Letters to Sports: Dodgers continue to confound fans

The way injuries have been mounting for the tissue paper Dodgers this season, maybe they should refrain from the silly wiggle dances when they get their big hits, so nobody gets hurt!

Robert Torres
Redondo Beach

::

I’ve lost track of how many Dodger runners have beat a throw to the bag but ended up out because their foot was up in the air during the tag. Earlier this week it was Mookie Betts at home.

Doesn’t anybody teach the hook slide anymore? If you slide to the right side and reach for the bag [or plate] with your left foot, you can keep your foot on the ground since your right leg isn’t under your left.

It’s cost them a couple games this year at least. Let’s hope they learn how to do it right before it costs them a critical loss in the postseason.

Roger Zuch
Tujunga

::

The thinking of Miguel Rojas as reported by Mike DiGiovanna (“A stress test in the west might be best”) is logical and could find the battle-tested Dodgers a champion overcoming the recent postseason flops against the Padres and Diamondbacks.

Mark Sherwin
Los Angeles

::

The Dodgers DFA’d clubhouse leader Jason Heyward, who has some power and fields well, to bring up the .167 hitting Chris Taylor? Wow. Not smart Dodgers.

David Baker
Santa Clarita

Like music to the ears

Our ears were refreshed when Rick Monday was called into duty in the TV booth recently. It was so refreshing to hear a voice that knew how to be a companion in the booth. Gone was all the jabbering and minutia that was presented, and only the important information was conveyed to the fan. My only wish is that Rick is placed in the booth as a color TV analyst and Orel Hershiser returns to where he belongs on the radio.

Marty Olinick
West Hills

MLB or ILB?

Baseball headlines read like a medical chart. Tyler Glasnow is the latest injured Dodger. Jazz Chisholm just signed with the Yankees and he’s on the injured list.

Braves’ superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. is out for the season, as is the Brewers’ Christian Yelich.

The Mets lost pitcher Edwin Díaz in 2023 because of an injury at the World Baseball Classic.

And people wonder why MLB has banned players on active rosters from competing at the Olympics too.

Adam Silbert
New York City

Bronze or bust

I agree with Bill Plaschke about as often as it snows here this time of year, but he is correct with his advice to Jordan Chiles and the International Olympic Committee. She needs to tell one of the most corrupt organizations the same thing Reggie Bush should have told the equally corrupt NCAA when it wanted his Heisman: Do something to yourself that is physically impossible to do. If the IOC insists on it back, Chiles should repeat the same thing Max Muncy told Madison Bumgarner, after Bumgarner gave up a tape-measure shot to the Dodger player, who stood and admired it: “Go get it out of the ocean!”

Erik Schuman
Fountain Valley

::

As amazing and spectacular as the 2024 Paris Olympics truly was, it was not without blunders and miscalculations by the IOC officials. How embarrassing to hear and watch worldwide the reactions when Jordan Chiles was stripped of her bronze medal. Bottom line, Chiles’ score was corrected and that’s what counts. Plaschke’s right, stop the bullying and racial slurs, keep the medal, Jordan, you earned it.

We can do better than this for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

Joan Fingon
Ventura

Enemy territory

A statue of Archie Griffin at the Rose Bowl? The next thing should be honoring Anthony Davis at Notre Dame Stadium.

David Marshall
Santa Monica

Isn’t it ironic

Well that’s funny. A reader writes to thank you for the “fantastic daily email newsletter during the Paris Olympics” and suggests that more of this “spirited reporting” might mean that “big-city newspapers will not go extinct after all.” Clearly irony is dead.

Gene Axelrod
Huntington Beach

Back to school

Former head coach Pete Carroll is returning to USC and has been confirmed to teach. Just one question, will Lincoln Riley be enrolled in his class?

Wayne Muramatsu
Cerritos

The Los Angeles Times welcomes expressions of all views. Letters should be brief and become the property of The Times. They may be edited and republished in any format. Each must include a valid mailing address and telephone number. Pseudonyms will not be used.

Email: [email protected]