Letters: No winners in Josh Hamilton vs. Arte Moreno

I’d love to play poker with Arte Moreno. If he gets a bad hand, instead of showing a poker face, he’ll slam the cards down and say he was dealt a bad hand and blame the dealer.

Rich Sieger

Valley Village

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In raking the Angels over the coals for shipping the troubled Josh Hamilton out of town on a rail, Bill Plaschke failed to consider the painfully obvious reason Arte Moreno was willing to swallow $60 million of the contract: It was worth it.

Bud Chapman

Northridge

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Bill Plaschke, you’ve got it wrong here. After the trade, it’s only going to cost the Angels $60 million have Josh Hamilton strike out 2-3 times per game for a division rival, once he’s again healthy enough to put on a Rangers uniform. That’s a much better deal than they would have gotten had he remained with the club.

Richard Schmittdiel

Glendale

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Arte Moreno was fully aware of the risks involved in signing Josh Hamilton. Those suffering from addiction face a lifelong battle of difficult challenges. By not standing behind Hamilton in a time of need, Moreno demonstrated to his players and fans that he lacks understanding and compassion. Would the circumstances have been different if Hamilton had excelled on the field the past two seasons?

Finally, let’s not forget it was Moreno who lied to Torii Hunter about not having enough dollars to re-sign him before striking a deal with Hamilton for twice as much a few days later. Maybe there is karma in baseball.

Chuck Brauer

San Juan Capistrano

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Josh Hamilton has been given far more than a fair shake on all fronts of this situation. How many chances should anyone get before they are truly asked to put up, shut up and do your job? He’s failed more than a handful of drug tests and continues to repeat worn out phrases like, “I’ve done a lot of growing, learning and soul searching over the past weeks.”

Arte Moreno, Angel teammates, and MLB have a responsibility to finally say, “No, Josh, you have not learned enough. We wish you well in your fight against such a horrendous sickness, but you’re going to have to do it outside of baseball.”

Eric Metzler

Idyllwild

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The Angels are a baseball team, not a drug rehab organization.

Josh Hamilton during the off-season could have easily paid to quietly go into one of the many excellent private rehab facilities in Texas or California, shake off his addiction and report to spring training able to pass the MLB drug test.

I share Arte Moreno’s anger. As an Angels fan of 55 years and a longtime season-ticket holder, I have no pity for Hamilton, only disgust.

Jerry Mazenko

Garden Grove

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Josh Hamilton says he “worked [his] butt off this winter ... to be the player they wanted me to be.” I guess using cocaine and alcohol is his idea of working his butt off.

Marc Gerber

Encino

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The guy who wrote “a fool and his money are soon parted” must have known Arte Moreno.

Spike Bragg

Long Beach

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Now, if only Moreno could get Texas to take back CJ Wilson too.

Roger Sypek

Lakewood

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Arte, you’re a businessman. You can make a huge profit selling the Angels. Please do it.

Scott Bryant

Apple Valley

They Blue it

Hey, Dodgers, I have a great idea. Let’s give a pricey four-year deal to a mediocre pitcher who can’t stay healthy just because he had two decent months with the Yankees.

The Jason Schmidt signing was a disaster for the Dodgers, but Schmidt was much more accomplished than Brandon McCarthy, and didn’t have nearly the injury history that McCarthy has. And I don’t want to hear that McCarthy never had an elbow problem. Constant shoulder problems aren’t bad enough? And pitchers who are always hurt will keep finding ways to get hurt. It doesn’t take a degree from Yale to figure that out. I give Brett Anderson three more starts before he joins McCarthy on the DL.

Congratulations, Andrew Friedman (and that’s Friedman with an F).

And while we’re at it, I can understand the need to trade Matt Kemp. But for a catcher who can’t hit, can’t throw out baserunners, and leads the league in passed balls? That’s not trying hard enough.

Sherwin Root

Los Angeles

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How does Brandon McCarthy tear a ligament in his arm while throwing underhand softball pitches?

Greg Hanson

Long Beach

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I love Magic, the ex-Laker, but I hate Magic the Dodgers executive. But I didn’t get mad at him, I got even. I now watch the Dodgers games online, for free. Is this illegal? I don’t know, but I use the same logic that Magic uses. Don’t blame me, blame the people who put the games online.

Reuben Rivera

Los Angeles

What’s up, Doc?

Win or lose in tonight’s Game 7, Doc Rivers has proven he’s a great coach. But as a GM, now that’s another story. Instead of blaming referees in this series for bad calls, he should blame himself for the worst call of all — signing Spencer Hawes. The Clippers have plenty of heart all right, they just don’t have enough horses to go all the way — not through four grueling rounds of playoffs.

And talk I hear in the media about “splitting up the big three” (Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan) misses the whole point. Fire the GM instead. And start looking at teams like the Spurs to see that finding talent sometimes requires looking outside the box — or in this case, our borders.

Ron Ovadia

Irvine

Fanned out

The game played in Baltimore to an empty stadium is the stupidest thing ever in sports. If the teams had finished the standings at the end of year with one less game played than others, that would’ve been insignificant. Forcing a game to be played in front of no fans is incredibly significant. A complete embarrassment and a colossal distortion of priorities. The result should be nullified.

MLB now has a black eye of idiocy that beats out the All-Star game played to a tie.

Rick Wallace

Malibu

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Five thoughts from the game played with no fans:

1) The only thing missing was that it wasn’t broadcast by Time Warner Cable so no one could see it either.

2) Did they have imaginary kids run the bases after the game?

3) Are the chiropractors in Baltimore going to have more work because no one got a seventh-inning stretch?

4) I’m assuming this wasn’t Fan Appreciation Day.

5) If this is what they have to do to get rid of the beach balls, so be it.

Gary Mandell

Los Angeles

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