Letters: What a difference one game makes for the Dodgers
I’m nominating Bill Plaschke for the HHF, the Hyperbole Hall of Fame. Temperate, moderate, reasonable; not in his tool bag. Bill awarded the World Series to the Dodgers after one game just as he will bemoan yet another October collapse should they lose the second.
Jack Wishard
Los Angeles
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Bill Plaschke has gotten into a bad habit of telling us readers who’s going to win and how easily it will be accomplished. Then, when he’s wrong, which is often enough, we have to hear him blathering apologies and falling all over himself. He’s taking the fun out of the games and series.
He predicted the Lakers would definitely win in four straight. Instead we had a tough final series. Now, when the Dodgers win the first game, he brashly announces the “puny” Rays will “swipe one win, tops.” Well, what the heck, why should we even watch? Your crystal ball is nothing more than a grapefruit, Bill. Just set the stage and describe the action. Let us be the fans we love to be, and let the competition take place.
John C. Wood
Pasadena
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I was flabbergasted and, quite frankly, highly amused while reading Bill Plaschke’s column placed so prominently on the front page of The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. Apparently, Bill has forgotten that the Dodgers’ opponent in this World Series is a professional baseball team who handily beat the vaunted Yankees and Astros to get to this point in the playoffs.
I wanted to use a certain word in this letter, but I wasn’t exactly sure of the meaning so I got out my trusty dictionary and there it was; a photo of Bill next to the word “hubris.”
Jon Roe
Los Angeles
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A single loss? The end of the world! OMG! Disaster!
A single win? Game, set, match. Other team is just minor league. They don’t even belong in the same arena.
Please, Bill:
Don’t be on my team. Or dare to coach any of my kids. Stick to your day job.
You won’t have to answer to anybody or practice emotional balance in any way, shape or form.
Ron Brumel
Los Angeles
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Pack up all your cares and woes, Clayton Kershaw’s got to be the happiest man around since Andy Dufresne arrived in Zihuatanejo.
Kevin Park
Westlake Village
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Pitching “by committee” is a great way to find two or three pitchers who are not going to have a good outing.
Ed Sandell
Somis, Calif.
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Really liked Bill Shaikin’s article after Game 1. Really liked what the Dodgers did even more. I’m old school. I really like it when a batter slaps the ball into right field and advances the runner on first to third, those kind of plays. Home run hitting, not so much. I find myself doing other things waiting for someone to hit it out rather than paying attention. Hope they keep it up.
John Snyder
Newbury Park
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Dear Dodgers,
I want to apologize to you for doubting you. I was soooooo drunk and euphoric with the Lakers winning the NBA championship that I really couldn’t care less whether you won or lost. We were glad when you beat the Padres, but when you got down three games to one to the Braves, we told everyone that you guys were done. You really can’t blame us because we watched your bats traditionally disappear frequently in the playoffs and World Series.
Well, I’m sober now and we watched this Game 7 from beginning to the end. I cheered and talked to the TV. I told my friend that I feel good with [Julio] Urías pitching because he has good control and will make the other team beat him rather than walking batters. I mentally told [Cody] Bellinger to please choke up and shorten his swing, and we begged and prayed that Dave Roberts wouldn’t bring [Kenley] Jansen in the ninth inning to close the game.
We didn’t think of the Lakers once while watching the game. We only thought of the Lakers after the game when Roberts was talking during the trophy presentation ceremony and wanted Roberts to say ... “This one’s for KOBE!” Go Dodgers!
Alvin Okamura
Encino
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As a non-Dodgers fan, I always enjoy the hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing that occurs in your paper after every playoff loss and how it supposedly exposes this or that shortcoming. Perhaps everyone could take a deep breath and understand that: (a) The Dodgers have a ton of really good players and are well-run but, unlike the 1992 Dream Team, they don’t have ALL of the best players; (b) the other team in a playoff series is usually pretty good itself; and (c) that other team is also trying to win. It’s baseball. Sometimes the other team wins. Appreciate what you have.
Craig Dunkin
La Crescenta
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Remember the days when Pedro Báez (much improved now) would walk in from the bullpen and the entire crowd would shudder in fear. Well, we have that now with Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May, who are little more than ATM machines for the opposition to put men on base and score runs.
Times columnist Bill Shaikin quotes Dave Roberts as saying “I still believe in them. They’ve just got to make pitches.” Say what? That’s their only job! How long will Roberts go on hoping?
Richard R. McCurdy
Burbank
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I’m surprised there has been no article on the impact David Price may have had on the Dodgers postseason. As a former Cy Young Award winner, one can only wonder.
Tom Northam
Lakewood
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When will they learn? It’s OK to celebrate, but don’t take unnecessary risks! Bellinger dislocates his shoulder after a home run. Fortunately it appears he is OK. Kendrys Morales was not so fortunate.
Mark Kaiserman
Santa Monica
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This old newspaper guy was sitting at my table this morning, going over the Dodgers’ Game 1 win over Tampa Bay, and I pointed out to my wife the photo of Clayton Kershaw fully stretched after releasing his pitch, and how it showed perfectly what an MLB pitcher must do to be at the top of his game. And then, I noticed that all the photos from the game, both alone and together, taken by Wally Skalij and Robert Gauthier, are stunningly good! Betts stealing third, Turner avoiding an inside chin pitch, the players cheering Betts’ home run, Betts pointing to the sky. What a collection, and kudos to the stellar photographers of the Los Angeles Times!
Michael Kelley
Newbury Park
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Have you ever seen one player who can dictate a game all by himself? A player that can hit a homer, leg out a double or triple, steal bases, leap over walls to take away homers and be a leader in the clubhouse?
Unfortunately, most of the the country has never seen Mike Trout play ball.
Richard Katz
Los Angeles
Swooshed off
It is hard to get excited about the possibility of UCLA taking on Nike as its new apparel sponsor. Unless you can ignore that Nike has all its apparel made in China in factories using slave labor. And ignore all the other civil rights abuses of this regime. And ignore the fact that China is the source of the current pandemic. Yeah, a great idea.
Bert Bergen
La Cañada
Where's the hate?
Why is it that the Rams play so poorly against the 49ers? Can it be that they don’t know or appreciate the animosity existing between the two fan bases? For Angelenos, beating the snobby ones from the Bay Area is job one and should not be treated as just another game by the Rams.
Ken Blake
Brea
No comment
I believe this season is the beginning of the demise of the immense popularity of the NFL. This prediction is based upon the NFL hiring unqualified on-field officials and the propensity of NFL TV producers to hire unqualified ex-jocks as commentators. As an example, while watching the officiating of the Green Bay-Tampa Bay game, I began to wonder why there were so many blatant officiating errors. I figured it out. In addition, a large number of my friends, who are serious NFL fans, surprised me by telling me they stopped watching “Monday Night Football” because of the terrible commentators. Unless the NFL decision-makers change their policies; a few years from now the NFL will not be able to demand another huge TV contract. This will result in an even worse product and more fans will stop watching the NFL. The NBA did not change and they are now a mess, no matter what they claim.
Russell Beecher
Canyon Lake
Bad calls
The baseball commissioner wants to keep the expanded playoffs? I guess that’d be OK if he would also just get rid of the halfway-meaningless 162 games before the real season starts.
Bob Wieting
Simi Valley
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