The Baseball Season Ends Early

* Re “Baseball Season, Series Canceled,” Sept. 15:

When I was 11 years old, I skipped school one autumn afternoon. I ran to my grandmother’s house to watch the most awful thing happen. After 8 1/2 exquisite nerve-racking innings, Bill Mazeroski of the Pirates hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth of the seventh game of the World Series to beat my beloved Yankees. I cried for days.

Back then, I thought people owned cars. Houses. Department stores. I didn’t know people owned baseball. I thought baseball belonged to all of us. Like the streets. And the airways. The air itself.

You couldn’t cancel the baseball season any more than you could cancel the sunrise tomorrow.

Baseball has destroyed itself. And in doing so, has answered the age-old question: Was it a game or a business? The answer, at last, is: No.

Baseball was a treasure. Now plundered by pirates of a different sort. Come October, my own 11-year-old son will truly watch the most awful thing happen. No World Series at all.

RUSSELL S. KUSSMAN

Los Angeles

* Baseball strike? Much ado about nothing if you ask me!

However, as with any venture, significant problems will arise whenever an individual’s desire (or demand in this case) for personal compensation begins to interfere with his desire to be of service to his clientele. This goes for players and owners alike.

Both sides are at fault for not being absolutely sincere and honest with each other from the start. This is what happens when things like faith and trust begin to lose their importance when setting up agreements. The rest of this problem can be attributed to egos, selfishness and greed.

These issues are nothing new to man, however, and the baseball strike is not so much a focal point for an argument as it is a reminder to people of how bad we can let things get before someone feels compelled to dump a bucket of cold water on our heads to snap us out of our childish temper tantrums.

My prayers go out to anyone who has a baseball dependency. These must be tough times, indeed. ARTHUR G. SAGINIAN

Northridge

* Baseball fever--I’m cured.

MICHAEL ZAPF

Agoura

* It has now been definitely established that a baseball season extending from preseason training to July is quite long enough; and at that time, instead of the nondescript American League vs. National League All-Star game, hold the World Series in July.

Then, begin a soccer season lasting through late fall, after hockey and football has begun. I did not realize how exciting soccer really can be until I watched the World Cup games.

CARL G. LANS

Huntington Beach

* In 1989, a major earthquake postponed the World Series for two weeks. This year, Bud Selig killed it off entirely.

Which goes to prove that the only thing more destructive than a natural disaster is an unnatural disaster.

BURT PRELUTSKY

North Hills