Category Archives: Refugee Roundtable

Tuesday Refugee Roundtable: Ain’t Superstitious

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First, a little Musical Palate Cleanser:

Jeff Beck. I can’t tell you how much I love this song, and when it’s played in Goodfellas Casino towards hour sixteen of the movie, man, it just hits right.

Anyway, here’s the gist of today’s Roundtable. Allow me to use a visual as a means of starting it off:

Now correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that it’s tradition that only Alumni can walk under the arch…and if you’re not, you need to walk around. What I don’t know…is there a curse or something if you do? Are you guaranteed not to go to UGA as a result…my youngest, the daring that she is, just blatantly walked under it with a laugh, but she’s 8, and she also thinks her name could quite possibly be “Dammit”. That’s her, and that’s why she’s named Georgia. She thinks she owns the place.

Anyway, if it’s a tradition, I took it as more of a superstition. Some other superstitions I adhere to:

  1. Playing the same songs in rotation before a Georgia game.
  2. Can’t go to the bathroom while a series is being played, have to wait until a period change or change in possession before going.
  3. Don’t watch Georgia basketball. Ever.
  4. Don’t watch Georgia baseball. Okay, to be honest, I broke from this one this year and it’s worked out okay…so far.
  5. I only load three rounds in my Remington when I’m hunting, and only carry 7 total rounds on me when I’m out in the field. Truth be known, past the age of maybe 13, I’ve never needed more than two.
  6. When the woods suddenly go silent, run like hell. And load a few more in the Remington for safe measure.
  7. I sit on defensive possessions and stand on offensive possessions.
  8. I keep a 1974 quarter on me to this day. I can’t tell you why I started doing that, but I damn sure won’t stop.
  9. I will never go higher than 9 miles over the speed limit on a highway, I don’t care how fast everyone around me is going. Cruise control is my friend. I stick to the limit on regular roads.
  10. I learned the Backwards Alphabet song by Soupy Sales in case I’m asked to do it in a field sobriety test. I have no reason to believe this is even a component of one, and I don’t drive after even one beer, so I’ve yet to understand why I committed that one to memory. But I still rehearse it daily. I actually think this is a good exercise for anxiety, or maybe I’m OCD.

Anyway, what’s your superstition in life? Where did you adopt it and why do you stick to it?

Let’s hear it in the comments.

Tuesday Refugee Roundtable: Spelling Bees

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Here’s an interesting one for you:

Me, I have a few:

  • embarrassment (I always either leave one of the r’s or one of the s’s off in the middle)
  • minuscule (typically write it as miniscule)
  • occurrence

How about you…which word trips you up the most?

Have at it in the comments, scamps.

Tuesday Refugee Roundtable: Epic Matchups

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I enjoyed listening to this…two of the best of their time breaking down an at bat.

What I appreciate most is Maddux’s databank of mistakes and successes, and how he brushes it off but vows to never do it again, while Bonds had the confidence of his talents to know exactly what’s going to happen if Greg came inside again. And it did.

So for today’s Roundtable…if you had the chance to hear two guys – two coaches, two competitors, two generals, whatever – break down a classic battle or competition, who would it be and what play or action would you want to hear them dissect.

Personally, non-sports related, I would love to hear Patton and Rommel break down their actions and decision making in World War II. Granted, there’s plenty of literature on it, but to hear an interview in this format would be interesting. On a sports level, I enjoyed a series they did on Bird versus Magic that was highly entertaining and informative, and I’ve wondered for a long time what the locker room was like to hear a breakdown of Mark Richt and Jeremy Pruitt and what happened there.

What about you?

Tuesday Refugee Roundtable: Missing You, SEC Style

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Here’s happy noise for our tiring ears:

Comcast Charter Sports. Me, personally, I miss Jefferson Pilot Sports and the old CBS start up to SEC games, but that’s just me. I’m too old and too tired to think back too far to better days before that, but JP Sports (also part of the reason for my pen name) was great for watching the “second tier” SEC football games of the days gone by, from long ago. To me, there were no second tier games when Georgia was involved, but what do I know?

Anyway, for today’s Roundtable, what TV sports do you miss the most? Is it the Braves on TBS? Cubs on WGN?

I can also remember a time in the 80s when you could sync up the TV with the stereo and watch Ken Cook in Atlanta introduce the songs and watch music videos while you heard them in quadraphonics (tip of the hat to Steve Martin…googlephonics (NSFW, in 80s terms)).

Anyway, what’s your most missed childhood sports memory…or any memory, if you still have one?

Chat away, scamps, this should be fun.

Tuesday Refugee Roundtable: The ABS in Baseball…Time for Something Similar in College Football?

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I spent the weekend watching the Diamond Dawgs (swept USCe, by the way…Go Dawgs!) and the Braves, and all the rage on the socials was about the ABS overturns in Major League Baseball. The Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) System is a “robo-ump” that quickly measures up a hitter and gets a strike zone based on the hitter’s appropriate strike zone, and if the batter, catcher, or pitcher think a call didn’t go their way, they have two ABS challenges they can use by tapping their head.

If successful, you still have two challenges left. Some teams challenged away successfully multiple times. Some (like the Braves) blew their two in the first inning.

So far, the catchers have been the ones to use the robo ump the most, followed by batters, and least by pitchers. I guess they have to trust the catcher more since they have a better idea of the zone than does the pitcher.

Anyway, it seems to be making the game better, in some people’s opinions, and the purists are the ones having the hardest time with it as they believe there should be some of that umpire error involved. I’ve enjoyed it, so far, but the one thing about it is that the review is quick, a decision is made, and they move on.

What’s interesting in college football, on the other hand, is the length of reviews when they are used in a game, like for targeting or inbounds catches and so on. One thing I liked the few times I watched an ACC game, is that they transparently broadcast the review for all to hear:

Now I don’t think every play can be reviewed ad nauseum, but having more than one might be nice. You can currently challenge certain plays, by calling a timeout and requesting a challenge, and, if successful, can challenge again later.

What I don’t care for is that the following can’t be reviewed:

  • Holding
  • Pass Interference (remember the Texas game…I do, and you do, too)
  • Illegal contact, block in the back, or roughing the passer
  • Spot fouls for personal fouls, like facemasking

Would having more challenges improve the game? Also, would allowing challenges to the four categories above improve it, as well?

Discuss.

Tuesday Refugee Roundtable – You Have to be Elite, Though Some of You Can Be Just Great

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This will hopefully provide us with a good subject for some Tuesday banter.

Just my humble opinion, but I thought:

Elite – DL and OL – I think we saw this live and in living color in 2021 and 2022, amirite?

Great – LB, RB, WR/TE – I want guys in the box who can scrap and cause chaos and who can also drop into the middle ranges and cover passes. WR/TE don’t have to be NFL great, but great and run blocking and creating space to drop the ball in. I want running backs who are either explosive or who can take a few licks and keep churning for the crucial short yards, when necessary.

Good – QB, DB – This was tough. I almost thought about putting these two up in the great category and dropping down RB and WR/TE, but I’m conflicted. Kenny McIntosh isn’t mentioned in the same breath as Chubb and Michel, but with a great offensive line and a touch unit of WR/TEs that can get him open, I’d be more apt to drop RBs down to here. I went with QB because I feel like we’ve seen a range of QB skill sets that prove more successful when they’ve got the elite offensive line and the right surrounding cast. Fromm, Bennett, Beck, and Gunner. Hard to say though Beck 2024 with a limited RB room and a skeleton crew of receivers looked way different from Beck 2023. And with DBs, I feel like their job gets a lot easier if the front seven are doing their level best to make life hell in the backfield.

That’s just my humble opinion. What’s yours?

Tuesday Refugee Roundtable: Drowning Your Sorrows

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I may say that this is the best headline in Tennessee Volunteers football history:

Both of Tennessee’s top-selling alcohol games were a loss to Oklahoma ($844k) and Georgia ($828k). I’d have to think much of the sales in the Georgia game were celebratory in nature, since Tennessee was handing it to us a good bit in the first quarter, but may have quickly turned to sorrow as soon as Georgia came back. If only they had opened up sales after the missed kick, it might have set a record for most alcohol sales anywhere for anything of all time.

Anyway, for today’s Roundtable, which causes you to hit the libations more – a great win, or a devastating loss? Personally, a bad loss is sobering and somber, so I don’t head for the bottle, but a great win – like the Rose Bowl or the National Championship game…whoa buddy, watch out.

So which way do you go in times of triumph and times of sorrow? Bonus…what’s your potent potable of choice when you do?

Discuss.

Tuesday Refugee Roundtable: Offseason Sporting

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For today’s Roundtable, here’s something we can chat about…what’s your favorite sporting obsession when college football isn’t being played?

I’ll start:

I do watch some college stuff in between, to be sure, and I used to watch baseball until I couldn’t see the Braves anymore, but I do enjoy tuning in to Premier League Football. While I initially thought watching this was like watching paint dry, it wasn’t until I actually started to play soccer in college that I began to realize what a challenging and unique sport the game really is. Something, too, about an entire community coming together, chanting in unison, and, more importantly, no commercials for 45 consecutive minutes…and I eventually got hooked, slowly but surely.

How’s about you…do you have a second passion outside of college football? What is it and why?

Tuesday Refugee Roundtable: Field of Streams

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One of the fonder childhood memories I had was having access to not just one but two Major League Baseball teams – the Braves and the Cubs – that I could watch to my heart’s content without paying a thin red dime. Many of you did to, regardless of where you’re from, hence the Braves being dubbed “America’s Team”. I think WGN also aired the White Sox but my boyhood innocence somehow thought the Cubs and the Braves were almost like brother teams to one another because they wore red, white, and blue, so I don’t think I got into the Sox.

Anyway, long gone are the days of the “superstation”. I also think back to Georgia football in the 90s and Jefferson Pilot sports. Somehow, I enjoyed watching games free from the corporate, Disney World flavor of broadcasting that accompanies these games nowadays. To be honest, I hadn’t watch a Braves game in a while because they were being carried by some group that didn’t air on any of the stations in our cable package, and, well, the team sucked just enough for me to not really care. Now, here we go again…

Just my humble opinion, but it seems like the organization is more interested in building their entertainment empire than they are in trying to field a winning team. If on Amazon, I have a subscription, but somehow I envision watching will come at a higher price for subscription.

Thanks, but I think I’ll pass.

Anyway, for today’s Roundtable, is it the network we watch on or is it the needless surrounding noise that accompanies game that is taking the luster off sports nowadays? I can’t hardly watch football without “let’s get back to the studio” with a cast of clowns, the Braves don’t exist on my viewing packages, and I haven’t had an interest in the NBA since Jordan hung it up. I will say I watched the Stadium Series in Tampa on Sunday and quite enjoyed it, but it wasn’t without the annoyances of “entertainment” between periods. If there is a good thing, like watching European Football (soccer), it’s that the action is relatively free of commercials and commentator bantering. I somewhat enjoyed it.

How about you? Are you less or more entertained with sports than you were when telecasts had a touch less “production value”?