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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Letters To The Editor

Baseball strike hits fringe people

Let me start by saying, I have driven across the state many times to watch Ken Griffey Jr. and the Mariners play ball in the Dome. But I can’t support his stance on House Bill 1838 because of the affects it will have on the people around the fringes of major-league baseball.

I have little sympathy for either side in the baseball strike. It’s hard to feel sorry for players making more money in a year than I may make in a lifetime, no matter what their gripe. But it’s equally hard to sympathize with someone who is rich enough to lose much much more in a year and still want to own a team.

My sympathy is with the little people on the fringes of the quarrel. Those hurt most are the concession people, ticket-takers and parking-lot attendants. If games are played with replacement players (I will not call them scabs), I will go to games as often as I would have gone had they been regular big-leaguers. You see they are also on the fringes of this quarrel. But they have a chance, small as it is, to shine, to be in the spotlight, to be on the big diamond. Many of them work five days a week driving trucks, painting houses or whatever. The thought of a washed-up minor-leaguer going 4-for-4 or hitting the big homer or turning the double play or getting 12 K’s in a game is exciting because that guy’s skills, his game and his life are not quite so far removed from mine.

It’s all about the long shot, the underdog thing, the little guy getting his shot. I’ll always pull for the “replacement players.” I’ll come and cheer you on. Emery Wold Spokane

20-0 Cheney girls deserve headline

Last Friday (Feb. 17), Cheney High School played the second-place Pullman Greyhounds (in Frontier League girls basketball). They beat Pullman 64-24 to make the Blackhawks’ record 20-0.

The Blackhawks have not been beaten and you put some other school on the front page. Cheney High School Hawks deserved the front page of the sports section. They deserved it, because they worked very hard to keep that record.

You put a team on the front page that doesn’t have a record as good as Cheney’s. So please, let’s recognize those ladies for working so hard and give them the credit they deserve.

P.S. The Cheney High School team is the only girls team that is unbeaten in the AA division. Jessica Lasley Cheney