Larry Fleming: Raisin Hope ride deserves support

Published 10:29 pm Saturday, July 18, 2009

The third Raisin Hope Foundation benefit bicycle ride will be held on Sept. 5, but there’s a change in the start-finish location. After two years at Heritage Park, the scene will shift this fall to Prater’s Mill with the ride covering the rolling country roads of North Whitfield County. Previously, the route took riders from Heritage Park to Fort Mountain and bike, with shorter routes in between.

This year’s ride is scheduled to start at 8 a.m. and the distance options are: metric century (62 miles), 39 miles, 15 miles or 6 miles. Lunch will be provided to all the riders and a chance to win several door prizes. Pre-registered riders will receive a T-shirt. The registration fees are $40 per rider and day of the event is $45. Children 12-under are $10 when accompanied by an adult. Pre-registration closes on Aug. 29.

The Raisin Hope Foundation was established in 2007 by Saul Raisin, of Dalton, a professional rider who sustained serious injuries after crashing in a race in April 2004 in France. He was 23 at the time. While he has recovered from his near-fatal injuries, Raisin was not able to resume his professional riding career.

He has devoted much time to his foundation, which is designed to benefit people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries. The main beneficiaries of Raisin’s fundraising effort are Camp Twin Lakes, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the National Brain Injury Information Center and the Siskin Hospital for Physical Rehabilitation.

This is an event that has attracted upwards of 800 riders in each of the first two years, so the community has embraced Raisin’s cause. There’s no reaso to believe it won’t again come September.

• The University of Georgia has extended the contract of Andy Landers by three years through 2013-14. Why not? Landers is the only full-time women’s basketball coach in the school’s history.

It was a no-brainer for athletic director Damon Evans. After all, Landers has won 800-plus games and, after taking over the Lady Bulldogs as a 26-year-old coach, he quickly turned the program into a success and maintained that high level of competition throughout his time in Athens. Georgia is one of only four schools in the country to post winning records in all 28 seasons since women’s basketball came under the auspices of the NCAA in 1981-82.

The Lady Bulldogs have received bids to 26 NCAA tournaments, second-best among all schools in the country. They reached 17 “Sweet 16s,” 10 Elite Eights” and five Final Fours. The finished runner-up twice in 1985 and 1996.

A four-time national coach of the year, Landers, a native of Maryville, Tenn., is a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the state of Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.

• OK, Braves fans. DISH Network customers who subscribe to the SportSouth regional sports network in the Dalton area now have access to Braves games on Peachtree TV. In the past, these games were unavailable outside the Atlanta area.

July 21-22 games against San Francisco (both 7 p.m.) and a July 31 game (7:30 p.m.) — all three will be played in Atlanta — are to be televised. After July, fans can go online at www.dishnetwork.com/sports/wheresmygame/default.aspx to get the latest schedule.

• The Associated Press reported Saturday that construction is officially under way on a new, retractable-roof stadium for the Florida Marlins in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood.

Members of Marlins organization and local South Florida representatives broke ground on the team’s long-awaited ballpark at a ceremony Saturday, which was attended by baseball commissioner Bud Selig and about 5,000 people, according to the story.

Some work had already begun on the 37,000-seat facility being built on the site of the demolished Orange Bowl. The Marlins hope to open the park by the 2012 season.

Since Florida’s inaugural season in 1993, the Marlins have shared a stadium with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.

One has to wonder if fans will like the stadium enough to show up and watch the games, something they haven’t done at Dolphins Stadium.