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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (March 7, 2015)
1 B SIUSLAW Sports News: NEWS The Siuslaw News For more photos and updates, visit our website at www.thesiuslawnews.com. P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 Fax: (541) 997-7979 SATURDAY Email: sports@thesiuslawnews.com MARCH A Sporting V iew By Mark Vasto • 2015 Local racer starts season in high gear Gary ‘Gee’ Armstrong brought home hardware from California event Batter Up! Florence ATV sand drag racers Gary “Gee” Armstrong and Budy Palmer found themselves on the podium at the Coors Lite Bako Sand Drag Race held in Bakersfield, Calif., last week. Armstrong placed third in his Pro Index Heads-up Race and 18-year-old Palmer won the fun Doughboy Class Race, placed second in Sport class and was third in Pro Class in the four-day race event. More than 200 ATV racers from around the United States entered the race event, which is held annually at the Kern County Fairgrounds. Pro-racer Armstrong’s sponsors include Florence Yamaha, Fullerton Sand Sports Tires and Wheels, Redline Racing, K and N Filters, and CP- Carrillo. Baseball is not slow. It is untimed. This concept seems to baffle people. It is not losing popularity. It is the No. 1 spectator sport in the world in terms of atten- dance (yes, there are more games to watch, which pad the numbers, but a fact is a fact). It is fiscally sound. Last year Major League Baseball posted around $8 billion in revenues (by con- trast, the NFL had around $9.5 billion), and even the worst-attended ballparks still hit the 51 percent of capacity mark. And it’d be easy to grow the game. An official Wiffle Ball set costs about $7. Isn’t it high time that MLB made those guys manufacturing them from Connecticut whole? Enough with those knockoff versions with the plastic wrap around the flimsy plastic bat and a ball that doesn’t break correctly. Nobody wants them. If MLB could negotiate a wholesale price, they should give away a set to every kid attending a game from spring training through May. That would cost something like $30 million, and it would instantly turn 10 million backyards and vacant lots into miniature fields of dreams. Baseball lends itself to sappiness. Sappy sports writing, sappy poetry, sappy analogies and annoying monologues. That in and unto itself is See 7 On the Bite A weekly fishing report for the local region www.dfw.state.or.us/RR MID COAST LAKES: COURTESY PHOTO Florence-based racer Gary Armstrong launches his ATV in competition during last weekend’s Coor Lite Index Race in Bakersfield, Calif. Sprint into spring The rainbow trout stock- ing program is underway with many of the mid coast lakes been stocked. Most water bodies will be stocked multiple times until early June. Be sure to check out the 2015 stock- ing schedule for the most up to date information. Fishing for the various warm water fish species can be productive during the winter months. Anglers may need to target different areas of a lake (typically deeper) versus when fish- ing more shallow areas in the spring or summer. SIUSLAW RIVER: Steelhead The winter steelhead fishery is slow to fair in both the Siuslaw and Lake Creek. River conditions are low and clear. Fishing the mid to lower river and focusing on the deeper holding water will produce See FISHING 4B T IDE T ABLE Entrance Siuslaw River High Tide Low Tide March 7 12:53am / 7.1 7:02am / 1.2 12:58pm / 6.9 7:12pm / 1.0 VIEW 3B S p o r t s C a l e n d a r Ned Hickson/Siuslaw News The spring sports season officially got underway this week as athletes took to the fields and tracks at both Siuslaw and Mapleton high schools to begin conditioning and skills development for the upcoming season. Thursday afternoon, Siuslaw softball coach Sean O’Mara (left) was putting his players through the paces along the bases as senior Halee Richards (center) practice speed and form in base stealing. The first spring sports event will take place March 17, when Siuslaw’s baseball team travels to Taft High School. Spring sports • March 17 SHS baseball at Taft HS 3 p.m. • March 19 SHS track SHS Icebreaker 4 p.m. • MHS track Mapleton 300 4 p.m. • March 20 SHS softball hosts Bandon 5 p.m. Winter Discovery Series continues at Cape YACHATS — The blue-collar log- ging community of Waldport hardly would seem the birthplace of the radi- cal peace movement of the 1960s. But a war a generation earlier and a con- scientious objectors camp on the Siuslaw National Forest would lay the groundwork for the ensuing social and cultural revolution. Author and historian Steve McQuiddy will discuss his recent book “Here on the Edge” at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 14, as part of the & SHEET METAL, INC. Cape Perpetua Visitor Center’s Winter Discovery Series. McQuiddy’s book chronicles how Civilian Public Service Camp No. 56 brought together a collection of like- minded individuals whose paths may have never crossed otherwise. From October 1942 until April 1946, “Camp Angell” was the second conscientious objector’s camp in Oregon, detaining an average of about 120 objectors. A brochure circulated at the time, and penned by poet William Everson, described the camp as a “School for Fine Arts,” and men with interests or experience in the creative arts were invited to transfer to the camp. During the day, the men worked planting trees, crushing rock, building roads, chopping wood and fighting forest fires. At night, however, they produced books, plays, art, and music — giving up to 15 community See March 8 1:21am / 7.1 2:35pm / 6.6 8:37am / 1.2 8:42pm / 1.3 March 9 2:50am / 7.1 3:15pm / 6.3 9:14am / 1.1 9:12pm / 1.7 March 10 3:21am / 7.1 4:00pm / 6.0 9:55am / 1.1 9:45pm / 2.2 March 11 3:55am / 7.0 4:52pm / 5.6 10:42am / 1.2 10:24pm / 2.7 March 12 4:37am / 6.9 5:58pm / 5.3 11:38am / 1.2 11:15pm / 3.1 March 13 5:30am / 6.8 7:14pm / 5.2 12:43am / 1.1 S S IUSLAW IUSLAW N EWS 148 Maple St. Florence 541-997-3441 CAPE 3B • Heating Systems • Heat Pumps • Sales / Service • Ductless Heat Pumps “Your Local Independent Trane Dealer” Florence’s Oldest & Largest Heating Contractor CCB#64 1645 Kingwood ~ Florence (541) 997-2422 www.trane.com Bill Easton, Teahna Wilkins, Steve Wolford & Krystal Wolford