Wanted: More Stories About Women’s Sports

Just as I was thinking how nice it was to finally be able to read, with some regularity, about women’s basketball and other women’s sports that are beginning to get increased coverage in The Times, I ran across Skip Usen’s letter (Viewpoint, April 5) bemoaning the fact that you ignore preseason baseball and instead “fill space by playing up women’s basketball, the senior golf tour and other events that must appeal to a small minority of readers.”

I have nothing against preseason baseball, and I avidly follow what Usen terms the “Lakers’ 82-game preseason,” but routine stories such as “Stubbs Belts 2 Home Runs in Dodger Win” don’t begin to compare with the fascinating Julie Cart story on Chana Perry. And I still remember being touched and inspired by an earlier story you ran on Kirsten Cummings of Cal State Long Beach.

Keep up, and even increase, your coverage of women’s sports and don’t listen to Skip. He sounds like someone who would think that only the small minority of your readers who are wrestlers or who suffer from cancer would be interested in your April 5th story on Jeff Blatnick. I’m not particularly interested in wrestling, but I still remember his emotional Olympic win, and I found the story of his cancer recurrence poignant, and his attitude that of a true champion.

Gosh, Skip, if you’re not interested in something, why don’t you just . . . skip it.

DANIELLA SAPRIEL

Los Angeles