets third base- man Todd Frazier said. are going left and right, and up and down, and And perhaps because batters are crowding the plate, there have been 368 hit batters, an average of 0.42 per game on track to be the highest since 1900.

Frazier notes swings have changed as batters try to go deep. got to understand, not how it used to he said. I was younger, they taught you to get on top of the ball, With more strikeouts, requir- ing lengthier plate appear- ances, the average time of nine-inning games backtracked to 3 hours, 3 minutes, 48 sec- onds, up from 3:00:50 through April last season. BEN MARGOT AP Los Angeles Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel, left, reacts as David Freese (25) runs the bases after hitting a three-run home run off San Francisco Drew Pomeranz, right, on Tuesday in San Francisco. MLB All or nothing: Home runs, strikeouts on pace for records ATLANTA This missive concerns the Falcons, meaning that duty-bound to cite 28-3, to note Dan Quinn fired nearly every coach except Dan Quinn and to make an eye-rolling reference to Brotherhood.

With that out of the way, we can proceed to topic, which is: I like what the Falcons have done since they last played a game, and I stipulate that I make this as- sertion while under no threat to my personal well-being. I like it when teams admit they have problems. Problems are part of life. (Apologies for going Dr. Phil on you.) Back to the Falcons: They fired three coordinators on New Eve because they ad- mitted what some of us on the periphery had been saying for two years.

Namely, that their coaching was substandard. May- be it took them a year longer to dump Steve Sarkisian and Mar- quand Manuel than it should have, but to have canned both after Year 1 of their coordination could have been construed as a knee-jerk response. Two years, however, constitu- ted a Rubicon being crossed. (Apologies also for this turning into a Dale Brown count-the- references monologue.) Credit Quinn for doing something that could spawn a correction. Dirk Koetter is a better NFL offensive coordinator than Sarkisian; Quinn himself is a better NFL DC than Manuel.

unclear as to how Keith Armstrong mishan- dled the special teams, but Matt Bosher did have a couple of punts blocked last year, so may- be it was time for this is me doing my energetic Quinn voice a New Voice there, too. seen enough of Sarki- sian and Manuel to surmise that their ways going to work. Way has worked here before. Of all the pro OCs Matt Ryan has had the number is four or five, depending on whether you do COMMENTARY BY MARK BRADLEY Atlanta Journal-Constitution Upset alert! I like what Falcons have done SEE FALCONS, 3B BY RONALD BLUM Associated Press Dan Quinn.