"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)
Carson Glenn (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Baseball terms come from a variety of origins. For instance, “on deck” refers to the next batter. The one after that is “in the hold,” not the hole. They were naval terms before baseball adopted them. It irks me that any time a player holds a bat in …
Continue reading County Signs: Spartanburg edges Clinton, 5-4
Raiders came back, but Jordan Hudson wasn't around to see it. (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Even when the weather is clear, a spring night has dampness in it. Parents and friends huddle in the shadows, some up against the fence in their foldable chairs, others standing back a bit, wearing caps and windbreakers, wishing …
Brett Young (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. A high percentage of people who attended a funeral and wrote about it mentioned the weather. For the record, it was drizzly and overcast at Fort Jackson National Military Cemetery when Jim McLaurin took his mortal bow. I saw no hidden meaning. The poet laureate of the working …
Continue reading County Signs: Figures that it began with a funeral
Me-Me Smith (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Because ESPN2 must have something to show on Tuesday night, I watched part of the men’s basketball game between High Point and Arkansas State. It’s the Ro College Basketball Invitational, live from Daytona Beach Center. High Point, the regular-season champion of the Big South, was up seven the …
Continue reading County Signs: Vikings founder crossing lake
(Monte Dutton photos) Click here. I retired to the house so that I could watch Presbyterian College play women’s basketball on TV, but I regretted leaving the baseball being played by the ancestral Laurens County rivals on Wednesday night. The Blue Hose won, so I can’t really say I misplayed it. I took a plethora …
Continue reading County Signs: Raiders rule … but just barely
(Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Who knew the last of the basketball would be at Presbyterian College? The Blue Hose women’s basketball team is playing Sacred Heart of Fairfield, Conn., in the NCAA Tournament’s play-in game. PC, the fifth seed in the Big South, swept through the tournament. The Pioneers of the not usually pioneerish …
Continue reading County Signs: Basketball miraculously lives
Mara Neira (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. In the small town of Clinton, some folks are aghast that the local college has such a tough path to the women’s basketball championship. Why must the Blue Hose have to be in a play-in? And, if they manage to defeat Sacred Heart, next is the No. 1 …
Continue reading County Signs: Hose get ready for taste of bigs
Owen Pridgen is on a tear. (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Baseball outlasted the weather – at least at Laurens District High School and Presbyterian College -- on Friday as the skies cleared and home-plate umpires yelled, “Play ball!” The Raiders, more notably, did. A band of Revolutionaries, once known as the Colonials, descended upon …
Continue reading County Signs: Raiders sweep Eagles, Hose drop opener
Carly Edwards (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. The soft rivalry between Clinton and Laurens -- I always do it alphabetically except when it refers to the site, at which time it is Clinton-Laurens in Laurens and Laurens-Clinton in Clinton, and never the twain shall meet – in softball was a rootin,’ tootin’ dandy on Thursday …
Jordan Hudson (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. I just heard a broadcaster say at the end of a tournament game, “They’d like to keep this run going!” Who doesn’t? The theme of Wednesday night’s games was Run, run, run, run, runaway! In Taylors, a red-hot gang of Laurens Raiders left Eastside green with envy, grounding …
Continue reading County Signs: All is looking … mostly way up
Nightrider's Lament 