Is This a Bad Sign for Dodgers or Beltre?

Let’s get one thing straight: Adrian Beltre is no less guilty than the Dodgers. How else to explain his silence to all Dodger published information stating his incorrect age for the last five years? 1978 reads the same, no matter the language. It’s one thing to “play the lie” until it benefits you big time, but please, Adrian, don’t play the innocent, it makes us paying fans sick and bitter.

DALE ZABEL

Los Angeles

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What a relief Adrian Beltre isn’t bitter toward the Dodgers for signing him when he was only 15. I’m sure there are much more lucrative opportunities available to 15-year-olds in the Dominican Republic than the $23,000 the Dodgers gave him to play baseball. I only hope the additional $5 million he’ll make next year will help ease the pain of being deceived.

ROB OSBORNE

Redondo Beach

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What’s so bad about the Dodgers signing Adrian Beltre when he was 15 years old? The Chargers drafted Ryan Leaf, who can’t be more than 9 or 10, judging by his conduct, and Latrell Sprewell is still going through the terrible twos. Throw in Lawrence Phillips and a few others and you’d have a gang of immature jocks that would be unmatched in Little League or Pop Warner competition.

ALLEN E. KAHN

Playa del Rey

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It’s hard to believe that any teenage Dominican showing as much talent as Beltre obviously was would not know the 16-year-old rule. If he didn’t know it before he signed, someone who knew him would probably have told him or his parents about it soon after.

And it’s equally hard to believe that it’s a coincidence that Scott Boras picked a time after Beltre’s breakthrough season to go public with this mess. His percentage of a big contract is a powerful incentive.

No one should profit from all this. Therefore:

1. The commissioner’s office should determine what Beltre would have commanded on the free-agent market and fine the Dodgers that amount.

2. Beltre should remain with the Dodgers until he gains the service time to qualify as a free agent, and be paid to the scale he would have received without the signing snafu.

3. Boras should receive no further punishment. After all, he’s already a lawyer.

ERIC MONSON

Temecula