Letters: They don’t play, but they’re cool

Top 10 coolest sports figures in Southland history (nonathletes):

1. Jerry Buss. Lakers owner. If you think his players look good, you should see his dates.

2. Vin Scully. Dodgers broadcaster. Best storyteller since Hemingway with a voice NFL Films would love.

3. Augie Garrido. Former Cal State Fullerton baseball coach. Won three NCAA championships and is so cool Kevin Costner wants to hang out with him.

4. Chick Hearn. Former Lakers broadcaster. Created his own language, now used in NBA.

5. John McKay. Former USC football coach. Greatest one-liners in the game.

6. Pat Riley. Former Lakers coach. Won championships in GQ fashion.

7. Jim Murray. Former Times columnist. The best writer in the land was a better man.

8. Pete Carroll. Former USC football coach. Brought vitality, passion and championships to L.A.

9. Gene Autry. Former Angels owner. How cool is it be a cowboy and the owner of a major league baseball team?

10. Phil Jackson. Lakers coach. The man of titles, NBA and books.

Pete Donovan

Palm Desert

::

Omitting John Elway from Chris Dufresne’s list is bewildering. Ask any student fortunate to go to Granada Hills High in the late 1970s (like me) who watched with amazement the numerous occasions when he scrambled for seemingly five minutes ... and would then throw a 70-yard bomb for a touchdown.

Or coming in to pitch to Darryl Strawberry at Dodger Stadium with the City baseball championship on the line and retiring him to get the save. That’s what cool is.

Howard P. Cohen

North Hills

Super stories

Regardless of what the scoreboard read at the end of Super Bowl XLV, when Ben Roethlisberger failed to rally his team in the fourth quarter, the real final score was: Karma 1, Bad Behavior Being Rewarded 0.

Richard Turnage

Burbank

: :

As a 49ers fan since 1948, I cheered for Aaron Rodgers as he led Green Bay to a Super Bowl victory. I wished so much that Rodgers could have been a 49er. I wonder if onetime GM Terry Donahue will ever apologize to 49ers fans for his draft day blunder in ignoring Rogers to take the utterly inept Alex Smith.

Warren Cereghino

Pacific Palisades

FOR THE RECORD:
Sports letters: A letter to the Sports Editor in the Feb. 12 Sports section wondered “if onetime GM Terry Donahue will ever apologize to 49ers fans for his draft day blunder in ignoring [Aaron] Rodgers to take the utterly inept Alex Smith.” Donahue was no longer general manager of the 49ers at that draft. The general manager at the time was Scot McCloughan. —

::

When I read what the NFL was giving fans who weren’t able to be seated at the Super Bowl, I thought it was a very generous offer that would certainly be appreciated. Then I read that those fans were filing a class-action lawsuit anyway, and now I hope they get the face value of their seats and nothing more. Greedy people need to be taught a lesson, whether they be owners or fans.

PJ Gendell

Beverly Hills

::

As part of next year’s Super Bowl pregame, Jeff Foxworthy should host: “Can You Sing the National Anthem Better Than a Fifth Grader?” Maybe if Christina Aguilera were to start practicing now, she might have a shot.

Larry Schatz

Moorpark

Stadium plans

T.J. Simers, amen. Thank you for getting it. When we did have the NFL here we were stuck watching the local teams’ lousy games. When they were blacked out we got fewer games and the ones we did get on television were frequently awful. Even after both teams left we were often stuck with Rams and Raiders games because the network nitwits thought we’d all want to follow them. I, like many Southern Californians, am from somewhere else. I will never be a Los Angeles fill-in-the-blank fan.

Finally, even if I were wealthy enough to attend games, I don’t want to for all the reasons you’ve cited. To paraphrase Hooters in a TV spot, “Come watch the big game with us, and if you still crave the stadium experience, we’ll be happy to stand in front of the TV and spill beer down your back.”

Liz White

Los Angeles

::

The letter about Farmers Field from Mike Kichaven shows the wisdom necessary for his being appointed to the Planning Commission. But that will never happen because he is of too sound mind and is too disconnected from the moneyed establishment, the latter of whom are the only ones pushing this endeavor solely for their own financial gains.

That area does not need any additional cause for overcrowding or destructive celebrations of wins and riots of losses.

The prospective teams and attendees would be much better served if the facility were in an outlying area that could more easily accommodate the parking and provide good logistics support at affordable prices.

Hugh T. Hoskins

Downey

::

So AEG salesman Tim “Proudly Dashing Kings’ fans’ hopes since 1995” Leiweke is surprised that Angelenos don’t trust him over the proposed NFL stadium? He blames L.A. for not approving the deal immediately by sarcastically saying, “Every other community in the world would be throwing parades.”

If you want L.A. to throw a parade, take your snake-oil act to another community. I’ll be at the front of the line with the confetti.

Isabella Watt

El Segundo

Melo out

Hell has frozen. Pigs have flown. The sun just rose in the west.

And T.J. Simers is the sports section’s voice of reason and restraint, calmly yet effectively outlining the myriad drawbacks to an Andrew Bynum-Carmelo Anthony swap. The best Bill Plaschke could do was whine that Bynum isn’t the future but he couldn’t tell us how ‘Melo is.

Didn’t Plaschke say he’d retire if this ever happened?

Cy Bolton

Rancho Cucamonga

::

Plaschke …really? Melo for Blake, sure. Melo for Shannon Brown, maybe. Melo for Bynum? Sure, and Manhattan for a bunch of beads.

John T. Lewis

Arcadia

::

The Lakers do not need another scorer, they need a true point guard and/or a banger on the boards. I’m with T.J. on this one. Bynum’s gotta stay ... for now.

Paul Shubunka Sr.

Santa Clarita

::

Somewhere Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke is sitting back laughing. With his deal to get something out of the Knicks for departing Carmelo Anthony dwindling, he resorted to the oldest trick in the book: Leak to the press that the Lakers had interest in Anthony and let the post-Super Bowl starved sports media take it from there. Voila! Not only do you get the Knicks’ attention again but you get the hated rival Lakers distracted.

George Metalsky

Redondo Beach

Short term? Bad trade. If the Lakers go up against that Buffalo stampede in Boston without Bynum, one has to seriously doubt their chances.

Long term? Possible good trade. As Kobe ages, Melo could be the next Laker superstar. Next season, the triangle is gone with Phil, and maybe, the Lakers just want a new look with more offense.

You know L.A. — gotta win with style!

Rick Solomon

Lake Balboa

::

To figure out what actually ails the Lakers would not lead one to question talent, desire, or conditioning. The answer can be found in the use of one of the basic shapes of geometry.

An ancient triangle.

Ron Greenberg

Woodland Hills

Trojan trouble

On Jan. 30, former Trojan Everson Griffen was stopped by L.A. police for “multiple traffic violations, driving with an invalid driver’s license, resisting arrest, physically attacking an officer and attempting to flee the scene on foot.” The L.A. County district attorney declined to file felony charges.

Last week USC quarterback Mitch Mustain was arrested for selling drugs to an undercover L.A. cop. Again, the D.A. declined to file felony charges.

Gee, it’s too bad for John Dillinger that he didn’t play football for USC. He could still be out there robbing banks.

John Paul White

Hemet

::

Why did USC feel the need to host an agent awareness summit? If there is one thing that seems clear, it is that USC’s “student”-athletes are all too aware of who the agents are.

Doug Thomson

West Los Angeles

Good or bad Bruins

I never thought the day would come when I would agree with T.J. Simers on any sports subject but I have to agree that the state of UCLA basketball is hard to watch. While college teams Back East sign gladiators that make runs at the hoop, UCLA has a class of beanpoles who stay planted near the hoop while three guys out front play catch outside the three-point line. The 35-second clock runs down to 10 seconds and panic starts as the guards try to force the ball inside or they throw up an off-balance shot. The result is a lot of turnovers and missed shots.

Ben Howland’s slow-tempo strategy worked when he had future NBA prospects on the team, but with the current roster he needs everyone on the court in constant movement to get off decent shots at the basket.

Jim West

Fallbrook

T.J. Simers bemoans the awful basketball game he was forced to watch last weekend between UCLA and St. John’s. True, this game featured no Abdul-Jabbar, Walton, Wicks, nor Chris Mullin or Ron Artest for St. Johns. This game simply pitted two hardworking coaches and young men in a game that was not “showtime.” Yet Simers calls the teams awful, and says he makes every effort to avoid attending UCLA games. How interesting, considering the Bruins’ recent success in reaching three NCAA Final Fours. Why does he attend a game he doesn’t want to and then denigrate the players and coaches?

Instead, we are treated to either: his ongoing soap opera theme involving his family members, or his finding ways to annoy sports figures and then carry on vendettas against them. Why does The Times consider this journalism? Why is the work of this man carried in a newspaper the size, circulation, and integrity of the Los Angeles Times?

Alf Schonbach

Santa Monica

Wrong guy

Enjoyed Grahame Jones’ article on David Beckham. It appears Galaxy/AEG management will never learn from the failed “Beckham experiment.” Entering the fifth year, 35-year-old Beckham elects to start preseason training by spending the balance of the month in England — not even the Clippers can match these theatrics. In the meantime Galaxy/AEG managers let 29-year-old, 17-goal scorer Edson Buddle slip off to Europe with the bulk of the Galaxy 2010 scoring punch!

Karl Heim

Yorba Linda

Heart of boxing

Thanks to Bill Dwyre’s poignant article on fighter Genaro Hernandez. Although I haven’t been much of a fight fan since Muhammad Ali’s retirement, Dwyre’s piece on this courageous gladiator warmed my heart. Then, to find out that Bob Arum was there to help Hernandez illustrated that fight promoters also have hearts. I’m sure that everyone who read Dwyre’s column is also in Genaro Hernandez’s corner as he battles cancer.

Dan Pellow

Westchester

Lancaster

Too much Donald

My New Year’s wish: I am looking forward to getting through an entire copy of the Los Angeles Times without seeing the smiling face of Donald Sterling.

Bill Simpson

Rancho Palos Verdes

A bad sign

So, this is the Angels’ golden anniversary? Obviously, all of the gold has gone to Vernon Wells. Just ask Jered Weaver. Since Arte couldn’t spare an extra $1.4 million for Weaver, the ace pitcher is most likely playing for Boston, Texas or the Yankees in 2013. Is this a happy anniversary?

Jack E. Oakes

Santa Ana

Yeah, right

Boy, who would’ve thought losing Zydrunas Ilgauskas would hurt the Cavaliers so much?

Harry Turtledove

Chatsworth

Revolutionary

First Zine el Abidine ben Ali of Tunisia, then Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. Surely Frank McCourt of Dodgerland is next.

Howard Cole

Studio City

::

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.

Mail: Sports Viewpoint

Los Angeles Times

202 W. 1st St.

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Fax: (213) 237-4322

E-mail:

sports@latimes.com