4 I The Lovell Chronicle I July 19, 2012
CHRONICLE
Ions
Support our local
baseball teams
Small towns and baseball go together like vanilla ice
cream and apple pie, and itL one of the things that make
summertime a great time of year.
But is AmericaL pastime on the decline?
A recent story in the Rawlins Daily Times examined the
decline of baseball in America, focusing on the downturn in
participation in Little League Baseball both in Rawlins and
nationally.
The story by Ryan Costello examined efforts to keep
baseball alive in Rawlins but also looked at national trends.
For instance, our nation has experienced a 31 percent drop
in the number of children ages 7-11 playing baseball from
2001 to 2010 compared to a 20 percent increase in ice
hockey and a 44 percent jump in tackle football, according
to the Times.
The sport has also seen a decline of some 500,000 par-
ticipants in the sport for ages 4-18 from 1996 to 2010, ac-
cording to the article.
And in an attempt to spur interest in youth baseball, Ma-
jor League Baseball has reportedly spent $ 50 million since
1989 to promote youth baseball, from forming leagues to
improving facilities.
Fortunately, leaders in north Big Horn County under-
stand the value of youth baseball and have provided excel-
lent facilities for coaches and players to use, from the won-
derful Northeast Little League Baseball complex in Lovell to
the Senior League Ballpark in Cowley, which by all rights
ought to be named Peterson Field in honor of Sen. Ray Pe-
terson, who has worked tirelessly for years to keep Babe
Ruth and American Legion baseball alive in this area.
Doug Arnold and many other volunteers have revitalized
Little League Baseball in north Big Horn County, breaking
the league into four divisions based on age and experience,
raising money and for the first time in many years, follow-
ing official Little League rules and being sanctioned to play
in district and state Little League Tournaments, including
the district tournament being played in Cody this week.
But challenges remain.
Kids, especially as they grow older, experience more and
more conflicts from all manner of sports camps and from
competing sports like'sceer. Babe Ruth and Legion coach-
es seemingly never are able'to place a complete team on
the field for a ballgame, and participation numbers in gen-
eral are on the decline as older youths find summer jobs or
simply decide to give up the sport.
Then there are the volunteers - or lack thereof. Peter-
son and his right-hand man, Bill Pickett, have given literally
thousands of hours of their time, along with a few others
(Kelly Spann comes to mind), to coach Babe Ruth and Le-
gion baseball, not to mention grooming and striping the
field, maintaining the stadium, setting up for games, or-
ganizing the team and much, much more. They certain-
ly aren't the first. Many others have kept baseball alive in
Lovell over the decades.
Peterson would give anything for more adults to step up
and coach at the Babe Ruth or Legion level - the league is
even paying coaches now - but he has had little success,
except for a few volunteers who coach in spurts. So he sol-
diers on, one of the busiest guys we know, coaching and
running the senior baseball organization.
Lovell/Cowley/Byron is, by far, the smallest community to
play American Legion Baseball in Wyoming. The next clos-
est town in terms of population is Wheatland, which is sig-
nificantly larger. Towns like Greybull, Worland, Thermopolis,
Lander, Buffalo and Newcastle, most of them larger than
Lovell, no longer field teams.
So here our challenge. Let continue to support youth
baseball in our community not only financially - and we
could do more in that department, too - but with coach-
ing. There are a lot of good baseball minds sitting in the
stands or staying away altogether. Orhow about running
the scoreboard, announcing or running the concession
stand?
And perhaps most of all, how about supporting your
local teams with your presence. Little League has lots of
parents and others attending every game, but attendance
at Babe Ruth and Legion games is sparse, in part because
games must be played during the day since the ballpark
has no lights. (Oh, and if you have $ I00,000 burning a
hole in your pocket...)
A great opportunity, indeed the final opportunity, to see
the Lovell Mustangs play at home this season is this Friday
and Saturday. The Mustangs will take on Cody at 3:30 p.m.
Friday for a doubleheader and will host Riverton Saturday
at 1 p.m. for another twin bill. The district tournament be-
gins next week in Powell.
If baseball is still America's pastime, let's prove it with our
attendance at this weekendL games, and letL also think
about helping out more next season.
-David Peck
Letters policy
The Lovell Chronicle welcomes letters from its readers and will make ev-
ery effort to print them. Letters longer than 400 words may not be printed.
Letters must be signed and include the address and telephone number of
the writer. Unsigned letters will be discarded. Writers are limited to two let-
ters in any 30 day period.
All letters must conform to the law of libel and be in good taste. They
may be mailed to The Lovell Chronicle, Box 787, Lovell, WY 82431, or deliv-
ered to our office at 234 E. Main St., Lovell. A strict 1:00 p.m. Tuesday dead-
line will be enforced.
Letters to the editor
Please don't let pets roam
Dear Editor,
It has come to my attention
that the community of Lovell
clearly has a problem with vi-
cious, territorial dogs. Just recent-
ly, when I was going on my early
morning bike ride, I was chased
a quarter of a mile by a massive,
foaming-from-the-mouth, blood-
thirsty German shepherd.
This isn't the first time this
summer I have crossed paths with
ferocious dogs. As a matter of fact,
I could say that four days out of
the past week I have had to pedal
like my back tire was on fire from
dogs ranging from Corgis to Aus-
tralian shepherds.
It is the point of this letter to
advise the community of Lovell,
in town and out of town, to take
serious control of their dogs. Over
the past few years, Lovell has
grown increasingly tolerant to
animal misbehaviors, and in my
book, there is no worse reputation
than that a community can't even
take control or ownership of their
animals.
A story comes to mind when
a friend of ours had her whole
flock of ducks slaughtered, and
there wasn't even a slap on the
wrist. Another friend of ours just
recently was on a morning jog
when a dog came out of nowhere
and bit her in the calf, and drew
blood. She heard nothing but "oh
*blank* would never do that..."
I could go on with stories that I
have heard about others having
confrontations with unruly dogs
in this community, some minor,
some even fatal.
I want to plead with the com-
munity, please remember that
this is summer, and people like
to enjoy the outdoors. So control
your dogs, and allow everyone a
safe opportunity to take those se-
rene evening walks, morning jogs,
etc., with the peace of mind that
they won't be risking a leg or a
neck.
Your dogs belong in your yard,
not on the road or the highway
chasing fellow community mem-
bers. It's called Pet Ownership
101, which we all learned when
we were very young that having
a pet takes "great responsibility."
And if you're lacking that, then
you probably don't need a pet at
all!
With most sincerity,
Brady Winland
Wild horse letter was misleading
To the Editor:
I felt that I must comment on
the letter in last week's paper con-
cerning the Pryor Mountain wild
horses and the range that they
live on. It appears to me that most
people don't know the facts on
the "roundups" here on the Pryor
Mountain Wild Horse Range.
Let me begin by saying that
once wild animals are fenced,
they must be managed. It would
be cruel, irresponsible and inhu-
mane to enclose breeding animals
into an area and then simply let
them reproduce and then fend for
themselves for food and water. If
there were no fences involved and
the animals could wander any-
where for food and water, then
there would be no real need for
management or roundups.
But, this is 2012 and not the
old' days when anyone could just
go out to the range and catch the
wild horses to use, sell for slaugh-
ter or perhaps just shoot them.
They are now protected and they
are fenced, therefore there must
be management and this manage-
ment is "caring concern."
There has .to be a balance of
population and forage. This comes
in the way of birth control, re-
movals and range improvements.
This is based on the best scientif-
ic knowledge that we know of. An
overgrazed range will lead to poor
body condition for many, if not all,
of the horses and ultimately starva-
tion. The loss of foals born to mares
in poor body condition would occur
and many foals and young mares
would not survive. The life expec-
tancy of these wild horses also
would be greatly reduced.
While I agree with the un-
fairness of large numbers of wild
horses being rounded up in oth-
er parts of the country due to the
cattle ranching industry and mis-
management in the past, this is
not happening here on the Pry-
or Mountain Wild Horse Range.
There are no cattle grazing on
the Pryor Mountain Wild Horse
Range, therefore there is no com-
petition for forage with cattle.
The BLM is required to go
through legal processes whenev-
er an EA (environmental assess-
ment) is needed. The public is
asked to comment on these docu-
ments and if you are an interested
party, then you can send in your
comments. This is not an "illu-
sion." This is a fact!
The Pryor horses are a very
sought after breed and all of these
horses get adopted right from Brit-
ton Springs. They DO NOT go to
slaughter. Britton Springs is the
BLM facility right here in Lovell
and anyone can go to see the re-
moved horses if they think they
might want to adopt one, or even
just to check to make sure that
these horses are being taken care of.
I have to give the Billings
BLM Field Office a lot of cred-
it: Jared Bybee, Jim Sparks, and
others who care enough to listen
to the public and not have a "he-
licopter roundup." They have lis-
tened to the public and are trying
to remove horses by bait and trap
methods. This is more humane for
the horses and I appreciate their
efforts and concern for the horses.
After all, isn'ttlls,'what Ve want?i
To preserve this .special herd of
wild horses so that they can be
healthy, and survive for genera-
tions to come!
Find out the facts at the Pryor
Mountain Wild Mustang Center.
Lori Graham
Director, Pryor Mountain
Wild Mustang Center
A successful Big Horn Lake Celebration
Dear Editor,
Wow, what a gorgeous sum-
mer day for a celebration. The
day was wonderful, with a slight
breeze all day, which we all en-
joyed. The Friends of Bighorn
Lake want to extend a big "thank
you" to so many. We refrain from
naming all of you for we would
surely miss someone.
To Superintendent Jerry
Case and his professionals, we
say thank you for letting us help
you promote Bighorn Canyon Na-
tional Recreation Area.
To all of the businesses and
towns in the Big Horn Basin area,
we thank you for displaying ban-
ners, digital sign display time and
handing out refrigerator magnet
reminders to the public. You also
donated food and drink items plus
sponsored boats for the free boat
rides, which helped the owners
with their cost for fuel. Some of
you tagged your radio and news-
paper ads with invites to the cel-
ebration.
To the area radio stations and
newspapers for articles and audio
spots highlighting Bighorn Can-
yon National Recreation Area and
the Sixth Annual Big Horn Lake
Celebration.
To the law enforcement, AIS
inspectors, search and rescue,
and parking attendants we say
"thank you for helping the visitors
in a friendly, helpful way."
To the more than 90 FOBHL
helpers (before, during and after
the event), boat owners and dock
attendants, you served the visi-
tors wonderfully. It was great to
see so many lime green vests all
over the Horseshoe Bend area.
The Triathlon added contin-
ued excitement this year with
more than 90 contestants. The
under-16 crowd had a great time
with their mini-triathlon. Every-
one is looking forward to the 2013
version on July 6. Thanks to Ben
Zeller and his helpers for another
awesome, well "run" event.
To the Horseshoe Bend Ma-
rina folks for providing needful,
friendly services to the visitors.
The biggest "thank you" of all
goes to you who came to enjoy Big
Horn Lake. Come back often and
bring your friends. We welcome
your thoughts and comments
about this celebration. See you on
July 6 for the 2013 Big Horn Lake
Celebration.
Bob Croft and
Friends of Bighorn Lake
Board of Directors
2012 MEMBER
2011 AWARD-WINNING NEWSPAPER
Postmaster: Send address changes to:
The Lovell Chronicle, USPS 321-060
234 E. Main, Lovell, Wyoming 82431
(307) 548-2217
Published every Thursday
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Editor and Publisher: David Peck
Reporter: Patti Carpenter
Staff: Gladys McNeil, Pat Parmer, Dorothy Nelson, Marwyn Layne,
Teressa Ennis, Jason Zeller, Cheryl Jolley, Stormy Jameson
