Baseball - Our nation's pastime. An American tradition that has been carried out for years. A game bringing fathers and sons closer together in the wide open fields of serenity. A game that has been in the hearts of Auburnians since Falcon Park's construction in 1995. Falcon Park has become a place for friends to congregate during the hot summer nights.

A place for drunks to drink endlessly until their eyes glaze over and their ability to drive is so drastically impaired that they hop into their cars and drive off into the night.

As a long-time guest of the Auburn Doubledays, I have attended a majority of home games since the field's opening 12 years ago (I was 5).

Since then I have seen a repetition of events every Thursday night, aka Dollar Thursday, people intoxicated to levels severely above the legal blood-alcohol content of .08 and driving off as if they are completely sober with the police staff, who walk the park and direct people through the crosswalks, stand by and do nothing.

People's lives are being put at risk because of the drunks who are driving these dangerous machines are too impaired to even know their right from left.

And why is this happening? Because the Doubledays management continues to sell dollar draft beers to everyone with a wristband so they can drink in innumerable quantities. I have personally seen one person drink 15 beers in one night.

This is ridiculous. Dollar Thursday is a tradition for the Doubledays so keep it going, all I ask is that people's lives are taken into consideration and the dollar beers be eliminated and charged regular prices on Thursdays. Or, monitor a person's intake of alcohol and cut them off at a certain point.

The more drunk drivers on the road, the more lives threatened. What will it take for people to listen, a drunk driver to kill a young boy?

Should we wait for a tragedy to occur, or attempt to prevent one? One less drunk driver is a van-filled family alive.

Richard Smith

Auburn