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Letter: Great community

To the wonderful community of Marion:

Sorry it's taken me so long to write, but wanted to finally let the people of Marion know what a tremendous community you have.

We recently spent several days visiting (some were rainy) attending the Cal Ripken State 12-and-Under Baseball Tournament. Literally everything (except the weather) went great! The tournament officials did everything they could managing the tournament. The fields were in great shape even considering the rain that delayed the tournament. I've never see anyone work so hard to get the fields ready. The grounds crew worked all night to see the fields were ready to play. The tournament had the best announcer and PA system that did an outstanding job announcing the games and also did a great job recognizing the ball players.

The host families were great! They did everything in their power to make our ball players part of their families. One family even made an appreciated donation to help us on our way to the Midwest Regional Tournament in Minnesota. Wow, these host families are special people!

The downtown and local residents were wonderful! My morning visits to the Ampride store were so much fun. I even found some good ol' boys that remembered Marion when my dad and I visited with his Goodyear Tire job in the 1960s. This certainly brought back some great childhood memories for me. The downtown was very nice and everyone was so friendly. The restaurants were especially nice for such a small town. Everywhere we visited everyone was so interested in asking about our competition and making sure our stay was perfect. The lady at the laundromat also was very helpful. I'm sorry I don't remember her name, but did a great job washing our uniforms and giving us information. I really enjoyed my morning walks through your beautiful city park. The whole community was so clean and neat.

Last, but not least, you have a top notch baseball organization! David and Diane Branson, Mike Jeffrey, Terry Edwards, Russ Cain, Casey Case, and all the others know what they're doing and did an excellent job running the tournament. They took the rain in stride and didn't let it dampen the spirits of anyone. I didn't hear a single complaint about anything and in today's world that's hard to do! The umpires did an excellent job officiating the games. There were few questioned calls, which really made the games go smooth. And, the CVL coaches and ballplayers were certainly high class! They competed with the very best sportsmanship! They are winners in every aspect!

We developed some lasting relationships during our stay and intend to visit again. My son Rhett had so much fun staying with the Ragland and Jeffrey families. I sure hope Marion can host the 13-year-old tournament next year. We would love to come back again!

Best wishes to everyone. You have a wonderful community!

Mike Flood, Coach

Independence Cal Ripken Baseball

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