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. …
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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 …
County Signs: At the mercy of the video gods
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Every single time I hear someone say, “I would (submit, suggest, etc.) …,” my mind conjures up, unsaid (usually), Hell, I won’t tell nobody, go ahead and (submit, suggest, etc.) it. Many of my colleagues in the Fourth Estate – I’m so far out I have to …
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County Signs: Spangler takes Clinton helm
By MONTE DUTTON Peyton Spangler closes a parley on the junior-varsity mound. (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. As has been widely rumored and thinly dismissed, Sean McCarthy is no longer head baseball coach at Clinton High School. As has been widely anticipated, Peyton Spangler is head baseball coach of the Red Devils. He is known …
Furmanology: Compare and contrast …
By MONTE DUTTON Mike Bothwell, triumphant (Elena Davidson photo) Click here. I see lots of celebrations. The baseball ones, I think, are the best and most dangerous, albeit no precincts report these days at Furman. Basketball players are prone to exult in somewhat smaller groups. A single pair of eyes cannot capture the scene fully. …
County Signs: The sporting life and the real one
By MONTE DUTTON A Wilder Stadium Friday night (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Sports ain’t real, man. It’s better than real life. Most of my life has been devoted to it. I’ve relished that it’s not real. It’s microcosmic, perhaps in too many ways. I fear it’s becoming macrocosmic. True Grit isn’t a real depiction …
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Odds are trouble’s on the way
By MONTE DUTTON (Furman photo) Click here. We’ll all know that gambling –oh, I’m sorry, it’s not gambling, it’s merely gaming – has completely taken over when folks can put money on the outcome of a Trump trial. Maybe even a parlay. Gambling is one of many areas of life that seems to be relentlessly …
Holiday observations and recollections
By MONTE DUTTON Laurens catcher Bennett Edwards during the national anthem (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Baseball had quite a run in Laurens County, and it’s weird to write that before it’s June, but I’ve got to acclimate myself to the rest of it because mostly I’ve been paying attention to the Blue Hose, Raiders …
County Signs: Raiders spring forward, Hose fall back
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. At the end of Laurens’ spring football game on Thursday evening, head coach Greg Porter took microphone in hand to thank the attendees for being at K.C. Hanna Stadium. It was rather hot and airless, and the baseball team had fallen in the state finals the night …
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State title eludes Raiders, 10-7
By MONTE DUTTON Tori Patterson watches Coleman Coker uncork. (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. One of my favorite characters, the late Jim Beauchamp, used to welcome in the writers and sometimes say, “Boys, sometimes you’ve just got to tip your cap to the opposition.” Then “Beech” would remove the Greenville Braves cap, with its logo …
Nightrider's Lament 