There’s Nothing Soft About Softball

Does the stench from Westwood bother anyone? Using a part-timer from Australia to win the softball championship, UCLA goes from bad to worse. After escaping unpunished from the sordid Angelo Mazzone-Rose Bowl ticket scandal . . . the mighty Bruins sneak in a ringer, in the form of Tanya Harding. She flies in to play scarcely half a season. “I’m sure she paid her own air fare, but we haven’t checked on that.” Yeah, sure. Are we curious what the NCAA would discover, if it had the energy to investigate?

Legal or not, it stinks. The other Pac-10 coaches are right to be fuming. That asterisk on the NCAA trophy is nothing less than another black mark on the UCLA athletic department.

ROY ROUDINE

Los Alamitos

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As a UCLA alum, I was delighted with the school’s recent NCAA title in women’s softball. I am, however, somewhat embarrassed about the subsequent fallout from the Bruins’ use of a “ringer” from Down Under, Tanya Harding.

As a frequent contributor to the UCLA athletic department, I wonder whether my next donation should be in U.S. or Australian dollars?

BRUCE JAGAROSOVICH

Carson