Letters to Sports: Shohei Ohtani and Arte Moreno fire up Angels fans

Major kudos to Dylan Hernández’s brutal honesty about the state of the Angels. There is no doubt they have an albatross named Anthony Rendon and an annually injured Mike Trout eating up the bulk of their payroll. But he neglected to write that their greatest detriment is Arte Moreno, an owner more concerned with converting the Angels parking lot into a money maker than focusing on making the Angels competitive again.

Chuck Lucero
Thousand Oaks

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Dylan Hernández’s remark: “raise legitimate questions about whether re-signing Shohei Ohtani is smart from a baseball perspective” should permanently bar him from ever writing another column about baseball.

There is no question that signing the best player in the last hundred years is a “smart” baseball decision. The answer, one thousand times out of a hundred, is “yes.”

For you to even hint otherwise disqualifies any other baseball opinion you have.

Ray McKown
Torrance

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The Angels hire a new manager in Ron Washington, a wise and experienced baseball man. Even though Washington has not been a manager for the last nine years, it will not matter. The Angels have not made the playoffs during that time.

Washington said their goal is “to run the American League West down and you can take that to the bank.” How do the odds of the Angels achieving Washington’s goal compare with the Angels retaining two-time AL MVP Shohei Ohtani? Both remain long shots.

Wayne Muramatsu
Cerritos

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I’m shocked Arte Moreno didn’t attempt to trade for James Harden.

Barry Smith
Thousand Oaks

Since the readers last voted for the top 10 Dodgers in 2018, admitted PED user Eric Gagne moved from No. 39 to No. 25 while Ron Cey, Tommy Davis and Jim Gilliam dropped out of the top 25. Did our friends in Canada stuff the ballot box?

Ken Feldman
Tarzana

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Fernando Valenzuela at No. 10 on the all-time Dodgers list ... are you kidding me? Fernando is one of the top 10 transformative players in baseball history (ditto Jackie Robinson.) He shaped Los Angeles culture and energized a fan base like few other athletes in modern times in any sport.

Stu Foldez
Woodland Hills

So Major League Baseball owners unanimously approved the Oakland A’s move to Las Vegas after owner John Fisher giving the city a low-caliber team for years and poor faith in negotiating their stay in Oakland. It seems like the league owners are just as bad as he is.

Robert Torres
Redondo Beach

There is no doubt that Lincoln Riley is at the top of the list when it comes to offensive creativeness and the ability to recruit and develop college quarterbacks. Could it be that the offensive coordinator in him outweighs his ability to focus and act as a head coach?

The offensive coordinator’s role is to put as many points on the board as possible. The head coach’s role is to manage the entire game. There are times when it may be more beneficial to slow the game down and keep the ball away from the other team (think USC defense). Not as entertaining nor as exciting as a take-no-prisoners offensive assault but sometimes necessary to win the game.

Dwight Brandt
Huntington Beach

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Ryan Kartje’s take on Riley and the “patience” angle is wrong. USC went after Riley with one thing in mind. Return to national prominence. The instant angle for him at his early news conferences was, we intend to compete for the national championship. I don’t recall any particular sense of humility or about establishing guidelines for “eventually” bringing the program along. So now Riley has a different approach? He has no choice.

Homer Alba
Glendale

After reading UCLA mega-donor Casey Wasserman’s comment that firing Chip Kelly would be “ridiculous,” I have to wonder who is running UCLA Athletics, Wasserman or Martin Jarmond?

I’m assuming that this letter will follow UCLA’s annual drubbing at the hands of the “mighty” Trojans. Now the Bruin Faithful will see what’s really important to Jarmond: a wealthy donor’s opinion or the despair of countless Bruins who don’t bother to attend home games at the Rose Bowl and are continually frustrated with a clueless coach.

Constance Giguere
Palos Verdes Peninsula

The pathetic Pac-12 Network’s late-night game times and unavailability in many homes were major reasons that UCLA and USC bolted to the Big Ten. Late last Saturday night, because DirecTV doesn’t carry the Pac-12 Network, I was thankfully unable to watch the UCLA Bruins lose a close game to an unranked Pac-12 doormat. Next year, with the Bruins moving to the Big Ten, I’ll actually be able to watch the Bruins get annihilated week after week on major networks during prime Saturday slots. Maybe we Bruin fans should have been careful what we wished for!

Nick Rose
Newport Beach

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