Honey, Bud Shrunk the National Pastime

To: Bud Selig

Re: Contraction

Here is the short list of all the clubs being considered for extinction, er ... dismantling ... uh ... tossing in the trash. See what you think.

Expos: Living off ghosts of 1981.

Dodgers: Living off ghosts of 1988.

Giants: No World Series championships in 40-plus seasons in San Francisco.

Reds: Doesn’t Marge Schott still live in Cincinnati?

Phillies: One World Series championship in 100 years! Out!

Rockies: Must go to get ERAs back under 6.00.

White Sox: Jerry Reinsdorf ... enough said.

Astros/Angels/Rangers/Devil Rays: What were we thinking?

Sorry Bud. With all these teams gone, the Brewers will still finish fourth.

Mike Johnson

Claremont

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The business decisions of major league baseball should come as no more a surprise than the layoffs of thousands at Boeing.

No offense to any auto workers out there (whom I’ll use only as an example), but I’m going to lose about as much sleep over the elimination of the Twins as I did over GM’s closing the Van Nuys Camaro plant.

The astonishing thing is how an owner such as Carl Pohlad would receive a quarter-billion dollars for shutting down his poorly producing stick-swinging factory. I just hope those displaced workers will be able to get by.

David Albrecht

Los Angeles

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Major league baseball is so out of touch with reality that I can’t even believe what I’m seeing anymore.

Baseball has always been my favorite sport, but I’ll take the NFL. Are George Steinbrenner and his fellow owners blind to how successful the NFL labor agreement is?

Baseball is terribly misguided in eliminating two teams. They should eliminate 22 teams. What’s the point of having the Expos, Marlins, Pirates, Reds, Brewers, etc. around anyway? Where’s the joy and competition in knowing a team is beginning the season with no chance at all to win? Let’s just allow the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Braves and a few others to fight it out.

Leonard Braddock

Los Angeles

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Question to Ross Newhan: I wonder how viable your industry would be if it had to operate under the same economics as major league baseball and millionaire journalists and reporters could extort further riches from beleaguered franchises through a collective bargaining agreement, causing healthy publishers to have to “revenue share” with those in smaller markets while charging $5 for a daily newspaper?

Mark Clancey

San Juan Capistrano

Editor’s note: The words “millionaire” and “journalists” are mutually exclusive.