"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. 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 Zane McLendon (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. There’s some place I’d rather be. A ballpark. The plan was to get the taxes done – I wait till the last minute every year, dang me – in time to make a ballgame. I missed it. I would have had to go unshaved and …
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 …
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. A high-school baseball game can be a many splendored experience. I saw a no-hitter, an inspirational one, twirled by Laurens’ Asher Goss on Wednesday night. That’s just part of the pleasure, though. I sat for a while with a lifelong acquaintance who played for the Raiders at …
Continue reading County Signs: Nothing beats fun at the ballpark
By MONTE DUTTON (Furman photo) Click here. The only time I ever went to Augusta National was when I was barely out of Furman. I wrote columns on Saturday and Sunday, and, man, am I confident they were horrible. I enjoyed it, but I think, even at the time, I thought once was enough. Never …
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. In advance of Friday night’s spring scrimmage, things are looking up for Presbyterian College football in Steve Englehart’s third season as head coach. It’s a big sky. The Blue Hose went 1-10 amid the wreckage left in the wake of Kevin Kelley’s only season as head coach. …
Continue reading Blue Hose Blurbs: PC to play 12 football games
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Young men wouldn’t play football if it wasn’t fun. The most fun is winning. At the same time, a losing season, while unthinkable, can be beneficial. Dick Sheridan, who died last summer, coached the Paladins for eight seasons, accumulating a record of 69 victories, 23 defeats and …
Joel Dragoo (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. On Tuesday night, I was busily going through all the high-school results, monitoring Clinton High, Laurens and Thornwell Charter. Laurens Academy wasn’t playing, but I saw the baseball team at Dempsey’s Pizza. Friday figures to be busy. PC is playing baseball and the spring football scrimmage at the …
Nightrider's Lament 