Editorially Speaking

Sponsored by Dee Rodriguez and the Little Theater, Randy Hummel has led an effort to rid East Fourth Street of an abandoned house that was creating an opportunity for criminal activity as well as a fire hazard. Waste Management's Chris West and Rudy Aragon got permission to contribute large dumpsters and Penrod landfill donated the dumping space.

Many people helped, even passers-by would stop and work for an hour or so. Steve Zukowski and Jim Ferguson got the project past various city road blocks. John Gose brought equipment and tore the house down. Bus drivers and custodians from the school district including Otis Lunsford, Susan Warren and Norvel McKinley helped. Ron Lynch, Cruz Valdez, Leonard Ragnoli, Randy Pritchard, Boney Candelaria and Nick and Tom Breeze all contributed. Dee and Randy said so many helped they only hope they named everyone.

Look around town. There are other abandoned or unlived in places that are coming down privately. Right now there is one on Apache Avenue and one in Taylortown. Signs of Spring for the whole city.

L.S. Scala

As Sam Sees It

Congratulations to Don Petranovich on being honored as the Girls' Coach of the Century by the Phoenix Metro Basketball Magazine and the Arizona Interscholastic Association. He will be honored during ceremonies at next week's Arizona High School Basketball Championships at America West Arena in Phoenix.

My thanks also go to Claylene Petranovich who shared a personal anecdote that was probably the best part of my article on this subject in the Feb. 7 edition of The Winslow Mail. Briefly, she described how her marriage began with a sporting event (an Arizona State basketball game) and has continued to be filled with athletic events.

It is easy for some of us to identify with her and Don. My own 39th wedding anniversary was celebrated at a softball game. In fact, both my wife and I played in that game. We have done that only rarely, but have made many of our plans around basketball or baseball games. Like many grandparents, we spend an inordinate amount to time at Little League baseball or softball games.

Officials and coaches occasionally see rules that they would like to see changed, but it rarely happens. Well, it has happened. The rules committee that wrote the book for high school softball has changed one of the rules this umpire most wanted to see changed. No longer will an umpire have to declare a runner out for missing a base when none of the defensive team was aware of the infraction. The appeal play is back and better than it was years ago before the previous change.

Last year, an umpire who saw a runner miss a base was required to call that runner out even though the defense was asleep at the switch and not even aware of what had happened. This year, the defense can tag the runner or the base with a live ball and get the out called. They can call the umpire's attention to the infraction even during a dead ball situation and get the out called. They just have to do so before the next batter sees a pitch.

This is a great improvement over the "old" system of having to return the ball to the mound and get a "live" ball, a procedure that some teams couldn't seem to manage without creating their own infraction.

You got this one right, rules committee.

Congratulations, too, to both Winslow High School basketball teams. You have qualified for the state tournaments and many of us Winslow fans will be there rooting for you in Flagstaff and Phoenix.

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