Letters: Hot Dodgers are always a hot topic

Rob Manfred cartoon using Pete Rose as a piñata.

April 17, 2021 3:15 PM PT

Through Kenley Jansen, Dave Roberts is redefining baseball. Rather than bringing in a pitcher to close out a game, he brings in Kenley to make the game closer.

Todd Andrews
La Cañada

I was worried the Dodgers wouldn’t be the same without Kiké’s hustle and Joc’s pop, but this McKinstry kid is so fun to watch, he’s putting both those guys in the rearview mirror. And now with Betts and Bellinger missing games, Holy Rookie-of-the-Year, he fills in and the team doesn’t skip a beat!

Anthony Moretti
Lomita

Testing and vaccinating at Dodger Stadium has helped the fight against the coronavirus. But Opening Day was a whole new Dodger Stadium coronavirus ballgame. Fans were supposed to wear masks and stay socially distanced. The photo on the bottom of the front page of last Saturday’s sports section shows otherwise. Time will tell how many fans left with an unwanted souvenir.

Michael Pollack
Los Angeles

The Dodgers lied to me. The Dodgers have lied to us all. I thought I was one of the fortunate ones to attend a game during the first homestand. I thought the Dodgers would look out for our health and safety. I was wrong. People around us refused to wear a mask. When I complained to the negligible amount of ushers or security inside the stadium, they literally told me there was nothing they could do. Shame on the Dodgers management and shame on stadium operations.

Tina Sanchez-Barrow
Los Angeles

To whom it may concern and Dylan Hernández:

I am extremely doubtful that Fernando Valenzuela will get his day in Cooperstown.

Yes, he was extremely successful in his early days, but he was unsuccessful in his later years and that is what will hurt his chances.

Dylan’s “A pitch for Valenzuela in Hall of Fame” may bring nostalgia for some. I give it three strikes.

Jonathan Goldstein
La Jolla

If Ross Stripling imagines Sandy Koufax as a modern-day better Rich Hill, then I imagine Ross Stripling knows nothing about anything. He’d better improve upon his own pitching because he obviously has no future in podcasts or anything else calling for knowledgeable opinions. Even Clayton Kershaw cannot imagine just how utterly dominant Sandy was during his run in the ’60s, including the postseason, of course.

Allan Kandel
Los Angeles

Madness leftovers

Although I believe Johnny Juzang and Jaime Jaquez both possess NBA skills, I do believe another year or two of seasoning would be in their best interest. Over the last 12 years, we have seen what has happened to Malcom Lee, Tyler Honeycutt, Jordan Adams, Shabazz Muhammad, T.J Leaf, Ike Anibogu and Moses Brown.

Joseph Almeida
Santa Barbara

While not intending to rain on Martin Jarmond’s and UCLA basketball’s postseason optimism, the ancient truism that past results do not guarantee future performance must be new to the Bruin AD and fellow UCLA fanatics. On the other hand, maybe the glad spirit will rub off on Charles Kelly and that awful UCLA football program.

Lawrence Martin Kates
Los Angeles

Ben Howland went to the Final Four three times in a row from 2006-08. He was fired within five years. Mick Cronin gets there once and he wants a banner hung at Pauley, not concerned at all about blowing all those leads late in the season. Be humble, Mick, keep your feet on the ground, thank Johnny Juzang for transferring in, learn to wear your mask and you may eventually build the legacy you proclaim.

Dave Lynch
Fullerton

I thought the full-page ad from UCLA in the sports section of the Sunday Times was well done and tasteful — until I read it, and saw, just below “Pauley Pavilion presented by Wescom,” that the athletic director and coach had apparently also sold naming rights to their names.

Jerry Tillett
Van Nuys

Football rules

Allowing football while other activities like cheer, band and dances is not celebratory — it is even more cruel. It is hypocritical. Music and the arts can also be done safely. We all suspected that the only sport that educators cared about was football — the only sport also proven to harm kids for the rest of their lives through injury and brain trauma.

Instead of celebrating the return to something more harmful to young people than COVID-19, we can be planning and celebrating healthy and uplifting art. Priorities matter.

Caroline Shining
Culver City

OK to yell it?

Just read the article on Sebastian Lletget of the Galaxy apologizing for the use of an “anti-gay insult” that is also commonly heard shouted at opposing players at the games of a national team that The Times described as “America’s Team” just a week ago.

I am trying to reconcile what The Times is trying to say. It is one thing if a player says it but it is fine if tens of thousands say it? Or is this a sly way to get us to dislike that team as much as we dislike the Dallas Cowboys? (We already do).

Brandon Martin
La Verne

Future is when?

Hey Helene Elliott, enough with phony Kings cheerleading. It’s very apparent you’ve been drinking too much of frugal Rob Blake’s Kool-aid. I can say with 99% certainty that I speak for all Kings fans and that we’re sick and tired of waiting for “the future” that never seems to come.

Let me remind Kings management of something. We don’t play in some small market city like Carolina, Phoenix or Florida. The Kings play in arguably the entertainment capital of the world. Fans (pre-covid) pay a hefty price for tickets to attend games. We have 2 Stanley Cup banners hanging in the rafters. We don’t want a lengthy rebuild that never ends and even worse we don’t want a management regime that refuses to spend any money to acquire players that will push them into contender status.

Donald Niren
Walnut

Good timing

How apropos that a Japanese golfer won a major golf tournament during a period of unprecedented anti-Asian protests. And of all the majors the Masters, known as much for its racist membership policies as its tournament, makes Hideki Matsuyama’s victory all the more historic!

Mark S. Roth
Los Angeles

The association

Can’t figure out why the Lakers’ organization allows third-party brokers to scoop up whatever portion of seats that finally became available for their games. So have fun, Boston and Utah fans buying and watching your teams mop up victories over a depleted Lakers squad. And I hope these brokers get stuck with their premium seats.

George Hynes
Arcadia

When Dan Wolke wrote about Lakers coach Frank Vogel mourning the loss of his mentor Bob “Slick” Leonard, I believe he neglected to mention that Leonard was one of the original Los Angeles Lakers when they came to town in 1960. He played behind rookie Jerry West, and made big contributions off the bench. Ironic the same day he passed away the Lakers were playing in Indiana, where Leonard spent many years coaching after his NBA playing career was over.

Richard Whorton
Studio City

As a Laker fan of 50 years, the firing of former Boston Celtic Paul Pierce from ESPN is the long overdue karma finally coming around to offset his “wheelchair injury” and his subsequent “miraculous recovery” against the Lakers in the 2008 Finals.

David Pietrasanta
Encino

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