Sunday, October 11, 2009
Sports, "Hunt's Grunts"

Singing the week away

 

By Hunt Archbold

“What process do you 
go through to determine subjects?’’

That was the e-mail query I received last week from a friend graciously complimenting one of my recent gruntings here on the back page. Unfortunately, no real answer of substance was provided as it seems that that pesky gnome known as writer’s block has been nested in my brain of late. It’s probably a good thing The Sunday Paper Sports Page brings up the caboose each week as indeed our sports staff often is riding the short bus. Much like the Falcons’ Jamaal Anderson, he of two sacks through his first 35 NFL games.

Especially considering the insightful and informative prose brought forth each week in the good ol’ SP by the likes of Kevin Moreau, Kirsten Palladino and Blane Bachelor, just to name a few. And then there’s Stephanie Ramage, who, in addition to leading Atlanta’s media news coverage with her unbiased and detailed reporting on many of our city’s most important and pressing issues, also knows more about international soccer than the vast majority of people reading this sentence—including the person who just wrote it.
Still, sometime last month, I grunted in this spot for the 100th time since joining forces with publisher Patrick Best and the gang on Trabert Avenue, so the ideas must come from somewhere. Like at a concert, as the first week of the this month saw four bands with Georgia roots—Widespread Panic, the Allman Brothers Band, the Black Crowes and Drivin’ N Cryin’—performing before my very eyes and the connection between the worlds or sports and music became as loud and clear as the free-flowing masterpiece that is “Sweet Georgia Brown,” which, of course, is the Harlem Globetrotters’ theme music. You can hear it now, right?

Both these mediums provide a needed escape from our world’s daily doses of drudgery and frustration. They inspire and educate the abilities of our hearts. They also allow the everyday man to find others to vicariously live through to fulfill their competitive and attention-starved nature. And they allow would-be ordinary Mississippians Brett Favre and Faith Hill to be superstar close friends.
Favre was shining once again on Monday Night Football last week, but even before the 40-year-old was playing in the NFL, Hank Williams Jr., was belting out the MNF theme song. Bocephus has won four Emmys for that ditty, but can you name the earlier Williams’ hit for which it is based upon when “ole Miss Mississippi just walked through the door?” There are classic songs that are connected to sports either in theme, such as Queen’s “We Are The Champions,” or in subject matter, as in Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer,’’ or Frank Sinatra’s “There Used To Be A Ballpark Right Here.’’

Then there are songs like Williams’ hit that are connected to a singular event, such as Jim Nabors’ annual spring rendition of “Back Home Again In Indiana” before the Indianapolis 500, or the packed-crowd at Churchill Downs singing Stephen Foster’s “My Old Kentucky Home” before the “Run For The Roses,” which was a Top 20 hit for Dan Fogelberg three decades ago. I’ve attended the Kentucky Derby a few times and was there near at the finish line to witness the late Barbaro’s magnificent triumph in 2006. I mention this because my date that afternoon was a French teacher, who at times could look elegant, but also had her moments where she resembled Raymond Domenech, the embattled manager for the French national football team.

Domenech has been in the news of late, and it’s not just because his team, which won the World Cup in 1998 and finished as runner-up in 2006, is in danger of failing to qualify for next summer’s World Cup in South Africa. France plays a key qualifier versus Austria on Wednesday, and the hit song, “Je Kiffe Raymond” (I Fancy Raymond), is sure to be played throughout the country should Les Bleus come out on top. Yes, the middle-aged Domenech has plenty of critics, but he has a fan in former porn actress and singer Catherine Ringer, who penned the hit song—downloaded more than 100,000 times from her site and heard an additional 101,000 times on other sites by users in 113 countries—after listening to radio analysts critique Domenech’s tactical choices and game management. The 51-year-old Ringer sings:

“Go on Raymond, you’re handsome, your good / And I imagine just one golden match and then everyone would adore you / And if he attacked my penalty areas I would be without defenders.’’
Nothing like a former porn star to offer a little pick me up when things are down. But that’s what a song can do. It can also help flick away a little pesky gnome called writer’s block—at least for a week anyway.  

Happy times … and “All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight.’’ SP