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DEAR SUN SPOTS: Museum L-A is looking to honor World War I and World War II veterans in a new display in conjunction with the existing “Roaring ’20s to Swing” exhibition.

This initiative is a partnership with the Franco-American Collection at the University of Southern Maine Lewiston-Auburn College and veterans groups planning a celebration to be held in November at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

Veterans, family, friends and collectors from the community are encouraged to bring documents, papers and photographs to be scanned at Museum L-A. The museum is also interested in individuals sharing artifacts associated with World War I and II.

Please only bring in a list of the artifacts, not the actual objects. The museum will be accepting items on Mondays and Wednesdays from 12 to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Museum L-A is located at 35 Canal St., Lewiston, in the Bates Mill Complex. Please call the museum at 333-3881 with any questions. — Kayla Obie

DEAR SUN SPOTS: In your July 23 column, two readers were asking about baseball coverage, one about the major leagues and one about the lack of Sea Dogs coverage.

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I can probably answer that for them. I’ve noticed in past years that the Sun Journal doesn’t seem to be a friend to baseball. We count ourselves lucky to get the box scores. But football, which just started its workouts, is already taking up two to three pages.

That, plus car racing, does not leave much room for baseball, unless it’s a scandal of sort, then it will be printed. During basketball season, the mount of coverage can be a couple of pages.

Baseball for many is boring, because there are no pileups, crashes or any kind of violence., but it’s still the sport that requires the most skills. Managers are responsible for dragging out a game for too long with all their pitching changes from the seventh inning on, but that is all due to the large sums of money that these pitchers are earning. They have to play them sometimes!

Our sports section has anywhere from eight to 12 pages, but five or six of these are used for classified ads. That limits coverage for sports and those who are baseball fans can see which one has the least coverage.

Finally, please ask the sports editor to explain what H-2 or H-9, etc., means in the box scores next to the pitcher’s name. I know what all the other letters stand for, but I cannot figure out what the H represents. — No Name, Lewiston

ANSWER: Sun Spots is not a sports fan, but it is part of her job when she works on the copy desk at night to proofread those pages, and she does not see the bias No Name does.

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First of all, she must note that classified ads are not part of the sports section; they just follow it. 

Also, the size of the sports section varies from day to day. During the early part of the week it is rarely more than five pages. On Sunday it’s usually eight. 

When it’s five pages, one page is used for “agate,” the compilation of sports scores in tiny print. Then, depending on the season, the remaining four pages are fairly evenly divided among the sports. 

For example, in Monday’s paper, Page C1 included one story on car racing, another on the the Red Sox game, one on track and field, and two stories on the PGA (golf) Championship. Inside, there was almost a full page of baseball results, another on tennis and the “jumps” from the front of the sports section.

Sun Spots thinks Sports Editor Justin Pelletier does as good a job as anyone could fairly sharing that space. She does not recall any sport getting two pages with the possible exception of big games, such as if the Red Sox are in the race for the pennant or the Patriots are in playoffs, as they have been for 10 of the past 12 years.

Justin is limited in what he can choose, of course, because the national coverage is dictated by what the Associated Press provides.

Local sports are a different story. The sports staff attends local high school football and basketball games, which are very popular with readers, and covers them extensively. High school baseball also gets covered, but it does not have the fan following of the other two.  

As for H, Justin said that it means “hold.” It indicates how a relief pitcher did holding down the scoring by the opposing team after he’s put into the game.

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Please include your phone number. Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be emailed to [email protected].

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