I’m always forget something…and since I was late, I forgot to add the MORE note … hogging the whole front page. Sorry about that! Here’s my take on the folks back home when March Madness brings glory to the local boys…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
INT. BOBBY-LEE’s BAR & GRILL – NIGHT<\/p>\n
The bar is dark, lit by Pabst Blue Ribbon neon signs and every hue of neon available.\u00a0 There are pool tables in the back, and over the bar, two aging television sets are tuned in to the first round of the NCAA championships.\u00a0 DUKE is squared off against East Tennessee State.\u00a0 It’s the fourth quarter, and the game is tied.<\/p>\n
BOBBY LEE<\/p>\n
Hey! Gonzalez fouled out!<\/p>\n
JASPER<\/p>\n
(glancing up from the pool table)<\/p>\n
Seriously?\u00a0 Who’s that leave?<\/p>\n
BOBBY LEE<\/p>\n
It leaves Myron.\u00a0 That’s it.<\/p>\n
JASPER drops his pool cue on the table and heads for the bar, shaking his head.\u00a0 As he comes, he crushes the beer can in his hand and lobs it the length of the bar in a glittering neon-enhanced arc.\u00a0 It lands cleanly in a trash can at the end of the bar.<\/p>\n
JASPER<\/p>\n
I’ll be damned, Bobby Lee.\u00a0 The boy is gonna play in the big show.<\/p>\n
BOBBY LEE<\/p>\n
It ain’t the majors.<\/p>\n
JASPER<\/p>\n
Hell with the majors, Bobby, this is the champ-een-ship.\u00a0 This is what makes ’em and breaks ’em.\u00a0 Win and move on, lose and go home.<\/p>\n
BOBBY LEE<\/p>\n
Yeah, yeah... we’ll see.<\/p>\n
(turns toward the kitchen)<\/p>\n
Hey Marge!\u00a0 You better get out here.<\/p>\n
MARGE, about two hundred pounds of dirty apron and frizzy hair steps out from the kitchen in back.\u00a0 She’s smoking a cigarette, and as she enters the bar she stubs it out against the inside of the sink and flips it across the bar.\u00a0 It whirls like a top and settles in the ashtray just past where Bobby Lee is standing.\u00a0 On screen, they announce a new player into the game.<\/p>\n
ANNOUNCER 1<\/p>\n
And here’s something unexpected.\u00a0 With Gonzalez out, Duke has to dig deep into their bench.\u00a0 They’re sending in Myron Lee at strong forward.\u00a0 For those not familiar with this young man, he comes from a small town called Old Mill down in North Carolina.\u00a0 He was a late addition to the squad, and we don’t know much about him.\u00a0 Tonight he has some big shoes to fill.<\/p>\n
ANNOUNCER 2<\/p>\n
I’ll say Bob; Gonzalez is reported to have size 14 Nikes!<\/p>\n
MARGE<\/p>\n
Why don’t they say how big Jr.s shoes are? Myron has some BIG feet.<\/p>\n
BOBBY LEE<\/p>\n
Shut up Marge.\u00a0 Can’t you see we’re trying to watch this?<\/p>\n
At the end of the bar, EUSTACE – sixty, bent and gray with a perpetual frown, waves an empty bowl.<\/p>\n
EUSTACE<\/p>\n
Hey!\u00a0 How about some service here?\u00a0 I’ out of peanuts!<\/p>\n
BOBBY LEE grabs a can of peanuts without looking and whips it up into the air.\u00a0 It lands on the bar, hops once, and tips.\u00a0 The nuts spill into the bowl, and EUSTACE, still frowning, takes a few and starts to chew.<\/p>\n
ANNOUNCER 1<\/p>\n
And the ball is in play.\u00a0 Duke brings it up the court quickly.\u00a0 Bentley, the point guard, is pretty tired.\u00a0 He hasn’t had a break in the second half. There’s one minute left in regulation play – the score is tied.<\/p>\n
ANNOUNCER 2<\/p>\n
Not sure what that Lee boy is doing.\u00a0 He isn’t moving much.\u00a0 Maybe it’s a ruse...the defense isn’t paying much attention to him.<\/p>\n
Everyone in the bar gathers close around the bar, watching the screen. The game clock has wound down to 15 seconds.\u00a0 The score is still tied.\u00a0 Tennessee has the ball, and then, suddenly, a Duke guard steals it, and they are headed up the floor.\u00a0 Myron hangs back at about the half-court line, watching like he’s not really part of it.\u00a0 The ball gets passed and passed and passed, but there’s no opening.\u00a0 Finally, there are only four seconds left, and the point guard sees Myron by himself.\u00a0 He tossed the ball.<\/p>\n
POINT GUARD<\/p>\n
SHOOT!<\/p>\n
MYRON catches the ball.\u00a0 He looks at it, bounces it once, and grins.\u00a0 All of the opposing team converges on him, hands raised.\u00a0 Myron tossed the ball carelessly toward the basket.\u00a0 All eyes follow it. The clock counts out...no time left at all... and the ball falls through from half-court.\u00a0 MYRON has won the game.<\/p>\n
BOBBY LEE<\/p>\n
Damn.<\/p>\n
MARGE<\/p>\n
Sure was close.<\/p>\n
EUSTACE<\/p>\n
HEY! \u00a0I spilled my beer here, I...<\/p>\n
MARGE whips a towel the length of the bar and it slaps into EUSTACE’s face cleanly, covering his mouth and muting his complaints.<\/p>\n
JASPER<\/p>\n
Thought for a second there they’d make him move closer...<\/p>\n
BOBBY LEE Throws an old beer label two feet toward the trash and misses by a foot.<\/p>\n
BOBBY LEE<\/p>\n
Damn straight.\u00a0 They really wanted to win, they’d have given it to the boy at the other end of the court.<\/p>\n
MARGE<\/p>\n
(turns toward the kitchen)<\/p>\n
Glad that’s over.<\/p>\n
MARGE runs smack into the door frame and lets out a howl.\u00a0 On the television, the crowd goes wild...<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m always forget something…and since I was late, I forgot to add the MORE note … hogging the whole front page. Sorry about that! Here’s my take on the folks back home when March Madness brings glory to the local boys…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[125],"class_list":["post-853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sketches","tag-march-madness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sketchwar.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}