Letters: How will the Dodgers manage without Don Mattingly?

I hope the Dodgers are as good at finding a third starter as they are at finding a scapegoat. Good luck, Donnie Baseball.

Gary H. Miller

Encino

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The Dodgers firing Don Mattingly will probably work out about as well as when the Padres dumped Bruce Bochy.

Randall George

Ventura

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Why am I not surprised? After their failure to procure pitching depth, paying millions of dollars to players now playing for other teams, I’m no longer surprised by anything those micro-managers in the front office come up with.

D.G. Artis

Woodland Hills

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I have no idea what it is, but I hope to never have an “organic dialogue” with my wife, because after it’s over you have to separate.

Thomas Sexton

Huntington Beach

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I have heard the statement that Mattingly has been let go even though he took the Dodgers to the playoffs for three straight years. The statement should be that the Dodgers made the playoffs for three straight years even though Mattingly was the manager.

Paul Burns

Granada Hills

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As the Mattingly apologists start coming out to explain his club’s failures — flawed team with weak bullpen, no depth in starting pitching, no clutch hitting, all true — it doesn’t take into account his always unimaginative managing and lack of fire on the bench. No hit-and-run, constant sacrificing, mishandling his pitching staff — those are the staples of Donnie Baseball’s Dodgers career I will always remember with a shudder.

Nice man, it seems, but just a little over his head.

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

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I don’t blame Don Mattingly for wanting to escape the Dodgers’ land of analytics. Imagine what his team could have done with Matt Kemp and Dee Gordon.

Speaking of Gordon, what kind of analysis was used to determine that trading the dynamic player was a good thing?

Bottom line: Dee Gordon a star in Miami. Andrew Heaney a future star in Anaheim. Howie Kendrick, probably gone.

If this is a sign of future Dodgers moves, I say, “analyze this!”

Mike Morgan

Las Vegas

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Sorry to see Mattingly leave. He did not pick the players he had to work with, he played the hand he was dealt.

I am not a big fan of analytics. I’d rather have a thinking manager, because I learned a long time ago: If everyone is thinking alike, no one is thinking.

Bob Sands

La Habra

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Are Sparky Anderson, Bobby Cox, Earl Weaver or Casey Stengel available? How about any manager with an ounce of fire?

Robb Brown

Santa Monica

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Now if only the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable can have a parting of the ways.

Jeff Hershow

Woodland Hills

Trojan hearse?

Remember the great Wild Bunch defense at USC? They were mean, fast, aggressive, and unyielding. USC now has the Mild Bunch defense. Slow, unaggressive, and simply lacking in talent. If they win six games this year with this defense they will be lucky. USC got rid of a defensive coordinator who created one of the top defenses in the Pac-12 and hired Justin Wilcox, who has created a nightmare.

Bruce Olson

La Verne

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USC fans need to stop invoking the Pete Carroll Brain Trust, including Pete himself, when looking down the road for a new coach. It’s a disease and it permeated the culture of the school to the point of bizarre adoration. The Carroll days are over. It came with sanctions and has left you in a bind after hiring sidekicks Kiffin and Sarkisian. Haden is not to blame because he only did the bidding of the school’s fan base to relive the glory days. Get on with it. So the next time the Irish beat you, you are on the top of your game.

Bob Arrañaga

Eagle Rock

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It is amazing to me that no TV producer has examined ways of incorporating the happenings at USC the last few years into some type of reality sports show. The level of drama is fraught with tales of tragedy and woe surpassed only (maybe) by the Kardashians. It is ready-made Theater of the Absurd. From O.J. to Bush to Haden, it has been a story of both lament and the ludicrous. Shakespeare never had this much material at his disposal.

Homer Alba

Glendale

Reality check

Regarding Bill Plaschke’s article bemoaning the Kardashians’ presence during Lamar Odom’s recent troubles, I’m reminded of my best friend’s father, who always told me that there is no excuse for bad behavior. Lamar’s upbringing or involvement with the “reality TV” family didn’t put him in a brothel or purportedly fill him with cocaine. Also, the term “reality TV” is, in fact, neither. The protagonists are not real, the production is scripted for conflict, and the public gobbles it up as real people caught on camera.

As Lamar chose to put himself in his situation, the public chooses to watch “reality TV.” Both choices are bad. We are all just responsible for our choices.

Marcelo Barreiro

Manhattan Beach

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Rest assured that Bill Plaschke will never be invited to dinner at the Kardashians’. His column on Lamar Odom and “that family,” was right on the mark. It’s too bad that one of the good guys in sports had to get involved in this Hollywood circus. Hopefully Lamar will recover and be able to avoid the scene that unfortunately got him where he is today.

Richard Whorton

Studio City

Quick Hits

Am I the only one who thinks that it’s just not right that baseball’s Boys of Summer sweat through most of the regular season, only to play their most important games wearing ski clothes?

Andy Bernstein

Santa Monica

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I find it hard to accept that fantasy football is a skill, not gambling. Using their logic, Texas hold ‘em poker is not gambling. It is a skill, but also gambling. Just like fantasy football.

Alan Matis

Sherman Oaks

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Whenever I start feeling bad about the state of L.A. Sports, I’m reminded that Dwight Howard went to Houston. There, I feel better now.

Paul Farmanian

Glendale

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