Meanwhile, elsewhere in the national pastime

Isn’t it time to finally revoke Ned Colletti’s pass? The time has come to put this injury-plagued and barely above-average team squarely on his shoulders. Last year he got a pass for reasons I still don’t understand. But enough is enough. He signed Juan Pierre, Jason Schmidt, Randy Wolf, Luis Gonzalez and Nomar Garciaparra. He let J.D. Drew and Eric Gagne walk. And most recently, he released Marlon Anderson and kept a guy (Olmedo Saenz) who hasn’t gotten a hit in a month. And then he trades Wilson Betemit for Scott Proctor.

If it weren’t for the minor league system he had nothing to do with and former acquisitions Penny, Lowe and Kent, this team would be the worst we have ever seen.

Geno Apicella

Burbank

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I’d like to say thank you to Ned Colletti for wisely choosing not to make the same mistakes previous boneheaded Dodgers GMs have made (cough, cough, Paul DePodesta) and give up young talent just to rent a veteran at the trade deadline. Now we Dodgers fans can look forward to watching a core group of young players grow up together on the field and eventually win a few world championships.

I dare say this could be the glory days of Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey all over again. And speaking of those glory days, I believe there are still fans from some of those games waiting in line for a hot dog.

Jim Patton

Manhattan Beach

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I wonder if Bill Stoneman ever traded baseball cards or if he just put them between his bicycle spokes.

Tom Peinemann

San Diego

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I was able to hear a portion of Cal Ripken’s speech at his Hall of Fame induction on the radio and had hoped to have much of it reprinted in Monday’s paper. His remarks were so refreshing and he spoke so deeply to the point of being a human being first and an athlete second. What a shame you were only able to comment on his becoming “emotional” as though that were some kind of shortcoming! I had hoped for more maturity but as long as you have Kobe to write about (along with all the other egoists), I guess that’s too much to ask for.

Carol Marshall

Anaheim

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Is there no one in the Dodgers farm system to replace Brett Tomko? A chicken . . . a horse . . . a cow?

Herbert M. Schoenberg

Tarzana