By MONTE DUTTON
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 grew up rooting for the Boston Red Sox, which meant learning how to spell Yastrzemski, Conigliaro, Garciaparra and Bogaerts. And Mientkiewicz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Saltalamacchia, Benintendi and Uehara for a while.
I’d rather watch a game on TV at Fenway than attend a game live at many parks. They all have something to love, though. What rises at most new parks is prices.
I’ve been to a lot of ballparks: old and new Comiskey in Chicago, Candlestick and AT&T, Oakland-Alameda, Atlanta-Fulton and Turner, Memorial and Camden Yards in Baltimore, Three Rivers and Heinz in Pittsburgh, Municipal and Jacobs in Cleveland, Tiger and Comerica in Detroit, and Veterans and Citizens Bank in Philadelphia. Plus Dodger in L.A., Angel in Anaheim, Kauffman in K.C., previous Busch in Saint Louis, County in Milwaukee, Riverfront in Cincinnati, middle Yankee and Shea in New York, RFK in Washington and minor-league yards too numerous to mention or remember.
My favorite minor-league park is Victory Field in Indianapolis.
A game in Nationals Park was rained out. If it had been played, I would have seen Randy Johnson’s 300th victory. I was back home when he did it. I’ve never seen a major-league no-hitter in person. I saw Oakland’s Terrance Long hit for the cycle in San Francisco. Detroit’s Lou Whitaker batted in the ninth at Fenway, needing a single for the cycle. He messed up and doubled.
The only time I caught a ball was a Jody Davis home run in Wrigley Field. It wasn’t much of a catch. The ball landed behind me. Fans started clawing at each other, and it dropped into my hands.
The strangest tactical decision was in Atlanta, where Cubs manager Don Zimmer sent Rick Reuschel to bat in the fourth inning. Reuschel singled, and Zimmer pinch-ran for him. None of the fans sitting around me seemed to notice the oddity.
I was there when Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run. Three years earlier, I watched the Giants play the Braves with both Aaron and Willie Mays playing first base. Mays hit a home run in the first major-league game I ever attended.
My least favorite Red Sox was Jose Offerman, whom I called “Awfulman.” My favorite Yankee was either Bobby Murcer or Hideki Matsui.
The NASCAR schedule was conducive to side trips.
Closer to home …
Once upon a time, the Big South baseball game played Friday evening at Elton Pollock Field would have been called “a ding-dong battle.”
Presbyterian and USC Upstate swapped the lead five times, and the Blue Hose won, 10-9, with three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
The Blue Hose (21-21, 11-5) and Spartans (27-15, 12-4) combined for 19 runs, 23 hits, four doubles, five homers, three errors, three sacrifices, three stolen bases, 10 walks, a wild pitch and a passed ball.
The most important number may have runners left on base. The Spartans left 10 of them loitering, the Blue Hose only three.
As of Friday night, Upstate leads the conference at 12-4, High Point is 11-4, PC is 11-5 and Charleston Southern is 9-6. The top four make the Big South Championship Tournament, May 23-25. Still in the hunt is UNC Asheville at 7-9.
“I’m so proud of our guys and their efforts on both sides of the ball. It was a true back-and-forth battle versus a very good baseball team. Our guys were relentless tonight and played with energy from start to finish,” stated Pollock on behalf of his team and field.
Center fielder Joel Dragoo launched a first-inning shot beyond left field, and believe it or not, that 1-0 edge lasted until the top of the fourth, when Upstate scored three runs.
Then PC scored five runs in the fifth. And the Spartans tallied one in the fifth, three in the seventh and two in the eighth. They weren’t enough.
It was 9-7, Upstate, when Noah Lebron singled, as did Jake Randolph (his fourth hit). Evan Cuervo walked to load the bases. Lebron scored on Jackson Hugus’s groundout.
Jay Wetherington drove in the tying and go-ahead runs.
Kyle Mueller (W, 2-3), closed it out to complete his 2-1/3-inning stint. He followed Daniel Eagen and Tanner Smith to the hill.
Randolph laced a pair of doubles to boost his 4/4 night. Dragoo hit his 12th homer. Hugus’s sixth-inning bomb was his third.
The Upstate starting pitcher, Noah Sullivan and third baseman Vance Sheehan each put up three hits. Koby Kropf and David Pereira rapped two. Jace Rinehart, Kropf and Pereira homered.
Jake Cubbler (3-1) took the loss.
The Blue Hose face the Spartans again Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2.
Take a look at the box here.
After Wednesday evening’s match at home against Winthrop, both lacrosse teams are 2-13 overall and 1-6 In the Big South Conference.
The Blue Hose started slowly, came back to lead by three and wound up falling to the Eagles, 11-9, at Bailey Memorial Stadium.
In its next-to-last match, PC ran out of gas after scoring eight of 10 goals in a span of the 6:06 mark of the first quarter and 5:25 mark of the third.
So there’s that.
The Blue Hose close out with a 1 p.m. visit to Wofford on Saturday.
Opposing keepers of PC’s Naomi Lauderbaugh and Winthrop’s Emma Calhoun were the respective defensive MVP’s, both recording nine saves as PC compiled a 27-24 edge in shot attempts.
Men’s golfers Jimmy McCollum, Jack Wofford and Lleyton Renner are on the All-Big South team in men’s golf.
McCollum is Scholar-Athlete of the Year and All-Academic. Wofford is Second Team selection. Renner, for the second straight year, is Honorable Mention.
McCollum, from Greer, has a 3.82 GPA with a major in biochemistry and a minor in mathematics. He is a two-time GCAA Scholar-All-American and a four-time member of the Big South Presidential Honor Roll.
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