Dodger Season Provides Soothing Relief

On behalf of the pharmaceutical manufacturers of the world, I want to thank the Los Angeles Dodgers for creating an unprecedented demand for antidepressant drugs, anti-anxiety drugs and all of their various stomach medications among the crowd who wrote nothing but nasty letters to The Times at the start of this baseball season.

With the Dodgers’ move into first place over the weekend, I am not certain that even the latest miracle drugs will be able to tame these folks’ facial tics. Try not to let your children stare and make rude comments about them, it can’t be helped.

Mike Kilgore

Los Angeles

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I laughed aloud when I read Diane Pucin’s June 24 column, “Tracy leads through motivation.” Unfortunately, I don’t believe she meant this to be a humorous piece. “Talk to Tracy and you will want to run wind sprints until you puke, just in case you’re asked to steal a base,” she writes. When I finished reading her column, I felt like I had to puke and I haven’t even talked to Tracy!

Her statements regarding the Dodgers’ sole possession of first place for the first time this year are ludicrous. She states, “This is no accident. This is no fluke.” Pucin, that’s exactly what it is, deal with it. Any knowledgeable baseball fan knows that at the end of the season, the Dodgers will again be in third place, unless Colorado gets really hot.

Look, the Dodgers’ last winning team was 1988, and most would agree that feat was accomplished with mirrors. However, this team doesn’t even use mirrors. This goes way beyond magic. This phenomenon goes way beyond luck. There is only one explanation for the Dodgers’ rise to a temporary first-place position--divine intervention. Nothing else makes sense.

Bill Michael

Dana Point

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Shame on you, Mr. Noble of Manhattan Beach.

There is no “overblown hype” about Dodger Stadium. Nor is Dodger Stadium “an oversized cement hole dug near a skyline of smog.”

My father has been taking my brother and me to Dodger games ever since I can remember and I never once assessed the facility at Chavez Ravine with such untrue negative adjectives.

No matter what this life brings--terrorism, disease, starvation, war--we can always count on having some fun with family and friends while watching our Dodgers at beautiful Dodger Stadium.

Jaime J. Matis

Sherman Oaks