DOCK DOGS Carolina Dock Dogs, the annual competition featuring “flying dogs,” hits the Old Gilliam Mill Park this weekend and is open to the public. For more on the events, turn to Page 3A. WESLEY BEESON/ The Sanford Herald
The Sanford Herald SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010
SANFORDHERALD.COM • 50 CENTS
SANFORD HOSTS QUICKBALL TOURNAMENT
OUR STATE
Cooper: SBI move not related to review At event in Sanford, state AG comments on personnel changes By BILLY LIGGETT bliggett@sanfordherald.com
WESLEY BEESON/The Sanford Herald
Michael Lownes (left), 8, and Zachary Conner (right), 9, work together to catch pop flies at third base during Badges for Baseball Quickball Tournament at the Boys and Girls Club of Sanford on Friday afternoon.
PLAY BALL, QUICKLY Hundreds take part in state tournament for new sports craze By BILLY LIGGETT
ONLINE
bliggett@sanfordherald.com
SANFORD — No manager’s trips to the mound. No adjusting your batting gloves between each pitch. No warm-ups. No walks. No pickoff attempts. In others words, none of that “filler” that makes baseball so time consuming and ... ahem ... boring to today’s kids. The game is called Quickball, and the point is to keep the game going — a nonstop version of baseball for a generation of kids more likely to play a video game than join a baseball league. But there’s a hidden agenda to Quickball — getting kids in shape and getting them interested in the “concept” of baseball. The 10-year-old North Carolina-born sport made its way to Sanford Friday as 10 teams from across the state converged for a tournament sponsored by the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation’s Badges for Baseball, a program that gets young people and law enforcement officers on the same field and (hopefully) on
Vol. 80, No. 179 Serving Lee, Chatham, Harnett and Moore counties in the heart of North Carolina
See a photo gallery of Friday’s Quickball Tournament at the Boys & Girls Club in Sanford at our website, sanfordherald.com. Also, click on this story at our website to see a video of the history and rules of Quickball, created by the USA Quickball league and Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation.
SANFORD — On a day he was in Sanford to promote youth baseball, Attorney General Roy Cooper was taking his own fastballs Friday in the form of questions on his decision to replace his director of the State Bureau of Investigations. Cooper announced Thursday that Cooper he’s moving SBI Director Robin Pendergraft to senior deputy attorney general for Medicaid fraud, replacing her with Greg McLeod, who has worked as Cooper’s legislative liaison. The move came after Cooper asked two former assistant directors of the FBI to look into practices at the state crime lab, which
See Cooper, Page 7A
QUICKREAD IMMIGRATION
WHAT’S QUICKBALL?
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper throws out the ceremonial first pitch to kick off Badges for Baseball Quickball Tournament at the Boys and Girls Club of Sanford on Friday afternoon. the same page. Sanford was chosen because of its central location, according to Boys & Girls Clubs of Lee County’s middle school director Timir Cox, but the city has also become a hot spot for the new sport. “It’s a game that helps kids develop a love for baseball,” Cox said. “The kids here love it.”
HAPPENING TODAY n Applebee’s in Sanford will partner with the Sprott Christian Youth Center to host a Flapjack Fundraiser. Proceeds raised will help the Moncure community renovate their youth center. Breakfast begins at 7 a.m., and tickets are $7. CALENDAR, PAGE 2A
FRANKENSTEIN OF A GAME The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation has been responsible for getting Quickball its national exposure, but the game was actually created in WinstonSalem by brothers Chris and Keith Mackie, both of whom were on hand for Friday’s tournament in Sanford. The game came out of the
See Quickball, Page 6A
According to the official Quickball website, Ripken Quickball is a “national enhancement program introduced in 1999” that has developed into one of the fastest-growing recreational baseball programs in the country, currently played by thousands of elementary, middle school, high school and college students across the country. Quickball’s mission: make baseball more fun and easier to play, regardless of the player’s skill level. RULES, Page 6A
High: 88 Low: 68
POLICE CONTINUE FIGHT DESPITE RULING Lost in the hoopla over Arizona’s immigration law is the fact that state and local authorities for years have been doing their own aggressive crackdowns in the busiest illegal gateway into the country Page 10A
TO INFORM, CHALLENGE AND CELEBRATE
INDEX
More Weather, Page 10A
OBITUARIES
D.G. MARTIN
Sanford: Donald Clayton Sr., 65; Richard Davenport Sr.; Mollie Duncan, 49; Sandy Hooper, 67; Robert Sanderlin, 73
NASCAR is still wildly popular in North Carolina despite its rating drop
Page 4A
Abby, Graham, Bridge, Sudoku............................. 5B Classifieds ....................... 8B Comics, Crosswords.......... 7B Community calendar .......... 2A Horoscope ........................ 5B Obituaries......................... 5A Opinion ............................ 4A Scoreboard ....................... 4B