Baseball Fans Line Up to Pick On Downey’s ‘Johnny Scab’ Column

Get a grip, Mike Downey. It’s not “Johnny Scab’s” fault. It’s the owners and the “real” players. They’re the greedy, selfish ones. There are thousands of potential “Johnny Scabs,” guys to whom God has not given the gift of great talent. Guys who work days for low pay to support themselves and their families. Guys who support major league baseball by buying tickets and souvenirs and hot dogs and beer.

Don’t blame them for taking a chance to play. Put the blame where it belongs: on the millionaires who won’t play because they think they aren’t getting enough money to play a kid’s game.

Get it right. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

PAUL MOSER III

Studio City

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Thank God we have Mike Downey to speak out for the poor, downtrodden, overworked and abused professional baseball players of American. Heaven forbid the true baseball fan should be forced to watch mediocre players who love to play the game, instead of the mediocre millionaires whose business it is to play.

And to those spoiled, overpaid vendors, ushers and secretaries who suck the lifeblood of the pro ballplayers and would continue to draw salaries and earn income while the striking players sit home in their mansions, where is your sympathy, your support? Mike Downey cares about the players’ welfare, why don’t you? Can you think only of yourselves, your families?

PS: If any of the Dodgers would like to hire a surrogate picket (I wouldn’t want anyone to be forced to carry his own sign), I’m making myself available for a prorated 7 1/2% of his annual salary, plus a small, negotiable signing bonus.

TIMOTHY V. SINGER

Los Angeles

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Mike Downey calls the replacement players “greedy, selfish, uncaring, no-account, superficial, supercilious, slimy, disrespectful toads.” I think the label has been pinned on the wrong group.

But I understand Downey’s motivation for his ridiculous article about “Johnny Scab.” Assuming the regular players eventually return, he has positioned himself as “pro-player” and therefore they will treat him nicely when they come back. He will be able to live vicariously through their glory while they pretend to be his friends.

KEN JAFFE

Los Angeles

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You may not personally support the replacement players, but anyone would admit that at least they are submitting themselves to honest competition, a competition more brutal and unforgiving than most of us went through to land our jobs--a fact that Mike Downey must now pretend does not exist because to admit it would cause him a terminal loss of face.

A writer with higher standards might ask who is more to blame for the current controversy: Is it the replacement players, whose main motivation--say what you will about money--is to play baseball, and who have had no previous obligations to the striking major leaguers? Or is it the owners, who unflinchingly try to exploit this remarkable desire to compete.

Downey might want to take a special look at that question--if he’s ready to detach himself from the mob crowding around the ritual flogging of the underdog and instead cast a cold eye on the decisions of the men whose checkbooks make the whole game go.

CHRIS REEDER

Los Angeles

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Use of the term real players by Times baseball writers to distinguish replacement players from those on strike is an oxymoron. Anyone playing baseball is a real player, and right now the strikers are not playing baseball, so they are not “real players.”

JACK ALLEN

Pacific Palisades

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Three cheers for Sparky Anderson! How refreshing to hear someone speak of integrity and love of baseball and to see someone act on his principles. Anderson may not be reinstated, but he revived my faith in sports.

PATRICK J. MURPHY

Corona

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If 2.4 million fans came out to watch the 1992 Dodgers lose 99 games, why do people think the fans won’t pay to see replacement players? What could be more exciting than an entire infield of Jose Offermans?

THOMAS MOORE

Los Angeles

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So many complain about the high salary demands of major league baseball players, yet when the owners--no civic-minded saints either--try to field an alternative team, those same critics, led by a cynical media, trash the replacement players.

Are the whiners going to jam the gates getting in when the strike is over? The only thing that will slow them down going through the turnstiles is when they stop to complain about the disgraceful salaries. These same persons are at King games now, complaining about Grant Fuhr.

RON CARCICH

Redondo Beach

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There’s nothing wrong with baseball. What’s wrong is that the players are too greedy. In 1921, the average big league player made seven times more money than the average person. In 1971, ballplayers still made seven times the average. Today they make 50 times the average, and they’re striking because they want more.

What the players proved last summer is that we can live without baseball. Could we survive without schools or cops? Should baseball players make 50 times more than teachers or policemen?

DICK DE SANTIS

Hollywood

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So now the major league teams will squeeze six bucks per uniform from Little Leaguers for the use of their nicknames (Feb. 17)? That ought to help pay some of the inflated salaries for a lot of .270 hitters.

Ken Burns, are you squirming just a little bit?

JERRY COWLE

Pacific Palisades

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Will the replacement players have to pay MLB Properties the licensing fees to wear major league uniforms?

DENNIS VAUGHAN

Los Angeles

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In a recent article about Orel Hershiser leaving the Dodgers, Brett Butler said, “That’s the one thing about this game. It doesn’t stop for anybody.”

Excuse me, am I missing something?

BARRY NEWMAN

Cathedral City

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If Cal Ripken Jr. doesn’t show up on opening day, his streak is over.

ANTHONY J. MORETTI

Lomita