{"id":59508,"date":"2025-07-12T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-12T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/59508\/"},"modified":"2025-07-12T12:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-12T12:00:10","slug":"letters-to-sports-folks-are-singing-the-dodger-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/59508\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to Sports: Folks are singing the Dodger blues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lately, while watching the Dodgers play<\/a>, losing streak and all, I am reminded of something the great Benoit Benjamin once said: \u201cBad team, man. Bad [bleeping] team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brian Lipson
Beverly Hills<\/p>\n

The signing of closer Tanner Scott will go down as the worst in Dodgers history. It\u2019s even worse than the signing of outfielder Michael Conforto. Scott has already blown six saves, has two losses and has an ERA creeping up to 4.00. He is the third-highest paid relief pitcher in history. What makes his signing far worse than Conforto\u2019s is the fact the Dodgers are stuck with him for four seasons.<\/p>\n

Geno Apicella
Placentia<\/p>\n

After beating up on cupcakes \u2014 Colorado, Kansas City, Chicago White Sox \u2014 in the previous nine games, the Houston Astros came to town<\/a> and showed the Dodgers how a good team plays. Even more disturbing was manager Dave Roberts\u2019 continued mismanagement of his pitching staff. On top of his inept pitching decisions, Roberts actually sought to have the weak-hitting Michael Conforto pinch-hit on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Roberts is too prone to cede games when his team falls behind by allowing clearly ineffective pitchers to stay on the mound. Enough already. Replace Roberts with a manager who actually understands the nuances of the game. With their prodigious talent, the Dodgers should not be swept in a series. And they certainly shouldn\u2019t be outscored 29-6 over three games.<\/p>\n

Brian Gura
Redondo Beach<\/p>\n

Ten runs in six games! That must be a new low for the Dodgers. Although Shohei Ohtani is leading the league in home runs, he is not even in the top 10 in RBIs. This is what comes from having him hit leadoff. It makes no sense. Did any of the great home run hitters ever hit leadoff?<\/p>\n

Mike Schaller
Temple City<\/p>\n

Messed-up Mookie<\/p>\n

Regarding \u201cHe\u2019s (Ohtani) swinging to get his balance back<\/a>.\u201d What about Mookie Betts? His offensive production is way off since he switched to the more physically demanding position of shortstop. Why not move Mookie back to right field (where he won multiple gold gloves) to get his offensive output back to his lofty standards? Play Tommy Edmon at shortstop, Hyeseong Kim at second, with Miguel Rojas as backup. Now you have three great arms in the outfield while improving the infield defense. Just a thought.<\/p>\n

Michael N. Antonoplis
Sherman Oaks<\/p>\n

Mookie Betts\u2019 bat has suffered since he has struggled to adapt to playing shortstop. It\u2019s time to move him back to right field, where he will be more comfortable in the field and at the plate.<\/p>\n

Harris J. Levey
Venice<\/p>\n

One last pitch<\/p>\n

Can you stand one more letter about the Sandy Koufax-Clayton Kershaw \u201cgreatest\u201d controversy<\/a>? Koufax pitched with an arthritic arm that he soaked in ice for hours after every game. He did not have 21st century medical technology, which could have extended his career.<\/p>\n

Carolyn Rothberg
Tarzana<\/p>\n

Ganging up on the Jameses<\/p>\n

Are you laboring under a misconception that there\u2019s a Bronny James fan club out there somewhere?
You seem to work him into every story, whether he plays or not. In the story about the Lakers\u2019 win over the Spurs on Tuesday, you rightly credited Darius Bazley with leading the team with 27 points, with Dalton Knecht adding 25.<\/p>\n

Then you felt the need to add, \u201cBronny James, still working to ramp up his conditioning, played just over five minutes and scored two points.\u201d Who cares? Other than his parents, whom do you presume is clamoring for stats on a bench warmer?<\/p>\n

Steve Rutledge
Beaumont<\/p>\n

A week after signing a $52-million option for next season, LeBron James still owns the acronym of GOAT, only the descriptor has changed slightly: Greediest Of All Time.<\/p>\n

Ron Ovadia
Irvin<\/p>\n

Talking like a winner<\/p>\n

I enjoyed Broderick Turner\u2019s article on Deandre Ayton<\/a> coming to the Lakers. I liked Ayton a lot at the beginning of his career. I thought Ayton had a lot of potential. I hope that LeBron James and Luka Doncic, with their assist skills, can bring that potential out of Ayton this season. I liked that during the course of Turner\u2019s article, Ayton was quoted 15 times using \u201cwin\u201d as part of a word, like \u201cwins,\u201d \u201cwinning,\u201d \u201cwinner,\u201d etc. We will have to see if Ayton can convert his words to deeds and be a winner for the Lakers this season. <\/p>\n

Vaughn Hardenberg
Westwood<\/p>\n

Practice squaring up<\/p>\n

Thank you for the article on the Angels interim manager Ron Montgomery<\/a>. I have one bit of advice for him. Practice bunting. There are a bunch of games the Angels have lost in extra innings because they (along with most of the other major league teams) don\u2019t bunt the player on second base over to third with no outs. So much easier to score a run if the runner is at third base.<\/p>\n

Steve Shaevel
Woodland Hills<\/p>\n

Title says it all<\/p>\n

USC eliminated the position<\/a> of executive senior associate athletic director. The fact that a position with such a convoluted title even existed tells you all you need to know about administrative bloat in the Trojans\u2019 athletic department.<\/p>\n

Gerry Swider
Sherman Oaks<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Email: <\/b>sports@latimes.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lately, while watching the Dodgers play, losing streak and all, I am reminded of something the great Benoit…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[347,43283,1582,276,3372,2442,1910,2961,8604,19945,224,2444,5337,6130,26804,5950,43284,19624,6620,2030],"class_list":{"0":"post-59508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-bad-team","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-deandre-ayton","13":"tag-dodgers","14":"tag-game","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-lakers","17":"tag-letter","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-times","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-position","22":"tag-roberts","23":"tag-season","24":"tag-shortstop","25":"tag-signing","26":"tag-time","27":"tag-win"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114840156648542699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}