Letters: Big game deserves a smaller stage

I went to the NCAA championship game to watch officials blow whistles, and a poorly played basketball game broke out. I am sure all the other 66 teams in the tournament felt they could have beaten either of them that day.

Sophie Perry

Los Angeles

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Let’s face it, that was a lousy NCAA championship game. Granted it was a close lousy game, but still lousy. Gone are the days of the game being played before 20,000 spectators but instead now it’s 60,000 or more. Because of TV money, players are made to play in football stadiums with no backdrop, probably for their first time in their lives. I suggest that next year they should have the marching bands perform at halftime. 　　

Richard Katz

Los Angeles

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Are you sure those weren’t Pac-12 refs officiating the North Carolina-Gonzaga championship game the other night?

Stephen Mazmanian　

Redondo Beach

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The Times’ coverage of the monumental upset of the UConn women’s basketball team by Mississippi State demonstrates yet again the pervasive gender bias against women’s athletics. Arguably, the article belonged on page A1 of Saturday’s Times. At a minimum, it should have been the lead headline above the fold in the Sports section instead of being relegated to the bottom of page D1. There was no bigger story in sports that day than this amazing and uplifting game.

George Legg

Rolling Hills Estates

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I dare say that if a men’s team had broken an 111-game winning streak, it would have captured the entire front page. I expect far more from the L.A. Times.

Loretta Redd

Santa Barbara

Who won? Not fans

Ah, it was the perfect opening day, except that most Angelenos couldn’t watch it due to the need for the Dodger owners and the broadcast companies to put the fans last in their pursuit of the last dollar of profit from their dealings.

Roger Schwarz

Los Angeles

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Once again the Dodgers showed no love for any of their fans. Opening day was shown nationally on ESPN but blacked out in the L.A. market. It could have been worked out to allow ESPN to show just this game on a special day in L.A. The Dodgers should be ashamed. Oh well, another year without TV. Pretty soon a majority of the fans will go on with their lives and the Dodgers will take a back seat to the other sports teams in L.A.

Michael Lewis

Torrance

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What if Charter could work a deal with MLB.TV to broadcast all Dodgers games to ZIP codes outside of Charter’s service territory through MLB.TV on-line subscriptions? The cost would seem to be low, and they surely could find some reasonable way to share revenues. Charter would vastly expand its SportsNet LA viewer base, MLB.TV would gain new subscribers, and blacked-out Dodgers fans could watch the games if they subscribed to MLB.TV.

Comcast and AT&T-DirecTV would be stuck where they’ve been for the last three years — out in the cold, but now they just might lose TV viewers and ratings to formerly blacked-out fans.

Arnie Baker

Solvang

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Vin Scully said he did chores instead of watching the Dodgers game on opening day. I can only imagine what was going through his mind. In years past on opening day, it would have been, “It’s time for Dodger baseball !” This year? “It’s time for washing the car !” That might have been followed by, “A very pleasant good afternoon, wherever you may be, as I now sit down to pay my electric bill.”　

I have no doubt that he could even make describing chores magical.　

We miss you, Vinny.　

Jon White

Monrovia

View from the couch

This just in: A man watching an old old tape on his VCR discovered that Jack Nicklaus’ ball oscillated on the 15th hole on the back nine Sunday at Augusta in 1986, and the Masters officials felt they had no choice but to disqualify the Golden Bear, thus giving the championship to Tom Kite and Greg Norman, who are now declared co-winners.

Marty Foster

Ventura

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Wow, Scrooge and the Grinch showed up at Mission Hills in Rancho Mirage last Sunday and stole the winner’s trophy from Lexi Thompson. Evidently integrity, common sense and timeliness aren’t in the LPGA’s dictionary.

Thompson showed more character, class, courage, and dignity than I have seen in a lifetime watching sports.

Perhaps the LPGA’s next equipment requisition will be for a truckload of GPS equipment and micrometers so they can ensure their players replace their balls in precisely the same position the ball was in when they marked it.

Frank Tierheimer

Cerritos

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Who allows an unnamed couch potato (with immaculate vision and unknown motives) influence the outcome of a major sporting event? Absurd! Professional golf has forfeited its right to lecture me on the integrity of the game.

Mike Hoff　

Long Beach

Just lose, babies

As a 20-plus-year Lakers season ticket holder, I cannot support the recent “streak” of meaningless and myopic victories. There’s little comfort in seeing this motley crew of castoffs develop — they are playing for the names on the back of their jerseys, hoping some team will sign them next year.

We fans have to deal with the long-term damage to the name on the front of the jersey if we keep winning literally pointless games. Consider the absurdity that while we might discover a serviceable back-up point guard, it very well may come at the cost of losing a franchise point guard for the next decade plus.

David T. Ho

South Pasadena

What’s the goal here?

Dean Lombardi must think the way to cure an anemic offense is to trade for a backup goalie. The Kings’ absurd trade for Ben Bishop is the culmination of three years of horrible trades and useless free agent signings. Any tweaking of the Kings’ roster should start with a new general manager.　 　　

Scott Maiman 　

Agoura Hills　

Young man’s game

New Chargers coach Anthony Lynn publicly calls his team’s star quarterback Phillip Rivers, age 35, “long in the tooth.” Either he’s really smart or incredibly dumb. Trying to decide, consider how Patriots coach Bill Belichick might describe his own field leader, who, incidentally, is 39.

Konrad Moore

Bakersfield

Blindsided

Godspeed to Tony Romo on his transition from the field to booth. I only hope he doesn’t separate his shoulder trying to adjust his broadcast microphone.

Tracy Leming Young

Burbank

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