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Tommy Williams tags a runner during a recent practice sessii missed the entire 1979 camf. Come! for Lan By Bruce Ritchie Ct.l! UUri*.. Baseball's "agony of defeat" ... that's one experience that USC's Tommy Williams and Bill Landrum can tell you they don't need to live twice. Both players will return to the Gamecocks' starting lineup after missing last season with injuries. They can tell you how it feels to have high hopes for a season and of the frustration felt when watching their team play from the stands. For Landrum and Williams, the 1979 season did not leave a,1 treasure of fond memories to tell the grandchildren. ' Tho nm I r p/ian/\r? 111 " >I1V Iivn ocaouil 3UUJI Will UC underway and both players will attempt to make comebacks.' Williams, who starts at second base, has shown much of the skill, and leadership he possessed a year ago. Likewise, Landrum has stepped in as the number-one pitcher for the talented 1980 squad. THE COMEBACK road isn't an easy one. Often doubts and | frustration enter the mind of the^ injured player as Williams explained. "The first night after I got operated on," he recalled, "all I could do was lay there in the hncnitol * U:?1- ? 4 nv/o pnui ik/vu auu timiiv dUUUl things. I didn't know if it would be worth it to come back and try to play again, but here I am." Williams, a junior, suffered torn ligaments in his leg during the fifth game of the 1979 season. The Richmond, Va., native held a starting position on the team before he was taken to the hospital for treatment. The accident occurred only weeks after a shoulder operation sidelined Williams for the rest of the season. Hampered by a heavy cast, Williams was tinahlf* to u/nrlf nut nt all during the spring. Over the, summer, however, he stayed in Columbia and strengthened himself on the weight machines at Williams-Brice Stadium. "I mostly had to work on getting some of the flexibility back," he said. "I had to do a lot of loosening up." WHILE SIDELINED, Williams said that he tried to stay out of the way of the coaches and players. "They would come to the hospital some, or maybe I would sit down in the dugout with them. They had an a?A ^ A _ ? 1 il uupiM utiu season 10 piay, mougfi, and it was important that they finished it." "The coaches said I could come back," he added. "But they knew it was a personal thing and that it is / up to the individual to want to come back." For Bill Landrum, missing the 1979 season meant that his last. " " ~ r'v">- Vmil out at second injured knee, in. "Termite" strength for thi laign with an back trail idrum, W year of eligibility would be delayed. "I was disappointed not to play," he said. 'We had a senior ballclub last year, and I thought last year was going to be THE year. We had 13 seniors on the team, and I wanted to be on the field with them." Landrum suffered a chipped and dislocated knee before the team's first game. The right-hander, who graduated from Columbia's Spring Valley High School, said that he was disappointed not to be able to pitch in Carolina's opener, but f 1 1 1 V ? ^ nROLINA WC Free Pregnancy Testing Abortion Counseling and Pregnancy can be detect Birth Control Counseling Pap Test and other Fema kAn I I. rk ( zuus nampton 5> Call Collect ? * fc??M??i wwasa I VOV W ( 1Q5DIW In. f. COMIN' WGDN fl)rfY NIG RGGITFGMT < JHUi MDIC IHrtPPY HOI ; MIGHT ton ;:x:^ Dave Roback - GAMECOCK but is expected to be at full 3 coming season. tough illiams added that he never gave up hope of coming back. "Coach Raines would take me to his side and tell j me to work on it (the knee injury) over the summer and that there would be a place for me to play next year. Coach Raines was very good for my morale." AS THE 1979 SEASON I progressed, Landrum said that he and Williams tried to support their team. "Me and 'Termite'.. fWillinmc^ vimnlH cit nt th#? { See L and rum, page 17. 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