The Buck Stops Here

In the early 1960s, there was a fateful baseball game in Jacksonville, FL. A teenage Ronnie Van Zandt hit a line drive at an infielder named Bob Burns. Before he could get his glove up, the ball smacked Burns in the shoulder and fell to the ground.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Rated: ‘TV-MA’ for violence, language and disturbing content

It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since we said goodbye to the 1990s.  Musically, it was the decade that made rock music relevant again, introducing grunge and bringing in a resurgence of punk music.  In those pre-mp3 days, music stores still sold CDs and the album was considered an art form.

I’ll never forget the first pay-per-view (PPV)  fight I ever saw.

The last college baseball dynasty was LSU, which won four national titles between 1993-2000.

Since that time, the team that came closest to building a dynasty was Ray Tanner’s USC Gamecocks, who played in three straight championships (winning 2) before Tanner left his post to become USC’s Athletic Director.

When I was in my ‘20s, it was a dream of mine to one day own a little record store. I would play my favorite records all day and debate other rock geeks about which albums and artists were best.

To me, Sunday was the darkest day in my 17 years of being a Gamecock.  

You might scoff at that remark.  You may bring up Brad Scott’s 1-10 campaign in 1998 or Lou Holt’s winless season the following year. And there’s no question the 63-17 drubbing at the hands of our in-state rival a dozen years ago was a jagged pill to swallow.  

When people talk about who invented heavy metal, they talk about three British bands – Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.  The first of these was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame two decades ago, the second in 2006.  It is one of rock history’s great travesties that Deep Purple still remains on the outside of the hall looki