FanSpeak

Congratulations, All-Stars

NICE WORK picking the All-Star team. Baseball may not have had quite the banner year locally as it's had at times in the past, but our teams still produced some very good players this year. Congratulations to them all.

Start with the starters

I'VE BEEN watching the Cardinals' pitching. They say they need to work on relief pitching, but I think they need to worry about their starters. They have one starter who can win, and that's Williams.

Bad time for football

I AM speaking to the football coaches at Central High School. This week you are having football camp for boys who are going to be playing junior varsity, varsity, and junior high football next year. You showed a remarkable lack of foresight. You have your camp every night from 6 to 8, and then you complain because some of the boys aren't there. If you would think about it, your boys are playing rec baseball, Babe Ruth baseball, junior Legion, and senior Legion. You are interfering with all kinds of summer activities. Some of these boys also have jobs. Use some sense in your scheduling, and maybe you wouldn't have these problems.

A geography lesson

CONCERNING THE All-Star baseball teams picked by the Southeast Missourian, the Missourian goes on to say that only the teams from the newspaper coverage area are considered. Why is Perryville listed as being in the coverage area but not Sikeston when Sikeston is actually closer to Cape than Perryville?

That makes perfect sense in theory, but we focus our coverage on areas in which we have the most readers. Our distribution is greater in Perryville than in Sikeston. That marketing plan also applies to the comment below, which pertains to an athlete from the Bootheel.

... more geography

IT'S TRULY amazing that a player from Southeast Missouri who was all-state in baseball, was a very good player on the SMS Bears and was drafted by the Diamondbacks is hardly mentioned in your sports coverage. I read your articles daily on the Web site, and it just amazes me that if you're not from the Sikeston or Cape area your talent is not recognized. If he ever makes it to the majors, it would be fitting that he turn down any interview offers from your sports writers.

Not Kerry-ing his weight

I HAVE watched and followed the Cardinals all year, and my only complaint about the Cardinals is Kerry Robinson. He has made numerous errors out in the field. His batting percentage is below .200. What in the world is he doing in the professional league? We need to get rid of him. Wake up, Cardinals, that's your only weak point. We've got tremendous hitting and tremendous fielding as long as we get Kerry Robinson out of the ballpark. Send him back down to the minors.

Nice Graviett story

THE ARTICLE on Trey Graviett was very good. The description was great, and you did a excellent job. You made Trey look and sound good, and I'm sure he earned every bit of it.