Letters: They're looking for sports world to be safe at home

March 13, 2020 4:02 PM PT

I’m as big a sports fan as anybody, but health and safety is the most important thing going for the human race. Finding a cure for the coronavirus has become our new March Madness.

Chris Sorce

Fountain Valley

Thank you, coach Andre Chevalier of Sierra Canyon. While one coach whines that telling players the season was over “was the hardest thing I’ve had to do as a coach” and another even blames God because “he didn’t want us to play,” Chevalier told his young men to man up. They had a great season and there are more important things than sports — like the health and well-being of their families and community. Maybe we all should remember that.

Jeff Heister

Chatsworth

Never did I imagine that the entire front page of the L.A. Times sports section would be an obituary.

Wayne Muramatsu

Cerritos

With the NBA suspending the rest of its scheduled games due to the coronavirus and the Dodgers looking pretty formidable, I guess we should fully expect Commissioner Rob Manfred to cancel baseball’s upcoming season and declare the Houston Astros the 2020 champions.

Hartley Fullerton

Calabasas

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA has canceled March Madness, the NBA and NHL have suspended their seasons and Major League Baseball has postponed the start of its season. But the Summer Olympics, which draws a far greater number of people from all over the world to a single venue for two weeks, is still going to go forward as planned? In Toyko, which has the largest population of any metropolitan area in the world (more than 37 million people)? I don’t think so!

Stephen A. Silver

San Francisco

Cancel the NCAA tournament? Why not May Madness?

William David Stone

Beverly Hills

LeBron James’ comment, “I ain’t playing if you don’t have the fans in the crowd,” sounded like a crybaby without any sensitivity or concern toward what’s happening in the world. If that’s his attitude, it shows he only cares about basketball, and himself, but nothing else. Very sad indeed.

Gilbert Wong

Los Angeles

If a European soccer player commits a foul, and no fans are in the stands to witness it, will the fouled player still writhe in pain on the ground?

Dave Eng

Thousand Oaks

Let’s give Rory McIlroy a tip of the golf cap for his suggestion all PGA Tour players get tested for COVID-19 and that they suspend the whole tour if any player tests positive. I often look to the high school-educated for medical advice, and admire their ability to understand the socioeconomic implications of brash statements. Who can forget Roosevelt’s and Churchill’s advice to Stalin at Yalta: “Stay in yo’ lane!”

Kevin Park

Mission Hills

This week’s submission to your letters feature is very simply stated: “I got nothing!” It’s sad but true, but hopefully we can get back to sports soon and continue to comment on the games and personalities we have grown to love and follow through the years.

Richard Whorton

Studio City

Big Bill backers

To the readers who took Bill Walton to task in last week’s letters over his, um, loquaciousness during the telecast of the UCLA-Arizona game: Please note that the “E” in ESPN refers to “Entertainment,”, while “Sports” remains a forever runner-up. And while “poor” patient Dave Pasch’s play-by-play may be riveting, it generally lacks the entertainment value that Walton often provides — in this case, his in-game history of the long line of basketball luminaries who’ve spent a night on his sofa. (In a beautiful coincidence, one of these houseguests included a current U of A assistant who had to fill in after Sean Miller’s sudden ejection).

But clearly, Ol’ 32’s Hall of Fame moment came during a routine, mid-second half half sequence in which an Arizona point guard (I’ll call him Smith) penetrated the defense. But rather than shoot, he kicked it out to a teammate (Jones) on the perimeter. As Jones swished a three, Walton, sounding as though he’d never seen such magnificence, grandly warbled, “And there goes Jones, ringing the chimes of freedom!”

You go, Billy Boy.

Mike Milligan

West Hills

Why does The Times print only negative articles about Bill Walton’s TV work? For me, a Bill Walton telecast is “must-see, appointment TV.” Walton brings joy, fun, humor, incredible insight and spontaneity to the experience! Walton gives us fascinating wisdom that he gleaned from Wooden and Ramsey, and he teaches us about the historical background of this beautiful game.

He is the perfect antidote to the mundane announcers who drone on about what we just saw.

David Waldowski

Laguna Woods

Remember when?

The inevitability of UCLA losing to USC was guaranteed after those ludicrous comparisons with Wooden (or Harrick) teams of the past. Winning seven straight is not even 10% of the record 88. I’m also guessing that winning the Pac-12 tournament for the first time since 2014 would be compared to winning 11 NCAA championships?

Michael Davidson

Altadena

I am a UCLA fan. Nonetheless, I was not all that upset with USC beating UCLA on a last-second shot. Also, I was not surprised in the least. I have been following Santa Monica High basketball for more years than I want to remember (I am 73). During the last decade, while sitting next to his mom I have watched Jonah Mathews (and his brother Jordan) hit big shot after big shot. Thus, I had little doubt how it would end as I watched Jonah bring the ball upcourt.

Mark Kaiderman

Santa Monica

Not major league

After a nearly six year absence, I once again found myself at a Galaxy home game to witness first-hand the wonder that is Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez. After watching this pathetic performance, six years was not long enough.

After witnessing a Premier League game in person a few months ago, MLS isn’t just a minor league, it is a recreational league. There’s a reason these guys play here instead of in England, Italy, Spain, etc. I am pretty sure that I could gather 11 friends of mine, regardless of whether they’ve ever played soccer before, put on a Galaxy uniform, and fool people in the stands into thinking we are a professional team.

Geno Apicella

Placentia

Game changers

Thank you for the lovely section on leading women athletes. I am saving it for my granddaughter’s visit. After the excitement of the women’s soccer championship, I took to thumbing through the sports section every day. At one point there was a two-week span where the only woman pictured was a singer who had inadvertently flashed something during a (male) basketball game. Over the past three months what is the ratio of ink space on female athletics to male athletics? A little self-examination can be healthy.

Anita Swortwood

Riverside

Christina House has blown the roof off of sports photography. Surely she needs recognition as a Game Changer, as much as the incredible female athletes whose images she captured.

Judy Cabrera

Glendale

The best they have

Here is yet another brief update on the state of the Angels’ pitching staff: The opening day pitcher is Andrew Heaney, who won all of four games last year.

Ron Reeve

Glendora

For the record

In last week’s letters, it was mentioned that John Wooden’s first NCAA championship team was his favorite. It should have been the 1964 team.

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