Some ramblings from an old guy

When pro baseball returned to Greenville
Thirty-five years ago today, minor-league baseball returned to Greenville after an 11-year absence when the Greenville Braves beat the Chattanooga Lookouts, 4-2, in a Southern League game at brand-new Greenville Municipal Stadium.

Greenville had been without a pro team since Meadowbrook Park burned on Valentine's Day, 1972, and the team moved to Orangeburg after that season. (Yes, they played the 1972 season in a burnt-out ballpark, but that's a long story for another day).

Marty Clary, who I know was still living in the Upstate as recently as a couple of years ago, was the winning pitcher for the G-Braves. I believe he was the only G-Brave in the lineup that night to make it to the majors.

I was privileged to be the Greenville Piedmont's (and later Greenville News) beat writer for the G-Braves for several years and got to interview many of the players who became instrumental in the Atlanta Braves' success in later years: Tom Glavine, Andruw Jones, David Justice, Chipper Jones, Ryan Klesko, Mark Lemke and Javy Lopez were a few of them.

The only time I saw Michael Jordan play in person was when he was a baseball player. Ditto Bo Jackson. Jose Canseco, Randy Johnson and Mark McGwire were just a few of the players who came through on visiting teams.

I got to interview some heroes of my childhood, including Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews. Other Hall-of-Famers like Luke Appling and Willie Stargell came through as instructors.

As a slow, fat, unathletic kid growing up in Travelers Rest whose only baseball skill was finding night games on distant radio stations, I never could have dreamed what was in my future.

To steal/adapt a line from my friend Andy Solomon, It was a great few years to be me.

Sheppard, opposing coach for USC's first CWS game, dies
I learned Tuesday night that former Seton Hall coach Mike Sheppard died earlier this month. Sheppard's club was the opponent for South Carolina in the first game of its first trip to the College World Series in 1975.

The Gamecocks won that game, 3-1, and eventually lost to Texas in the national championship game. That trip to Omaha still ranks as the favorite event I covered during my 40 years as a sportswriter.

One of Sheppard's players on that team was Ed Blankmeyer, who married Sheppard's daughter and has had a successful stint as head coach at St. John's.

Speaking of St. John's, the Red Storm  have been to the NCAA Baseball Tournament 37 times (11 under Blankmeyer) and to the CWS six times.  Their first trip to the College World Series was in 1949. The coach of that team was Frank McGuire, who you may have heard of because of his stints as basketball coach at St. John's, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Oh, McGuire also coached the NBA Philadelphia Warriors one season. It was the year Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game and scored 100 points in one game.