1 JUN 07: CHAMPIONS MONTH?

The calendar has reached June. Muscogee County schools have been out of session for two weeks. Columbus State's commencement was almost three weeks ago. So why are some just-graduated seniors still hanging around? Why haven't they started their "year off to find themselves" yet?

There's a very good reason why a few seniors are still hanging around. They're playing today for baseball titles. Columbus High School will seek the Georgia AAA title. Columbus State will go after the NCAA Division II title. And perhaps sometime next week, we'll find out if the Columbus Catfish are even near the top of their division.

The first team to take the field will be Columbus High, as it hosts Dunwoody in the AAA finals. Have you noticed the clever psych-out job Columbus coach Bobby Howard has been doing this week - wearing a cap at practice with a Dunwoody "D" on it?

The AAA baseball final round is a best-of-three series. Columbus High catcher Chase Weems is a senior, and put things rather bluntly Thursday: "Two more wins and I'm outta here." There's a name to cross off the invitation list for Homecoming weekend this fall....

In a surprise, the AAA baseball finals are being played at Randy Jordan Field. That's where Columbus High normally plays - but in recent years, title series have been moved to Golden Park. The Catfish are on the road tonight, and have a home game at 7:00 Saturday night. Wouldn't that allow for a Columbus-Dunwoody third game Saturday afternoon? Or is the Golden Park grounds crew suddenly that drought-conscious?

Another alternative was moving the AAA finals to Columbus State University's home field - but that wasn't done, either. It's as if C.S.U. administrators expect the Cougars to win tonight, then have all the fans tear up the diamond when they get home.

The Columbus State baseball team plays at 8:00 p.m. ET for the Division II national title. The Cougars have won eight playoff games in a row - something Atlanta's baseball team hasn't come close to doing since 1995.

As for Columbus State's opponent: the team tackles top-ranked Tampa in the title tilt tonight. If you can say that sentence three times fast without stumbling, you could be the successor to C.S.U. sportscaster Scott Miller....

You can show how "green" our city is, by taking a Columbus State team bus to the Division II title tilt. The round-trip ride will cost ten dollars, PLUS the price of a ticket - and from what I've been reading about the tournament, any scalper outside the gate will be wasting his time.

The Montgomery Advertiser reported the other day that attendance at the Division II World Series hasn't been that strong this year. And that's with Columbus State fans driving in, from less than 100 miles away. Are sports fans across Alabama's capital distracted by Nick Saban THAT much?

So Columbus could have two sports champions by sunrise Saturday - and it could end the month of June with a champion team as well. Perhaps you haven't been following indoor football's Columbus Lions. And I can't say I blame you, since the team has had about three bye weeks this season....

The Columbus Lions have clinched the regular-season title - and that means the Columbus Civic Center will host the World Indoor Football League's championship game June 30. Yes, Columbus will have a "bowl game." Maybe not the Super Bowl, but more like the "Pretty Neat Bowl."

There's only one problem with Columbus hosting a bowl game on June 30. It's the night of the Miss Georgia pageant at the RiverCenter. What's a red-blooded single guy to do - especially since neither event is likely to be televised, so you can tape it?!

But anyway: I read some statistics on the Columbus Lions Thursday. The team's top passer is ranked fifth in the World Indoor Football League - which sounds good, until you remember the league only has four teams. [True!]

E-MAIL UPDATE: Thursday's virtual mailbag brought no comments on the library land debate. But it did settle one question we asked - Is Teresa Tomlinson a Democrat?

A quick visit to opensecrets.org reveals she is a regular contributor to candidates such as Howard Dean and John Edwards as well as left wing Emily's List. Yeah,she's a democRat.

That's with a capital R?! As opposed to the Re-Pub-licans?

Considering Josh McKoon chairs the Muscogee County Republican Party, this D-tail about Teresa Tomlinson suggests the feud over the library land may be deeper than the asphalt around the building. It may not be so much about "greenspace" as it is "red" space and "blue" space.

Another message Thursday was about a completely different topic....

I was in Peachtree Mall today from noon until 2M...It was like a ghost town,completely deserted...Clerks in Dillard's were standing around talking to each other,and the food court was about ½ full...There were small groups of families following around their baby faced sons in military uniforms...How young they were to be facing Iraq or Afghanistan.

There, there - don't worry. Peachtree Mall will be filled and busy again before long. After all, Family Day in the Park is only two weeks away.

We thank all of you who write us, and now let's write a little more about events on the last day of May:

+ May ended with only 0.26 inches of rain at the Columbus Airport. WRBL's Bob Jeswald called it the second-driest May on record. So what sin was God punishing around here in the spring of 1962 - segregation?!

+ Continental Carbon announced in a statement it's paid $3.4 million in damages and attorney's fees, stemming from the "soot suit" of several years ago. Oh yes, I forgot - the company which spread haze across Columbus, before the wildfires did.

(Continental Carbon is appealing $17.5 million in punitive damages to the U.S. Supreme Court. The company contends other companies which were ordered to pay less in damages inflicted "far more serious harm." Why a carbon company would dare to compare itself to big tobacco corporations, I'm not quite sure.)

+ Cable TV of East Alabama sent an e-mail to its customers, announcing it will go ahead and pay retransmission fees to WTVM. It will NOT raise rates, and there will be NO signal blackout next week - so we'll miss the challenge of trying to watch a "National Blackout Bingo Night."

+ The Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation held its graduation ceremony at Fort Benning. Diplomas were given to 45 officers from various countries -- and S.O.A. Watch activists may be surprised to learn none of them received souvenir brass knuckles.

+ A new traffic light began operating on Bradley Park Drive, at J.R. Allen Parkway. This will give visitors an extra 15 seconds or so to figure out a big decision - to eat at Cracker Barrel or Waffle House.

+ The Lee County Commission approved plans for another new traffic light, at U.S. 280 and Lee Road 379. That's the corner where the Lee County Flea Market is located - so shoppers will have an extra 15 seconds or so to figure out if those outdoor tables really sell legitimate NASCAR souvenirs.

+ Columbus resident David Huff was presented with a five million dollar check from the Georgia Lottery. Huff hit it huge, thanks to a scratch-off ticket in the "$500 Million Club" game. Yeah, but is it enough to get him in The Big Eddy Club?

+ Instant Message to Atlanta attorney Andrew Speaker: OK, we know who you are. Now we'd like to do a movie about your rare case of tuberculosis, and how you seemed to be in denial about it for several weeks. The working title is, "My Big Infectious Greek Wedding."

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