By MONTE DUTTON

For no particular reason, I awakened reminiscing on Sunday morning.

It wasn’t Christmas, New Year’s or the Fourth of July. It wasn’t Thanksgiving, Memorial or Labor Day. It was just Sunday morning coming down. Or waking up.

The great sportswriter Red Smith once wrote a book, Absent Friends. They’re the ones of whom I was thinking.

Racers David Pearson, Benny Parsons and Buddy Baker.

Journalists David Poole, Jim McLaurin, Dozier Mobley, T. Taylor Warren, Donny Wilder, Bill Hogan, Ken Burger, Dan Foster, Jim Phillips, Ken Squier, Barney Hall and Tom Higgins. Mobley and Warren were photojournalists. Their work probably means more to me now that I snap again.

Coaches Cally Gault, Dick Sheridan, Jimmy Satterfield, Art Baker, Willie Varner, Jim Beauchamp, Bobby Dews, Joe Frisina and Pinky Babb.

Ballplayers Jeff Snipes, Roscoe Watson, Derwent Long, Robert Lee, Joe Holt and John Bagwell.

Jacks of all trades like Bob Moore, Ed Shull, Ray Cooper and John Cathey.

My parents. My grandparents. My sister. My teachers and professors.

All gone.

I knew them all. I knew them well. I knew many others. I just didn’t think of them this morning.

The coverage of the Paris Olympics by NBC and a fair percentage of the other channels strikes me a bit lighthearted.

It could be that what is serious business to me isn’t quite as serious now.

My watching has been sporadic. I didn’t watch but a few minutes of anything at a time until I watched the USA defeat Serbia in men’s basketball. It was quite lovely, a triumph of artistry over relentless effort.

I’ve been watching people I like who are joyously out of their elements. My suggestion is let Snoop Dogg hang out and offer his takes. Or maybe send Snoop to French Polynesia to handle surfing with Colin Jost.

With more, it’s overkill.

What had me living and dying was the Yankees and Red Sox at Fenway. I was living on Friday night and dying on Saturday and Sunday.

I don’t think Shohei Ohtani is the best baseball player unless he pitches. If he doesn’t pitch, it’s Aaron Judge.

It makes me wince, but I believe it.

The Olympics reminds us that there are many sports we like, just not as much as whatever our obsessions happen to be.

I’ve had a small hankering to remember what team handball is, but I haven’t quite done it yet.

There’s not much choice. Even NASCAR shut down. A great deal of the globe has been divided up between the Olympics and politics.

The USA’s 4-1 women’s soccer victory over Germany was closer than the score, which is rare in a sport where I’ve seen one team dominate a scoreless draw.

Our men breezed by the kiwis. Stop the press.

Florence Post 1 took nine innings to edge Chapin-Newberry 193/24 on Sunday in the Senior American Legion baseball state playoffs, 5-4.

Chandler Thompson’s two-run single with two out achieved the walk-off. Three straight singles followed.

It was not the first time C-N (15-10) struggled retiring a final out. Florence had taken a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning, built on a walk, a single, a hit batter and an error after Tyler Stephenson retired the first two batters.

Matthew Rollison both took the loss and was 2/4 at the plate with a double. Bryce Satterwhite was 3/5 with two RBI. Clinton’s Carson Glenn began the game as DH and ended it in right. Glenn was 0/2 and was hit by a pitch.

Chapin-Newberry’s tour continues with a visit to Fort Mill Post 43 on Tuesday at 3 p.m.

As football season approaches, I expect to streamline the site name. Since the coverage – Furman and Laurens County – is difficult to convey in a word, I may stick with Wellpilgrim (com, net, et al.). Or, if anyone thinks of anything snazzy, I’ll take it under advisement.

A shorter name makes it more likely that readers go directly to the site without linking through social media (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Advertising alone will not keep me going, but there’s room for a few more. Every ad is inset in every story.

Support the advertisers. They are all fine people who appreciate my attempts to restore coverage of local sports. They are dependable, and not too long ago, I sold a couple ads to folks who weren’t. I am thus cautious.

I rely on readers who like the coverage I provide to make contributions. Several ways work.

Please donate whatever you consider appropriate via Venmo at DHK Sports. You may also reach me by mail at 11185 Highway 56 North, Clinton  29325.

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