| Peterson a full-time Dirtbag
He played in the prestigious Cape Cod League and earned all-league honors, leading the league in hits, 52, in 42 games while hitting .338 with a .436 on-base percentage. "I pretty much took what I finished with (at Long Beach) and carried it into the summer," he said. "All I did was play first base and right field. The first half of the summer, I had a lot of extra-base hits. "I lifted more in the off-season and I feel a lot stronger and more capable of driving the ball into the gaps." Peterson had some prodigious swings last season, coming close twice to putting a ball over the center-field fence at Blair in a night game. At 400-feet away, with a persistent breeze to left and in the thick marine night air, that's an achievement as rare as a triple play. At 6-0 and 200, he may always be more of a hit machine than a pure home run hitter.
The winter of our content
But Jimmy Cone's betting there are enough who think otherwise to keep his latest business venture, Cone Farms LLC, growing. Cone — or, more precisely, his old friend Garry Koettel, who manages the farm's daily operations — raises organic heirloom tomatoes in a half-acre greenhouse just this side of Sheridan. They're a high-end, niche product, currently retailing for $5 a pound at the Fresh Market store in West Little Rock, but less than a year into things, demand is so strong that the farm's 6,000 plants can't keep up. Tomatoes aren't naturally a winter crop, of course, and those imported from warmer climates are infamous for their resemblance to cardboard. But Koettel insists that Cone Farms' 'maters are different because they are genuinely vine-ripened, not picked green and treated with ethylene gas to change their color.
Republican scramble turns to S.C.
GREENVILLE, S.C. - It's been just a little more than two weeks since Mike Huckabee's breakthrough victory in the Iowa caucuses. But the way the Republican presidential race has been going, it seems a lifetime ago. So he is eager to pick up win number two in today's South Carolina primary. And with polls showing him closing in on John McCain, Huckabee sounds increasingly confident he will be able to do it, weather permitting. While a daylong rain is predicted for most of the state, ice and snow are in the forecast for up-country South Carolina. The region is home to many of the evangelical Christians whose support is vital to Huckabee, people like the Hoyt family. "No matter the weather, I'll be voting," said Mark Hoyt, who came to hear the candidate at the technical college in Greenville, accompanied by wife Leslie and daughter Alyssa, 13, for whom seeing Huckabee was her home-school history lesson of the day.
FLASHPOINT: West Vigo center’s work has brought great improvements
On behalf of the West Vigo Community Center, I would like to thank those who have made positive change possible during the last six months at the center. Under the guidance of Interim Executive Director Teresa Herrington, new Learning Center Director Debbie Stout, a new board of directors, and many volunteers, the center is truly experiencing a "new beginning."These are some of those responsible:Danny Wayne of Midwest Communications radio and WTWO NewsChannel 2 Morning Edition advertised our Fall Fish Feast at the Grotto. Over 550 people arrived with their appetites and were not disappointed.Channel 2 also publicized activities at the center and raised community awareness about the plight surrounding our recent Children's Christmas Party. After the coverage, many people opened their hearts and their checkbooks to help provide gifts and pictures with Santa for over 250 children.The Salvation Army came to our rescue with age-appropriate toys for the children.
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