July 16, 2007
Monday PM

I will agree that a hitting cage will develop better hitters! But I know a baseball training facility will make better baseball players! If the best infielders the state of Alaska ever developed took thousands of ground balls in a hitting cage? A hitting cage would be the solution to developing the backbone of a team. It is my opinion that the 3 parts to baseball are defense, pitching, offense and in that order of priority. And hitting is only part of offense.

The recent run of success from the 3rd largest town in SE AK known as Sitka is due to a support group that built a structure for indoor work outs. Those adults who provided this opportunity stood back and watched development do its thing. 4 State championships for their high school fast pitch and hardball programs. A WSU baseball college scholarship (Matt Way), and a pro draft pick by the San Francisco Giants (EB Crow).

Ketchikan will never know what our own can achieve until a place to develop the sharpness necessary to achieve it, is provided. Tony Gwyn refers to a Governor not providing welfare of sorts as the hindrance to meeting Sitka's challenge to us, the larger population opponent. If this was a poker game, and Sitka raised the pot, and we believed in our hand - I do not call or fold, I raise baby.

The old tennis courts are the answer! And with good ole fashion fund raising effort a 100 by 100 steel building could be erected, where repetitive defensive movements could be mastered downstairs, and a hitting loft above. The "build it and they will come" mantra, should be "we build it, and the ignition sequence will begin". Quality baseball comes from within! It is not a handout from a nice woman from Wasilla.

Ken Lewis
Ketchikan, AK

Received July 16, 2007 - Published July 16, 2007

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