Member
North Carolina Press Association
Vol. 108 No. 46
By GARY STEWART
Editor of the Herald
Kings Mountain's Tony Cloninger, bullpen
coach for the world champion New York Yankees,
says he experienced a lot of mixed emotions dur-
ing the Yankees' drive to the American League
pennant and come-from-behind victory over his
former team, the Atlanta Braves, in the World
| Series.
Some of those emotions were caused by the
match-up of the teams, but most by the memories
of his deceased wife, Betty Plonk Cloninger, who
was Tony's and the Yankees' #1 fan and attended
all the Yankees' home games before contracting
cancer during the 1994 season.
"She was my angel in the outfield. I could feel
her presence,” says Cloninger, who has developed
the top bullpen in the major leagues for the
Yankees. "It was hard for me to really enjoy the
playoffs and World Series, although I know that's
what she would have wanted. But knowing what
a great fan she was and how she loved the
Yankees, it was tough to really get excited and en-
joy it like I know that she would have wanted me
to."
Cloninger said Betty built a closeness with all
of the Yankees' wives, and the Cloningers had a
special relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Wade
Boggs. Boggs, who has experienced a tremendous
career at third base for the Red Sox and Yankees,
was also a part of a World Championship for the
first time.
"Wade Boggs' wife grabbed me and was hold-
a lot of meanings for me,
"ing to the Boggs' too. W:
"Election change
on city's agenda
: The amending of the city
charger to modify election pro-
cedures is on the agenda for
Tuesday night's City Council
.meeting at 7:30 p.m. at City
"Hall.
The amendment, if passed,
will establish a bipartisan elec-
tion by simple plurality and
abolish the Kings Mountain
Elections Board.
. The board's action would
have to meet approval of the
U.S. Justice Department.
The charter change would
mean that no run-offs would be
permitted. The top vote-getter
for each elected office would
win. In event of a tie, the win-
ner would be decided by the
luck of the draw.
If the amendment passes, the
Cleveland County Board of
Elections will run the elections.
No one spoke in opposition
to the charger change at the re-
cent public hearing by City
Council. KM Elections Board
Chairman Becky Cook, who
suggested the change, said the
See City, 3-A
Billy Bridges is a special little boy
This is the Thanksgiving season, but every day
is Thanksgiving for Helen and Butch Barnette.
They are thankful for the 5 1/2 years they've
had with their grandson, Billy Bridges. And Billy
is thankful for them for accepting him as their
own despite health problems which began on the
day of his birth and will be with him all the days
of his earthly life.
Billy, who will be six on February 1, has spent
about as much time in the hospital as he has at
home. He was born with Ellis Van Creveld dis-
ease, a very rare and terminal disease which, in
layman's terms, prevents his chest cavity and
limbs from maturing. He weighs only 32 pounds.
Billy spent the first nine months of his life in
Carolinas Medical Center, and he is in and out of
the hospital very frequently. In fact, he has been
at CMC five times in the last six weeks. Doctors
originally thought Billy would live no longer than
six months to a year, and they and others doubt-
ed he would ever leave the hospital.
Since he is fed by G-tubes, has had nine central
IV lines and requires oxygen to breath, he is high-
ly susceptible to germs. A common cold or fever
which most of us would just live with can cause
him a myriad of health problems.
But through it all, Billy never complains. In
fact, he seems to be more worried about others
ing me and telling me how happy Betty would
have been," said Cloninger. "The World Series had
and it had a lot of mean-
ade had on one,
era
ERE)
ANGEL IN THE OUTFIELD
Yankee bullpen coach Tony Cloninger said he felt
Betty's presence during playoffs and World Series
before. With me getting from the bullpen to the
mound and with him grabbing me and holding
me and tears running down his cheek was a real
exciting thing." j
Winning the Series over the Braves was excit-
ing for Cloninger and Yankee skipper Joe Torre.
Cloninger was the ace pitcher and Torre the start-
ing catcher for the Braves when they moved from
Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966.
"Somebody asked me in the middle of the sea-
son when I was home for a day for the all-star
break, if we won it and I had a choice who would
I want to play in the Series," Cloninger recalled. "I
said Atlanta, because they have the best ball club.
You always feel like if you're going to have a
chance to win you want to beat the best team in
baseball. They have the best starting pitchers in
baseball, and it's hard to take that away from
them."
The key to the championship, though, was not
the starting pitching, but the relief pitching, and
that's where Cloninger's staff was superior. The
Yankees received outstanding pitching through-
out the season by the middle inning relief pitch-
ers and closers, and they were unbeatable in the
playoffs and Series.
No one was happier than Cloninger when clos-
er John Wettland was named the World Series
MVP.
"I am close to all of the pitchers and the play-
ers," Cloninger said, "but I was especially close to
John Wettland. We had a lot of routines that we
went through every day. It was a closeness that
Gary
Stewart
Editor
than himself.
Because he has been "stuck" so many times for
IV lines, it's often difficult for a nurse to "find" a
vein. Although Billy must be going through
tremendous pain, he will tell the nurse "I'm so
sorry. Don't worry about it, tty the other arm.”
Even though Billy has 18 hours a day nursing
through Medicaid, Mrs. Barnette is responsible
for him at other times and is often up all hours of
the day and night even when nurses are on duty.
Sometimes it's impossible for one person to han-
dle the difficult tasks necessary for a child on life
support. She never gets eight hours of sleep.
When Billy sees his grandmother, whom he
calls Mommy, is tiring out he tells her she "needs
some rest."
Billy may have a lot of physical problems, but
7]
Thursday, November 21, 1996
- Whether I'm with him again as a coach or not,
Betty passed away. I can't say enough about him."
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TONY CLONINGER
his mechanics and the hitters he was going to be
facing.
* "But the best thing I can say about John
Wettland is he's probably one of the best men I've
ever known in baseball. He is a Christian man -
he lives the life. It's not that he's not one of the
best competitors I've ever been with, but John
Wettland has made an impression on my life.
he'll always be close to my heart. I'll never forget
him, He helped me a lot getting through after
See Cloninger, 7-A.
Blanton
annual Holiday
Cooking section
Molly Blanton, 17-year-old
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Council puts
utility issue
in the past
City Attorney Mickey Corry told City Council
Thursday that the city of Kings Mountain is not
on solid legal ground to pursue the collection of
13 utility accounts that were under-billed incor-
rectly by the city.
"This matter has been on the back burner for
several years and I'm proud Council decided to
tackle it, take the attorney's advice, and move
on," said Mayor Scott Neisler after the special
meeting.
Computer glitches were blamed for the errors
discovered during an audit of the city's electrical
accounts by a Charlotte firm in 1994, Neisler said.
‘Because the Statute of Limitations has run out,
the city could have collected only $60,000, Neisler
explained.
"We charge off about $70,000 in bad debts each
year and this is not bad for a city with a $20 mil-
lion budget," he said.
Interim Finance Director Dan Stone said the
$60,000 loss can't be considered a "bad debt" be-
cause no one was ever billed.
Stone, who conducted the audit as head of his
Charlotte consulting firm, said that the audit also
uncovered over-billings of several customers. He
said that all customers over-billed for utilities
have been reimbursed through credit of their
electricity accounts.
"The utility statutes protect the consumer be-
cause when a city makes an error in billing the
city can.only go back a year in collecting from its
error," he said. "This was clearly the city's prob-
lem and no fault and no wrongdoing of cus-
tomers."
K
READING ON A RAINY DAY - Monday's rain forced a lot of Kings Mount
These young people took the opportunity to read at Mauney Memorial Library. Left to right are
Josh Terry, 12, Jermaine Smith, 12, and Antonio Smith, 11.
he is very intelligent and at a very young age he
is learning some valuable lessons about life. He
appreciates the people who care for him, he's con-
cerned about them, and he loves to go to church
and talk about Jesus.
He started kindergarten in August and loves
his homebound teacher. He's making a lot of
progress, but sometimes his education takes a
ain people indoors.
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry
Blanton and a senior at Kings
Mountain High School, will
represent KMHS in the 49th
Carolinas’ Carrousel parade
Thanksgiving Day at 1 p.m. in
Charlotte.
Loonis McGlohon, interna-
tionally known pianist/com-
poser who played with such big
bands as Jimmy Dorsey and the
music director of WBTV when
it first went on the airways in
1949, will be the Grand
Marshal. The North
Mecklenburg High School
Marching Vikings will be the
Honor Band.
The Carolinas’ Carrousel is a
four-day Thanksgiving and hol-
iday celebration topped off by
the parade through downtown
Charlotte which involves scores
of floats, clowns, novelty units,
and some of the finest bands in
the region.
Drawing from the 22 county
Metrolina region, the Carrousel
attracts more than 150,000 indi-
viduals lining the streets and a
quarter million who watch from
their homes via two telecasts on
WBTV.
MOLLY BLANTON
Founded in 1947 by four local
business leaders, the Carolinas’
Carrousel was originally de-
signed to attract holiday shop-
pers to Charlotte. Since then,
the Carrousel has become a
showcase for the region, pro-
moting economic development,
quality of life, and academic
and artistic excellence from stu-
dents across the Carolinas.
See Blanton, 11-A
back seat when health problems require hospital-
ization.
Doctors tell the Barnettes that as Billy gets old-
er the problems will come more frequently and it
will become increasingly more difficult for him to
bounce back. The five illnesses in the past six
weeks have taken a heavy toll on little Billy and
his grandparents. They would love to stay by his
side every minute of the day, but they must care
for him and work too. Mrs. Barnette is an LPN at
Kings Mountain Hospital and Mr. Barnette works
at Doran Textiles.
Although they're thankful to have nursing and
other necessities that Medicaid provides, there
are a lot of things that Medicaid does not pay for.
For instance, the electricity required for someone
to run life support equipment 24 hours a day
causes one's normal electricity bill to increase by
several hundred percent. Because constant con-
See Billy, 2-A
Billy Bridges blows a kiss to the photogra-
pher. The 5 1/2-year-old has terminal illness
but makes everyone else's day brighter.
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