Sports Daily: Matt Olson, Chris Sale and EV issues

STEADY AS SHE GOES

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC

I’m planning to write today about Braves first baseman Matt Olson, whose performance plummeted in 2024 after reaching brilliance in 2023.

To wit: In 2023, he led the majors in home runs (a franchise-record 54) and RBIs (139) and was third in slugging percentage (.604). In baseball history, those plateaus had been reached only 18 times, seven times by known steroid users and six times before the game’s integration.

But in 2024, while Olson played the full 162 games for the fourth year in a row, his 29 home runs tied for 24th in the majors. His 98 RBIs were 18th. He was 39th in slugging percentage (.457).

An interesting thing (to me, at least) about his comments to media here Wednesday in North Port is that he said nearly the same thing he did a year ago.

🗣️ Olson in March 2024: “You have a really good year and you show yourself kind of what you are capable of and what you believe, but it’s crazy how different years can be.”

🗣️ Olson on Wednesday: “Every season’s different. You learn things as you go. It’s the beauty of the game. … The game’s constantly evolving. It’s an ongoing chess match. To be able to have an opportunity to look at a good year like I had in ’23 and try to replicate it is the fun of it.”

Same kind of challenge but in a different context.

I hope you’ll give the story a read when it pops up today.

📝 Braves love their roster, Dodgers' splurge or not

CLOSET SPACE

I wrote something that went up on the website Wednesday about Braves pitcher and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Chris Sale after he spoke with media that morning.

If you got a peek into Sale’s psyche last year through the reporting of Justin Toscano, our excellent Braves beat writer, you probably got a sense that Sale is a little different. For instance, he never shakes off his catcher’s signals. It’s an astounding show of confidence in a teammate by one of the game’s premier pitchers. Even, for instance, when he was throwing to relative newbie Chadwick Tromp.

At the end of his media session, in which he offered thoughts about the team and his approach to the 2025 season, I asked him what he had done with the Cy Young Award. The answer was another glimpse into his greatness.

The award is in a closet in his family’s home in Naples, Florida.

📝 Sale unimpressed with himself, Cy Young and all

TRAVEL TROUBLES

At the end of last week’s email, I wrote that I would be headed down to spring training and mentioned my adventures last year when I rented an electric vehicle, which proved a less-than-ideal choice given that North Port is about an hour and a half from the Tampa airport and that charging stations seem a bit scarce around here. I offered to share another tale of woe of renting an EV if you were interested in hearing it, and I’m glad to have gotten enough of a response to tell that sordid tale.

📆 It was Georgia Tech’s game at Louisville on Sept. 21. Louisville is about six hours away, which for me is in the range of “Fly or drive?” I reserved a car from an Avis near my house. They were apparently out of normal cars but was told they had an EV. I knew I should have just declined, but the novelty of driving an EV and my thought that “I’m sure it’ll be fine” (an instinct I should learn to ignore) won me over.

The drive up was but a prelude. I stopped at a hotel near Nashville and plugged in, figuring I’d be all juiced up in the morning, only to realize upon departure that it was only partially charged. It was my first lesson that stations charge at different rates.

I learned another lesson on my way up as I was running out of juice. After looking online, I found a station that had a faster charger, only to arrive there and learn another lesson — that Teslas have their own unique charging plugs, and this one, naturally, had only those chargers. (I had a Genesis, a luxury EV.)

Credit: Timothy D. Easley/AP

Credit: Timothy D. Easley/AP

So I had to find another charger to get me all the way to Louisville. (I remember walking into the Walmart and someone who had seen me at the station asked how the Tesla charging adapter I was using for the Genesis was working out. Rather than admit my stupidity, I just said something like, “It works great.”)

But I got to the game and found a station near the stadium and left it there for the game. That’s when the fun started. Or stopped, to be more precise. Coming back to the car after the game, it was around 11 p.m. and I wanted to get back at least halfway to Atlanta — which would be about three hours — so I was already looking at a late night of driving.

⚡ But I got back to my car and I couldn’t unplug the charger. I pulled hard on it, I tried to see if there was some sort of clip, I looked at the station to see if there were instructions. I thought, since I’d had no problem unplugging at the hotel that morning, that I’d plugged it in wrong and now it was stuck, which was a dreadful, dreadful thought.

I must have Googled “How do you unplug a Genesis?” five times trying to find my answer. I finally figured out the problem — the car doesn’t let you unplug unless you reach a certain threshold, and so if you want to unplug it before that you have to lower the threshold on the touchscreen. This had taken probably about 45 minutes. It was very aggravating.

😬 And now for the next problem: leaving the hotel parking lot. As things would have it, Louisville was hosting a bourbon festival that weekend, the area around the stadium was packed and a concert was letting out. So I sat in the parking lot for probably 20 or 30 minutes, inching forward, and it didn’t get much faster on the road to the interstate.

I made a reservation for a hotel in Murfreesboro (a little south of Nashville) and got there around 3 in the morning. But I got to the hotel and realized that it only had a Tesla station. So I was driving around the area near the hotel, unsuccessfully looking for a faster charger that wasn’t for Teslas. And let’s just say I really needed to use the bathroom.

I finally found a charger in a shopping mall that was probably a five-minute walk to the hotel and minced my way there. It was not a proud moment.

I left the next morning with the car still not having enough power to get me home. (I was hoping to get home on the earlier side because I was assigned to cover the Falcons-Chiefs game that night.) But I found exactly what I needed — a fast-charging station not for Teslas — near the hotel. I powered up enough to get home with 20 or 30 miles to spare.

I thought I was home free.

I thought.

This is getting long, and there’s actually another chapter of the saga. I’ll save it for next week.

Thanks to everyone for making it this far. Have a great Thursday!

ODDS AND ENDS

🙄 We won’t spill too much digital ink about it but … here’s a story about infamous former Brave John Rocker arguing with Patrick Mahomes’ dad in New Orleans — and the two of them maybe boxing each other for Barstool Sports?

⚾ Former Georgia Tech star and semicontroversial Braves trade acquisition Mark Teixeira will be inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame today.

🐝 Two former Yellow Jacket football players — defensive lineman Zeek Biggers and tight end Jackson Hawes — accepted invitations to the NFL Combine. Festivities start Feb. 24 in Indianapolis.

⚖️ Police in Douglasville arrested NFL wide receiver Kadarius Toney (formerly of the Chiefs and Browns) on charges accusing him of assaulting a woman and preventing her from calling for help.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Credit: John Munson/AP

Credit: John Munson/AP

Hawks guard Dyson Daniels tries to stay inbounds during the second half of Wednesday night’s 149-148 loss to the Knicks. Atlanta was down six points with 18 seconds left in regulation and managed to tie it up (here’s video of all that!) but couldn’t seal the deal in overtime.

The home team heads into the All-Star break at 26-29 and ninth in the Eastern Conference.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Thanks for reading to the very bottom of Sports Daily. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tyler.estep@ajc.com.

Until next time.