Bottom Line: From Athens, Ga., to Athens, Greece

Former Lakeside track and field star Reese Hoffa will compete this month in the Summer Olympic Games in Athens.

Following his career at Lakeside, Hoffa became one of the premier shotputters in the country while at the University of Georgia. While with the Dogs he was an All-SEC performer and was also an All-American.

To the best of my knowledge he is Columbia County's first Olympian.

He should continue to get plenty of local press in the next few weeks, but we will still give you a re-cap of his Olympic experience.

Greene garners more time

While Todd Greene never played in the Olympics, he was in the 1991 Pan Am Games (which is also pretty cool).

Over the last few weeks, he has started to get more and more playing time behind the plate.

In my last column, I broke down the numbers and illustrated how well he had played, and the Rockies were listening. In the latest Sporting News, it was reported that Colorado starting catcher Charles Johnson was upset that the Rockies had decided to begin platooning Greene and him at catcher. The Rockies could not argue with Greene's production in the month of July. He hit .302 with five homers and 12 RBIs in just 35 at bats.

Johnson, on the other hand, managed just one homer in both June and July combined (over 120 at bats).

Seems like old times

In a recent Single-A baseball game between the Vero Beach Dodgers and the Daytona Cubs former Greenbrier star J.J. Johnson faced one of his old high school rivals in Vero Beach pitcher Jonathon Broxton.

Broxton was a standout at Burke Co. and the Bears and the Wolfpack duked it out during Johnson's and Broxton's high school days. Back then Broxton was awfully good, but the Pack seemed to always find a way to win.

On Aug. 1, Broxton got the start for Vero Beach against Johnson and the Cubs.

Johnson was right at home against Broxton as he hit his sixth homer of the year. Broxton, however, had the last laugh as he moved his record to 9-5 with an 8-6 victory.

For the season, Johnson is hitting .308 with six homers and 57 RBIs. He also has 15 doubles, five triples, and seven stolen bases.

He plays on an extremely talented team with big-time prospects Andy Sisco (left-handed pitcher), Matt Murton (outfielder) and Felix Pie (outfielder).