By MONTE DUTTON FCA Camp at PC (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. I saw several games at Rickwood Field when the Birmingham Barons played there. The Barons have since moved twice and now play in a sparkling downtown stadium. The San Francisco Giants are playing the Saint Louis Cardinals there on Thursday night. One reason …
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County Signs: Saying bye to the Say Hey Kid
By MONTE DUTTON Clinton Family YMCA executive director Harold Nichols surrounded by champions (YMCA photos) Click here. I’ve been thinking about this since I heard the news of Willie Howard Mays’ death on Tuesday night. I think three athletes have made me cry. On the way from Fenway Park back to New Hampshire on a …
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County Signs: Rory goes missing
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. What an eventful weekend. Bryson DeChambeau won the United States Open in a tournament that was close from start to finish. The winner was really Pinehurst No. 2, which may be the greatest golf course in the world. DeChambeau tried to lose it, and Rory McIlroy succeeded. …
Furmanology: The need for speed(ing tickets)
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. The United States Open is being played in Moore County, N.C., which is a golf principality. Just to the south is Richmond County, which is a onetime NASCAR duchy. Every time I wrote about a race at Rockingham, I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Southern Pines, …
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County Signs: The Open where I played
By MONTE DUTTON Presbyterian's Daniel Eagen (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. When the United States Open is played at Pinehurst No. 2, I have a small degree of familiarity. I played it. Or, rather, it played me. Several times. Back when it was Winston Cup, and Rockingham hosted two races a year, an annual junket …
County Signs: Pitch and catch for now
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. I washed my face in the morning dew / Bathed my soul in the sun / I washed my face in the morning sun / And kept on moving along Of course, Tom T. Hall wrote it. He didn’t have a morning of 7-on-7s at Clinton High …
Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and money
By MONTE DUTTON (Caleb Gilbert photo) Click here. I’ve mentioned it before, but among baseball’s many virtues is the incidence of the unexpected. I’ve seen a zillion games and listened to a bajillion. That’s not even counting the softball. Technology multiplies. On Sunday night, I was surfing three college games, one major-league, the end of …
Furmanology: Baseball from a distance
By MONTE DUTTON (Danny Barletta photo) Click here. Surfing the Super Regionals, I heard an announcer yell, “Wow!!! That ball went 110 miles off the bat!!!” I thought, Far out. (I’d just been playing a John Denver song.) In hysterics, of course, the announcer left out “per hour” after miles. I know that announcers do …
County Signs: The plink of the bat
By MONTE DUTTON PC's Joel Dragoo (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. The best thing about pro baseball is the crack of the bat. I remember when all bats were wooden. We used them to fend off the dinosaurs. They gave away thousands of them at an annual Atlanta Braves game. I got a Felipe Alou. …
Furmanology: Quite the change
By MONTE DUTTON Paladin Stadium (Furman photo) Click here. I watched the ceremonies from Normandy on Thursday morning, and it made me wish America could come together like that on anything now. Culture shock hurts. Growing up, World War II veterans were prevalent. Teachers showed us mementoes in class. People told stories. The most mild-mannered …
Nightrider's Lament 