Ballclub's Pullout Caps Va. Town's Run of Woes

Hazel Glenn guessed she'll go to the gym more this year. Mark Crabtree said his family is planning more trips to the lake.

While they adjust to a summer without baseball, their city is adjusting to a new economic reality, retraining textile and furniture workers for telephone and computer jobs in distribution warehouses and call centers.

City officials, meanwhile, are courting minor league teams in hopes of finding one that will be satisfied with Hooker Field.

"It's going to be lonely," said Bill Wyatt, a native who runs the main regional AM radio station and did the announcing for professional games at Hooker Field.

"But people are resigned to the fact that bad things are happening, and this was just another one."

Meanwhile, Rick Martin, head of the city's youth baseball association, said he has arranged for the kids who used to work at Hooker, selling hot dogs and popcorn to raise money for their own league, to work instead at Martinsville Speedway.

Now that the Astros are gone, the two NASCAR races -- one in spring, one in fall -- are the only major entertainment events left.

But Martinsville might be in for another blow.

Last month, NASCAR, which has been racing in Martinsville since 1948, announced that it was changing its racing schedule for next year.

Motorsports analysts say that with the industry trying to move into bigger markets, one city might be wiped off the calendar: Martinsville.