Every year as spring starts to hit in Spartanburg, I always start to get excited about the beginning of baseball season being just around the corner. No matter what the Braves have done in the offseason the kid inside of me still wants to believe that this will be the year that they bring home the next World Series Championship. We all want to say that we’re tired of baseball, that the game needs to be changed, etc, etc, but once spring comes back around, baseball comes right along with it and we welcome it like an old friend we haven’t seen all winter. There is just something about baseball that we can never turn our back on it, it’s like a link to our past that we just never want to let go of. I was reminded of this fact the other day when I took in a baseball game at the Inman Mills Park, a game between SCA and Chester High School. With no real rooting bias towards either school, I was able to just stand there and take in the pageantry of the game. If you have never been to Inman Mills Park, it was a stadium built for the Inman Mills baseball team to play in during the old Industrial Leagues. Its current configuration dates back to around 1948 and includes covered concrete stands, dugouts, an old school scoreboard (the type where you still have to hang the scores) and its most unique feature, an outfield fence that borders a cow pasture. Yep, that’s what I said, its outfield fence borders a cow pasture. In fact Travis, who was at the game with me, commented “I hope those cows don’t take offense to all those cow-skinned baseballs being hit into their pasture.” While the comment was funny, the idea of a baseball field being next to a cow pasture is something that no design architect would recommend when building a new baseball park these days, and that is a fact that I hate. While the game was going on you could see the cows wandering in the pasture but as the sun began to go down you could only see a silhouette of the cows in the last bit of sunlight on top of the hill, like they were trying to take in the last little bit of the game themselves. I then began to think about how much I miss taking in a Spartanburg Phillies game at Duncan Park. I know there is a stadium in Greenville that we can go and watch games at, and it is a really nice modern stadium, but there is just something I miss about being able to see a game at Duncan Park. I can remember as a kid sitting in the general admission seats along the third baseline rooting on the Spartanburg Phillies like they were a big league team, and I guess as a kid to me they were. I can still remember getting to throw out the first pitch on my sixth birthday and getting the autograph of a young up-and-coming catching prospect of the Phillies, some kid named Mike Lieberthal, who ended up starting for the Philadelphia Phillies for twelve years and was a two-time MLB All-Star. It was a tradition in Spartanburg for people to make a trip out to Duncan Park at least once a summer and take in the history of the stadium and watch some good young prospects play their hearts out for our local team. Duncan Park never had the nicest facilities or the most modern technology but what it did have were stories. It was a place where a dad could take his son and tell him stories of games he had once saw there when he was a kid, sitting in the exact same stadium. When it comes to baseball we all seem to debate on ideas of how we should fix it or not but the one thing that we can all agree on is that it’s the history that always draws us back to the game. When thinking about baseball I am often reminded of the line from Field of Dreams, “This game is a part of our past Ray, it reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again.” While we move into more modern and fancier stadiums, we must remember and not forget it’s the history and ambiance of these older stadiums that still bring us back. Anyone want to go catch a game?
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After some discussion a few weeks ago about some mock drafts that we had read, Travis and I decided that doing a mock draft can’t really be that hard, so we decided to put our brains to the test and do some mock drafts of our own. I mean if Kiper and McShay can produce 30 of them a year, we can do one right? One thing we realized though is that it’s pretty simple to pick the Top 12 and the picks for the teams you root for but when it gets into the middle rounds about teams you could care less about, it starts to get a little difficult. I mean what player do you mock to a team that obviously needs a receiver (like the Browns) but there isn’t one there? It took a little while to come up with this, but after a lot of research (okay I just read a few teams’ blogs) and waiting for the craziness known as free agency to start I present to you my first ever NFL Mock Draft:
1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Jameis Winston, QB, Florida State I believe that Mike Glennon is not that bad of a NFL quarterback and may not have really gotten a fair shot to win the job this past season. With that being said, the talent that Winston has and being only a short drive from where he starred in college makes this an obvious pick. 2. Tennessee Titans – Leonard Williams, DE, USC I have been told when you can’t pick out your main weakness on defense, then your best option is to take the best defender on the board. This is the predicament that the Titans find themselves in and so this has to be the choice, right? 3. Jacksonville Jaguars – Dante Fowler Jr, DE, Florida I often wonder what ticket sales would have been like had the Jaguars drafted Tim Tebow a few years ago. If you have a Gator player this high up on the board, you have to draft him if you’re in Jacksonville right? Not to mention he is a very impressive pass rusher and a very dangerous weapon for a defensive mastermind like Gus Bradley. He got himself plenty of offensive weapons last year, now it’s time to start building that defense. 4. Oakland Raiders – Kevin White, WR, West Virginia It’s the time in the draft when everyone gets glued to their seats, what will the Raiders do?! While their draft last year, especially of Derek Carr, was pretty impressive the kid inside me still waits in anticipation of what crazy pick the Raiders will make. If I’ve learned anything over the years, the Raiders always love speed and this guy has it. He also will be a good addition to help out Derek Carr in the passing game but I will still be glued to my seat when this pick comes around because you just never know when it comes to the Raiders. 5. Washington Redskins – Malcom Brown, DT, Texas Every year I keep waiting for the Redskins to be back as a legitimate contender and every year they just can never live up to those expectations. The Redskins’ offense seems to be in pretty good shape, minus the debacle of who is going to be the quarterback, so I think it’s time to take a hard look at the defense. Every year they seem to have good pass rushers and a decent secondary but still fall short. I’ve always been told you build a defense from the inside out and it’s time for the Redskins to do just that. Malcom Brown is the most dominant defensive tackle still on the board and I think it’s a pick the Redskins have to make. 6. NY Jets – Marcus Mariota, QB, Oregon I think there is no doubt that Mariota is the next best quarterback in this draft and that he has fallen this far even to myself is a shock. I think that the Jets need a few more things than just a quarterback and I believe that this would be a great chance to get a few assets with one pick. I won’t be surprised to see the Eagles try and jump up here and grab Mariota, while sending Bradford and a few draft picks to the Jets. I know Chip Kelly has said that there is no way he would sacrifice the future for one player, but he also said he wasn’t taking the Philadelphia job about two weeks before he took it. I believe if the Jets can get Bradford it would be a lot better situation than having to try and develop another rookie quarterback and Chip Kelly finally gets the perfect quarterback to run his NFL offense. 7. Chicago Bears – Randy Gregory, OLB, Nebraska As a devoted Panthers fan I know one thing, John Fox is all about having a good defense. He is now in a city that loves a great defense as about as much as he does. The first step he is going to make is to add more speed to this defense and Randy Gregory is that player. 8. Atlanta Falcons – Vic Beasley, OLB, Clemson Speaking of a defense that needs improvements, we get to the Atlanta Falcons. One of their Achilles Heels over the last few years has been their lack of a pass rush and this is going to help in fixing that problem. Dan Quinn has been well known for having great defenses in Seattle and one of those key players to that great defenses has been Bruce Irvin, who I think Beasley compares very similar to. With Beasley and a possible addition to the secondary through free agency and the Falcons defense will look very formidable. 9. NY Giants – Brandon Sherff, OT, Iowa The Giants have always been good when they have had strong offensive and defensive lines. The offensive line was pretty bad last year as Eli Manning was constantly getting hit, leading to many interceptions. Adding a versatile offense lineman here will help to sure up some of the holes that the Giants tended to have in their line last year. 10. St Louis Rams – Amari Cooper, WR, Alabama Jeff Fisher has to feel like it’s Christmas morning when he drafts tenth and realizes that the person a lot of people consider the most NFL ready player in the draft is sitting there, and not to mention he is a wide receiver, something that the Rams have been needing for years. Cooper can come in automatically and become the go-to wide receiver with the Rams, opening up many more chances for Tavon Austin and Jared Cook. Plus with the addition of Nick Foles through another genius move by Jeff Fisher and company, they’ll finally have a quarterback who can make use of these weapons. 11. Minnesota Vikings – Devante Parker, WR, Louisville Teddy Bridgewater really started to turn into a pretty good quarterback as the season went along for the Vikings. How do you help him out going into his second season? By drafting his sure handed teammate from Louisville, who may end up being looked at as a steal in this draft before it is all said and done. 12. Cleveland Browns – Shane Ray, DE, Missouri Even with my mock draft, sorry Jed, things just don’t seem to go the Browns way in the draft. They would have loved to have gotten one of the two previous wide receivers but they fell just one spot too late. In this scenario, they need to forget about the offensive side of the ball for now and find them a solid defensive player that can rush the passer. Plus with the addition of Hartline in free agency, they may be able to wait until the second round to find a receiver to play on the opposite side. 13. New Orleans Saints – Jalen Collins, CB, LSU The Saints have struggled on defense some in recent years and there is one sure fire way to fix that problem and that is to draft players from the college down the road, who always seem to excel at defense. Collins will be able to contribute right away and be a key member of Rob Ryan’s defense for many years to come in New Orleans. With the addition of another first round pick, courtesy of the Seahawks, the Saints may be able to address some needs on offense there. 14. Miami Dolphins – Trae Waynes, CB, Michigan St. With as pass happy of a league as the NFL has become, can you ever really have too many defensive backs? The Dolphins luck up that the person many consider to be the best cover corner in the draft falls to them at number fourteen. With two games a year against the Patriots adding Waynes to the other side of Pro Bowl corner Brent Grimes will improve the Dolphins secondary and help improve its depth that it lacked at times last year. Not to mention the addition of Suh on the defensive line will give this secondary plenty of chances at interceptions as they will be trying to dodge that pass rush from the inside. 15. San Francisco 49ers – La’el Collins, OT, LSU With a new regime taking over in the Bay Area there is really no telling where this pick could go. I believe that they would have loved to see Waynes fall to here or one of the wide receivers but since they’re not, the Niners will settle for another need and work to improve their offensive line. With the loss of Gore, they are going to have to sure up the offensive line and hope they can put a group together that can produce running lanes for whoever will be playing running back in San Francisco next year. 16. Houston Texans – Landon Collins, SS, Alabama At times the Texans defense looked near unbeatable last year and here is their opportunity to improve an already stellar defense. With JJ Watts back and hopefully last year’s first round pick Jadaveon Clowney coming back healthy, adding a physical safety like Collins to the back end of that defense will be scary for any offensive players lining up against them. 17. San Diego Chargers – Danny Shelton, NT, Washington The Chargers could use some help on their defense and a defensive lineman who can take control of the middle of the line will go a long way into curing their ills. The Chargers get lucky here as a player many saw being drafted possibly in the Top 10 falls all the way to seventeenth and will help the Chargers defense right away next season. 18. Kansas City Chiefs – Marcus Peters, CB, Washington The Chiefs ideally would have one of the top wide receivers fall to them here but since their dreams didn’t come true I think they will try to upgrade their secondary in a very pass happy AFC West. Plus the addition of Jeremy Maclin in free agency makes that need for a wide receiver not as glaring. 19. Cleveland Browns – Melvin Gordon, RB, Wisconsin The Browns have to do something to try and address their offensive woes from last year. After addressing the defensive side of the ball with their first pick, they add a little help to whoever will be playing quarterback for them next year by adding the best running back in the draft who can help immediately next season. Gordon is just another of really good running backs from Wisconsin and will be perfect for that Cleveland weather in December and January. 20. Philadelphia Eagles – Jaleen Strong, WR, Arizona St. While I have a suspicion that the Jets could be making this pick, if it turns out to be the Eagles picking here I think they will look to upgrade their receiving core with Strong who is a receiver that many people have had as a sleeper pick. It gives another weapon for Bradford, Mariota, Sanchez or anyone else people think may be the starting quarterback next year. 21. Cincinnati Bengals – TJ Clemmings, OT, Pittsburgh The Bengals need to find some young help to take over on the offensive line in the next few years, and Clemmings is the perfect player. There are many people that believe he is a project player and what would be a better situation than for him to come and learn from Andrew Whitworth? He could play right tackle until Whitworth is ready to pass on the torch. 22. Pittsburgh Steelers – Alvin Dupree, OLB, Kentucky The Steelers made a change at defensive coordinator during the offseason which obviously showed a lack of confidence is the direction the defense was heading. The Steelers built their name on strong defenses and they will work on continuing that tradition and drafting the best pass rusher still on the board. 23. Detroit Lions – Jordan Phillips, DT, Oklahoma With the loss of both of their defensive tackles from last year, the Lions will need to make sure that they aren’t left short on tackles to fill those roles. With the addition of Ngata they are starting the process of replacing them but his contract situation after this year is still not solid. Phillips is the best DT still left on the board, so they jump and make their pick. 24. Arizona Cardinals – Ereck Flowers, OT, Miami The Cardinals need to improve their pass protection and Flowers is the man that can do that for them. He was an exceptional offensive tackle in college on a team that came up short of expectations. He will not try to add some protection to a team that wants to make sure whoever will be playing quarterback will be well protected. 25. Carolina Panthers – DJ Humphries, T, Florida Ever since Jordan Gross retired at the end of the season two years ago, the Panthers have been in desperate need of finding his replacement. Byron Bell was a stop-gap option at best last year and the Panthers will finally address that need in this draft. If they can get Humphries here and with the signing of Michael Oher to man the other side, the Panthers offensive line will be looking much more formidable than it did last year. 26. Baltimore Ravens – Dorial Green-Beckham, WR, Missouri With the Ravens releasing Jacoby Jones they are going to need to address the production that they are losing and Green-Beckham is their answer. He has always been considered a player with all the tools on the field but off the field troubles put him in the lower half of the first round. The Ravens are willing to take the gamble and hope it works out for them. 27. Dallas Cowboys – Todd Gurley, RB, Georgia If Gurley hadn’t got hurt he would be getting picked in the Top 15 for sure but because of concerns with the knee he falls to number twenty-seven which ends up being a steal for the Cowboys. If Murray signs elsewhere Gurley could start from Day One or he could sit behind whoever the Cowboys sign and be ready to come off the bench or take over next year after letting his knee have time to heal properly. I think in 5 years we’ll all wonder how he fell this far down the draft board. 28. Denver Broncos – Maxx Williams, TE, Minnesota With Julius Thomas leaving via free agency, they need to find someone who can take on the burden of being an offensive weapon from the tight end position. Williams is that player, if you have seen any of the footage of him playing at Minnesota you can understand why a tight end is being drafted in the first round. This could be a pick that people will be kicking themselves years later for passing on. 29. Indianapolis Colts – Andreus Peat, OT, Stanford The Colts decided when they drafted Andrew Luck to also draft Colby Fleener his Stanford teammate to give him a player he could trust throwing the ball to in his rookie year. This time around they will go back down that route to Stanford and find someone he can trust to protect his blind side. That Stanford connection has worked pretty well for the Colts so far. 30. Green Bay Packers – Stephone Anthony, ILB, Clemson After releasing AJ Hawk the Packers will need to look to replace his numbers at the linebacker position. Anthony will be able to step in next season under the Dom Capers scheme and produce results right away. It was rumored that Dom Capers was really impressed with this guy at Clemson’s Pro Day and how could you not be, he’s an ILB who ran a 4.56 forty-yard dash at 243 pounds. 31. New Orleans Saints – AJ Cann, OG, South Carolina New Orleans is wanting to make sure that it can improve its offensive line, which was very evident when they traded Jimmy Graham for Max Unger and this pick. Unger already helps bolster the interior of this offensive line, why not help it even more by adding the best offensive guard in this draft? AJ Cann was an exceptional player at South Carolina on an average football team. He will help bolster a struggling offensive line and give Brees some more confidence when he goes back to pass and help to add a player to help bolster a run game that has struggled at times. They can address the other offensive needs later in the draft as this is a deep draft for receivers. 32. New England Patriots – Kevin Johnson, CB, Wake Forest The Patriots had a great season ending with a Super Bowl victory. After the loss of Revis though at the cornerback position they need to address that loss. He is an excellent cover corner and will be a big help in trying to replace the All-Pro corner Revis. And there you have it, my first ever NFL Mock Draft. Those are going to be the draft picks of every team, at least until I do my mock draft 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 or however many it takes for me to claim that I mocked each player into the correct position, that’s how us “professionals” do it. It is going to be a lot of fun comparing my mock draft to Travis’ mock draft, but I think we both know neither of us would be getting a 100 if this was a test. Heck, we probably would both be happy with a C minus by the time the draft is over. Let us know though what y’all think of our mock drafts and why we were either right or wrong with our picks for your team. Also, stay tuned as we get a little closer to draft time as we are working on getting a mock draft together based on picks from fans of each team. We know we at least have the Panthers, Redskins, Vikings and Browns covered but if you are a fan of another team or know someone else who is, let us know. In 1997 I was just a kid making his way through the District Two school system but for the NBA it was a much more significant year. In 1997 the NBA was celebrating its fiftieth year in existence and as part of that celebration they decided to name the Top-50 NBA players of all-time, which in turn led to many discussions of who should have been on the list but also asked the question, in place of who? Earlier tonight I got to thinking about that list and realized it has been 18 years since that list came out and that means there has been a lot of basketball played since then, so I decided to text Jed, Travis and Richard to talk about who we would put on the list from the past 18 years and the tougher part, who would we take off the list?
The conversation got started with, “Well, we have to at least include LeBron and Kobe on the list right?” We all agreed on those two choices and we also decided we couldn’t leave Tim Duncan off the list, a man who has won five NBA Championships over the last 18 years. These were the three players that we said, “We have to add them to the list, but who do we take off the list to add them?” When you look at the list, it is hard to find people that you just say, “Well, he is obviously not good enough to be on this list” so you have to go down the list and hope that you find someone that you can talk yourself into taking off the list, so that you can include one of these other well deserving basketball players. After a discussion of about twenty minutes over text we were able to talk ourselves into replacing Scottie Pippen and Lenny Wilkins on the list with LeBron James and Kobe Bryant but finding the spot for Duncan was a little harder. One way we discussed finding a spot for Duncan, was to have him replace his former teammate David Robinson on the list. That would be a tough decision though because “The Admiral” was a very dominant center in his day and how do you take him off a list of the Top-50 players of all-time? We know Duncan has to be on the list, but once again we had to ask the question, “Who goes off the list?” We continued to talk about other players we thought could possibly have a spot on the list, as Travis tried to make a case for Dirk Nowitzki and we discussed the resumes of Reggie Miller and Kevin Garnett while also asking the question of, how could players like Dominique Wilkins be left off the original list? We also tried to make cases for some of our favorite players from each of our childhoods to make the list but we couldn’t get a group consensus on any of those players. In the end we found three spots we felt we had to make room for on the list but could only free up two spots. I’m sure the discussion will continue on but my question to you the reader though is this, if you had to add players from the last 18 years to this list, who would you add, who would you take off and why? The 1997 list of the Top-50 All-Time NBA Players: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Nate Archibald Paul Arizin Charles Barkley Rick Barry Elgin Baylor Dave Bing Larry Bird Wilt Chamberlin Bob Cousy Dave Cowens Billy Cunningham Dave DeBusschere Clyde Drexler Julius Erving Patrick Ewing Walt Frazier George Gervin Hal Greer John Havlicek Elvin Hayes Magic Johnson Sam Jones Michael Jordan Jerry Lucas Karl Malone Moses Malone Pete Maravich Kevin McHale George Mikan Earl Monroe Hakeem Olajuwon Shaquille O’Neal Robert Parish Bob Pettit Scottie Pippen Willis Reed Oscar Robertson David Robinson Bill Russell Dolph Schayes Bill Sharman John Stockton Isaiah Thomas Nate Thurmond Wes Unseld Bill Walton Jerry West Lenny Wilkens James Worthy I know we have all either watched or heard of the show on the Food Network, “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” hosted by Guy Fieri (you know the guy that has the spiky blonde hair, sunglasses and drives the old car). We all watch that show and think, “Wow that looks really good, I’m going to ride to New Mexico and try that!!” There is something about seeing food on television that makes us think we have to have that, when in all honesty we will probably have gone 2,000 miles for something that was just okay. I realized it had to be the television effect this past spring when I decided to take a trip with my parents up to Charlotte to try out The Penguin, after seeing it on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I had never been there before and thought, “I’m going to eat here so that I can go home and brag about how I have been there and how great it was.” If only it had played out the way I imagined it in my mind. When I got there I ordered the Penguin burger with fries and a coke, and just a few minutes later my order that I was going to brag about to my friends when I got home arrived at my table. While the burger wasn’t bad, it didn’t live up to what I had built it up to be in my mind. It was not that much longer when I started to daydream and started wishing instead of riding an hour away to eat this burger, I had just stayed in Spartanburg and went somewhere closer to home. It was on that way home that I started a discussion with my dad about what places we could have eaten at that day instead. It was at that point when I realized, why travel anywhere else when some of the greatest Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives are right here in my own town. The first place that came to my mind was the Beacon, I thought “If only I would have been walking and talking and ordered myself a chili cheeseburger a-plenty, I would have been more satisfied and an hour closer to home.” Then I started thinking “Or if only I had just called up Jed and Richard and we could have went to the NuWay and I could have ordered a Redneck cheeseburger. That would have been really good today.” My mind then started to think, “Had we not rode all the way up here today, I could have tried the Wall of Fame burger challenge at Ike’s Grill or got a couple of hot dogs from Holme’s Hot Dogs.” If I could do cardio at the pace that my mind was thinking of places to eat in Spartanburg, I would be writing this blog at 175 pounds right now. The discussion kept on going during the whole ride back home as we brought up Sugar and Spice, Boots and Sonny’s, The Skillet, Carolina Barbeque, Papa's Breakfast Nook and many, many more. As we got closer to home and approached the Highway 221 exit off of I-85, I began to realize that it is amazing how we take having so many great places to eat in our town for granted. We see so many of these places on television that we “have to try” that we forget that in our very own backyard we have so many restaurants that out of the area people consider destination restaurants. I know that when we watch Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and shows like it, we are still going to see places that we “have to try” but in the back of my mind I’ll be saying, “If you think that’s good food, you should come to Spartanburg.” So many times we hear about great players that come along through our area, we hear the legends of how great of a player they were in high school and how we missed our chance to see them once they have moved on to college ball or even into the professional ranks. As a kid growing up in the 90’s I often was told of the legendary plays that Stephen Davis would make as a running back at Spartanburg High School but I never got an opportunity to see him play. The first real player like that, that I remember seeing play in person, was Anthony Simmons when I got to watch him play in the State Championship game against Dorman in Death Valley. It was a performance that as a kid I remember thinking “I will never forget watching this guy play in high school.” The special players are the ones that make you remember seeing them play, even though they may have gone on to bigger successes, seeing them excel in front of a high school crowd somehow makes you feel like you are part of a special group, a group that only a few will ever get the privilege to be a part of. Over the years I have been blessed to be able to continue to get to see some great players play sports in this area, whether it was Marcus Lattimore at Byrnes, Sidney Rice at Gaffney, DJ Moore at Broome, or even Debo Samuel at Chapman, the list could go on forever. I am thankful to have great friends who also get to see these players play and can give me a heads up when I need to take an opportunity to go and see one of these players. I’ve decided to use this blog to let you know about two players that you should take the time to check out before they’ve moved on to play at the next level.
Deion Holmes, Chesnee Basketball: Deion is one of those type of basketball players that only come around once in a blue moon in this area. He is up for consideration as a McDonald’s High School All-American and he is also currently on pace to be the second leading scorer in the history of high school basketball in the state of South Carolina. He is such a great scorer that even on a night when he finishes a game with 35 points, you sometimes find yourself making the comment of “he had an off night”. For most players a thirty-five point night may be a career night but not when you talk about Deion. I know that we live in an area that isn’t what you would call a “basketball area” but trust me it is well worth the trip up Highway 221 to Chesnee to see this kid play basketball. Tavien Feaster, Spartanburg Football: Tavien Feaster is another amazing running back from a school that seems to always have great running backs. Feaster will be entering his senior year this upcoming football season and a lot of colleges will be calling this fall trying to make one last plea for him to join their football program. Over his two years of playing football, Feaster has totaled 4,321 all-purpose yards. He not only is an outstanding football player but he also excels at track and field, winning 4A state championships in the 100 and 200 meter dashes. If you have yet to see him play a game on the football field, you should reserve your tickets for next season, because it’s a show you don’t want to miss. While there is always a new crop of good players coming along each year, there are very few times when you get the opportunity to see great players. Deion Holmes and Tavien Feaster are two of those players. I often get asked by friends, “how good of a player was that person in high school?” and I have to try and explain how exceptional of a high school athlete that they were. Take my advice and go and watch these two players play, don’t be the one asking “how good of a player were they in high school” but be in that select group that gets to say, “You should have seen them play in high school.” Normally this blog will be about sports or food but I've decided to use this entry to talk about something a little different. On Friday night, the end of one of the funniest late night talk shows will come about, as Craig Ferguson will be leaving the Late Late Show. Some of you may ask, “You mean that guy that played Drew Carey’s boss?” and if that is all you know of Craig Ferguson, you have missed out on ten great years of late night humor.
When he first took over the show from Craig Kilborn, I was like many people and asked, “Did they not want to pay to change the whole sign and found the first guy named Craig they could get?” When I made that assumption I didn’t realize how wrong that I was and maybe, just maybe, CBS really did know what they were doing. I at the time was a big fan of Conan O’Brien’s show and didn’t pay “that other show” much attention as I thought it was just some crazy six month experiment with the Scottish guy from The Drew Carey Show. When Conan left Late Night, I decided that I was finally going to give that Scottish guys’ show a chance, and I rank that as one of the top decisions I ever made when it comes to television. The first few shows that I watched I didn’t quite focus on what I was watching, as many times I was up late studying, doing homework, or just getting in from wherever I had been that night. The more I turned the show on though, the more I noticed how funny that the show really was. It was not like a lot of shows where you could tell writers were working tirelessly to write jokes (which I know they have many talented writers on the show) but it was more like a friend of yours on television telling you this new funny joke he had heard. He brought about a new way of doing late night talk shows. For many years it had become the same old comedy routine, with host and sidekick until Craig changed the whole dynamic. While the show was already funny with Craig himself, when he added his sidekick Geoff Peterson, the show went to another level of hilarity. If you don’t know Geoff, he is Craig’s gay robot skeleton sidekick. If you have never watched the show, you are probably asking yourself, “What are you talking about?!?!” When Geoff first came on the show, he was just a robot that was built because Craig wanted a skeleton sidekick after watching the movie “Ghost Rider” and all Geoff could say was ‘Ha ha ha, you’re the best Craig’. After that he developed into a regular part of the show and became a key addition to the show. It was something different, it was a new approach to the way late night talk was done. Whether it was the dialog between Geoff and Craig or Geoff’s standoff between him and Kristen Bell, the addition of the robot skeleton sidekick was genius by the man himself Craig Ferguson. Craig truly seemed to be of the mindset, “I’m going to make myself laugh and if I can do that hopefully I can make others laugh too.” It is a mindset that has worked and worked well for the last ten years. While the humor was the key to the show, Craig also was known for really being able to talk us through serious events that happened in life. Whether it was talking about the loss of his parents, speaking about his bouts with alcoholism, the shootings in Colorado, or the bombings in Boston, Craig always seemed to know how we were all feeling. When tragedies would strike, instead of the normal comedic openings he would have a serious discussion and then break into more of the comedy later to try and get our minds away for a while. Craig Ferguson in a time of reality television, lots of times seemed to be the only real person on television. For a while, I thought I was the only person around my area that was up late enough to be watching the Late Late Show but I found out very quickly that I wasn’t. I found that many of my friends had discovered the humor accidentally like myself but were now hooked on watching the show. Some were like myself and found it while staying up late studying, while others discovered it while sitting up with their newborn children in the middle of the night. While we may have all found the show in different ways, the one common thread was that we were all hooked on the humor. While others may have not known, we all knew why it was funny to hear the doorbell ring and yell, “Who’s that at the door?!?!” or why ringing a bell three times means we must all start speaking in a German accent. It’s that humor and connection with his audience that has made the Late Late Show so beloved in the hearts of its viewers. Whether it was through humor or the occasional serious moment, Craig Ferguson knew how to make late night television his own. As the curtain for the final show falls on Friday, the humor will stay with us and keep us laughing for many years to come. What did we learn on the show tonight Craig? We have learned that the last ten years of late night television has been some of the funniest years of our lives and we have you to thank for that Craig. When we started talking about doing these blogs, I was in the middle of taking a speech class and was having to come up with topics for a speech. With that on my mind I decided to make my first blog about one of those topics, the reason we all love high school football. On the last Friday night in August, if your town seems to be a little less crowded than normal, that usually means that you can find everyone at the local football stadium. As the clock strikes 7:15 you can normally look at the sky to see stadium lights and hear the local high school band warming up. As you get closer to the stadium you can smell food on the grill and people whispering about the local teams chances at winning state. Walking into the stadium, you can see the cheerleaders preparing the banner for the team to run through and many old friends welcoming each other back to the stadium. As the clock strikes 7:25, after the prayer has been read and the national anthem played, the crowd stands in unison as the local team hits the field and the fight song is played, you realize it's another football season and your team has just a chance at state, this could be our year. While we all have our favorite college teams, we often choose that team for many different reasons (our dad pulled for that team, we want to pull for a winner, we want to be different and just pull for someone no one else is, etc.) but when it comes to high school football we all have one main reason we pull for that team, we graduated from there. While we pledge our allegiances to pro and college teams, our high school teams are the only ones that truly have a piece of our soul. If you take just the four of us on this blog, we do pull for all our local teams to do well, but it makes our heart fill with a little more pride when each of our alma maters is successful. When Boiling Springs is successful, my season always seems a little brighter. Jed and Travis still speak with great pride of Chapman and Chester's runs to the state championships in 2007. Richard talked with great pride about Woodruff this whole season as they were able to go undefeated most of the season. We feel these feelings about our schools because no matter where we go, a piece of our heart always belongs to our alma mater. When we look at college teams or pro teams there is so much national media covering these teams, either telling you that your team will or won't be very good because of the these Top 10 reasons, that the excitement of the season can almost be diminished before it even starts. If your college team loses two games early, your chances of a championship are over. When it comes to high school football, you pretty much always have a chance. If you lose your out of region games, your next thought is....if we can win in the region, we still have a chance. If you don't do great in the region, your next thought is....if we can just get a good seeding in the playoffs, we still have a chance. We have seen it many times where a mediocre team in the regular season, finally puts it all together and makes a run in the playoffs, and if that is your team, you live and die on every big play that happens during the playoffs. This is why we love high school football, these are our teams and it always seems like our team has a chance. Whenever the season ends for your team, whether it is in triumph of a state championship or in the agony of a heart-breaking defeat, your heart aches because you realize that it will be eight months until your team plays again. The good news is though, that in eight months, you get a chance to do it all again. Just around the corner, we will be making our way back out to the stadium with the rest of the community, with the smell of food in the air and whispers of how our team is going to do. Who knows, this could be our year. |
JamesBoiling Springs native, lover of sports and food. 15x SC Press Association Award Winner. I do some sports writing and radio every now and then. Archives
April 2020
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