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Show Cooniinrit s Free Press Wednesday, April 3, 1996 Who will win the Weenie of the Week? Editorial Let's work to bring baseball to Utah Valley Bring the Boys of Summer to Utah County. Valley residents can take an active role in bringing baseball a little closer to home by supporting the proposal to place a Class A Minor League baseball team in Provo. The team is a natural extension of the growth and growing community pride in the Utah County community. It would be a unifying force, a rallying point for the disparate elements of our diverse communities. And it would be a lot of fun. Provo is seeking an affiliation with the Pioneer League, and would be the second Pioneer League team " in Utah setting up a natural with the Ogden rivalry Raptors. The team would play at a proposed $6 million Nu Skin Field at Timp Park in Provo. Team supporters hope to have the stadium ready for the team to begin play in the 1997 season. But they still have one major obstacle to overcome. A recent change in the rules of the National Association of Professional Baseball, which governs minor league baseball in the USA, has created a territory issue. Rules designed to prevent ball clubs from being placed too close together would put the new Utah County team inside the area that can be claimed by the Triple AAA Salt Lake Buzz. While the Provo team would be well away from the boundary established by the governing body. But a change in the rules last November added a provi "cross-town- 35-mi- le sion that gives Buzz owner Joe Buzas rights to all counties adjacent to Salt Lake County as well. And Buzas is pressing his right on the theory that he can sell more at Franklin Quest Field if Utah County residents don't have their own minor league team to support. Those territorial restrictions may work in some states, but they are far too restrictive for Utah, where the state's population is largely settled along the Wasatch Front and where the adjacent county rule give Buzas territorial rights to most of Utah's most populous states. Owners of the proposed Provo team are seeking a waiver from the president of the National Association of Professional Baseball, hoping he will recognize that Utah's unique geography requires a unique soluhot-do- tion. Local residents can help by writing Mr. Michael Moore, President, National Association of Professional Baseball, 201 Bayshore Drive Southeast, St. Petersburg, Fla., 33701 and asking him to grant the waiver so Utah County can have its own baseball team. Team owners are sponsoring other events to get county residents involved in the new team. A contest to name the team is currently underway. More activities will be coming. A lot will happen between now and the day the first ball is thrown for Provo's Class A Minor League team. Get involved. Let's bring professional baseball to Utah County. The real boys of summer It must finally be spring, every park that I passed this weekend was filled to capacity with baseball players. The little pee wees look so cute out there wearing hats that are two or three sizes larger than their heads, usually pulled down far enough to make their ears stick out, lugging around bats that seem bigger than their bodies and trying to make more skilled athletic movements with arms and legs that have barely perfected walking. How adorable. Just driving past, the scene really does seem idyllic. Like the old cliche', what is more American than baseball? But, I have spent enough time in ball parks to throw a few splashes of reality into the picture. Lets not leave out the hysterical parent, clinging to the chain link fence behind the batters box screaming at their kid, screaming at the coaches, the ump and the quite often screaming at the other parents. Add no less than three coaches per team, many of whom seem to be under the illusion that they are on their way to the world series and national recognition, if only they can whip these 6 year olds into shape. After all of this, take a closer look at the pee wee himself, under the red snowcone moustache and the oversized hat, you will likely see stress and tension. Okay, I do realize that this is pee wee baseball and the coaches can't all be expected to have degrees in sports psychology, or even in a related field. But, I don't think it is outrageous to expect someone to notice that there are a lot more important things taking place at this point than baseball. these Beyond developing motor-skillkids should be increasing their It is as important, for and continued development, that young athletes not be labeled by their coaches and their teammates as it is for young students to avoid being labeled by teachers. s, self-estee- Brynn's Beat By BRYNN BECK For a child who is attempting to find his niche in life, it is sad to think that at 6 he or will conclude that he is a bench-sittethe one that always strikes out. The psychology behind this is simple: accentuate the positive, minimize the negative. (I don't have a degree in sports psychology either. I figured this out myself.) Many coaches and parents wrongly assume that children who participate in sports thrive on winning. This must be where this win at all cost attitude comes from. However, studies show that children are happier about the outcome of an event if they can leave feeling that they personally made progress, that they learned something. Believe it or not, winning is secondary. So, there really is no need for all of this screaming, from the coaches, or the parcoaches that realents. As a matter-of-fac- t, ly know how to motivate kids, teach their pee wees how to cope with stress; they don't create it for them. Besides, mental and emotional control are as important to an athlete as physical control. Yes, it is easy to get caught up in the competitive atmosphere at any sporting event. But, if you catch yourself yelling at your child, or a member of your team for a mistake they made on the playing field, you might want to stop and ask yourself if you have ever heard of anyone being humiliated to greatness. Let's not forget that the primary goal for everyone involved with sports at any level, should be fun! Tom Hanks said it best, in the movie A League of Their Own: "There is no crying in baseball." (At least their shouldn't be.) r, Are we practicing won't work without Government medicine and private allowed once upon a time insurers you to stay in the hospital for days, even for weeks, recuperating. But so many misusers of the system enjoyed hospitalization as a paid vacation that bureaucrats and insurance companies began to limit medical procedures and hospital stays. Again, the misusers messed things up for the rest of us. Daily, I hear from frustrated physicians who protest that they have lost control over patient care. Chicago physician Dr. mediPaul Meredith calls it "slum-lor- d cine." He is convinced that plenty of money is being spent to assure good health care except vast sums are siphoned off to assure profits. When a Chicago hospital charges $65 for a urinalysis, Meredith considers that "man"obscene." Yet, other Chicago-are- a as health-far- e facilities charge may aged much as $110 for a routine vitamin 2 shot. 'Sorry," they say, "but that is our minimum." office-cal- l Hospitals protest that their overhead has escalated. The average hospital bed noW costs $10,000. An ultrasound machine costs $200,000. MR1, CAT scan and B-1- slum-lor- d America!) He also spared no humility by portraying himself as America's third great leader, ranking himself only behind George Paul Harvey Products Inc. angiography machines cost more than $1 million each. So, hospitals say they have to charge a lot to pay for all this sophisticated equip- say they have to charge a lot to pay for research. Everybody in the medical chain can explain the big bills, but that is no relief for the patient and the doctor, both of whom now feel more like numbers than names. Much of what we've disdained in socialist countries confronts us now impersonproduction-lin- e al dispensation of hurry-up- , ment medicine. I undertook this essay with characteristic Surely, I could seek and find and recommend retail alternatives to wholesale doctoring. The Daly Planet By RUSS DALY Washington (the Father of our Country) and Abraham Lincoln (the Great Emancipator). And although he may have ranked himself third, his picture was on top of their gray outlined likenesses. Don't flatter yourself, Parley, and don't cheapen our national icons, who wouldn't be caught dead promoting themselves as the great leaders they were. Wait, don't vote yet for "Weenie of the Week" until you hear about Lehi's new automated payroll system. A salesman with ADP, a Fortune 500 company that provides payroll services to companies, has been attending City Council meetings to sell himself and his company to the city. Those of us who attend the meetings heard him on two other occasions, but this time, there was additional ammunition for the hard sell. A woman in the audience raised her hand during the debate among the City Councilmembers and offered an unsolicited testimonial of the advantages of ADP. "I don't know this guy," she started off, pointing to the eager sales rep, "but we've looked into other systems and we've always come back to ADP." Maybe she needs to come back to the planet to be rooted in reality, because I overheard someone describe her as a "plant." Let's give her the benefit of the doubt: She said she is a Lehi resident, so perhaps she is a subscriber, one that faithfully and carefully reads the legal notices prior to each public meeting so she can be completely prepared to give input on subjects that are important to her. So, after seeing that ADP was on the agenda, she decides to attend the meeting to offer her undying support of the vehicle that allows her to complete payroll in only two hours, not only at a cost that is comparable, but with the added benefit of just being able to touch one button and generate all of the reports that she needs in her job. Why can't all citizens be that conscientious and offer positive, constructive suggestions rather than complain about banal things like torn up roads? Well, the "third time's the charm" and either the testimonial provided the final piece of incontrovertible evidence, or the sales rep's "discounts" were too much for some of the councilmembers to pass up, but three of the administration outvoted the other two and turned the payroll over to ADP. Regardless of the actual merits of the new contracted service, the real show of the evening came when the ADP sales representative left the meeting. Not even waiting for a tasteful amount of time to pass before taking action, the unsolicited testimonial woman and her two companions got up and exited the council chambers with the sales rep. If you think some members of the audience questioned the validity of the testimonial as it was being given, you should have ul heard the questions behind the raised eyebrows when she left. C'mon, Patricia, I think you blew it when you left council meeting at the same time as John. It certainly raised some questions, or at least some eyebrows. I don't know who ought to win the award, I only listen to what I hear around me. Perhaps you know of others who are just as qualified. to all of you So congratulations "Weenies" out there, whether or not you know you've been nominated. And for this I'm Weasel of the Week? fashlearned in a rather round-abou- t that I had been nominated for the dubious award of "Weasel of the Week" at a Salt Lake Radio station. And frankly, all I can say is, "It's about time." I mean, what does it take to get some recognition around here? For the past 13 years I've been in the enviable position of being able to insult or offend someone on a weekly usually several someones basis. I've taken photographs that never ran because we didn't have room. I've misspelled names. I've gotten dates wrong and times wrong and one year I even jumped the gun on daylight savings time. Even worse, I have regularly decided not to take sides on issues of major and minor importance. People who feel passionately about things just hate it when a newspaper writes about their issues in an impartial fashion, being fair to both sides. I mean, how weasely can you get? So when the delivery guy passing through the office asked who Marc Haddock was because he had heard him mentioned on the radio, it really got my attention. Someone had finally noticed? I rushed out to ask the guy more about it before he could drive away. Apparently, two Fridays ago on the Martin Davies show on KCNR (one of the Salt Lake City talk radio stations that g cater to Utah's large and lunatic fringe), someone nominated me for the honor of "Weasel of the Week." Martin passes out these awards every with nominations coming from Friday his radio audience. Then other audience members phone in and vote on the most weasely weasel of all. Since Martin's audience is made up of the lunatic fringe, you can imagine that most of the nominations are pretty pointed, and usually politically generated. Those making the nomination even get to make a brief statement in support of their candidate, just like in the county convention. The program is delightful, in the cheesy sort of way that all talk radio is fun, if quirky. I am aware of all this because I listen to Martin's show from time to time. For years I had hoped that I would have and nothing I ion last week ever-growin- The Editor's Column I could say would calm him down. ill By MARC HADDOCK gained enough notice that someone would put me up for this dubious honor. Working for weekly newspapers is a thankless task that goes unnoticed by most of the world outside our communities. I would estimate that 98 percent of the residents of cities as close as Orem and Provo are completely unaware that American Fork, Lehi and Pleasant Grove all have their own newspaper. Salt Lake folks don't even know where American Fork is, although they do know where Lehi is that's where Micron was almost built. So it was nice to know I had made the big time and broken into the Salt Lake market, so to speak. So imagine my disappointment to learn that I wasn't nominated for willfully leaving out a photograph or misspelling someone's name or even for taking sides, or not, for some issue of some importance. Instead, the nomination came from Lloyd Davis, who is running for the Utah House of Representatives, for leaving out something I didn't even know I had. Apparently, Mr. Davis held a "town meeting" for American Fork sometime in March and nobody came. And as far as he is concerned, that is my fault. On the phone he told me that a notice of the meeting had been brought into the newspaper, although I don't remember it. He also told me that one of my editors had told him that I "sat on" the notice. He was angry, for the record, I don't remember getting the notice, and my city editor claims he never blamed me for "sitting on" the story. It's the kind of thing we would normally run, even though I think is it a bit presumptuous for a candidate to call a "town meeting" in a town where his leg- Just islative district comprises less than half the population. It's even more presumptuous when you consider that Mr. Davis may or may not appear on the primary ballot in June. Mr. Davis is one of three people running for Legislative District 56 on the Republican ticket. That number will be cut down to two or even one at the Utah County Republican Convention before voters ever get involved in the process. Is there any wonder that people didn't show for the meeting? I mean, who wants to invest a lot of effort into one candidate when he may never show up in an election. A presidential candidate might be able to generate some interest in this type of meeting. Even a congressional candidate might. But someone running for the state legislature? Let's get real. It will be hard to get a handful together for a meet the candidate night after the convention. Nobody is going to one of these before the no matter how much newspacaucuses per coverage the event receives. So in the end, it was a questionable nomination. I don't mind being nominated for Weasel of the Week. I'd be thrilled to win. But I want the nomination for something really important, not some petty misunderstanding. Keep your eyes open. I'm sure to screw up really bad in the next few weeks maybe even today! If you want a list of reasonable offenses, just ask my wife. She keeps a running tally. Then maybe I can garner a nomination worthy of a weasel. Letters to the editor 'Rags' was a great show medicine? Paul Harvey News 1995 A member of our office was recently nominated for Weasel of the Week. The award is given by nomination from the radio audience of Martin Davies, afternoon host on KCNR 1320 Supertalk. His fans call in to suggest names of people who have done really stupid, bizarre, or downright interesting things during the week. Perhaps the paper staff enjoyed the nomination from our office because we may have wanted to make the same nomination from time to time. At any rate, it certainly makes one think about all of the crazy things people do, such as the lady who ran over the woman who had confronted her about a fender-bende- r. I'm not sure who should get the award in that case the woman who ran over the other one, dragging her to her death (did she not have some idea that her car might possibly inflict some serious damage to a pedestrian) or the victim herself, who should have maybe considered that drivers do not necessarily have to prove mental competency to operate a motor vehicle. With all of the many possibilities, I think there is ample room for another award, but since the lowly weasel has already been appropriated as a symbol, may I suggest "Weenie of the Week" for my new award. Although it may still be too difficult to narrow the winner's list down to just one name, some at least qualify for dishonorable mention. My editor showed me some campaign literature he had received from a possible candidate for the Third District congressional seat. This man seemed to spare no expense in preparing a book not only outlining his potential platform, but also providing voters with copies of historical documents, such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. (God Bless Instead, I found health care evolving at warp speed, still running scared from the Clinton-Clinto- n recommendations of 1994 but with individual doctors and hospital administrators too preoccupied with harried schedules to communicate with policy makers. Maybe I could offer these columns as a forum. lb date, I have discovered a patchwork of remedies, the most encouraging being "capitation," where organizations pay hospitals to keep patients out. Scottsdale Memorial Hospitals in Arizona already have five times more patients out than in! The emphasis now is on wellness. Surely, preventive medicine is our long-terbest bet for cost containment. medical Between today's high-codiagnosis and treatment and tomorrow's emphasis on nutrition, sanitation and we need compromises, which professionals are best able to health-maintenan- m st free-thinki- prescribe. Write to me at the following address: Paul Harvey, co Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd. Suite 700, Los Angeles, Calif, 90045. Doctor, Sir, let's work through this maze together and see where it takes us. Editor: Friday evening my husband and I were fortunate enough to enjoy one of the best kept secrets in Utah County. The Lehi City Arts Council and cast members have done a wonderful job in recreating the Broadway musical Rags! The set was well done and reflected the attitude of the era. The cast was not only delightful, but very believable as they depicted the attitudes and emotions of the times and circumstances. Jan Shelton made an excellent choice in selecting this particular play to reflect and celebrate the Centennial of our state, as well as pay tribute to all those who had a role in the sculpting of this nation. I would encourage everyone to take advantage of this opportunity, and all for less than the price of a show ticket. What better way to teach your children the value of the arts (other than Rambo-typ- e entertainment) and gain an appreciation for those who made great sacrifices in order to attain those very basics that we all take for granted. Jean Hatch Lehi Policy on letters to the editor We welcome letters to the editor. All letters should be typewritten and double spaced. Letters must also be signed, and must include the writer's name and telephone number. Please send letters to Editor, Newtah News Group, P.O. Box 7, American Fork, Utah, or through Newtahaol.com. 84003 email at |