"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 (PC photo) Click here. It’s been almost 40 years since lights were installed at Wrigley Field. I can still immediately identify a night game there. Shadows cover the backs of all the players. The Friendly Confines have no light stands over the outfields. One reason I’m a good speller is that I …
Continue reading Blue Hose Blurbs: PC wins barrage of batters
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. The lingo of basketball constantly changes. It’s as if coaches go off to clinics and camps and come back speaking a whole new language. This has been going on for decades. It's almost as fast as technology. Every time a fellow feels like he's caught up, everything …
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 (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 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. …
By MONTE DUTTON (Furman photo) Click here. Augusta National is hell in heaven. It’s Oz, complete with witches both good and wicked flitting about. It seemed as if the first- and second-place finishers, Scottie Scheffler and Ludvig Aberg, were the only players on the course who seemed to be enjoying himself. Tiger Woods was a …
3By MONTE DUTTON (Pixabay photo) Click here. Maybe it’s the weight of all that pressure for all those years. Or an inability or unwillingness to cope with the ravages of time and injury. Tiger Woods looks unhappy. His expression seems set in a perpetual scowl. It’s tough to become accustomed to a view from the …
Nightrider's Lament 