Readers invited to join softball team
I was weeding through the stack of papers and tickets clipped onto a magnet on the side of the refrigerator the other night and spotted a ticket set to go off “Tuesday, July 20.” Something didn’t seem quite right about this, but then nothing makes much sense these days. It kept bugging me, so I looked at a calendar and sure enough July 20 was a Saturday. OK, so I’m not losing my mind. Someone else is and that thought brought me great comfort.
It took a few minutes to remember who sold me the ticket. I narrowed it down fairly quickly to someone in the newsroom, a place where in addition to stringing words into stories certain members of the staff use it as a sales floor to raise funds.
Every one with a child gets into the action within the first week of school. Despite the fact that few of our children are enrolled in the same school districts let alone the same building we show up with the same brochures and order wrapping paper and candy off each other.
This is followed by youth football, soccer, basketball, baseball, softball, dance schools, Boy Scout, Cub Scout, Girl Scout (love those shortbread cookies). Then there are church fundraisers and club fundraisers. On occasion it seems we have meetings simply to exchange tickets.
As a general rule, most of us relax a bit in the summer and take a vacation from our second jobs of raising cash for kids’ activities. There’s a reason for this and I found it out Thursday morning. I had a box of 40 candy bars to sell and plopped them in the usual place.
Within minutes a co-worker warned that I was going to be in big trouble as I had covered up the Relay for Life chips. All day long I waited for a blistering e-mail from dayside managing editor Mark O’Keefe. It never came. And I’m so disappointed because I had my reply all ready. I was going to explain how the combination of salt and sugar couldn’t be beat. There are few things better than eating a handful of chips or pretzels and a bite of chocolate. I was going to suggest we market our wares together.
O’Keefe spends the greater part of the summer coordinating and hosting events to raise cash for the Herald-Standard’s Relay for Life team. There’s the barbecue and the flea market; dress-down days and the 50-50 chances. There’s days off to be won and once there was a basketful of booze.
For the most part O’Keefe is content to simply collect employee “donations” with the exception of the yard sale, in which we invite the public to come and buy our junk, and the big event: the charity softball game against the Fayette County commissioners’ team.
The game debuted last year. The Herald-Standard slaughtered the commissioners 18-8.
We expect to do the same on Aug. 4 when a rematch is held at Bailey Park.
Once again when the blanket offer was sent out by e-mail for recruits for our team, my name was omitted from the list.
It seems there is this perception that A) I can’t hit. B) I can’t catch. And C) I run like a girl. I’ve been cut.
To soften the blow, O’Keefe has offered me a position in the department of sales. I think I’m allowed to collect the $1 admission charge from anyone who wants to come. There are also other sales opportunities available in the concession stand.
My position in sales leaves our team’s roster short. We understand that the commissioners, not content to draw their lineup strictly from county employees, are scouting the baseball leagues and have extended an invitation to all county residents to join their team.
Our employee, family and friends team could use a little help as well. So O’Keefe said he would open it up to any Herald-Standard reader.
Give him a call at 724-439-7569 if you think you have the stuff to play for a winning team and he’ll let you know about the short practice session this Sunday.
And if you’re like me, short on talent but long on support of the American Cancer Society, just drop by Bailey Park at 6 p.m. on Aug. 4 to spend a pleasant evening watching the softball game.
Luanne Traud is the Herald-Standard’s editorial page editor. E-mail: ltraud@heraldstandard.com.