With 31 regular-season games remaining, the Suns are poised for an excellent second half of the season. At those 31 games, our hard-working, tireless staff will be providing fans with eight fireworks shows, four bobblehead giveaways (Uncle Sam, July 2, Willie Mays, July 17, North High School Hubs Sept. 3, South High School Rebels Sept. 4 and seven other giveaway nights (including a 75th Anniversary Municipal Stadium Replica on the regular season's final day, Sept. 5).
Plus, we'll be hosting fan-favorite promotions such as the "Dog Days of Summer," the pre-game Team Autograph Session and Turn-Back-the-Clock Night in addition to hosting Washington County native best-selling author Nora Roberts and the season-ending Suzuki ATV giveaway. Oh, and I shouldn't forget - five more Thirsty Thursdays and three more Feed Your Face Mondays.
Shortly after Labor Day, the Suns will then participate in the South Atlantic League division playoffs and, hopefully, the league championship finals. I can't wait to have our fans pack Municipal Stadium for our first playoff game in four years as we aim for our first championship since our inaugural year of Suns baseball in 1981. Now that would be a perfect ending to our 25th anniversary season.
Thank you to all of our fans and business partners for your excellent support. I look forward to seeing you at Municipal Stadium throughout the rest of the summer.
Kurt Landes
General Manager
Hagerstown Suns
Donors should get preference
To the editor:
Washington County Hospital's 75 percent organ-donation rate is wonderful. But it still means 25 percent of the people approached decided to bury or burn organs that could have saved lives.
More than half of the people who need an organ transplant in the United States die before they get one. Most of these deaths are needless. Americans bury or cremate about 20,000 transplantable organs every year. More than 6,000 of our neighbors suffer and die needlessly every year as a result.
There is a simple solution to the organ shortage - give organs first to people who have agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
Giving organs first to organ donors will convince more people to register as organ donors. It will also make the organ-allocation system fairer. About 70 percent of the organs transplanted in the United States go to people who haven't agreed to donate their own organs when they die.
People who aren't willing to share the gift of life shouldn't be eligible for transplants as long as there is a shortage of organs.
Anyone who wants to donate their organs to others who have agreed to donate theirs can join LifeSharers.
LifeSharers is a nonprofit network of organ donors who agree to offer their organs first to other organ donors when they die. They do this through a form of directed donation that is legal in all 50 states and under federal law. Anyone can join for free at www.lifesharers.com. LifeSharers has 3,126 members, including 39 members in Maryland.
David J. Undis
Executive Director
LifeSharers
Nashville, Tenn.
Dave Barry still funny
To the editor:
To any and all responsible for the publishing of yet another Dave Barry column: Thank you! The column is recycled many times over with us.
It has been said that the true test of the quality of writing is its having fans who read it over and over again. Dave ain't Shakespeare, but he stands that test of repeat readability with many of us.
Mary W. Haines
Hagerstown
