That’s Some Initial Reaction to T.J.

Sports talk radio has come to the L.A. Times. The Saturday letters section and the T.J. Simers column reflect the same high-rated format--provoke the fans, and wait for the reaction. It’s Jim Rome, not Jim Murray.

JIM WOODARD

Woodland Hills

*

Can it be? Here in Apathy USA, the mostly bland sports pages of our significant paper have added a real, live fire-breather.

Congratulations on bringing Simers into the fold as a regular all-sports man. Finally a guy who doesn’t regard all owners, players and coaches as godlike.

Simers is knowledgeable, humorous and aware that these are games and the principals aren’t so special away from their jobs . . . and often not so terrific while doing them.

Shake it up, T.J.

JOE SMITH

Beverly Hills

*

Who is this guy you’ve got writing your Page 2 column? Does he have a degree in journalism? Does he have a college degree? Does he have a high school diploma? From his picture, he looks like the guy who peered over my shoulder back when I took Dumbbell English in college for two semesters.

What’s he got against F.P. Santangelo? Doesn’t he like guys who don’t have names, only initials? I suppose the next thing he’ll do is write something uncomplimentary about O.J.

DOUG HAYS

Glendale

*

Finally Los Angeles has found an appropriate replacement for Jim Healy. Long live T.J. Simers (be it in hiding if necessary, as long as the column keeps coming).

GARY PINE

La Verne

*

Clearly, The Times is an equal-opportunity employer. You’ve hired the best sportswriter in the country (Bill Plaschke) and the worst (T.J. Simers).

When I read Plaschke, I feel that I’ve learned something, that I’ve got something to think about that I hadn’t thought about before, and I come away feeling better about your paper, the world we live in, and life. He’s an upper.

T.J. is Eeyore with hemorrhoids. He’s the most even-tempered journalist I’ve ever read: always ticked off. After reading him, it takes time to get up again for the day ahead.

The problem: Simers thinks he’s the story, not the athletes, and he makes himself feel big by inventing ways to put everyone else down. But duh, his inferiority complex is showing, and he needs professional help.

SPIKE BRAGG

Long Beach

*

You know, T.J. Simers, if you’re going to bash players in your columns, that’s all good. Hey, players not living up to their potential need a butt whipping. If you’re going to crack jokes and puns, I can’t argue with that. It keeps the readers’ attention in check and offers a laugh or two. If you’re going to let your ego run rampant through your columns, well, it’s to be expected. A journalist has to have some attitude to make an interesting article.

But the bottom line is this: Your knowledge on sports is limited. The facts that you present sound like you read them in an earlier article, or saw them on a late-night sports wrap-up. You only make it sound original by adding your punch line. You try to sound more like Jay Leno than Jim Murray. You let your ego run wild, but have no intelligence to back it up.

If you’re going to be funny, that’s all right. But don’t try to pass yourself as a legitimate sportswriter. You want to be funny, go get a radio show or do a show at the Improv. But don’t waste good L.A. Times sports section space on gibberish that, to be perfectly honest with you, is not that funny to begin with.

ADAM HUDES

Los Angeles

*

I, for one, was sorry to read that T.J. Simers will no longer be covering the NFL beat. It was a very gratifying feeling each week to know that I had once again picked more winning teams in the NFL than he.

JOE LYOU

Gardena

*

T.J. Simers is the guy who didn’t make the football team, has to go to gym class, and is beating up all the other kids in gym class to make himself feel better.

I cannot imagine why The Times wants to make sports--a world we readers go to in order to escape the miserable world on the front page--such a negative experience.

JIM HALLETT

Manhattan Beach

*

T.J. Simers’ sense of humor makes me smile, much in the same way Jim Healy always made me smile. Thank goodness guys like Kevin “The Nut” Brown and Chad “The Dodger Strangler” Kreuter don’t get it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be any fun!

TERRY BRANNON

Los Angeles

*

There were four reasons for continuing my subscription to The Times and three for canceling. It used to be 5-3 for keeping, God rest Jim Murray’s soul. However, The Times, in its infinite wisdom, has balanced the books with T.J. Simers.

FRED E. STEMRICH

Claremont

*

I can hardly contain my glee! The L.A. Times sports page got exponentially better when T.J. Simers took over the Page 2 column. I have been a longtime fan of T.J. and never understood why people get upset with him for puncturing the inflated egos of Southern California sports figures.

So that overpaid “brooding perfectionist” Kevin Brown is upset with T.J.? Is this the same multimillionaire Brown who said he was glad the All-Star game was in Atlanta so his family could attend? What, did he already use all his free flights in the Fox jet this year? So career backup and noted whiner Chad Kreuter doesn’t respect T.J.? Then T.J. must be doing his job.

To all the people out there who are preparing to slam T.J.--shut up! Even when you are defending them, do you actually think professional athletes care what you say or think? Keep up the good, no, great work, T.J. And don’t let the mindless masses get you down.

PATRICK MALLON

San Luis Obispo

*

Has sports and sports reporting become so uninteresting that we really need people like T.J. Simers to stir things up? He used to be just a seasonal irritant, but now it seems we are to be treated to a daily dose of his “hilarious” gossipy smack talk, none of which encumbers itself with the tedious subject of sports. Could anyone possibly write more boring, worthless trash in such a short space?

Unless he has compromising photos of The Times’ publisher with barnyard animals, I can’t for the life of me understand the reason to give such a nasty, dull tool a daily column.

GARY DURRETT

Glendale

*

My Momma told me never to call anyone an idiot. But Momma, you never knew T.J. Simers, the ultimate practitioner of insulting sportswriting. Can you speak from the grave and release me from my pledge?

INMAN MOORE

Pasadena

*

I see that F.P. Santangelo went on the disabled list because of a hand contusion. We can only hope that he injured it hitting T.J. Simers in the mouth.

RICHARD BRISACHER

Los Angeles

*

Giving T.J. the Page 2 column is a cataclysmic error on the part of your editors. Unlike Simers, Allan Malamud and Randy Harvey always managed to write informative, interesting and entertaining columns without resorting to mudslinging and character assassination.

I have no problems with writers who criticize the teams and players they cover, but when a columnist’s sole purpose is to attack and denigrate the local teams as well as individual players, this is sports journalism at its worst.

STEVE RAMSEY

Arcadia

*

Reading Randy Harvey in the morning was like a breath of fresh air. Reading T.J. Simers in the morning is like breathing a stage-two smog alert.

JIM LAWSON

San Diego

*

OK, I admit that I am not a regular sports page reader. But I noticed your front-page hyping of T.J. Simers’ new column, and then, when I walked past the sports page open to Page 2 on the kitchen table, I decided to give it a look.

All those references to F.P. Santangelo were just downright mean and nasty. Simers never gave any examples of why F.P.’s play is so bad. All he did was slam the man. Also, what did he mean by predicting that Marion Jones will make the WNBA, when he had already given a dig to the Sparks?

My sons read this stuff. So please, if you are going to pay Simers to rant about sports, could you at least demand some level of writing in the mix, so that there is some redeeming social value? Otherwise, it is just garbage, and with two boys, I fear the adage “Garbage in, garbage out.”

KATHI SMITH

Ojai

*

The Los Angeles Times, a leading newspaper of record around the world, has withstood a series of editorial and managerial mistakes in recent years.

But this week’s announcement makes controversies about the Staples Center issue of Los Angeles Times Magazine and the paper’s out-town-ownership meaningless glitches in the inexorable march of time.

T.J. Simers is now a four-day-a-week Times sports columnist. He who was once the autumnal scourge of the NFL and its vagabond fans in Southern California is now a man of all seasons.

Suddenly, life--and The Times--becomes much more interesting.

JOE CROWLEY

Los Angeles

*

Finally, a photo of T.J. Simers. But where are his horns, forked tail and pitchfork?

JERRY COWLE

Pacific Palisades