Fan Speak 8/5/07

Happy to host Bard

To the Editor:

I was born in Cape Girardeau and grew up in Olive Branch, Ill.

I now life in Fairbanks, Alaska, with my wife, Deana, and our two children, Kayla and Jake.

For the past three years, our family has hosted baseball players coming to Fairbanks to play for the Alaska Goldpanners. It has been fun for us and our kids to meet some great ballplayers and have them become part of our family for a little while.

I was looking over the Goldpanners roster prior to the season and I saw that Sean Bard was going to be in Fairbanks this summer. We didn't know Sean but after having mostly California kids staying with us, I thought it would nice to have someone from home this year. I was also pretty excited that he was a Cardinals fan, since there aren't too many of us up here.

The summer baseball season has gone by pretty quickly up here, and Sean went home this week. I can't begin to tell you how much we have enjoyed having him around.

We have been around several college ballplayers over the last few years, but none like Sean. Our family is really going to miss him. Sean is an outstanding representative for Cape Girardeau, and Cape should be proud of Sean.

MARK BROWNING

Fairbanks, Alaska