The Keenan McCardell situation is a classic example of what's wrong with sports. McCardell says "I just want to be treated fairly." The Bucs took a chance on him when they signed him, and his agent obviously didn't think he was worth more money than he's being paid. So now he wants more because he's playing better. Then I say the Bucs need to ask the players that didn't live up to their worth to pay for Keenan's increase. Maybe Mike Alstott will chip in some since he didn't play a full season. Or doesn't it work the other way?
>-- Eric Howe, Largo
I am convinced Keenan McCardell makes a very good case. He has proven that athletes should be required to stay in school until they graduate, no matter how many years that may take, so that they are capable of reading, and they understand the word "contract." Did the company he worked for give him a paycheck based on what was agreed? Did he cash the check? Did he or his agent screw up and not put in the performance incentives?
Of course, we all know that Keenan would have taken a pay cut if he had not performed well.
Sure he would.
-- Terry Tucker, Palm Harbor
The East is a beast
What jumped out at me when I saw the American League East standings from May 20 (before the Devil Rays' 12-game winning streak) and June 20 (after the streak) side by side - after winning 22 of 28 games, the Rays picked up only 21/2 games on the division leader. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but geez, the AL East is tough.
-- Ernest Lane, Trinity
A great adventure
I read with interest Terry Tomalin's series Paddling through the past. I had an experience with a Honduran cayuga. In the fall of 1958 I found what I was told was a dugout canoe from Honduras in the back yard of a home on Platt Street in Tampa. I talked two friends into paddling the canoe from Hillsborough River State Park to Beer Can Beach on Davis Islands. We got my father (a carpenter) to attach an outrigger on the canoe so it wouldn't turn over and came down the river during the Christmas school holiday before we graduated in spring 1959.
It was a fun trip even when we arrived at the dam at Rowlett Park and had to call one of our mothers to bring a boat trailer so we could get around the dam. The last night we spent in a laundromat at the River and 40th Street. I am glad to see that young men still have the spirit of adventure.
-- Robert M. Hough, Tampa
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