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One of the best NBA finals ever

Hate on the NBA all you want . Absolutely insane finals . The Greek Freak put on a performance for the ages last night . Jordanesqe almost . Dude still can’t knock down a midrange jumper and still totally dominates both ends of the floor . So excited for the post Lebron NBA . So much talent spread across the league . Gonna be fun the next 4 or 5 years .

OT - Best obscure burger and/or hotdog places in and around South Carolina

Saw a similar thread on tMB, thought it would be a good time with the upcoming season right around the corner to list those in your area.
I'll start with a couple of local places here on the west central side of the state.

City Billiards - Aiken, SC * Best chili dogs around, great burgers too*
Blue Top - Graniteville, SC * Burgers are fantastic and the best fries *
The Pool Room - Edgefield, SC * Great burgers *

Braves 🆚 Padres 7/20/21 A test of strength 😎😎

Welcome to another edition of Gamecock Central Braves Baseball ⚾️ Chat 💬. I am your host @Pfunk Cock along with a plethora of regular participants in the chat. A test of strength stretch of games is upon us and it is put up or shut up time.

As I suggested would happen, Minter has been jettisoned back to Gwinnett 😎😎 but he was replaced by another enigmatic Lefty Sean Newcomb 🤬🤬. I guess the 40 man roster restrictions have come home to roost 🤔. The Braves also made another move as Inciarte has been placed on Covid19 protocol and the opened up a roster spot for tonight’s Starter Kyle Muller. (Smooth segue right ? 😎😎).
Muller has been sharp this far this season and he will truly be tested tonight facing one of the premier offensive teams in the National League. They are replete with two $300,000,000 players in Machado and Tatis Jr. They also have power up and down the lineup. This will be his first time facing them so who has the advantage in these situations vary from game to game. I am of the opinion that good pitching nullifies good offenses. That is the mantra I am holding steadfastly tonight 😎😎 throw in a couple of 🙏🏿 🙏🏿 and lucky 🍀 and Sage burners all around the ballpark.

The Padres will start veteran Yu Darvish. He is an exceptional pitcher but the Braves have fared well against. They have a pinchers chance of pulling this game off provided Miller has an extended outing. I have no confidence in the bullpen as it is constructed as it has been the nexus of many of the teams pitfalls. Keep fingers crossed 🤞 and 🙏🏿🙏🏿 Flowing as we will need all hands on deck to pull this off.

⚠️ Breaking News 📰
There has been a change of pitchers for tonight’s game as the Braves have decided to keep Toussaint in his scheduled start and is pushing Muller to game 1 of the Wednesday DH as they did not want to upset the new schedule threat Toussaint is on since he came off his rehab assignment. Toussaint possesses some of the best movement of breaking balls in the organization. He has pitched very well his last two times and the hopes is that his consistency will continue. If he is on with his his breaking balls he is very difficult to hit but it is imperative that he pitches ahead in the count because the Padres are a dangerous ball club.

Starting Lineup
Pederson RF
Swanson ss
Freeman 1B
Albies 2B
Riley 3B
Vogt C
Almonte LF
Heredia CF
Toussaint RHP

Padres Lineup
Pham LF
Tatis Jr ss
Cronenworth 2B
Machado 3B
Hosmer 1B
Myers RF
Grisham CF
Carantini C
Darvish RHP

First Pitch 7:20 est

Broadcasting
Bally Sports South East

Gamecocks Central Braves Baseball Chat is on the 🕸

Stone Blanton and his top3….

This is a big time player also committed to MSU in baseball.
In the old world, one would think he’s an MSU lock.
Now enter the NIL….and A&M. We have a great chance as does MSU, but neither of us can match oil money in spades. He will be a recruit worth watching, Not only because he’s a recruit that’s a stud ILB, but the amount of money he accepts/refuses from ATM.
This is our first big dual with ATM and MSU, and I will watch this with great interest, regardless of his decision.
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Concerning the upcoming season, here are my early thoughts about our beloved Gamecocks.

When I am thinking optimistically, I think 6 wins. However, when I am thinking realistically I think 4 or 5 wins. It's so hard to make a prediction when you have a coaching change and you also can't predict turnovers. I do think we will be strong on the defensive line and good enough on the offensive line. I have a little concern about LBs and more concern about DBs. On offense I believe with the coaching we will make the passing game work by utilizing a limited number of WRs and over working the TEs. We have several dependable TEs. Thinking that the passing game will be good enough to maintain a very good running game. I can visualize having a 2 back set on offense at times and you know who the 2 RBs will be. And with 2 blue chip RBs, we can always have a fresh RB in the game. Advantage South Carolina. I think the QBs will do a good enough job distributing the ball. So all in all it is entirely possible for our beloved Gamecocks to win 6 games. I believe the improvement in the vibe of all the coaches and the trust that is being built along with the optimism and the quality of the coaching staff will certainly improve our record. It's early now, but those are my thoughts.

Braves 🆚 Padres 7/21/21 Double bubble day

Welcome to another edition of Gamecock Central Braves Baseball ⚾️ Chat 💬. I am your host @Pfunk Cock along with a plethora of regular participants in the chat. I will be away for some of game one and @Wildbunch2 has agreed to pinch Host for game one. You will be in good hands as long as the Braves don’t have to go to the bullpen early😎. All bets are off then as he will crack the bottle of Jack and I don’t know what I will return to 😂😂😂. In all seriousness thanks 🙏🏿 brother and bring home the W. Have my Colonoscopy eval today as I have now transferred to The Charleston VA Center. It should be a quick on and out today but have to prepare for Murphy’s Law.

Game 1 will have the Braves going with Rookie phenom Kyle Muller. He has taken to the MLB Mound like he has been pitching in the bigs his whole life. The youngster has poise and attacks the strike zone. He will face a formidable opponent today in the Padres very talented offense. Touki did a fantastic job of pitching ahead and keeping hitter guessing . He used his fastball very effectively and sprinkled in his great breaking balls. This is a complete reversal of his earlier attempts at pitching backwards and hopefully the 💡 has finally come on for the young pitcher. Muller just needs to keep doing what has been very effective for him this far. He has a very good fastball but an even better slider and curve. He is a large human being and his 6”7 frame is an unnerving site for hitters especially from the left side.
He will be opposed by Chris Paddock. He is a RHP with a high era. The only Braves hitter who has seen him often is Pederson and he only has 2 hits in 17 a bats but they were both homers. Only 3 other Braves batters have even faced him and it looks like it was only one game a couple of years ago but of his stats are indicative of his effectiveness this season maybe the Braves can put up some crooked numbers.

Game 2 will have Bryse Wilson pitching for the Braves as he is the 27th player for the DH rules. He has been very good and somewhat awful this season which just indicates he is having consistently problems . He seems to have gone from his 4 seam fastball that exited everyone in the NLCS and using more of a 2 season approach and pitching low in the Zone. Baffles me as to why he changed what appeared to be a dominating approach with thoughts of a breakout season to a totally different approach this season. Maybe it was for control purposes and maybe trying to throw all of his pitches from the same peripheral to keep hitters guessing what is coming but he comes in as a (?) for me as The box of chocolates to Forrest Gump. I don’t know what we are going to get 😎. The Padres appear to be going with a bullpen game in the nightcap as a reliever is starting the 7 inning affair. Here is the starting lineups for both teams in game one.

Braves starting Lineup
Pederson RF
Swanson ss
Freeman 1B
Albies 2B
Riley 3B
Heredia CF
Arcia LF
Smith C
Muller LHP

Padres Starting Lineup
Pham LF
Tatis Jr ss
Cronenworth 1B
Machado 3B
Myers RF
Profar CF
Kim 2B
Rivas C
Paddock RHP

First Pitch 12:20

Broadcasting
Bally Sports South East

second game 5:20 EST (estimated)

Gamecocks Central Braves Baseball Chat is on the 🕸
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Going to Texas A&M

Just checked with the Gamecock club and they are sold out for Texas A&M tickets.
So that's a bummer.
Our options are to try to buy from Texas A&M or change the away game choice to Missouri, if Missouri tickets are still available.
I was so bummed about A&M being sold out I forgot to check.
Anyone ever been to a game at Missouri?

I thought about the tour bus someone recommended on an earlier thread I posted but we'd rather fly.

The Athletic - Recruiting Confidential series

I know a lot of people here have a subscription to the Athletic. This Recruiting Confidential series that they are doing has got some good stuff. I know the SC one sparked a lot of conversation here. Today they did Texas and since I live here I had to check it out. It's an interesting read.

A couple of things I pulled from the article:

1. Texas HS coaches didn't care much for Tom Herman. I know it's been said before...but we really dodged a bullet there. (Not that our choice turned out any better.)
2. Texas HS coaches are just about as arrogant as the college coaches.
3. Conferences matter and HS kids in TX want to play in the SEC.
4. When they were asked "which college coach in Texas do you trust the least", Jimbo got the most mentions.

Couple of other tidbits....on which out of state coach does the best job recruiting your players or the state of Texas, one HS coach said, "Shane Beamer, I know he’s at (South Carolina) now, but he was a hell of a recruiter here in Texas (while he was at Oklahoma)". And another talked about Oklahoma and Lincoln Riley and said, "The coach there is young, innovative, seems to really put out the message that he cares about kids. He’s — how do I say this — he hasn’t been like (Clemson coach) Dabo (Swinney). I couldn’t get enough of Dabo, now I get too much."

Anyway...if you have a subscription you should take a few minutes and read it.

How many of you think that USC will beat UTjr at Knoxville this year.

This is a vey critical game for USC. USC does not have a very good record when the game is played in Knoxville. I've shown who each team plays on the 2 weekends before USC plays UTjr at Knoxville. As you can see below, UTjr plays 2 consecutive games on the road which I believe they will lose.

USC Plays
Sept 25 Kentucky
Oct 2 Troy

UTjr Plays
Sept 25 @ Florida
Oct 2 @ Missouri
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