Who Needs the NFL? We Have Pennant Fever

The Dodgers don’t need enemies when they have friends like Mike Downey. His Wednesday column ridiculing the Giants was bulletin board material, and the Giants played much more intensely Wednesday than they did Tuesday. It is one thing to write about a struggling team, but to ridicule that team is sick journalism.

JACK ALLEN

Pacific Palisades

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Hideo Nomo’s no-hitter at Coors Field has to rank in sheer miraculousness somewhere between the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team’s gold medal and the raising of Lazarus.

MARK HIGGINS

Sherman Oaks

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While watching the Sept. 20 game between the Dodgers and Padres, I heard announcer Ross Porter repeat several times that the reason Manager Bill Russell had Delino DeShields in the lineup, despite his .220 average, was because he didn’t think it would be fair to play rookie Chad Fonville in such a big game.

Porter neglected to say that the Dodger left fielder was rookie Todd Hollandsworth, that when starter Tom Candiotti was lifted in the fourth inning, Russell brought in rookie Chan Ho Park, followed by rookie Darren Dreifort. I can’t imagine not playing any of the last four rookies of the year in a pressure game.

What was Porter really trying to say? Bye bye, Chad!

FREDRIC P. BRENNER

Marina del Rey