Letters: Don’t light that Olympic flame just yet

To the Los Angeles Olympic organizing committee: Please do what the city of Boston did and terminate your bid to hold the 2024 Olympics in Los Angeles. The Olympics have become nothing more than a scam for the people who run the movement. It has nothing to do with the original premise, true amateurs competing on a level playing field. To have professional athletes compete in the Games is nothing more than the rich getting richer.

Until new reforms are put in place, I will continue to boycott the Olympics and hope there are many more who will do the same.

G.T. Oka

Rosemead

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Here’s hoping that Los Angeles makes a successful run at the 2024 Olympic Games.

They’ll need someone to light the Olympic flame, of course. If organizers want to make it a historically inclusive Olympics, how about choosing the 1976 decathlon champion ... Caitlyn Jenner.

Brian Rokos

Riverside

Deal or no deal?

No Hamels. No Cueto. No Price. Have the Dodgers been secretly studying the Lakers’ “How to Snag/Trade for Quality Free Agents” guide again?

Mark J. Featherstone

Windsor Hills

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The Dodgers did a great job in acquiring Latos and Wood. I can definitely see our Boys in Blue making the playoffs and getting eliminated in the first round by a team that not only has a good rotation but knows how to play baseball. A team with this much talent deserves a manager who understands field strategy and can properly use a bullpen. When Andrew Friedman came blowing into town and told us on Day One he was philosophically attuned with Donnie Baseball, he lost me at hello.

Larry Weiner

Culver City

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It took Mattingly and his staff only 102 games to finally figure out that Joc Pederson wasn’t leadoff material. The seemingly obscure fact that Pederson leads the league in strikeouts certainly made Mattingly’s decision an easy one, even if it took over half the season to realize. Maybe he had help from the cyber kids in the front office. Let’s just hope the pressure that the rookie has been saddled with hasn’t compromised his ability to hit in the future.

And speaking of cyber kids: What rhymes with Latos and Wood? Certainly not Hamels and Price.

John R. Grush

Mission Viejo

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Dodgers fans who are disappointed in losing out on obtaining Cole Hamels or David Price need to take a step back. All the front office managed to do was obtain two young quality starting pitchers, two very serviceable relievers, right-handed power insurance off the bench and a very gifted infield prospect in exchange for the 30-year old Hector Olivera and a few guys named Joe.

All that means to me is job well done.

Bud Chapman

Northridge

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Don Mattingly is just a good-looking guy with great pedigree as a player and a cute nickname. But to get to the next level, the Dodgers need an experienced small-ball manager who can execute in the playoffs. During the last two Octobers, he has looked lost; it’s just one questionable decision after another. Being a players’ coach and appearing handsome on TV is great, but it is happening at the expense of postseason success.

Zack Cohen

Beverly Hills

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It’s hard to imagine that Don Mattingly was ever a great hitter and batting coach. I don’t understand how both he and Mark McGwire can stand by and watch Joc Pederson embarrass himself game after game. Heck, a Little Leaguer would be embarrassed to watch his swing.

Geno Apicella

Placentia

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It’s amazing that there will now be kosher hot dogs at Chavez Ravine and great the stand won’t be open during Jewish holidays. But the Dodgers are going to need to give Zack Greinke some run support if the kosher stand is going to operate beyond the end of the Jewish High Holidays in mid-October.

Zev Hurwitz

North Hollywood

Halo hash

If the Angels can eat most of Josh Hamilton’s salary, they should do the same with C.J. Wilson. How much stress does he place on the bullpen every time he pitches?

Art Cohen

Pacific Palisades

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Describing the Angels’ trade upgrades as “modest” is putting it modestly. Were there no players in their 20s available at all?

Ron Reeve

Glendora

Deflated

How can the NFL Players Assn. take a ruling made by the league to federal court? The NFL is a private organization with agreed-upon rules and regulations by the owners and commissioner. The owners have hired the commissioner to make decisions regarding the operations of the NFL. Thus, if the commissioner decides to suspend a player for wrongful actions, the owners are compelled to comply. No judge in the land should be wasting taxpayers’ money to hear NFL cases.

Wayne Muramatsu

Cerritos

The harshness of the penalty against Tom Brady (and the Patriots) smacks of the brutal sanctions levied against USC in the Reggie Bush case. Again, the punishment appears to be the result of organizational arrogance rather than the actual crimes. Had Brady simply owned up to doing what most NFL quarterbacks do, have game balls more suited to his grip, a light fine would have settled the matter months ago.

Is the NFL (like the NCAA) an incredibly arrogant and arbitrary organization? And one (like the NCAA) that apparently creates different standards for each infraction? Yes and yes. The principal players at both USC and Patriots headquarters knew this and might have accorded accordingly.

Tom Sloss

Fountain Valley

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It was always a no-brainer that with his good looks and smarts Tom Brady would enter the political arena after hanging up his cleats. Even more so today as his legacy, including 10,000 text messages, now joins with the legacies of Hillary Clinton and her missing 50,000 emails along with Richard Nixon and the missing 18-minute tape. Brady’s a natural!

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

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Destruction of evidence turns “presumed innocent” into “presumed guilty.”

Richard Raffalow

Valley Glen

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At no time in the history of the sport has anyone engaged in conduct more detrimental to football than Roger Goodell.

Peter Mound

Santee, Calif.

Mind games

While the Clippers will have to sort their way through having two alleged malcontents, five ballhandlers and seven forwards, the real issue they have to face is the mental makeup of a team that has flamed out in its last two playoff appearances despite being seemingly in control. They may need a real “Doc” of psychology to remedy that.

Gerry Swider

Sherman Oaks

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