Kingsport Times-News from Kingsport, Tennessee • 8

25" i- rr-a-iiT -y ti i yJ jj-T tfiHiniyiwiyiirnTi-ry- F-- A Mi' -4 8A Kingsport Times-News Thursday December 20 1990 I)avil Rau Publisher Ted Como Managing Editor Keith 'Wilson Advertising Director- Kelly Hubbard Circulation Director MC Adams Production Manager Paul Wallen Advertising Manager Phone: 246-8121 Opinion like to see the Mets stay in town Letters to the editor trative assistant of minor leagues for the New York Mets Mr Phillips could not answer any questions submitted to him by the Booster Club Mr Phillips said he would report his findings to the Mets and would reply to the Booster Club their decision At the present time we have not been given any answers Area baseball fans surely are more interested in keeping the Mets in Kingsport than the whys and wherefores of a dispute be- tween the Kingsport Baseball Boosters Club and the farm organization As a result of the dispute the booster club voted to withdraw support from the Mets next season Applachian League directors then voted to field the team elsewhere All is not lost Steve Phillips administrative assistant of minor league operations says the team will stay if differences can be resolved Otherwise the' Mets have an offer to locate at Danville Va in less attractive facilities The booster club has worked for many years on behalf of the team and is miffed about the firing of local general manager Dottie Elsea also club president The club also claims the Mets want authority over concessions arid souvenir and seasori ticket sales not forget that the Mets playing ball in Kingsport just to keep kids off the streets The team operation is a business And like it or not and personalities aside the issues in dispute essentiually are business decisions Whether those decisions are subject to negotiation would seem the prerogative of the Mets organization The booster club may feel it is being pushed aside And maybe it is Maybe too the Mets already have made the decision to pull out Boosters explain We the members of the Kingsport Baseball Boosters Inc would like to state the facts concerning the article written in the Kingsport Times-News on Dec 14 1990 We would like to clear the air about the article It insinuated that the Booster Club is a villain trying to rid Kingsport of a baseball elub The Kingsport Baseball Booster Club a non-profit organization has been working to keep professional baseball in Kingsport for over 40 years We still want baseball in Kingsport but not on a profit basis as the New York Mets would prefer It was stated in the Times-News that the boosters voted unanimously to not support the-Mets if they tried to come back to Kingsport We the members of the Booster Club did vote to not support the Mets for the following reasons: 1 The Mets wanted to run the club as a profit-making venture by not selling season tickets which keeps the price of admission affordable 2 The Mets wanted to operate the concession stand and the souvenir stand for profit 3 Our president and general manager Dottie Elsea was fired by the director of minor leagues Jerry Hunsicker and as of today has not been given a reason for her dismissal Dottie has filled this office for the past six years and has a good working relationship with the Mets We leel there was no hostility shown toward Steve Phillips adminis- Aceording to Bill Halstead president of Appalachian League the Minor League directors did vote 5-4 to field the Mets team in Princeton WVa which leads us to believe they want to come back to Kingsport Danville Va was also a proposed site for the Mets With these two prospective sites not available at this time Kingsport is the only alternative and we realize we have the best location in the league We would like to thank the many fans merchants and organizations that have faithfully supported the Baseball Booster Club in Kingsport We do not want to be excluded from baseball and we will do our best under the present circumstances to continue our support of baseball in Kingsport Charles Swayze Kingsport keep Mets We don't want to lose professional baseball in Kingsport It would be a big step backward for all of this area Thanks to Appalachian League president Bill Halstead who has asked the Mets to give Kingsport another chance Home Delivery 246-8129 of Kingsport If the case Phillips ought to say so Kingsport after all has been good for and to the Mets and deserves an opportunity to stay in the game But every effort must be made to continue association with the team including eliminating the middle man if necessary The Mets have a product to sell and the city has a vested economic interest in buying it HIDDEN MESSAGE? The tobacco industry has launched a program which it says will discourage children from taking up cigarette smoking The industry campaign supports state laws limiting cigarette sales to minors and new limitations on billboard advertising near schools The tobacco industry campaign is as far as it goes a worthy effort to prevent American youth from picking up a hazardous habit that can lead to death But one has to question the motives when an organization works against its own interests Congress and state legislatures should not let the tobacco industry campaign sway them from passage of legislation that would further protect the health and lives of millions of Americans hooked on smoking Smoking is a serious health hazard and governmental bodies have the responsibility to take all reasonable steps to protect citizens from such hazards paste it right on the front page in a matter of seconds also already written the headlines and had them made up We can paste them down right away too and be on the streets with a special edition be fore the Banner-Herald knows what hit them" I knew he would show me the headlines He did eight-column 124-point head Lewis Grizzard The said: Underneath the photo of Christ there was a small headline that said PAGE Other newspaper editors sit around and ponder series on China suburban sewage problems the environment large cracks in the earth needed changes in the tax codes and the coming crisis someplace in Chad which you thought was a folk singer Not Glenn Vaughn Every newspaper presented him an opportu -nity for adventure One day he said to need to do something for April Day" So he dispatched Larry Young and a photographer to Pete Dickens Lake west of Athens Pete Dickens had one of those lakes where you could pay a dollar or so and catch all the cattish you could haul out Glenn's idea wafor Larry to catch a catfish out of Pete Dickens Lake put on it a pair of false teeth then have a picture taken Larry put the false teeth in the catfish's mouth and the photographer took a picture We ran the picture of the fish on the front page of the paper the next morning with a story by Wade Saye that began: from all over the Southeast were astounded to learn that a catfish out of Pete Dickens Lake west of Athens was wearing a pair of false The fish captured Athens' imagination A week after the April 1 catfish story ran Glenn put the photograph back on Page One with a headline that said "APRIL FOOL ATHENS!" Lewis Grizzard is a columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitu tion Coming Daily News style A time for family regardless tntiir Come on city officials Mets Booster Club baseball fans and everyone that is interested in progress Help keep the Mets in Kingsport Robert Wininger Gate City Va Need controls Manor Drive has just been opened from Manor Court to Tilthammer Drive After the construction work near the circle is completed sure it will help the traffic situation But in the meantime we need some traffic controls before someone gets hurt or killed We need a stop or yield sign at the intersection of Manor Court and Manor Drive As of this letter we have neither From Tilthammer Drive (north end of Manor) to Riverport Road cars trucks trailers and tractor-trailers are being parked on both sides of the street Some of the trailers are parked for a day or two I believe there is adequate off-street parking for these vehicles at the various buildings along this street Many times in the early mornings and late afternoons you must stop your vehicle and wait for an oncoming vehicle to clear the area before you can get past the parked vehicles This situation will not get any better in fact it will get worse Once the construction work at the circle is finished more traffic will be diverted to Manor Drive If parking on Manor Drive cannot be eliminated it should be limited to only one side of the street WT Bales Kingsport discussed them with a friend wife is the my friend wisely noted she is OK everything will be Luckily my wife is indeed OK She shows no peevishness petulance or jealousy Instead she has lots of love for everyone and shows it In short a model stepmother 5 Yet Christmas time can be particularly stressful for stepmothers of any sort but especially for the storybook type A stepmother sees her husband spending time with his children born of another woman and sometimes looking the spitting image of her At Christmas time particularly a earned money (and sometimes hers too) spent on presents for his children and perhaps not ejiough left to buy what she has her heart set on Nevertheless if stepmothers be charitable toward the children at least at Christmas they ought to do it for the men married Peace and good will toward men no doubt have a special meaning for fathers caught between families New wives can control the peace and good will One of my divorced friends in Nashville is once again in the midst of planning the Christmas homecoming of her children their spouses and the grandchildren Also coming from Memphis to join them is her father She admits every additional body to bed and mouth to feed makes a difference and that it will be close quarters in her condo and inconvenient cooking in a small kitchen But she says be a shame for him to miss out on the family Christmas not to see the For sure it is a shame when parents let their animosities separate families regardless of the present configurations Especially at Christmas Nellie McNeil of Kingsport is an English teacher at Dobyns-Bennett High School and East Tennessee State University EDITOR'S NOTE: Lewis Grizzard has become a Southern institution with his books and columns in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution But before he wrote a column he was sports editor of the Athens Daily News while studying journalism at the University of Georgia and executive sports editor of The Atlanta Journal at age 23 This is the second of a six-part adaptation from his latest book "If I Ever Get Back to Georgia I'm Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground" Today he writes of his baptism by fire at the wacky Athens Daily News (Continued from Tuesday) editor Glenn Vaughn began be the biggest local story we could ever have at the Daily News?" I thought for a minute university burning down" than that" winning the national football championship" bigger than that What he pounded bis fist into his palm ever harder Second Coming took place in Athens?" I -have time to answer got -to happen somewhere it? A lot of people might think it would happen in New York or some other large city but why not a small Nothing I had learned in the odist Church had indicated where Jesus might touch down on that Great Morning If had been asked to guess though I really have selected Athens New York sure Start with the big sinners and work on down I knew Glenn had a reason to be asking me all this He did case the Second Coming did happen in he continued got to be ready for Right We certainly would want to beat the competing Banner-Herald Glenn said already drawn up the front He showed me that layout Across the top of the page was an eight-column 124-point headline The higher the point size the larger the headline The New York Times even today rarely goes over say a 48-point headline even when a president dies Most of the rest of the front page was taken up by a large photograph that went nearly to the bottom just a head shot but we can Families being as they now are yours mine ours and other configurations also do not play by the same old rules Time was that divorce was rare and in such rare instances one or the other usually left town never to be heard of again Not any more Last July when I visited my son in Berlin he outlined his ideas for his trip home in September He wanted to go to New York Atlanta Kingsport Hilton Head and Gatlinburg Then he said want us all to spend a weekend together in By us all he meant his sisters and their families his father his father's wife and me Granted we all have been together on a number of oeca sions at graduations the weddings and the birthings When Caro- me was the Jiomecoming queen at Tu-lane we all even flew the family plan to New Orleans But together for a whole weekend was another matter Nevertheless we did it and it wasn't bad at all In fact when saying goodbye we all agreed that it had been the thing to do For those two days sat around and talked a lot We talked about the present-world events such as German reunification and the Mid-East crisis and close at hand the autumn weather hunting and fishing and the Vols We talked about the future getting together again We left the past alone When the fog lifted over the Smokies we hiked a little We took the children trout fishing in the Pigeon River We picnicked under the turning leaves We Ve together not the old recipes that had bound us at meal times but scallops corned beef on rye and cheese cake Yet these new foods nourished us and were satisfying Then at the end of the weekend we departed in tears I was weeping that the rarity of adult children far-flung being together was ending for the old disappointments and for the things that might have been At the same time the tears were of joy Now at this season of Christmas many families of similar configurations will also be coming together' Joint custody comes into full play at Christmas Divorced parents of the same offspring who may successfully avoid each other all year long find that Christmas frequently puts them in touch Not just at Christmas but at all times essential that these divorced parents treat each other with respect Because a child is a product of both parents his self-esteem is intricately bound to both for one parent to vent frus-trationsrcalLnames spealrsarcastical7-ly or berate the other in any way is to do the same to the child No doubt this might take some dissembling but just one more thing among the many that a parent does for his children And especially important at Christmas a time of love more at this season also a time for togetherness both parents should encourage their visits with each other and majee them easy One of my students told me about driving to Chicago with her sister brother and baby to spend Thanksgiving with their father Many years had passed since last seen him This student was astonished that her father was so happy to see them just hugged and hugged she said And he put the baby down Then when they left said is just a She finished her story by saying that for the rest of her life remember this special weekend Children regardless of age need to know that both parents love them Hugs as my student experienced measured in self-esteem are invaluable to healthy development Before our family weekend in the Smokies I had had some anxieties and.