Good morning. This is LEADOFF, the early buzz in Atlanta sports.
So how many metro Atlanta households were watching on TV when Tuesday night's/Wednesday morning's rain-delayed Braves-Pirates game ended at 1:52 a.m.?
About 7,200, based on Nielsen data.
The final half-hour of the telecast posted a 0.3 rating on Fox Sports Southeast, meaning 0.3 percent of the roughly 2.41 million households in the Atlanta TV market were watching when the Braves and Pirates exchanged ninth-inning rallies and the Braves won the game on first baseman Matt Adams' walk-off single.
Hours earlier, the game’s TV rating peaked at 3.2 — an audience of about 77,000 households — just before the rain delay started.
Play resumed at 12:51 a.m. after a three-hour, 12-minute delay.
* * *
The news that Travis Schlenk will be the Hawks' new general manager prompted a search of the AJC's archives to see what was written about him when he was a young administrative assistant on University of Georgia coach Ron Jirsa's staff in the 1998-99 season.
The search produced only one mention — an April 23, 1999, article in which Jirsa’s successor, Jim Harrick, said Schlenk would not be retained.
UGA’s 1998-99 basketball media guide included a brief bio of Schlenk, then 24 years old.
From that media guide: “Travis Schlenk, a native of Kansas with basketball experience at both the collegiate and professional levels, joined the Georgia coaching staff in August of 1998 as an administrative assistant. As administrative assistant, Schlenk is responsible for a wide variety of day-to-day duties, including videotape work and scheduling of practices.”
The bio also noted that when Schlenk was an undergraduate student at Bethel (Kan.) College, he “served as an assistant coach on the basketball staff.”
* * *
DON’T MISS …
Is the UGA Athletic Board a paper Bulldog? See Seth Emerson's extensive special report on the board and its role, operations and members.
The Braves announced on Twitter Wednesday night that they will sell monthly general-admission ticket passes for $39, beginning in June. Jeff Schultz did the math: With 18 home games in June, that comes to $2.17 per game. Read Schultz's blog here.
The Braves will play their first weekday afternoon game at SunTrust Park today — a 12:10 p.m. start against the Pirates — and that will make parking around the stadium more limited because some of the lots used for night games won't be available. See story here.
