ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 8, 1996 TAG: 9609090112
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C9 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
I am writing as a baseball fan and in reference to Jack Bogaczyk's column (Sept. 1, ``Another lost year in Salem'').
My feelings are opposite, but understanding of Bogaczyk's comments. I am not aware of the local politics of baseball among [Dave] Oster and [Sam] Lazzaro and [Dennis] Robarge. I believe whomever is responsible puts a pretty good program together for the local fans.
``The Avalanche's second-half record will be worse than all but one of the franchise's previous 16 consecutive sub-.500 halves,'' but I don't believe the kind of program that an expansion team of only four years has can compare with one of the Pirates, Yankees or Cardinals, which have been in existence over 75 years. Baseball takes years to make - or these days to buy - a winner. The job the Colorado Rockies have done is truly incredible over the last four years on and off the playing field.
At the beginning of the year when I heard that Todd Helton and Derrick Gibson, two of the most promising prospects in the organization, would not be coming to Salem, I was disappointed we would not be able to see such great young talent and blamed it on a young organization rushing players through the system. Look at our own Jamey Wright, a year removed from Salem and starting in Denver. (I feel Doug Million will be there with him next spring.) Trying to develop a young pitching staff has been the young Rockies' organizational strategy; hitting they have purchased. The other side of the coin is the Braves' Andruw Jones, who I saw play in Salem as late as May, I now see playing in Atlanta. So much for my theory of minor-league development, when the strongest club in baseball takes a player through three classes in three months.
My greatest thanks goes to an organization that brought major-league stars Eric Young, David Nied, Larry Walker and Bill Swift to our area for local fans to appreciate. If Salem was not the first-class organization that it is, we would not have had the pleasure to see this kind of talent. My hat's off to this organization and the great job they have done.
SAMMY MOORE
Lexington
Welsh TV show will be missed
I was very disappointed to learn the George Welsh TV show will not be shown in the Roanoke area this year. I have watched that show religiously for years, taping every show, which I find makes a great reference for players and games. Also, I am a fan of George Welsh. He doesn't say much , but what he says is usually worth listening to.
I was looking forward to seeing the new host, Mac McDonald, since I could never really warm up to Steve Melewski. The Welsh show was my only way to get a glimpse of the non-televised games. I guess there is some consolation in the fact that UVa will have nine of its games televised this year.
I don't understand the financial workings of these things, but it seems the Welsh show had plenty of big-time sponsors, like Exxon, Nationwide Insurance, S&K Menswear, even Coca-Cola. How can they not make money with sponsors like that? Maybe some adjustments can be made. I have cable TV, but don't get HTS on Bedford Telemedia.
DAVID J. RHYMES
Vinton
Jackson belongs to all fishermen
Reading Bill Cochran's outdoors column on Sunday, Aug.25, concerning Trout Unlimited's request to limit the Jackson River below Gathright Dam to fly fishing only, I flashed back to a recent occurrence.
As I drove along Giles County's Big Stoney Creek, I passed alluring sections of the stocked stream. It was late summer, the creek was clear and the water level low. I was headed for a stream with a steady cool flow and an abundance of fish. The Jackson River was my destination. Fishing the Jackson on a hot, sweaty, buggy 90-degree day or a near-zero, line-freezing, finger-numbing day has always been pleasurable.
But, alas, if a self-centered group of fishermen has its way, those pleasurable days may end for me. Why me? Because I am one of those lowly bait fishermen?
It's strange. The lowly bait fishermen provide the lion's share of moneys through license purchases for trout stocking, but the self-centered group who provide little license moneys demand the blue-ribbon stream be theirs and theirs alone.
The Jackson provides a perfect environment for teaching the skills of trout fishing in general. It would be difficult to teach a 9-year-old with a Dollar General Store fishing pole to cast a No.28 midge fly. The Game and Inland Fisheries Commission must ponder long and hard before eliminating the Jackson - or any other blue-ribbon stream - from 9- to 90-year-old kids with their Snoopy poles and youthful grins.
MIKE DEHART
Pembroke
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Roanoke, Va. 24010
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