Baseball team needs more than tourists
Those backing Central Florida’s Major League Baseball bid will never be able to build the audience they need by depending on tourists (“Orlando Dreamers hope Orange County steps up to the plate,” June 17). A team needs hometown loyalty, not the occasional visitor who may come to one game. It will need hometown fans to enthusiastically take up loyalty to the team. That’s how baseball could succeed in Orlando.
T-shirt wearing, cheering people who are hollering for their team, through thick and thin. That’s how you build a fan base. Not with tourists who think coming to a game is the same as riding on a roller coaster. Organizers should move the site to a location that is reasonable for fans to reach, not hung out near theme parks. This could work, but I suggest you think more about drawing the local fans rather than erratic tourist fans.
S. Lee Thompson Titusville
Club World Cup doesn’t need federal security
As a lifelong soccer fan, I was shocked to hear U.S. Customs and Border Patrol may participate in “security” at the FIFA Club World Cup at Camping World Stadium and Inter&Co Stadium. They tell us we should be prepared to show papers to prove we are legally here.
Soccer is the most global of sports. It’s a poor match with Trumpist xenophobia. CBP has already scared off millions of potential tourists to the United States. Their attempt to exploit a worldwide sporting event to conduct deportations is intolerable.
I will boycott this tournament, and any subsequent ones, until FIFA and CBP call off the dogs. I would be a shame if this sort of thing ruined the 2026 World Cup.
Gerard Harbison Melbourne Beach
Whispers at the G7 summit
Ah, to be a fly on the wall at the G7 meeting while Donald Trump is not in the room.
DB Smith Lake Mary
Trump’s rhetoric led to Minn. slayings
Trump has spewed lies and hate and called for violence against his political opponents constantly since before he was first elected. “Lock her up!” Telling supporters to rough up protesters at his rallies. Calling Liz Cheney a “radical war hawk” and suggesting guns should be “trained on her face.” Calling white supremacists “very fine people.” Saying that General Mark Milley should be executed. Exhorting the crowd on Jan. 6, 2021, to march on the Capitol to “stop the steal,” then praising the attackers as patriots and calling the darkest day in our history a “day of love.” According to him, seemingly all Democrats are deranged lunatics who hate and want to destroy our country.
The coup de grace? Pardoning every single person convicted for the assault on the Capitol. Is there any doubt that the most radical of his supporters are emboldened to commit violence against his opponents? Words matter, particularly from the president and especially to the rabid base that takes his words as gospel.
I believe there is a direct connection between the violence he has fomented and encouraged and the politically motivated killings of Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota. Their blood is on his hands, and every single Republican in Congress that fails to loudly decry his incessant violent rhetoric is complicit.
Vinny D’Assaro Winter Park
Medicaid is a lifeline
As a mother who depends on Medicaid for the health of my children with special needs, it is very unfair to take it away when this economy is so hard.
Everyone is not wealthy. It’s difficult to pay the full prescription drug costs by someone who depends on heart monitors and breathing equipment. What is going on with our government?
Alexis Cave Fort Lauderdale
