1513 Butler Tybee Island, GA
100%
PURE FUN!
7pm to 9pm
Happy Hour Monday - Friday 4pm - 7pm
Karaoke Thursday 7pm
Live Band Friday & Saturday 9pm - ???
12 HD TV’s - Video Games - Keno
912-786-4444
TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | FEB 2018 25
SINCE 1971
FOOD & DRINK
Bar & Grill
Daily Lunch Specials!
By Woody Hemphill
Sometimes, there just aren’t words. The process of starting to heal can
include even more pain and suffering, like an indirect kick to an area that
rhymes with ‘malls.’ Few things in life are more frustrating than having victory
in your grasp, and losing. I won’t subject our dear readers to the last year in
sports. For some of us, the last year has been like walking in on our parents
with our regional sports teams. It may take us years to overcome bookend
collapses.
There was our initial funk of the first step in our classic 5 step program
of overcoming gridiron grief: denial and isolation. We stayed on our phones,
posting our rantings about officiating and cursing the gods for such an outcome.
Clearly, we felt that we were fighting for good over evil; the will of the world
versus the dark forces as we faced Osama bin Saban and Alabama. Another
brick in the wall of two legendary teams and an industry that systematically
rewards itself with the excesses of its spoils.
Has any other fan base in sports history experienced this level of emotional
trauma as a result of coming up just shy of champion? It would be hard to
find two identically resulting outcomes such as the Super Bowl and National
Championship, certainly in such rapid-fire succession. Let’s hope therapy in
bulk is covered this week. Some of us remember the years when the highlight
of our Georgia sports’ fan year was to listen to older fans recall how Atlanta
could invent ways not to win. You aren’t a legitimate fan of sports in Georgia if
not once you’ve never openly questioned how Bobby Cox kept it going while
drinking, or having some other unknown vice. Each time October rolled around
we watched Atlanta lose - and couldn’t get enough. These days, I wonder if
our desensitization to losing in crucial moments will have a long-lasting effect
on our fan base’s psyche. For those of us who still remember the course of
the UGA program after losing to Penn State in ’82 - it was not a very glossy
couple of decades.
To add insult to injury, the Falcons reminded us they were still in town by
‘crapping the bed’ in Philadelphia. The same opponent who started a back-up
quarterback, the formidable Nick Foles (not the guy who sang “Brick’). Suffice
to say, Tybee’s DPW Department could rattle this guy’s cage - (those guys
are actually swole) – but that is precisely what it means to be a sports fan.
It makes no sense, it’s like trying to play the lottery with a magic 8 ball and
an iron ball & a feather duster. It’s random, even just short of a gimmick, but
every year we all have a chance. At the end of the season, it’s still a game.
We’ll get them next year. To non-sports fans, we may come across as oddities
of humanity; irregular society - but I once broke up with a girl because I didn’t
think I could cheer for her alumni. So, I may not be the best social critic with
the most impeccable of standards. I’m just a guy that remembers when sports
were ingrained in our life, I’m not sure who came up with the term sports
entertainment, but a true fan wants to kick that guy’s ass.
Its irony on a base level, and this may be up there with the geriatric,
stereotypical-football fan telling you how defense wins championships? Yet,
the game of late has been affected by technology to such a point that most
fans are not comfortable. The optimally monetized cable packages for repeats
of replays as we watch deferrals to New York for rulings on the field in ‘real
time’ – the fact becomes more readily apparent that, fundamentally - this
game is comprised of regular people.
Onward & upward, with our heads hung low, we prepare for another season
of Cobb County mediocrity on the baseball field and recall the days of yore.
(See, if I really was old - I’d referred to it as a ‘diamond’). Until next time, y’all
play nice – and may all your teams win!