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Warrior Where Art Thou?

Editors:

What ever happened to the Warrior? Does he still write for you?

Athletedb

The Warrior, controversial minor hockey personality, commentator, and broadcaster, has never written for Minor League News. We did cover one of his more colorful episodes (See: Warrior Declares War On France) but he has been affiliated with other publications. Our last message from the Warrior had him seeking out greener and more lucrative pastures outside of the world of hockey.

Histoire du Hoops

Dear Editors

Thank you for your web-site which seems to fill an important niche in relation to sports in general and minor-league news in particular. I have found many of your feature-articles both interesting and informative. I want to especially thank you for the piece by Pete Madzelan pertaining to the ABA.

As a resident of Indiana, where “Basketball Rocks,” and where memories of those great ABA Pacers teams are still very much alive, I found Mr. Madzelan’s piece to be exceedingly well done in terms of establishing the historical context out of which the league emerged and evolved.

Mr. Madzelan quite skillfully “brought to life” the exciting style of play and interesting personalities associated with the league. I particularly enjoyed his description of the freewheeling style of ABA play as akin to “the free-form style of a Charlie Parker jazz solo”. What a wonderful use of word-imagery to convey what some of the ABA greats displayed on the court!  

In sum, I found the piece to be historically informed, well-written, interesting, and enjoyable. The article is the type of piece that brings one back to your web site for “more”, and I look forward to additional features from Mr. Madzelan. Wishing you all the best.

Regards,

 

 

Rick Aniskiewicz, Ph.D
Professor of Sociology and Chair,
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Indiana University Kokomo

Sac Cloth In Sac Town

Call me a homer, but your omission of Sacramento's Raley Field in your top ten minor league ballparks in 2004 is a major league error....

Patrick Hill
Sacramento, CA

Sticking Up for the UHL

I was just wondering how exactly the CHL is a class AA league and the UHL is a lower class A league. From all the sources I know, the UHL is a much better league or they are equal at best. I think its rediculous if the UHL is the lower league of the two.
 
Furyfan1

Leagues outside of affiliated baseball (which does its own classification) are rated by the editorial staff of Minor League News. We examine a number of factors including league size, mergers, sustainable expansion (and expansion announcement follow-through), major league affiliations, ownership groups, league management, officiating, and the players that all of those critera attract to a league. At one point the United Hockey League was clearly a AA hockey league as we define it. In our estimation the UHL slipped back behind the ECHL and the CHL. We review our evaluations annually. If there is reason to believe that the UHL is returning to AA status, we will revise our UHL section to reflect that. -ed.

Birmingham Hockey's Complex Issues

Dear Editor:

I just wanted to comment on a statement that I read in the April 30th article regarding the possible relocation of the Alabama Slammers EHL (formerly WHA2) hockey team.  The article states, "If messages on the Slammers' fan message board this week were any indication, many suburban area hockey fans don't like the idea of driving into Birmingham to the BJCC to watch hockey. That might further depress potential attendance."  It appears that the article's writer failed to note that a majority of the fans also noted that while they may prefer to play in Pelham, they would be willing to support the team even in the BJCC.  Our major complaint with the possible relocation is that the SEHL is trying to bring a team into the Pelham Civic Complex, an arena that just this past season was deemed unsatisfactory by that same league and its fans.  There is much more beneath the surface to this whole saga than can be expressed in one article.


Selina Gapczynski
Birmingham, Alabama

Whose Win Was It Anyway?

To the Editors of MinorLeagueNews.com,

As a long time Central Hockey League fan, I have been disappointed by the
league's refusal to acknowledge the controversy surrounding the recently
concluded President's Cup playoffs. The players and the fans of both teams
deserve at least an apology for the mistakes made by league officials which
have forever tainted this year's championship in the eyes of both clubs and
their supporters.

It is blatantly unfair, particularly to the players of the CHL, to have all
of their blood, sweat, and tears of the entire season rendered meaningless
by the actions (or inaction) of a league which obviously cares more about
saving face than the sport they claim to promote.

To date they have not even admitted that the controversy exists. This
debacle has given a black eye to not only the CHL, but also to the sport of
hockey and minor league sports in general. No one can expect the outcome
to be changed, but it would behoove the CHL to behave in a professional
manner and admit that an error was made.

Thank you,

Bob Robinson

And the League Says...

Mr. Robinson,

If and when any evidence is made available that would indicate the
officials assigned and trained to handle these situations were incorrect, we will most certainly admit it. Unfortunately, we have nothing currently that
indicates that there was or wasn't a goal, and have little choice but to rely on those people trained to follow the protocol as they did.

Certainly not the way we or anyone else wanted to see a championship
decided, but we have no intention of "covering up" an error if in fact one was made.

Regards,

Steve Cherwonak
Spokesman for the
Central Hockey League

 

John Henry Williams, Remembered

Dear Mr. Ross,

I am John-Henry's sister and I want to thank you for the eloquent and beautiful piece I just read on my brother [Elegy for a Lightweight].  You put other writers and journalists to shame with your insight and sensitivity to a human being.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know my brother and talking to him.

My brother put his dream on hold so he could be next to his father as long as he could and then waited a little bit longer so he could love him through his last days....  In the end, he still, despite discouragement from others, gave baseball a chance (or vice versa).  He may have been closest to his father during the opportunity that the minor leagues gave him.  

I would like to close by saying how highly my brother spoke of the short time he spent within the minor leagues and all the young men struggling to follow a dream.  Please thank them if you can ... from me.

 
Thank you.

 
Sincerely,
Claudia Williams

----

To Brian Ross:

Your comments regarding John-Henry Williams are right on the money.  I am the person who worked with J-H to try to help him hit at the professional level.  

J-H lived in my home for seven months trying to squeeze 7 months of hard work into 7 years of experience.  We worked together for 6 hours per day, 5 days each week.  His determination in trying to be a good professional baseball player was relentless.  We had several personal discussions regarding everything going on in his life but he was driven (based on his true love of his father) to give it his best.  

The media tried to ruin him with sensationalism and untruths, I am pleased to see someone like you  use reason to help people understand that he was not a villian.  J-H was a real person, with real desire to succeed at an impossible dream.  I respect him and will miss him.
 
Sincerely,
 
Terry Hardtke

 

Tierre Brown Takes It Downtown

To the editors of Minorleaguenews.com:

I would like to thank your organization for the fine story on Tierre Brown [Is Tierre Brown Ready To Play in the NBA]. I was Tierre's High School coach and I very proud of this young man. You hit the nail on the head when you talked about his drive. This is a very determined young man with an incredible work ethic. His days of hard work go back to his high school years. I have watched and kept up with Tierre since his high school days and I am very proud of all that he does. It was really nice to read all the good things about him. Thank you so much.

Geoff McCracken
Varsity Boys Basketball Coach
Dayton High School

 

 

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