FanSpeak 8/8/04

Where were the stats?

I KNOW I'm a little late in asking this, but I hope you can print an answer to this anyway. Several weeks ago, the paper published All-Southeast Missourian high school baseball team. In your article, statistics were shown for each one of the players who made the team, but some players' statistics were missing. Could you explain to me why?

(Attempts were made to contact all the coaches for the statistical information, but not all of those attempts were successful.)

Tough schedule? Ha!

I KNOW it is the job of a coach to talk up the team and schedule before the season starts, but how could Southeast basketball coach Gary Garner say one of the weakest schedules the school has ever put together "just might be the toughest in school history?" I count four non-Division I teams -- Rockhurst, South Dakota State, Central Methodist and Lincoln -- scheduled in the regular season, not exhibitions. The only large program played is St. Louis University, which is a weak member of a dying conference. There is a difference between optimistic team promotion and flat-out lying.

(South Dakota State is in its first year as a Division I program.)

It's a Red Hawks world

HATS OFF to Marty Mishow. His columns about the Southeast Missouri State University "Indians" must have some "tongue in cheek" flavor to them. This will be the last year of the SEMO Indians. Let us do a complete sweep. Let us eliminate the name for Capaha Par, and the Capahas baseball team and replace the name with the revered "Red Hawks." The Red Hawks baseball team will play in Red Hawks Park, near the Red Hawks lagoon, which is dangerous without a fence around it. Let us rename the city of Jackson, named after President Jackson, and then rename the sports teams in Jackson. And the world shall live happily ever after.

We stand corrected

THE NAME of the tournament in which the Capahas played in Evansville, Ind., was called the United States Baseball Congress Semi-Pro World Series.

(The Southeast Missourian incorrectly referred to the tournament's sanctioning body as the American Baseball Congress. We regret the error.)