Happy Thanksgiving

For the first Thanksgiving since college I'm - technically - unemployed. I accepted a buyout from Gannett, The Greenville News' parent company, in April and will still be receiving a severance check for a few more months.

I'm not old enough to draw social security yet so I'm looking for ways to make enough income to pay my health insurance premiums. I haven't filled out job applications in four decades and would have a paper-thin job history on a resume: one company, 40 years.

My desire is that someone comes along and offers me tons of money to write about sports. My expectation is that's not going to happen, so you may find me in some unexpected locations if I ever find gainful employment.

The uncertainty is no fun, but I'd be crazy to think I don't have innumerable blessings for which to be thankful this year.

Please indulge me; I hope it doesn't cause you to lose your turkey. You'd better get another slice of pumpkin (or pecan or sweet potato) pie. It's a long one.

* I'm thankful for having what most sports fans would call a dream job. I got paid to watch sporting events and write about what I saw.

I met many legends of sports. Hank Aaron, Wayne Gretzky, Willie Mays, Pele and Norm Van Brocklin are just a few who come to mind.

I got to see Adrian Dantley, Alex English, Dan Marino, Clyde Mayes, George Rogers and Herschel Walker in their prime as collegians.

I got to see Tom Glavine, Randy Johnson, Chipper Jones and Alex Rodriguez when they were trying to reach the majors.

I got to see Michael Jordan try to hit a curveball. I got to sit in the press box at Greenville Municipal Stadium and share a bag of peanuts with Hall of Famer Willie Stargell - then a Braves scout. I got to see Kevin Garnett when he was a lanky high-school junior.

I got to write stories with datelines like Atlanta, Birmingham, Charlotte, College Station, Cullowhee, Fayetteville, Knoxville, Louisville, Lubbock, Memphis, Norman, Omaha, Orlando, Pocatello, South Bend, Starkville, Tallahassee and Tuscaloosa.

I've also written stories from Abbeville, Anderson, Blackville, Charleston, Clinton, Conway, Gaffney, Orangeburg, Rock Hill, Spartanburg, Sumter, Swansea, Union and many points in between across the state.

* I'm thankful I got to meet many of the greats of sportswriting, starting with Greenville's own Dan Foster. Dan was friends with the national names. I remember lurking on the edge of a conversation in a press box one day when Atlanta writing legend Furman Bisher turned to me and asked "And you are ... ?" For that moment, I was relevant enough to have a sportswriting legend ask who I was.

* I'm thankful I got to meet some of the legendary names of the sports information business: Bob Bradley at Clemson and Tom Price at USC. I was a press-box runner for Tom one year as a student at USC. Charlie Dayton went on from SID at Furman to become one of the best on the NFL level in Atlanta and Charlotte.

Folks like Tim Bourret at Clemson, Claude Felton at Georgia and Hunter Reid at Furman continue to provide royal treatment to the fourth estate. Andrew Kitick at USC surprised me by getting Gamecocks baseball coach Ray Tanner to present me with an autographed baseball after my last "official" event for The News.

* I'm thankful I got to meet some of broadcasting's greats of my day. I grew up listening to Milo Hamilton call Chicago White Sox games on the radio in the 1960s. It was a treat to interview him when he was in Greenville to do a DePaul-Furman basketball game on WGN in the 1970s. Amazingly, I retired before he did. He finally hung it up after working for the Houston Astros this past season. I got to shake hands with Lindsey Nelson. I provided halftime stats to Dick Enberg during a TVS (remember that network?) broadcast of a South Carolina-Marquette game during the 1971-72 season. I was on a first-name basis with USC's Bob Fulton and Clemson's Jim Phillips. I talked to Chip Caray when he was broadcasting minor league baseball for Orlando.

* I'm thankful to have been around so many coaches who impacted so many young athletes: Pinky Babb, Cally Gault, Louie Golden, Willie Jeffries, Whitie Kendall, Jack Leggett, Frank McGuire, Keith Richardson, Les Robinson, Ray Tanner, W.L. Varner and Bill Wilhelm are just a handful.

* I'm thankful I worked with a bunch of great guys. I never had a serious desire to leave Greenville for a bigger newspaper. Having grown up reading Dan Foster and Jim Anderson write about Clemson, Furman and USC, to a kid who grew up in Travelers Rest Greenville was the big-time.

* I'm thankful for writer Bobby Horne, who may have saved my journalism career. My first assignment as an intern at The News in 1972 was to interview pro golfer Bobby Mitchell at the Lan-Yair Celebrity Pro-Am in Spartanburg. I made the mistake of asking questions that could be answered with "yes" or "no." Bobby Horne took the time to tutor me on how to craft questions that required more than one-word answers.

Henry Freeman, who later left Greenville to work on the startup of USA TODAY, helped me learn the day-to-day workings of a sports department.

* I'm thankful I got to work with Reese Fant, perhaps the wittiest person I ever met. I recall Reese sitting behind the home bench at a TR High basketball game when I was towel boy as a junior or senior. I'd already set my sights on being a sportswriter and asked him how he got in the business. He responded he had been working elsewhere when his wife was "suddenly taken pregnant" and he needed more income.

Former co-workers have gone on to work in places like Atlanta, Charlotte, Cleveland, Milwaukee, St. Petersburg and Phoenix.

At least five former co-workers entered some sort of ministry, prompting one executive to ask (paraphrased) "What are we running back there, a damned seminary?"

* I'm thankful some of my best friends - Scott Keeler, Scott Keepfer, Chris McMahon, Jim Rice and Willie T. Smith III among them - never moved on. Working nights and weekends - usually in the office instead of at a game - was made more bearable by the camaraderie.

* I'm thankful I always had bosses who were tolerant of my quirks. I didn't mind speaking my opinion, but it never cost me my job.

* I'm thankful I got to cover the Bronze Derby football game between Newberry and Presbyterian. For years, the rivals played on Thanksgiving Day. My most vivid memory is of Clayton Johnson - already knowing he was out as Newberry coach - donning the hat after an unexpected victory in the 1987 meeting.

* I'm thankful I got to see Clemson, Furman and USC win national championships, even if only the Furman experience was actually on the company's dime.

My Clemson experience was via TV. I remember seeing Bob Bradley being the first person to enter the Clemson locker room after the Orange Bowl win over Nebraska as live cameras rolled. Mr. B. walked over to a water fountain and got a drink of water as calmly as if Clemson won national championships ever day.

Furman's 1988 I-AA title was a special moment. In 1985, I had been drafted into covering Clemson basketball against Texas Tech in Lubbock because the football team was playing in the Independence Bowl at the same time. Sitting in my motel room I watched Furman jump to a big lead over Georgia Southern in the first half of the I-AA finals and decided I'd go see the bright lights of Lubbock while I had the chance (I still haven't had a second chance). Imagine my surprise at the arena when Tim Bourret asked "Furman lost, 44-42, right?"

My first trip to the College World Series came in 1975, when Bobby Richardson took the Gamecocks there and they lost to Texas in the championship game. It was the favorite sporting event I ever covered and I told myself I'd go out there again if I ever got a chance. With the planned closing of Rosenblatt Stadium in 2010 I decided to ask for vacation those weeks in case the trip worked out. It did, and USC won the first of back-to-back national titles. I went back on short notice in 2011 and returned in 2012 to provide some freelancer work for papers in Florida and South Carolina. If you ever get a chance to go to the College World Series, GO!!

* I'm thankful I got a chance to cover the 1977 NCAA Championship Game in men's basketball in Atlanta. That was when Marquette beat North Carolina. You've perhaps seen the footage of Al McGuire putting his face in his hands in the closing seconds as he realized what was transpiring. I got to see it in person, even if my press credential said "KERRY CATPS." Kerry Capps, now of the Orange and White, was still at The News then and covered the semifinals. I got his credential for the final. I don't know how the snafu on the last name occurred.

* I'm thankful for my wife of 38+ years, who has put up with a lot of idiocy and selfishness from me. She also was the foundation of me staying on a diet - for the most part - for the last 14 months to enable me to lose 90 pounds. There are only so many ways you can dress up 2 ounces of fish or chicken or a half-cup of steamed vegetables. She's a keeper.

* I'm thankful for my son of 35 years, who has never done anything to make me embarrassed.

* I'm thankful my son and his beautiful wife presented us with a granddaughter back in April. If losing all that weight allows me to be around to enjoy her for a few more years, the missed calories will be worth it.

* I'm thankful for my mother-in-law, who has lived with us the last 10 years or so. I've got no issues with her living with us. She and her husband let a pair of newlyweds park a mobile home in their yard - rent-free - for six years. She's hit a rough patch the last couple of months but my wife is faithfully standing by her as she goes through rehab en route to getting back home. Retirement facilities depress the heck out of me, so I don't go see her as much as I should. My loving wife knows that and gave me a pass on going down there for Thanksgiving Lunch today. So, I had a turkey sandwich sitting in front of the computer.

* I'm thankful I had parents for the first 48+ years of my life, and when The Lord saw fit to call them home he did it five days apart - without my mom (the "sick one") knowing my dad had gone before her. This is my 12th Thanksgiving without them and I still miss the spread she put out. My granddaughter was born on Warren Spahn's birthday. My dad's favorite baseball player was Warren Spahn. Coincidence? I don't think so.

* I'm thankful my brother and I get along. We probably haven't had an argument since I was a pre-teen and that surely was over something insignificant. I hear way too many stories of siblings and/or parents/children feuding. Life is too short for that.

* I'm thankful I've had good relatives and in-laws across the board. I've never been denied something when I asked them. I hope they feel the same way about me.

* I'm thankful I've been able to renew friendships with former high school classmates through Facebook, reunions and other avenues. I'm especially humbled that one of them has turned to me as he seeks a new challenge in his life. His confidence that I can help leaves me speechless.

* I'm thankful God sent his son, Jesus, to save me. I wasn't worth saving and I fail him every day, but he still died so I wouldn't face eternal damnation.

* I'm thankful I belong to a loving, caring church. The congregation at Reedy River Baptist Church is small by some standards, but the people follow the example set by our pastor, the Rev. David Simmons, and love one another. Our church averages around 150 or so in Sunday morning attendance but we recently put together more than 200 shoeboxes for Franklin Graham's Operation Christmas Child program. Visitors should never feel like visitors at Reedy River. You can click on a link to our church at the right of this page if you're looking for a church home.

* I'm thankful I've had a chance to do this blog for the last few years. I was never any good at athletics. Baseball may have been my worst sport, but I've always loved it and relish every chance to go to a game.

* I'm thankful for you readers who drop in on this site regularly. I don't get to provide as much original content as I would like. I hope circumstances give me a chance to change that in the future.

* If you've read this all the way through you deserve a medal - or at least an 'attaboy.' I'm thankful you found this interesting enough - or you were so bored - to make it all the way until the end.

Rejoice: We're barely two months from the start of college baseball season!