No salary cap makes tickets very expensive

No salary cap makestickets very expensive
Fanfare:
Recently, Bud Selig said that soon six-to-eight major league teams will go under if they don't start making more money. Do we really care?
With no salary cap and not enough talent to fill too many teams, it's no wonder baseball is in so much trouble. Look how the rich "Yuppie" season ticket holders have suddenly decided that our struggling Indians aren't worth going to see anymore. An average area family can't afford to go see them without taking out a second mortgage!
Now the all powerful baseball players union is talking about an August strike. This coming event was one of the reasons my man Mark McGwire retired quietly last year. Go for it boys because who really cares!
KEITH HIPPLE
Youngstown
City of Girard neglectsthe girls softball field
Fanfare:
Not only is March 21 the first day of spring, but also every girl knows it is almost time for softball to begin. Softball used to be something I looked forward to after every winter but it became monotonous after having games canceled more often year after year due to the lack of care Stambaugh Field received.
Stambaugh Field was donated to Girard in 1960, which makes it even more of a dishonor that the city will not keep up the maintenance.
It is hard to put into words how I feel about the way Girard City has neglected the girls softball field. The infield is overwhelmingly taken over by weeds making it unsuitable for practice and absolutely impossible for a game.
After getting over the shock of the infield, I began noticing other aspects of Stambaugh Field that makes me sick to my stomach. The dugouts are humiliating to any team that has to use it. The roof looks as though someone took scrap metal and threw it on top. There are holes and cracks, and not one piece matches to making the roof uneven.
There is grass in the dugouts as well as an old, rusted and bent in fence. The fence along the outside of the entire field is falling apart and is a serious accident waiting to happen. Sometimes there is a portable restroom behind center field, but it is usually tipped over. Although the girls are supplied with a small utility box, the lock was not locked.
This field disgraces the City of Girard and is an embarrassment to players, coaches, and citizens when other communities come to Stambaugh field to play.
I took a trip to the other side of Girard to have a look at the boys fields. First of all, the city provides the boys with three fields that are almost as nice as Jacobs Field. All the boys fields come complete with brand new fences with black tubing on the top to prevent injuries, backstops in perfect condition, working scoreboards, lights for night games, fresh cut grass for every game, a flawless infield that is always lined, dugouts with perfect roofs, a concession stand equipped with a men's and women's restrooms.
The girls have to take turns between older league, younger league, junior varsity and high school, playing on a single field that is in poor condition while the boys share three fields.
Who has the right to say the boys deserve better playing fields than the girls?
I am not asking to have three fields like the boys have, nor am I asking for something I will never get like fields that even look as nice as the boys fields. All I want is the same care on the girls field that the boys are receiving on their fields. I wish the citizens of Girard and the media would visit these fields and see the disgrace for yourselves.
LISA SCHMALZRIED
Girard