It is amazing to me that this valley newspaper shows such favoritism toward anything to do with Virginia Tech.

I understand that Tech is close and I have nothing against the school. But we have a high A minor league baseball team in Salem (much closer) that has accomplished much, and yet has been given very poor coverage by this newspaper.

On Sept. 11th, the Salem Red Sox won the Southern Division championship [of the Carolina League] in a three-game sweep over the [Winston-Salem] Dash. They had struggled but overcame the odds to beat a team with a much better record. On the next morning's paper, over the Times' logo was a blurb about "Virginia Tech vs. Marshall"--nothing about the Red Sox win the night before.

You had to go to the sports section to read anything about this victory, and it was given just one column. Yet on Tuesday, after Salem played against Lynchburg [in Game 1 of] the championship and lost, there was a photo and a caption: "Salem falls in playoffs!"

The sports section had a half-page spread about the loss complete with photos. Why is bad news given more coverage than the good news?

Oh, and let's not forget Aaron McFarling's diatribe about the use of Dice-K for one game -- that got half of a page coverage, too!

The Salem Red Sox deserve better positive feedback from its own hometown paper!

If this letter gets published, it will be after the baseball championship. I wonder how the paper will cover the end?

Jane Lambert Roanoke

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