Tuesday, February 26, 2008

My (not so) hidden agenda(s) revealed...

The manager of the Chicago White Sox is Ozzie Guillen, he led his team to a World Series title a few years ago. He also had a Major League playing career and was a light hitting batter, but a great fielding short-stop.

John Kruk had an interesting baseball career. You may remember that in an All-Star Game he faced Randy Johnson. One problem for Mr. Kruk... he bats left-handed and Randy Johnson (then pitching for the Mariners) was even more dominant than he is now. Kruk turned his helmet backwards and decided to bat right handed after Johnson's first pitch sailed over Kruk's head. Great moment if you remember. Kruk also played for my Phillies team for a stretch and helped them to an appearance in the World Series.

Mitch Williams also played for the Phillies in that World Series as a teammate of Kruk's. Williams was the closer and couldn't close out a game and was blamed by many for losing that World Series (yep, still hurts this fan).

Benito Santiago was rookie of the year in the National League, I believe in 1987. He was good with the bat and was an incredible defensive catcher. A real athlete for that position. He had a great career in the Major Leagues.

Roberto Alomar played second base in the Majors and is probably a Hall of Famer at some point.

Wait a minute... isn't this supposed to be a post about my hidden agenda for seeking the office of City Council?? It is. You might be wondering how the above may tie in. Well let me try.

You see all of the above Major League Baseball players mentioned above started their career in the Minor Leagues. In my childhood and adolescent years I spent the summer months at Moana Stadium in Reno Nevada watching the Class 'A' Minor League Affiliate of the San Diego Padres play baseball. The team was then called the Reno Padres. I have vivid memories, as a child might create, of watching these then unknown players play baseball. I still have autographs from some of the above players and many others than never played in the Majors.

I was eleven years old in 1982 and my best friend and I would listen to away games on the radio and see games played in Moana Stadium. We played little league baseball at a park adjacent to the big stadium and would sneak into games through a wooden fence along the right field part of the park after our own practices. Our favorite player was Kevin McReynolds who was attempting to set the single season Class 'A' record for home runs. McReynolds went on to play in the Majors but didn't have the kind of career that the others above did. That summer though, in Reno, all the kids I knew wanted to be Kevin McReynolds.

Those are my memories of days gone by. I'd love to see the kids in Kingman have the opportunity to have those kinds of memories. So part of my hidden agenda that I am revealing is how I'd love to help bring the possibility of a Minor League baseball team to the Kingman area.

I know that I could do a bit of research right now and make some calls and ask organizations to consider Kingman as a possible location for relocation or a new team for either 'Rookie' Class baseball or some other Minor League. However, at this moment, I'm simply a resident of Kingman that wants a baseball team in Kingman. I'd probably get hung up on.

If I was elected to serve the community, the first thing I would have to do is prove to the community that I am the kind of leader that can help steer the community towards successful progress. There are many more important issues that face our community today than a baseball team.

Once I prove to the community that I am indeed the right kind of public official that the community could support, the calls to organizations and other political contacts could help one day bring something like I described to a growing and emerging region of Arizona. We have great summer weather in the evenings to spend time with our families at such events... we just don't have those kinds of events at this time.

Part of my political agenda would be to earn political clout in order to help create opportunities like this. While I have an affinity for sports, my long term goals aren't solely focused on that. I think political expediency is needed to convince a college to take a chance to set up a sister school in our area. For example, maybe an affiliated school with BYU or Notre Dame... both institutions have multiple sister schools in many areas across the country. It is my opinion that strong political leaders will be needed to make this a reality some time in the future. I think a case could be made to a university to create a hydrology school right here to research things like groundwater and water availability and find results that give back to this very region.

You won't hear me talking about these issues on the current campaign trail because I think there are many more immediate issues that need attention. If elected, and if I'm part of a successful Council that proves to bring the community together to work out the problems we face, I believe that I'll begin to earn the trust of the great people of Kingman... and over time begin to think beyond the current situation and create opportunities we haven't thought of and work to bring those opportunities here.

Many candidates and community voices talk about the future for kids. I'd love to have the kids of Kingman to have similar life long memories like I had. No, it doesn't have to be baseball related and it could be something else entirely. It is my hope though that the community can count of me to help create the opportunities people want in our growing and emerging city.

Some (hidden) agenda eh??

My focus is to earn the trust of the voters, then my focus will be to prove to the community that I am an ideal leader, and then hope to use political means to create more opportunities for the people of Kingman... for as long as the voters of Kingman will have me.

Hopefully I've answered the questions the editor of the KDM had asked.

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