By MONTE DUTTON
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. Can you imagine that today?
The sound of a wooden bat striking a home run is sublime, as smooth in its way as Ray Price’s voice.
Perhaps those who have never known batting without alloys have developed a similar fondness for the plink, the clink and the occasional kerplink.
In an unrelated (even to sports) matter, things I’ve learned from an addiction to old movies:
Drivers once got in on the passenger’s side and slid across the bench seats.
Movies shot on a set have clanky doors.
Spiral staircases have disappeared without a trace.
A favorite movie line: “That Barney Rubble. What an actor.”
In Knoxville, after a couple Tennessee bombs, the P.A. played the original Osborne Brothers version of “Rocky Top,” and the Volunteer faithful got into it, really and truly dancing in the aisles. The fans from Evansville, Ind., must’ve thought, What have we got ourselves into?
Florida State pummeled – I would be stereotyping if I wrote “scalped” – Connecticut, 24-4. Perhaps I could write that the Seminoles mushed the Huskies. This saddened me a bit because I think UConn Huskies is a great nickname. And I like underdogs, which means I’m saddened a lot.
Lots of fine baseball teams – Clemson, LSU, East Carolina, Kansas State, Evansville, High Point – wear purple.
I know one that doesn’t even play the sport.
Good Lord. The West Virginia lefty, Derek Clark, is going out for the ninth. He’s already thrown 133 pitches. Who’s he think he is? Warren Spahn?
Uh, no. The first Tar Heel batter tied the game with a blast.
And North Carolina wound up winning, 8-6, on a homer off the next guy.
The Golden Strip Post 271 American Legion baseball team is laden with Laurens Raiders. Unsurprisingly, it is 2-0 after two victories over Easley Post 52. Laurens (25-7) defeated Easley for the Class 4A Upstate high school title a few weeks back.
In an 18-4 victory, Owen Pridgen (4/4), Bennett Edwards (3/3), Hunter Nabors (2/4) and Asher Goss (3/5), Caleb Coker (2/4) and Ben Willis (1/4), Raiders all, combined for 15 of Golden Strip’s 21 hits, highlighted by doubles from Edwards and Nabors. Goss, Edwards and Pridgen each stole two bases.
Also 2-0 is Chapin-Newberry Post 193/24, which defeated Winnsboro Post 16 in its first two games.
In a 3-2 victory on Thursday, Brett Young, from Clinton, walked, stole a base and scored a run in a game in which both teams managed only two hits apiece.
Charlie McDaniel, Jack Gorman, Kyle Mueller, Fenix DiGiacomo and Joel Dragoo all represented Presbyterian College on the all-district academic team selected by College Sports Communicators.
Each of the quintet put up at least a 3.57 grade-point average, led by Mueller’s 3.84 in business management.
Joshua Pooler is now an assistant coach in both PC’s women’s and men’s soccer programs, joining Matt Smith with the women and Nick Finotti with the men.
The Middleboro, Mass., product comes to Clinton from Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit.
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Blue, Green, Purple & Red 