Letters: Readers weigh in on the five-ring circus

I’ve been watching bits of Olympic competition on NBC, what I can catch between the commercials and the personal stories.

So far the USA is the only country to win gold, right?

Wes Correll

Monarch Beach

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I may be one of the few that prefer my sports not to be filled with politically correct messages on the ecology or anthing else for that matter.

So can someone explain the dichotomy of an opening ceremony speaking of global warming, from a city where the pollution is so bad, and the carbon footprint to create the massive structures for the Games, that may have little use afterwards, is somehow to be ignored.

And must have missed in the ceremony while they were promoting a political agenda, the oath of the athletes and the oath of the officials which has been a part of Olympic ceremonies in the past.

Barry Levy

Hawthorne

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Bill Plaschke and David Wharton, I too thought the opening ceremony was a joyous salute to this troubled wonderful country. You were obviously in Rio. Unfortunately, I watched it in L.A. on a four-hour tape delay, hosted by Matt Lauer and the NBC team. The visuals were great; the narration was awful! The images, choreography and of course, the music — wonderful. But we were forced to listen to irrelevant chatter interrupted every few minutes by commercial breaks! What was more annoying — inane comments about a very relevant and colorful history in an important country or the annoying breaks? Ugh!

Elaine Marco

Los Angeles

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Gabby Douglas did not cover her heart during the playing of our national anthem. She apologized, saying that she “never meant any disrespect.” She further explained that she was so overwhelmed and overjoyed at her team’s victory. To which explanation District Attorney William Plaschke says, “if Douglas was truly overcome with emotion, as she claimed, that would be visible,yet her expression was blank and distant.” Perhaps her mind had wandered to a distant future when her Ph.D. in psychology could enable her, like Dr. Plaschke, to discern all sincere manifestations of emotion.

David Londe

Simi Valley

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In today’s politically charged debate regarding sacrifice for one’s country, I suggest that Gabby Douglas has spent thousands of hours in the gym and traveled thousands of miles to represent the United States. Shame on Mr. Plaschke for boiling down Douglas’ patriotism to her three minutes on the podium.

Rob Demonteverde

Brea

What’s up with the Dodgers?

While I may not have the sabermetric and advanced analytics knowledge that the Dodgers front office does, I do know one thing. When injuries to your starting pitching make it necessary acquire a starting pitcher at the trade deadline you don’t trade for a pitcher who is already on the disabled list. We have enough of those already.

Luis Barraza

Whittier

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The Dodgers can only blame themselves for the see-saw career of Yasiel Puig. First, the Dodgers did not hire Tim Bravo full-time to be Puig’s translator/companion to help him assimilate into a new country. Now, the Dodgers send Puig to triple A with wrong instructions and no guidance. A goal for Puig in the minors was to improve his relationship with teammates. Well, the Dodgers find Puig and his teammates riding on a party bus thru rural Iowa. As far as Puig is concerned, goal accomplished.

Wayne Muramatsu

Cerritos

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P.T. Barnum once said “there is no such thing as bad publicity”, and if the Dodgers (and baseball) weren’t so protective of their phony baloney image, they would be able to absorb bad actors like Puig and others. Come on, it’s baseball, not the boy scouts.

D.G. Artis

Woodland Hills

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Is it too late to say it’s all Don Mattingly’s fault?

John Crites-Borak

Los Angeles

Angels falling

When is this Tim Lincecum nonsense going to end? It is plain to see the guy is done. The athlete is always the last to know, so it is management’s job to inform said athlete his performance does not meet professional standards. It appears it is the general manager and front office failing at their jobs. People sitting on the couch have a better clue and most people knew how this was going to end before it started!

Patrick K. Gallagher

Long Beach

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Nothing like a good old lopsided weekday series in the dog days of August to get the juices flowing, with the Chicago Cubs sweeping the Salt Lake Bees of Anaheim earlier this week.

Larry Herrera

Redondo Beach

Goodbye, A-Rod

The headline on ESPN after Alex Rodriguez announced he was leaving read something like, “Love him or hate him, Alex Rodriguez will be missed,” and my first thought was, other than his immediate family, who loves him? The man truly had it all and turned himself into a most tragic figure. Shakespeare would have had a blast.

Marcelo Barreiro

Manhattan Beach

On the error

While I agree with Chris Erskine that today’s baseball broadcasters are a bore, I think you may have missed what is my biggest peeve. What makes Vin Scully so engaging and interesting is that he talks about the history of the players and the game. Today’s announcers who broadcast our Dodgers talk mostly about themselves and their careers.

Denis Robinson

Winnetka

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Listening to the Giants’ broadcasters, Duane Kiper and Mike Krukow, call the Marlins-Giants game on MLB Network on Monday night, I can honestly say, for the first time, that I feel sorry for Giants’ fans. I have never heard a worse pair of “homer” broadcasters.

I know that I have been spoiled listening to the best ever in Vin Scully, but this was just embarrassing. At one point in the 12th inning, Kiper shared with his TV audience that he hoped the Marlins’ batter would strike out because, “I have to pee.”

You stay classy, San Francisco.

Dave Stuart

Westlake Village

Sacking Greene

What a disgrace. Kevin Greene was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams, played eight seasons for them, and yet opts to go into the Hall of Fame as a Pittsburgh Steeler? When the Los Angeles Rams honor the former Rams with some sort of ring of honor at their new stadium in 2019, I hope Kevin Greene’s name is not among them.

Brian Haueter

Ventura

JIm dandy

I was shocked and amazed that The Times buried the story of Jim Furyk’s record-setting round of 58 on Page D8. He deserved better.

Paul Burns

Granada Hills

And finally …

Now that Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and LeBron James have signed big deals, Jim Buss, remind me again: You saved up all those millions to get Timofey Mozgov and who?

Desmond Nakano

Los Angeles

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