Thursday, July 27, 2017
\nColumn 540
\nMusic City!<\/b><\/p>\n
With one of the BEST tournaments in America on tap this weekend it seems appropriate to share this oldie…<\/p>\n
My first look at a double \u2013 at Rodman Rodman \u2013 came the moment my plane landed. The man with double first names (or double last names) \u2013 no one frickin\u2019 knows which \u2013 was kind enough to pick me up, show me around the city, try to indoctrinate me to country music, and whoop my ass six legs straight at the Edgefield Sports Bar (921 Woodland Street), an excellent darts joint with even better cheeseburgers. I did get a look at some real doubles here but just couldn\u2019t close the deal.<\/p>\n
My next look came in the lobby of the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel. Actually, I heard this double before I saw it. That\u2019s the way it is with Dayton\u2019s Dayton Strawbridge. He just ain\u2019t a quiet and unassuming kind of guy.<\/p>\n
My next, and potentially most exciting look at a double, came just a while later in the tournament hall. Lesleigh \u201cDragonfly\u201d Hayes was her name and, here and now, I am inviting her to send the photos necessary to be considered as a future Dartoid\u2019s World Double Out girl. I make the same offer to Nancy Jo Sebring and Vera Emons.<\/p>\n
I expressly do not extend this offer to Dayton Strawbridge.<\/p>\n
My final double came on the second day of the tournament and it was just plain weird. I\u2019d say it was frickin\u2019 weird but I\u2019ve already used the bad, bad word twice in just the first two paragraphs so to use it again would be a gross violation of proper writing style. Plus, this is a frickin\u2019 family oriented column.<\/p>\n
The guy\u2019s name was Jon Dreher. On two entirely separate occasions he did the double with a train \u2013 a real live frickin\u2019 freight train \u2013 and lived. Without a doubt this double has never been done before, ever, anywhere on Earth, in the history of mankind.<\/p>\n
The first time he fell asleep while driving his Nissan Pathfinder. He drove into a ditch and popped out on a railroad track. Choo-choo-choo\u2026 BOOM! The second time, for reasons I still can\u2019t comprehend, he was actually driving his new truck alongside a train track, got stuck or something, ran to his buddy\u2019s house, raced back to his truck, and, well, BOOM! Again! Except for having no arms and legs and having to be duct taped to a skateboard and pushed around by a kid Dreher is fine today.<\/p>\n
The Music City Classic is held at a damn posh venue, the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel. The walls everywhere are accented in framed old country music concert posters announcing appearances at Ryman Auditorium (the former site of the Grand Ole Opry<\/i>) of literally every country star ever to flex their cords. Name \u2018em \u2013 Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Patsy Cline, Elvis and on and on. There are fancy memorabilia displays with signed guitars and old sheet music autographed by the artists. In a shiny glass case by the elevators there\u2019s even a harmonica once wailed on by Bob Dylan.<\/p>\n
Over a century ago \u2013 when rooms went for four dollars and restaurant fare included calf\u2019s head, black bear, and opossum \u2013 the hotel\u2019s namesake stood at a downtown location in the center of Nashville\u2019s bustling social and political activity. Built by Colonel John Overton, Jr. and named for his wife, Harriett Maxwell (hence the future connection to coffee fame), famous visitors included Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and \u201cBuffalo Bill\u201d Cody, among others. Legend has it that it was Theodore Roosevelt\u2019s comment that the hotel\u2019s coffee was \u201cgood to the last drop\u201d that lead to the Maxwell House coffee advertising slogan. The original hotel burned down on Christmas night 1961.<\/p>\n
For two decades, the Music City Classic has been one of the more popular stops on the American darts circuit and this year \u2013 the twenty-first \u2013 was no exception. It started off crazy as ever with the Friday night draw seeing three members of the World Cup team on stage, with one of the unfortunate trio (Brian Blake) encumbered with a bozo \u2013 yours truly. Blake and I lost in the final to Ryan Barnette and Jim Widmayer.<\/p>\n
Most impressive was North Carolina\u2019s Robbie Phillips who I remember first meeting in Greensboro when he was something like four-years-old (but even then had spiky hair). In the Pro Singles event Phillips took out Roger Carter (who just couldn\u2019t seem to find a double sixteen) to get to the stage, only to fall short to a sharp-shooting Dayton Strawbridge (who himself got by St. Louis\u2019 Steve Brown, who just could seem to find tops). Phillips continued to strike well throughout the weekend, losing to Chicago\u2019s Steve Panuncialman in the Men\u2019s Singles 501 final and finishing in the top eight in cricket.<\/p>\n
For the ladies, it was Cali West over Andrea Taylor in 301 and Stacy Bromberg with two wins over Paula Murphy in 501 and cricket.<\/p>\n
In other activity, Joe Swick teamed with Mat Malone and Tracy Friertag to claim Mixed Trips 501 over Dan Lauby, Steve Brown and Robin Curry (Lauby and Brown also got the job done in Doubles 501 over Donnie Joe and Shane Hvamstad). Paula Murphy and Shea Reynolds topped Stacy Bromberg and Nancy Huntoon in Women\u2019s Doubles 501. In Women\u2019s Doubles Cricket Brenda Roush and Andrea Taylor prevailed over Stacey Pace and Carin Theodoru. And in 4-Person 801 it was Lee Blair, Todd Rooney, Bobby Sluder, and Ryan Barnette with the victory.<\/p>\n
I must say it was my pleasure to finally make it to Nashville. For years and despite the best of intentions I had not been able to slot this tournament into my schedule \u2013 and I\u2019d never been to Music City USA before for any reason\u2026<\/p>\n
Of course, I had a chance to listen to a LOT of country music. Indeed, I am told that it was after listening to the following Guy Clark song for a day straight (and drinking a fifth of Jack Daniels) that John Dreher\u2019s brain turned to mush and convinced him to start wrestling with trains:<\/p>\n