"Why do they [write] for their money? Why do they [work] for short pay? They ain't getting nowhere and they're losing their share. They must have gone crazy back there." — Michael Burton (paraphrased)
By MONTE DUTTON (Furman photo) Click here. My first impression when I watch Nikola Jokic is of one of those 1970s rasslers who claimed to be from a Communist country. Then I realize that Jokic takes the exact same clumsy shots I took when I played basketball, with the exceptions that he hits virtually all …
Continue reading Furmanology: Paladins win first softball series with Terriers
By MONTE DUTTON (PC photo) Click here. I watched most of the Xfinity Series race at Talladega on Tuesday, won by a fast-rising youth with the can’t-miss name of Jesse Love. When I first started writing about races there, it scared me. A car sailed out of the track the first time I went. Weird …
Continue reading Blue Hose Blurbs: Baseball drops third straight
By MONTE DUTTON (Caleb Gilbert photo) Click here. I have warm memories of Jimmy Satterfield, who was not always a warm man. He was folksy, humble and patient, but on game day, he turned cold. Satterfield grew up hard, as most in his generation did. It took a while to figure him out. And vice-versa. …
By MONTE DUTTON (PC photo) Click here. At the introduction of Presbyterian College’s new women’s basketball coach, it wouldn’t have been much different if the people there had gathered for Thanksgiving. Players, even some who won’t be around next year, filed in. Quinton Ferrell and staff were represented. Steve Englehart, the head football coach, was …
By MONTE DUTTON Bennett Edwards drove in six runs. (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Laurens accepted the key to Region 2-4A on Friday night, and Clinton has a locksmith on retainer. I was at Ed Prescott Field, even though the Raiders had already clinched the top seed but needed a victory over Wade Hampton to …
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. I’m going to miss Young Sheldon. Them’s my people. Tonight I played in front of people at The Lumberyard’s open jam. I like it because people sometimes listen. The local musicians shared with PC biology scholars, and I took one for the team because I needed to …
By MONTE DUTTON (Furman photo) Click here. It’s all busy work, mostly thankless. Thanks to staking out Laurens County as part of my territory, I’m aware of the importance of baseball. It’s big. Clinton won the state title in Class 3A last year. An inexperienced team is getting better by the week and still has …
Continue reading Furmanology: On the bright side, lacrosse wins
By MONTE DUTTON Coleman Coker (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Fun. You can’t beat fun. Another of my late sportswriting chums – I’ve been mourning Jim McLaurin lately – used to say that with a regularity that somehow didn’t undermine the humor. It was all in the timing. David Poole and I were alike in …
By MONTE DUTTON Ryan Ouzts (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Every time another unexpected event happens, whether it lives in fame or infamy, compels me to start reciting again. One year the football team won a game one week by 65 points and lost the next week by 72. Last year a descendant of that …
Continue reading Blue Hose Blurbs: Where abnormal is the norm
By MONTE DUTTON Luke Young (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. I was back in my right mind Tuesday, taxes begone, getting ahead, watching part of a movie that I’ve watched part of three times in the last month, playing a little guitar, having something I hadn’t had at Steamers and trundling off to a ballyard. …
Nightrider's Lament 