BRIEFS

Directions to Sumter game

Take Highway 76/378 East from Columbia to Sumter.

From Jim Hudson GMC proceed 33 miles.

As you approach Shaw Air Force Base, look for Highway 441 South (You will see a small strip mall on your right with a Food Lion as an anchor store.) Turn right onto Highway 441 South.

Proceed to the third stoplight (five miles). As you approach the third stoplight, bear right onto Loring Mill Road.

Proceed through one stoplight and one four-way stop. Proceed then to the next stoplight which will be at the intersection of McCrays Mill Road (dead end).

Turn right onto McCrays Mill Road: proceed 100 yards turn left onto Stadium Road, go to stoplight, cross through intersection, and you will see stadium on the left.

Yankee pitcher calls it quits

Mike Mussina took a secret to the ballpark every day this season. Maybe that's why he was so successful on the mound, so jovial in the clubhouse.

From Day One of spring training, he knew this was his final year even if it meant giving up bids for 300 wins, a World Series ring and a better shot at the Hall of Fame.

The New York Yankees pitcher walked away from baseball Thursday after his only 20-win season, a month shy of his 40th birthday with a still-potent right arm.

Mussina finished 270-153 with a 3.68 ERA in 18 seasons with Baltimore and New York. A thinking man's pitcher who relied on sharp control and did more than overpower hitters, he ranks 32nd on the career wins list and 19th in strikeouts with 2,813.

His dad and brother tried to talk him out of retirement and Yankees general manager Brian Cashman called to ask about his future. Instead, "Moose" became the first healthy pitcher to leave on his own accord following a 20-win season in more than a century.

Georgia Tech wrecks Miami

Ruining Miami's return to national prominence, Georgia Tech ran for a staggering 472 yards, the second-most ever allowed by the Hurricanes, and romped to a 41-23 victory Thursday that gives the Yellow Jackets a chance to pull out an Atlantic Coast Conference divisional title that no one seems eager to win.

Jonathan Dwyer ran for 128 yards despite playing only one half, two other players came up just short of 100 yards and the Yellow Jackets left No. 23 Miami dazed and confused on a chilly night in Atlanta.

"The Boss" steps aside

For more than three decades, George Steinbrenner's imprints were all over the New York Yankees.

Blockbuster trades, pricey signings, hirings, firings, they all needed his OK.

No more.

The omnipresent owner's colorful 35-year reign of pronouncements, threats and bluster ended Thursday when he passed control of baseball's most famous and successful franchise to his youngest son, Hal.

The elder Steinbrenner has gradually withdrawn from the Yankees' day-to-day operations in recent years as his health faded, and brothers Hal and Hank were appointed co-chairmen in April.

George Steinbrenner, now 78, headed a group that bought the club in January 1973 for an $8.7 million net price and became one of the most high-profile owners in all of sports. He dominated the back pages of New York's tabloids, earning the nickname "The Boss" as he spent lavishly on players and changed managers 20 times during his first 23 years as owner, feuding with Billy Martin, Yogi Berra and Dave Winfield.