Letters: Fans want a new Blue, all right

Check any correct answer to the following question: What is 42?

a) the number worn by Jackie Robinson when he played with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

b) a movie about Robinson’s courage in breaking baseball’s color barrier in 1947.

c) the number of games the Dodgers will win this season.

Doug Thomson

West Los Angeles

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Perhaps the Dodgers should just put everybody on the disabled list and call it a season.

Sterling Buckingham

Canyon Country

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I finally figured out what the Dodgers’ motto this year means. Last year the Dodgers finished nine games behind the Giants and this year it looks like they’ll finish nine games behind the Padres in last place. That’s a whole new Blue!

William Michael

Dana Point

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Are we still supposed to believe Don Mattingly is a major league manager? Aside from the fact that he is a (gag) Yankee, he is becoming baseball’s version of a cross between Mike Brown and Mike D’Antoni. I know it’s “early.” Remember when the Lakers were 0-10 in the preseason and horrible at the beginning of the regular season? Of course you remember. It’s early. Nothing to worry about, right?

Lifeless, listless, mundane and punchless are just a few words to describe the “new Blue.”

Jesse Rodriguez

Los Angeles

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Gee, I must have missed the latest story about Adrian Gonzalez. You know, the one where he voluntarily rewrites his contract for a lower amount since he is now a line drive hitter rather than the power first baseman the Dodgers thought they were getting.

Ken Blake

Brea

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What do Ned Colletti, Jerry Dipoto, and Jim Buss have in common? They turn winners into losers and know how to spend big dollars on overpaid/underachieving players.

Sanford Forman

Torrance

The good news

Bill Plaschke’s touching story about a terminally ill Dodgers fan highlights two manifest truths: the generosity and kindness of Matt Kemp’s heart and the societal value of professional sports.

Tragically, a young man, Joshua Jones, may have only a short time to live. Fortunately, Mr. Kemp and the Dodgers were able to brighten his remaining days.

Konrad Moore

Bakersfield

Back to bad news

Mr. Moreno, the sounds you hear coming from east of the Rockies are the chuckles from Torii Hunter, Vernon Wells and Maicer Izturis.

Werner Haas

West Hollywood

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Let’s face it; the Angels stink, pure and simple. It starts at the top with a delusional owner and his subordinates who have squandered the team’s future for the next five to 10 years with bloated contracts for has-been superstars, destroyed the farm system, and traded away some of their best players for nothing in return. They also retain a manager on a long-term $50-million contract who should have been fired years ago.

All the fans get is false hope, excuses and dreams of better times. As an Angels fan of more than 50 years, I’ve had it with this fiasco.

Joe Bonino

Glendale

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Is it time to call it? I think so. The Los Angeles Angels are cursed. No matter how many random superstars they sign to enormous contracts, it just keeps getting worse. Turns out, a team identity built on a lie that fools no one is not a basis for success.

The Anaheim Angels? That team was a winner. I’d like to root for them again.

Kelly McCourt

Laguna Beach

NBA still going?

Anyone else bemused by the fact that while the Lakers sit home watching the playoffs, their future uncertain and potentially in disarray, castoff Derek Fisher continues to hit tough shots in crucial moments for a championship contender? Leadership and grit, two things you just don’t see on paper or a stat sheet.

Frank Shapiro

Chatsworth

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Thanks to Bill Dwyre for his column on the NBA and rugged style of play. I used to be a huge basketball fan but rarely watch anymore as the game has evolved into something very different from its original design. Basketball was never meant to be a contact sport.

If players are bigger and better than ever, why are scores lower than ever? Going by the letter of the law, a foul could be called on almost any play. Both sides are guilty in all of the collisions.

And don’t get me started on the excruciatingly slow final minute or two of a game.

Ken Christensen

Los Osos

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Dwyre is exactly correct: The NBA is a more like a circus than a sport, but it’s entertainment, and people like to be entertained. As long as people keep paying for those overpriced tickets, the NBA, the players, and the referees willing to keep churning out the theatrics — they are earning their millions just like any other self-respecting silver-screen actors.

Chet Chebegia

Long Beach

Painful memory

Mike Hiserman’s son Matt was lucky [May 6]. The line drive that struck me flush right above the right ear caused massive damage. Multiple brain surgeries followed and the joyful life I had was gone. One day I am a junior pre-med major at the University of San Diego and 20 days later, mostly in a coma, I was being retaught the alphabet and how to tie my shoes.

It has been almost 24 years since that dreaded Sept. 23, 1989 day and although I am happy to have each day, it will continue to be a lifelong struggle. I simply have one question about what is happening. Why does someone have to die before common sense takes over?

Adam Schwindt

Torrance

Ho hum

The reason hockey does not have more local fans [Ho Hum About Hockey,” May 4] is that no one played it growing up. Who hasn’t played football, basketball, and baseball? Tennis, golf, even bowling get a thousand times more attention than hockey. It’s not because there isn’t a lot of scoring, nor does it have anything to do with the fighting, or the lack of bling in the locker room or the absence of Twitter scandals, as Mr. Wharton suggests. We don’t watch hockey because we can’t relate to it. Few of us have any idea how difficult or easy it is to play the game so we have no appreciation of it. You don’t watch sports that you can’t play.

Steve Marchillo

Claremont

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The head scratching of “Ho hum about hockey” misses out on the obvious. As much as the avid hockey fans love the fighting, the general sports fans hate it and consequently people like me that love baseball, football and basketball will never be fans of hockey. It’s an awful example for kids and it will be stopped only when someone gets killed and Congress steps in. Stop the violence and gain fans; leave it as it is and maintain the small but avid base.

Bob Tiernan

Newport Beach

Collect this

I know just how Kobe feels and he has a right to sue his mother for selling his childhood stuff. My mother told me she lost my six mint Roberto Clemente baseball cards and my Bill Mazeroski autographed photo of his walk-off home run for the 1960 World Series champion Pirates against the Yankees. I too suspected she just wanted money to go to Las Vegas. How ungrateful!

Kevin H. Park

Encino

Horse sense

Demolition of legendary racetrack + tons of parking - usual logistical drama for construction funding, environmental reports, etc. + NFL team = Hollywood Park Stadium.

Well, L.A. fans can dream, can’t they?

Mark J. Featherstone

Windsor Hills

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