16 DEC 07: THE COMEBACK KIDS

"We've gone from professional broadcasters to.... I don't know what we are." Yet another classic quote from WOKS sportscaster Cliff Rutledge - this time in the final minute of Saturday's Carver-Cairo clash for the AAA football title. Amid all the tension, listeners needed something to make them laugh out loud.

Congratulations to Carver, which won the AAA crown Saturday by edging Cairo 16-13. Once again Carver had to come from behind in the last two minutes - but at least they took the ball with three minutes left, so fewer fans had a heart attack.

Carver's two best-known stars came through again when it mattered. Quarterback DeRon Furr ran 24 yards for the winning goal with 1:01 to play, diving over a corner of the end zone. In fact, his dive was so long and so high that two officials held up cards giving it a ten.

Jarmon Fortson not only ran for a Carver touchdown - he sacked the Cairo quarterback for a big loss in the final minute. So he might be able to play two ways at Auburn, freeing Tommy Tuberville to find yet another replacement for Brandon Cox.

The WOKS announcers said Saturday's game had plenty of sportsmanship. Perhaps they read some of our pre-game comments, stemming from the fight on the field when Cairo beat Shaw. Or maybe Cairo thought Carver's nickname was the "Fighting Tigers."

The radio broadcast also spotted Charles Flowers at the "Syrup Bowl" in Cairo, congratulating Carver Coach Dell McGee after the game. The local rumor-mongers would say Flowers's grand strategy worked - and they'll now claim McGee will leave to join Flowers's coaching staff in Albany, while his wife gets a guaranteed job at the Miller brewery.

The Carver win means Columbus Mayor Jim Wetherington captures a bet with the mayor of Cairo, and took home a bottle of syrup. All Wetherington could offer in a bet was a stuffed tiger - as if Country's Barbecue wouldn't offer him a dinner plate in a reheatable box.

(At least the mayor went to Cairo for the AAA final. I'm not sure he even went to Golden Park in September, in behalf of the Columbus Catfish.)

So let's draw the local high school sports boundary lines. Jordan is for basketball, Carver for football, Columbus for baseball and volleyball -- and maybe there's still time for Hardaway to call NBC, and get in on that "clash of the choirs."

We had a backup plan for today's entry, in case Carver lost - because I witnessed an even more amazing sports comeback in Columbus the other night. Some people might disagree with that assessment. Such as the people who don't consider poker a sport....

The comeback happened on my Thursday poker night, where everybody starts with 200 pretend-money chips. One player dropped all the way to 31, went "all in" as a last stand - yet rallied from there to outlast about 16 other players and be declared the winner. If I'm able to give you this many details, it means I stayed to the end. And NOT because football was on a big-screen TV

Yes, the guy who made this amazing comeback at the Lil Kim's Cove "poker night" was I -- my third winning session since the start of October, and I've only played seven nights in that time. So do I qualify to get a big-money sponsorship with a poker web site?

I had about 60 chips when players were combined into the final table. This made me what they call in poker the "short stack." So short that only a few drops of Cairo's syrup could have covered it....

But then an amazing run occurred. I wasn't keeping score, but someone near me said I won four pots in a row - and did it with big hands: one straight, two flushes and a full house. So I came off the cliff, without needing a bluff.

I made a couple of bad decisions during the evening to lose chips -- and when the table dropped to four players, I took a big hit when an opponent made a "Jack or else" on the last card in a hand. After such a big run, my luck seemed to be running out. But then.... no, DeRon Furr did NOT show up at the bar to save me.

With some more cautious play, I rebounded after losing a big chip lead and wound up in the final two. But that's where it became complicated. First place at Lil Kim's Cove pays $50, second place wins a bucket of five beers - and I don't drink beer. A man agreed to split the prizes with me. But how do you cut a bottle of beer in half, without making a mess?

Someone had to be declared the winner to end the game and claim the prizes. So the two of us decided that I would win, take the 50 dollars, then give my opponent 20 while he received the five beers. We both wished the presidential candidates could resolve things this easily.

My Thursday night poker games have been amazingly successful lately. Since Labor Day I've had three wins, finished third once and fourth three times. And perhaps most amazingly, a couple of guys seem to be changing their blue language when I sit near them.

Oh yes - I happened to bring up Carver High's success at one of the poker tables. One player predicted Cairo would win the AAA final, because the players are from a "farm town." So?! What about that country music act this weekend, which seemed perfect for the Columbus Civic Center - Little Big Town?

E-MAIL UPDATE: Now a different "Fortson" sighting, from a reader concerned that we keep him/her anonymous for safety reasons....

If you want to see the most professionally torched vehicle in the world, drive out Fortson Road to Fortson Court and go around the back of the first set of offices. Overnight someone torched the truck belonging to the owner of a landscape service..

It is burned to a cinder, no windows, no tires, and the surrounding area suffered no damage except for a couple of melted trashcans. It is a sight worth driving to see, it had to be done by someone who really knew what he, or she, was doing.

The owner made someone very, very mad. I'd be watching my children and pets carefully after that.

We saw this e-mail late Thursday, but decided NOT to drive to the scene after hearing the Friday morning radio news. WDAK reported police were investigating the burning of the Southern Landscaping truck, so I assumed the damage had been impounded. The writer almost makes it sound like the damage could have fit in a cremation urn.

Admittedly not knowing very much about this case, I'm wondering if the torching might qualify as a hate crime. Does this landscaping service employ immigrants, legal or otherwise? This could have been done by someone who felt robbed of a job -- or perhaps someone whose team lost a weekend soccer game near Victory Drive.

So how do you like the new TV newscast in town? Another reader has been taking notes....

Richard,

I've had a chance to watch the outsourced WLTZ newscast a few times now -- what a joke! WRBL and WTVM/WXTX have nothing to worry about.

For example, look at the regional weather graphics they are using. The red dot that is next to the text "Columbus" is actually located on Ft. Benning in Chattahoochee County. I'd bet that the dot is supposed to represent Columbus.

I can understand nationwide weather forecasts, but it just feels wrong to have a weathercaster experiencing 20-degree weather and snow talking about our high temps in the 70s.

From John Beard's biography on the WLTZ web site.... "John has a wonderful wife, Amy, and a beautiful little girl, Alex. If you see them around town, stop and say hello."

See them around town?

From KLJB's website (Davenport, Iowa).... "John has a wonderful wife, Amy, and a beautiful little girl, Alex. If you see them around town, stop and say hello."

-Thomas

Oh dear - the secret's out. The next thing you know, we'll see pictures of Al Fleming voting in the Iowa caucuses.

I hadn't paid close enough attention to the WLTZ weather maps to see where their red dot was. I've been too busy waiting for the sports reports - trying to figure out why Jeremy Moss shows boxing matches instead of Columbus State basketball highlights.

(I wonder how many other people agree with Thomas about faraway forecasters. The Weather Channel is based in metro Atlanta - so do envious North Dakota residents boycott it during winter?)

But to be fair: WLTZ news anchor Libby Allison WAS in town last weekend. She was in the NBC-38 car at the Bi-City Christmas Parade -- and she didn't seem to dress in a winter coat and mittens at all.

By the way, the links above led me to something I hadn't noticed before. WLTZ has completely revamped its web site in the last month. You can watch video from the newscasts - but for some odd reason, all the stories in the "Local News" section take you to the Ledger-Enquirer's site. The TV receptionist must not have time to type in the scripts herself.

We have to hold at least one other e-mail for another day, as we check other weekend highlights:

+ A Saturday evening storm dropped more than an inch of rain on most of Columbus, and left standing water on the grass near my front door. The lawn must have been so stunned, it didn't know what to do with it.

+ Columbus Police announced the crime crackdown which began last summer has led to more than 1,000 arrests, and the seizure of 56 guns. So if the criminals don't have the guns, how did we have that wave of homicides?

+ WRBL reported a cashier in the business office at Chattahoochee Valley Community College pleaded guilty to embezzlement. I thought this college offered accounting courses - but maybe that's Columbus Technical College.

+ An Alabama state lawmaker proposed legalizing guns on college campuses, but only for students enrolled in the ROTC program. Why put limits on this? Fine arts majors might want to make anti-war statements.

(The lawmaker who proposed this claims if ROTC students are allowed to carry guns, it will stop future Virginia Tech massacres. Maybe I'm missing something - but didn't the bulk of those killings occur in a chemistry hall, not military science?)

+ Sugarland joined Little Big Town in a country concert at the Columbus Civic Center - and for some reason, it left the Cottonmouths unable to show their Saturday night hockey game on the Internet. I didn't know Jennifer Nettles's voice was loud enough to break camera lenses.

(Columbus tripped Twin City 3-1 in the hockey game, after a Friday night game at Huntsville was postponed by a power outage in the arena. A Columbus-Huntsville game with a lack of power?! That sounds about as unlikely as a men-only night at a shopping mall.)

+ Instant Message to Summit Hospital: I saw your nice big billboard on the 280 Bypass - but after what you've been through, I have to ask: how can you afford that?

THE BLOG OF AMERICA: The continuing Writers' Guild strike has reached the point where this season of "Lost" may have fewer episodes. As if a "Lost season" wouldn't be appropriate?!

+ Pakistan's President ended the country's state of emergency. Well, it ended officially. As long has Pakistan has nuclear weapons, India's government won't even feel safe when the countries play a "friendly" game of cricket.

+ The Miami County, Ohio Sheriff made inmates paint the jail walls pink. Charles Cox explained the colors can have a calming effect. At last I understand how Pepto-Bismol works....

+ The attorney for Kevin Federline demanded Britney Spears face court sanctions. It's because Spears missed a deposition date claiming illness, then was seen out and about in Los Angeles after midnight. Amazing healing can occur at those 2:00 p.m. doctor appointments.

(I personally know of someone who had a "healing" like this years ago. A former roommate was too ill to attend church one day - then went to a church dance that very night. He may have improved physically, but his reputation took a turn for the worse.)

+ Post offices braced for a final rush of pre-Christmas mail. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, about 14 billion cards are sent around the world -- so if your neighborhood post office sounded like it had a noisy holiday party this weekend, everyone there could afford it.

+ The Virginia house which Michael Vick used for dogfighting was offered for sale on the courthouse steps - but it attracted only one serious bidder, so it was withdrawn. You almost get the feeling the Atlanta Falcons's coaching job will be filled the same way.

+ Veteran golfer Greg Norman and tennis legend Chris Evert announced they are engaged. You have to give Norman credit -- after all these years, it appears he's finally won a "U.S. major."

+ Movie critic Roger Ebert declared on The Oprah Winfrey Show that he "dated" Winfrey twice during the 1980's. It's too bad fellow critic Gene Siskel died several years ago. We want to know if he joined in a double-date -- and whether he took Phil Donahue or Gayle King.

+ Alex Trebek checked out of a hospital, as he recovers from a heart attack. We're thankful to know he's not in "Final Jeopardy" quite yet.

(BLOGGER'S NOTE: The Blog of America will be suspended for awhile, as on Monday we'll begin our extensive review of 2007's top events.)

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