Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 27, 1990 TAG: 9004260333
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Ray Cox
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Boooo!
Basically, the town doesn't deserve the team. It doesn't support the ball club worth a hoot at the gate then scuttles the Braves' attempts to make a few bucks on beer sales by forbidding them to do so.
The town council, which voted unanimously last month to plug the tap on suds sales, is being short-sighted and foolish. Apparently, predictions of dire consequences from brew sipping have been making the rounds among the town fathers and mothers.
Question: Just how many $1.75 10-ounce cups of beer can all but the John Kluge's of the world afford? Answer: Not many. Besides, there never would have been unrestrained sales anyway. Question: Why has not the fabric of such strait-laced burgs as Salem, Martinsville and Richmond - beer and baseball towns all - not been torn asunder? Answer: It ain't going to happen.
Roanoke Times & World-News sportswriter Bob Teitlebaum, who covered the Salem Carolina League ball club for the first nine years that beer was available at Salem Municipal Field, said that he saw somebody drunk there maybe once or twice.
Those individuals were ejected faster than somebody riding shotgun in James Bond's car.
"And I don't know that they weren't already drunk when they got there," he said. "Beer has always been very well-controlled there."
Beer isn't the real issue in Pulaski, though. Non-support is. The Braves had a team in there last year that was the runner-up in the Appalachian League and an average of about 350 fans per night attended Calfee Park games, the lowest total for any short-season club in organized baseball.
A couple of years ago, the best pitching prospect in baseball - Steve Avery - drew a $750-per-month paycheck from the Braves to mow down enemy batters. Few bothered to stop by and spend a couple of bucks to watch a potential Hall of Famer work.
Things happen quickly in baseball. Just ask the good people of Wytheville, who did a heck of a lot more than Pulaskians to keep baseball around only to have the Cubs dump them like a bad habit last year.
Wytheville would love to have another team. So would Marion. So would other towns.
The Braves say they're staying put, even though the town has dragged its municipal feet on signing a new lease for Calfee Park since last fall.
The Braves say they love Pulaski. They say Calfee is as nice a baseball facility as there is in the league. They say they'll be here this summer, next summer and probably many more summers to come.
Evidently, the Braves' patience is as strong as Avery's left arm.
Mine wouldn't be.
\ Fleet-footed Pam Lemons of Floyd County, the defending Group A champion in the 100 and 200 meters, has accepted a scholarship offer from the University of Virginia.
"I just love it up there," she said. "They've been so nice to me. I want to go to medical school and study to be a pediatrician, and Virginia has a great, great medical program."
Another factor in her decision was that she was assured she'd be able to concentrate on the 100.
"That's my favorite event," she said.
\ Shawsville's baseball team flattened school records in last week's game with Bland faster than your typical pro knocks down tenpins during a day on the PBA tour. Shawnees' coach Billy Wells and his boys must have been real tickled.
Hardly.
"It was an experience I don't want to go through again," said Wells after Shawsville demolished the fizzling Rockets 49-3.
From the start, it was clear this was no contest. Regardless of appearances, the winners weren't trying to rub anything in.
"You would have had to have been there to see that we weren't trying to roll up the score on them," Wells said. "We had JV players Jason Booth, Jason Spangler and J.J. Hubbard dressed and all of them had five at bats each. We only had 12 players, so it was obvious that I couldn't substitute for all my players. But I did take my best players out."
What are you going to do with 29 walks and 11 errors?
"It wasn't like we were getting base hit after base hit [although they did have 23 of those]. Most times, it was four pitches, throw the bat down and head for first base."
Most of Bland's players have never before played organized baseball. A slice of baseball life for one of them: pitcher Ricky Meadows' line after the first inning was 28 batters faced, 24 runs, 11 walks and 102 pitches.
Shawsville leadoff man Mark Sisson batted four times in the first inning alone.
For the 4 1/2-inning game - over 2 1/2 hours passed before the Mountain Empire District 10-run slaughter rule could be invoked - six players scored five or more runs. In 60 plate appearances, Shawsville batters reached safety 50 times.
"What am I supposed to do, tell a JV kid who doesn't get to play much to go up there and strike out?" Wells said. "If I had to do it over again, I would. But I'd hate to be the kid who I told that to."
Words of pity for Bland came from throughout the league.
"I've been on the short end of some of those double-digit losses," Narrows coach Rick Franklin said. "They are very demoralizing."
\ One of the story threads for Christiansburg as it steams toward another New River District title is the work of Darren Graham.
Graham, a senior right-hander and a career bullpen guy, has been converted to a starter with spectacular results.
He's gone 3-0 with a 0.95 earned run average and has struck out 39 batters in 22 innings. Toss in the Timesland-leading three triples he's legged out and you might say the guy's having a pretty good year.
by CNB