Clinton Report

Last night was the Hot Stove Banquet in Clinton. Nothing on the event except this preview of the event from Friday. That's Rattler Radio for you, a link to a story that's two days old....Oh, just get to the story.

In some ways, Saturday’s Hot Stove Banquet is the beginning of the baseball season for the Clinton LumberKings. Despite a sluggish economy, LumberKings general manager Ted Tornow is upbeat.

“We’re not seeing it like other entities … and we hope we won’t,” Tornow said of a business downturn during the recession. “We see us having another good year unless the bottom drops out. We’re losing some accounts but gaining some others. That’s no different than the past 10 years. I can only pinpoint about six accounts that have said they can’t do it (continue their business support of the LumberKings because of the economy).”

Season-ticket sales remain steady, too, he added.

“We’re literally about as even as last year,” he said. “You hear about layoffs and the economy being bad, but we’re not seeing it.”

Some of the reasons for that, according to Tornow, are that Clinton is a small, tight-knit community with a long history of professional baseball and that the franchise has kept prices lower than many others in the business.

“It (the comparatively good times for the franchise) surprises me because you read the national headlines, then you realize that this club has been around for 72 years and has been through a lot of turbulent times and is still surviving,” Tornow said.

John Boles, who was the keynote speaker at a Welcome Home Banquet a few years ago in Appleton, was the main speaker for the L-Kings last night.

If there is a report on the event, I'll have it for you by next Sunday.