As some of you know, we have switched sponsors this year and effectively put an end to the E.T.S. era. What this means is that we will have new uniforms and a new name -- the Stow-Kent Merchants or just SKM softball.

The idea came to me after last season when I decided to solicit the many businesses that make up the communities of Stow and Kent, telling each that they could have their business name and phone number advertised on the back of one of our jerseys --for a small fee. That idea brought in over $300 and ensured that we will wear new, lighter weight jerseys in 1998.

The second change for us is the league we are playing in. We will once again compete in the Kent Parks & Recreation Sunday Doubleheader League, but this year we will play in the Mens Afternoon League (game times of 1, 2, 3, or 4 p.m.) instead of the evening league. Personally, I look forward to this change because it takes us away from those late starts and finishes and those awful lights.

The final thing to discuss is the raffle tickets I have enclosed. I think you will find most of the prizes to be desirable and hopefully wont have much difficulty selling them. To help with various costs, we are asking that each member of the team sell at least $30 worth of the tickets (1 ticket for $2 or 3 tickets for $5). This will pay off the $20 non-resident fee the league charges each player and kick in some extra money which we will need for other expenses (new hats, equipment, post-game food, etc.)

If you can sell more than $30 worth, by all means go for it. To help with this cause, I am throwing in two tickets to a Tribe game to the player who sells the most. Jody Barth has already thrown out the challenge to all of you -- he says hell win easily because his grandma will hit up all her friends at Bingo. The more we raise, the better off we are financially for things we want to do this year.

I would like to use some of the money we raise to get some new bats and to finance a tournament appearance somewhere at some point during the season. Someone mentioned to me that we should get into a weekend tournament where we could stay overnight as a group. I think thats a great idea and something we should definitely look into.

As you can probably tell by now, Im quite serious about this season. Plain and simple, last year sucked for me, as it did for many of you as well. I expect to return to the tradition of winning that we have established on both the softball and baseball diamonds. I expect nothing less than a league championship and a strong showing in the All-City Championship tournament. To help with this cause, Ive brought back many of our key players and signed up some new ones who Im quite confident will push us over the top.

At this point, I would like to push for a get together at a restaurant or bar sometime before the start of the season. This would allow us to collect raffle money and meet some of the new faces who will be a part of this years squad. I will be contacting each of you about this when I have some more details -- we will have to do it sometime before the start of the season, slated for the week beginning May 17th.

Thanks again for your commitment to this season. I am as excited about this years team as any I have played with on the Kent softball diamonds.