Devil Rays deserve our support, not negative coverage
Letters to the EditorPublished March 12, 2005
Re: The Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
The season isn't even open yet, but it seems to be open season on the Devil Rays already at the St. Petersburg Times. They haven't even officially lost a game but you seem to have given up on the season, owners, players, coaches, stadium and the franchise. I can't remember such front-page, large-scale, repetitive, negative coverage on any subject in your paper in recent history. I happen to be a Rays fan. Yes, there are Rays fans. Every year I attend about 20 games with friends and family and have owned and shared season tickets. People who attend games regularly root strongly for their Rays, enjoy the games in air-conditioned, weather-proof comfort, and have seen many positive changes. The most obvious is the team spirit of young and enthusiastic players with a never-say-die attitude.
It seems to me your biggest complaint is that they haven't been to the playoffs or won the World Series, yet you say it's the fans who are fickle and impatient. I remember just a few seasons ago when tickets for the Bucs and Lightning couldn't be given away.
If I were Lou Piniella or a member of the team, I would post your articles on the clubhouse wall for continued incentive to win and prove you wrong. When things click and the Rays make the playoffs with a combination of a nucleus of maturing young players and good, but not superstar veterans, I hope they are still here in St. Petersburg. They are a real positive in our community. Hope springs eternal this time of year, and everyone is still tied for first place.
I'll be there Opening Day to see the start of the new season, wish the Rays luck, and support the team, win or lose. Ultimately, of course, the best way to shut up the critics, prove all the so-called experts wrong, and reward your true fans at the same time is "Win baby, just win!"
-- Richard E. Sumner, St. Petersburg
The Rays are getting better
Re: Rays need a winning formula, editorial, March 9.
While the Rays did attempt a shortcut to winning in the past with their "Hit Show" disaster that broke the bank and put them in hock, I believe they have righted the ship and currently have a winning formula in developing young talent. But this formula takes time as the talent has to mature to a major league caliber.
Also, the Rays are not the exception, but the rule that new franchises have losing seasons. Your own Sunday article displayed a chart that shows all new franchises except one (Arizona), have had losing records after seven years with some worse than the Rays.
The important thing is the Rays are getting better, with 2004 being their best season ever. As the young minor league talent continues to join the Rays, they will become more competitive, and eventually become a winning franchise.
Let's not forget that the '69 Mets, in their eighth year of existance, had seven losing seasons under their belts, and went from worst to first, winning their division, the pennant and the World Series. They did it on young, talented pitching, superior defense, and timely hitting, phrases that are often used to describe the '05 Devil Rays.
-- Frank M. Lupo, St. Petersburg
It's about more than winning
Boy what a wonderful article, right before the start of the season! The Times performed a great character assassination of the Rays managing general partner, too.
Haven't you people ever heard of the phrase "It's not winning or losing but how you play the game?" Why is our culture so obsessed with winning? Someone has to lose, folks, we can't all be winners all the time.
I grew up in Atlanta in the '80s before the overly hyped, overly commercialized Turner field. We went to Fulton County Stadium, a lovely old venue with vendors wandering through the bleachers singing their wares, "Las' call for alcohol ya'll" and "Get your peanuts, cotton candy" in wonderful baritones.
Once, in the last innings of a fan appreciation game, my sisters and I sneaked down to some seats right above the Braves dugout (there were quite a few vacant seats in those days and the ushers weren't policing them). One of our many baseball heroes of that time, Bruce Benedict, the catcher, threw us a ball. It was one the most exciting days of my life up to then.
Those were the days, man.
I went to the new stadium once. It was more like a cross between a mall and a Wet Willie's. I remember when the Braves first started winning, all of a sudden the kids I knew at my college started brandishing tomahawks and singing the Braves "war chant." Prior to that I had never heard anyone talk of them or baseball or tomahawks. They are what I call "fair weather fans," and we don't need ya. To all the true baseball fans, I'll see you at the stadium.
-- Beth Crosa, St. Petersburg
Location is a loser
After having gone to several baseball games at Tropicana Field with my children, I'll tell you why we don't go to more games: location, location, location.
It takes us at least an hour to get there from the Brandon area. One of my children really enjoys attending games, but with the drive it makes it impossible to enjoy the games and expect them to be able to function in school the next day.
It isn't about whether the Rays win or lose - it is a great experience either way. But the location is what keeps us, and many we know, home for the game.
-- David Meyer, Valrico
Ready to enjoy the season
Having read Part 1 of your four-part series on the Devil Rays, I have elected put off hanging myself in the garage until I have read the other three parts.
Notwithstanding your cheerless opener, and as a first-time Rays season ticket holder, I look forward to the season. At 60, I have the time, resources and good fortune to attend many games this year. I will enjoy America's pastime, continue reading Baseball for Brainsurgeons and Other Fans, eat my hot dog, listen to the radio simulcast and immerse my mind in baseball trivia just for the fun of it.
Vince Naimoli and 2006 will be the last things on my mind. Go, Rays!
-- Gary Harrington, St. Petersburg
Education should be a priority
In the Sunday edition of the St. Petersburg Times, the headline read: What went wrong? in great big letters. Off to the side, in much smaller print it said: Schools still rank near the bottom. I believe what really went wrong is the media's take on social justice. The real tragedy is that the main headline doesn't speak of Florida's failure in the education and welfare of our most precious asset: our children.
Granted, sports and other forms of spectator entertainment are important to a great number of people. However, I think that education should be everyone's priority. The less money we spend on schools is more money we spend on welfare and prisons. It's sad when the rest of the country averages $6,122 more in wages for teachers. No wonder all the good ones are leaving.
Higher standards, more rigorous testing, and school vouchers aren't the answer. The answer is for Tallahassee to take up some accountability and spend the hard-earned money of its taxpayers, to do something beneficial for the people of Florida. What a great day it will be when schools have all the money they need, and the Department of Corrections has to have a bake sale to buy cable TV for its inmates.
-- Jeremy Duff, Gulfport
For better learning, address poverty
Re: Schools still rank near the bottom.
As a teacher in Florida, working in a Title 1 school, I believe it's not the just the level of education dollars spent, but the whole spending package that keeps us in the lower ranks. Poverty at home can't be fixed with education dollars. And children won't meet Gov. Jeb Bush's developmentally inappropriate standards until their real problems are addressed. These are children with rotten teeth, poor nutrition and a chaotic home life caused by mental and physical health issues that are not being addressed, lack of job training and/or employment opportunities, little or no public transportation, substandard housing that should be condemned, exposure to environmental toxins (and the list goes on and on). Families in poverty have so little significant support that they are doomed to failure.
The school system is not a social services agency. But we know that impoverished families with few feasible options produce impoverished children with far more important needs that have to be met before they can learn and grow. Our state rates lower than other states because we choose not to tackle the tough issues of poverty in any serious or meaningful way. Analyze the failing schools, with the lowest rates of success, and I am sure poverty will be a major contributing factor.
-- Brenda Barnard, Tampa
Our students deserve better
Re: Schools still rank near the bottom.
Well, here we go again. Another year, another legislative session in which Gov. Jeb Bush talks the talk by saying he wants to increase the education budget by 5 percent, but then refuses to walk the walk by recommending an increase in the number of vouchers for students to attend private schools if they are not succeeding according to FCAT standards. This is interesting because apparently funds are available to educate these children in private settings but not in the public sector, with Florida ranked among the bottom states in regard to educational funding.
Gov. Bush often talks about his education-friendly policies, but the bottom line is Pinellas County and most other school districts in the state have dealt with decreased operating budgets annually. This is due to increased educational requirements with no provision for adequate funding. For me, this translates to a classroom budget of $110 to supply everything I needed to teach my 130-plus middle school students this school year.
I have a great idea for increasing educational spending money. Let's throw away all the practice FCAT tests that we do over and over, ad nauseam, with our students. We could then use the money it costs to produce and print these books to increase our per-pupil spending. We could also return to teaching children to think critically and to develop positive community relationships instead of teaching strategies for taking the FCAT to the point where we beat any possible joy of learning out of the kids. Our students deserve better.
-- Cathie Chapman, Clearwater
The children can't wait
Re: Voucher plan can wait, editorial, March 7.
The St. Petersburg Times editorial board calls on Gov. Jeb Bush to not offer vouchers to children who have spent three years in public schools without learning to read. It is shameful advice that I believe the governor will reject and ignore, as he surely should. Here is why you are so wrong:
No children's schools should be chosen by public authorities when we can empower their parents to make that important choice.
No children should be made to spend a single day in a school where they are not learning, if it is within reasonable means to offer an alternative.
No children should be made to stay in schools that other children are leaving or would never be allowed to enter, simply because their parents cannot afford that choice. This is the fundamental injustice that vouchers overcome. It is the injustice that the Times not only refuses to acknowledge, but disgracefully calls upon the governor to preserve.
You assert that "vouchers can wait." The issue is whether the children can wait. The answer is: "No." Thank goodness we have a governor who sees that.
-- Patrick Heffernan, Floridians for School Choice, Miami Shores
An inspiring story
Re: "Before I go, I need the people in my life to know they meant something to me. I want to thank them. To say goodbye," March 8.
So often when a friend or loved one is diagnosed with a terminal illness, our first response is denial. This denial helps protect us from the inevitable, but it does not always allow us to say what we would want or need to say to that person before they are gone.
Having been a hospice nurse for nearly 10 years, I have heard time and time again: "I wish I could be at my funeral to hear what everyone would say about me, not to mention what I would say to them." The story of Maureen Brainard is truly one of inspiration and strength in the face of adversity.
I hope we can all learn a bit from her story and maybe even take the lessons learned from her testimony and use them in the present rather than later. Take time to tell those in your life, "I love you, I thank you, I forgive you. Please forgive me." It is healing and makes the world a better and safer place.
Thanks to Maureen for her bravery and strength.
-- Sherry Coval, St. Petersburg
A reminder to treasure life
Kudos to Lane DeGregory for the wonderful story on Maureen Brainard. Though it was a two-Kleenex read, it was also a powerful reminder to live life each day, to treasure and celebrate all that we are and all that we have. And to always tell those around us what they mean to our lives.
-- Lois Vickland, St. Pete Beach
How to get tax forms simplified
There is a way to get our federal tax forms for the individual taxpayer simplified, and do it within one year. All members of Congress and all people in management levels within the IRS should be required to complete their personal taxes without any assistance whatsoever. Each one of these people should be required to sit down with a) their personal records, b) the federal tax form for individual taxpayers, c) a pencil, and d) absolutely nothing else. (Well, maybe a pencil sharpener, but no more than one pencil.)
Each one of these individuals should be forbidden from requesting or accepting assistance from professionals, from family members, from computers, or even from calculators. Our federal tax forms would be vastly simplified by April 15 of next year.
-- Bryan Kelly, Safety Harbor
Presidential preferences
Re: Passing FCAT, perhaps, but failing our history tests, by Martin Dyckman, Feb. 27.
I agree with Martin Dyckman's assessment that recent American presidents are not among our greatest, despite the fact that two recent polls show the American public thinking otherwise. One of these polls put Ronald Reagan at the top of the heap while both polls found Bill Clinton, JFK, and George W. Bush better presidents than George Washington.
Dyckman rightly finds this ridiculous. But I have to disagree with his claim that "Among people who actually know and care about history, there have been three truly great American presidents: Washington, who was the commanding presence at the creation; Lincoln, who saved the union; and Roosevelt, who saved it again."
One's ranking of presidents must necessarily reflect one's political prejudices. In Dyckman's case it appears he favors a strong centralized government. My prejudices run the other way and therefore I would rate these three presidents very near the bottom of my list. Washington oversaw the establishment of the new centralized American state. As Dyckman correctly observes, without him "it is doubtful that the Constitution would have been ratified." Lincoln presided over the greatest increase in governmental powers since the Revolution, ignoring the rights of habeas corpus and other such niceties to achieve his aims. FDR's New Deal took ideas from the communist and fascist ideologies then rampant in Europe and transformed them into an American variant all his own.
Thomas Jefferson (whom Dyckman dismisses as a "hyperromantic Francophile") would head my list of greatest presidents. Jefferson was not only a great president, he was a great man. I share his belief that "that government is best which governs least." That idea appears to have been discarded in the dust bin of history. It seems vain to hope to ever have a president again who shares this ideal. Oh, for another "Silent Cal" Coolidge who not only said little, but did even less!
-- Kenneth Knudson, St. Petersburg
Stop sale of Tasers to the public
Re: Taser sales to public worry officers, March 5.
The sale of Tasers to the general public should worry more than police officers. We citizens must call our congressional representatives and instruct them to stop the sales at once! With the exception of law enforcement personnel, why would anyone without a sinister motive want to carry a weapon that delivers 50,000 volts of electricity? Now, with no training or concealed weapons permit required, thieves, terrorists, rapists, kidnappers and the road enraged will have a way to incapacitate and injure their victims. The manufacturer envisions "a huge potential market."
Only the quick passage of a law can stop this from becoming a weapon to terrorize the innocent. Contact your congressmen/senators now!
-- Virginia LaBrant, Largo