By MONTE DUTTON

Uniforms used to be so much easier to understand.

I thought about this when I was watching the Philadelphia 76ers play the New York Knicks, and both team were wearing uniforms I really liked, only the Knicks were wearing white and the Sixers were wearing blue, and the game was in Philadelphia.

I like to turn on the TV and immediately know both what the teams are and where the game is.

The first time this frustrated me was at the ACC Baseball Tournament in the 1980s. Teams were playing every day, and the uniforms were worn randomly, and it was possible for the home North Carolina Tar Heels to be decked out in gray even though the were the home team.

I spent the whole tournament on the wrong side of the scorebook. It was not a day to forget pencils, with, more importantly, erasers.

By the way, since when were cities known exclusively by their airport’s abbreviation?

ATL. The Hawks. PHX. The Suns. DTW. The Pistons. ORY. Fortunately, Paris does not have a team.

I revere the memory of the late, great Jackie Robinson, but it drives me crazy that day when every major-league player wears No. 42. It defeats the purpose of numbers.

I hate the baseball All-Star Game now that the players don’t wear their own team’s uniforms, quite possibly so much that I won’t watch it.

The masterminds of major sports have an advantage I do not possess.

I’ve heard they make money off what they do.

Now to the Paladins.

A pair of standouts from Furman’s Southern Conference champion football team is taking a shot at the NFL.

All-America offensive guard Jacob Johanning signed a free-agent contract with the Las Vegas Raiders, and All-SoCon tight end Mason Pline did the same with the San Francisco 49ers.

A Simpsonville product, the 6- 3, 290 Johanning was selected as the SoCon’s top offensive lineman in 2023 by capturing the Jacobs Blocking Award and collected All-America honors from the AFCA, Associated Press and Stats Perform after serving as a team co-captain and helping the Paladins to a 10-3 campaign.

The last Paladin to sign a contract with the Raiders was defensive end Gary Wilkins ‘15.

Pline, 6-7, 260, from Fowler, Mich., started all 13 games and caught 32 passes for 287 yards and four touchdowns, including a career high nine grabs for 78 yards and a touchdown in the Paladins’ quarterfinal round playoff contest versus Montana.  His leaping 13-yard, fourth down touchdown reception with 13 seconds to go in the fourth quarter helped force the game into overtime.

Prior to coming to Furman last summer, Pline played basketball and later football at Ferris (Mich.) State University, where he was a member of two national championship gridiron teams and earned a degree in mechanical engineering.

The top team in the Southern Conference backed it up with a three-game softball sweep of the Paladins in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Chattanooga pitchers held Furman to just one run over 14 innings as the Mocs captured a 6-1, 3-0 doubleheader sweep of the Paladins in Southern Conference softball on Saturday afternoon at Frost Stadium.

Then the Mocs proceeded to pound the Paladins, 10-0, on Sunday.

A five-run fifth inning was the difference in the opener.

Furman took the lead in the top of the third inning. Ashlee Lykins and Caitlin Goldwait opened the frame with base hits and moved into scoring position on Sylvia Burroughs’ sacrifice bunt. Kiley Perry followed with a sacrifice fly to center field to score Lykins.

Starter Sierra Tufts pitched four shutout frames for the Paladins before the Mocs erupted for five runs in the bottom of the fifth.

Chattanooga’s Peja Goold improved to 6-3 in the circle by tossing a complete game. The righthander limited the Paladins to a run on five hits while striking out eight batters.

Tufts (10-9) took the loss for the Paladins after surrendering five runs on five hits over 4-1/3 innings of work. She walked just one batter and fanned three but plunked a pair of Mocs.

Snell and Cernuto, the No. 1 and No. 2 hitters in the Chattanooga’s order, both went 3-4 at the plate. Lykins finished 2-/4 for the Paladins.

Alyssa Lavdis tossed a complete-game shutout and Kaili Phillips belted two solo home runs to power the Mocs to a 3-0 victory in game two on Saturday.

Lavdis (9-5) allowed three hits over the first two innings before retiring the final 17 batters she faced. She fanned four batters without giving up a walk en route to earning the win.

Phillips hammered a solo home run to center field in the bottom of the second inning off Paladin starter Lauralee Scott (L, 7-5) allowed three runs off five hits.

Chattanooga (34-13, 13-5) got on the board first with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. Lipari and Baileigh Pitts reached on two-out singles. After back-to-back wild pitches brought in the first run, Kendall Forsythe lined an RBI single to left field to up the lead to 2-0.

Lavdis retired the Paladins in order in the fifth to trigger the eight-run mercy rule. She improved to 10-5 in the circle after holding Furman to one hit over five innings of work.

Furman (21-29, 6-12) is back in action next weekend when it hosts East Tennessee State in the final regular season series of the season. Saturday’s doubleheader is set for an 11 a.m. first pitch.

Furman’s Cameron Ponder posted an NCAA East Preliminaries qualifying time of 8:47.65 in the 3,000-meter Steeplechase Friday at Stanford’s 27th Payton Jordan Invitational at Cobb Track and Angell Field in California.

A senior from Winston-Salem, N.C., Ponder placed seventh collegiately and 10th overall and was the top finisher from the East region.

Paladin senior Carson Williams of Raleigh, N.C., competed as an unattached athlete and won the event with a personal-best time of 8:27.14.

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