They Don’t Like Dodgers’ Managing of Beltre Affair

When will the Dodgers learn that it is time to put Tommy Lasorda permanently out to pasture? His only role as “senior vice president” is to provide a buffoonish link to the team’s past, the last real contribution to which he made more than 11 long years ago.

Now, in his latest front-office effort, at a banquet (what else?), he whines about all the curveballs he threw to Adrian Beltre, suggests without any evidence that many players are signed illegally, and more or less accuses Beltre’s parents of providing false documentation of Beltre’s birth date.

Assuming that Beltre is declared a free agent, one can only wonder the extent to which Lasorda’s ill-advised remarks will damage the Dodgers’ chances of re-signing the third baseman. There is no room for a court jester in the Dodgers’ front office.

GREGG B. HUGHES

Northridge

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Please advise Mr. Lasorda that multiple prior wrongs do not equal a right. In other words, the beloved second-division Dodgers once again fouled up and no matter how many other teams have previously done the same thing (if any), the Dodger management is to blame for what looks as if it could be a stupendous screw-up. Mr. Lasorda should be put out to pasture with the rest of the “Dodger Blue Boys” of long ago.

WILLIAM J. TEWKSBURY

Simi Valley

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I’m sick to my stomach with the news that the Dodgers might lose Adrian Beltre to free agency.

While I don’t know that Beltre and his agent sandbagged his actual signing age to later shock the world and get him some free-agent cash, I do know that loyalty breeds loyalty. Gone are the days where even a casual Dodger fan could name all eight position players.

It is this remembered stability that makes a former L.A. boy named Todd Zeile want to don Dodger blue again, where he had hoped to play his entire career before being traded away against his will.

Mr. Daly, you can’t bring back our yellowing, dog-eared 1970s, let alone the 1940s. However, if you can rekindle a shred of the atmosphere that led to the loyalty and admiration of players to the Dodger organization, you can make major inroads toward restoring the great family traditions and team stability that has been missing for all too long.

It’ll make the sting of losing Beltre a little less painful to the recent-suffering fans who see a bare cupboard in the farm system and dollar-driven mercenaries.

HALE ANTICO

Pasadena

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The investigation into Adrian Beltre’s signing at 15 emits a stench disturbingly redolent of money. Odd that his agent discovered the “discrepancy” only after Beltre’s impressive 1999 season.

True to the agent’s credo, his commission of 10% matches the extent of his integrity.

STAN KAPLAN

Garden Grove

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On “Family Law” this week, an unscrupulous gold digger knowingly uses a damaged condom, gets herself impregnated by an unsuspecting millionaire and licks her chops as the lawyer secures exorbitant child support payments. The show reminded me of Adrian Beltre and Scott Boras.

MARK EVANS

Bakersfield