Angel Fans Riding a Stairway to Heaven

This one’s for Gene. The next one’s for Donnie. The last one will be for all of us.

Go Angels.

John Enriquez

Huntington Beach

*

It is impossible to pick the most valuable of this year’s Angels, since throughout the season and now in the playoffs, several players have regularly stepped up to provide the game-winning hit or pitching performance. This, students, is a prime example of what is termed “playing as a team,” something rare in this era of overpaid, pampered and ego-driven athletes. Whether the Angels win or even reach the World Series, 2002 will forever mark the end of the Dodgers’ dominance of Southern California baseball fans. Hey, it’s about time Disney beat Murdoch at something!

Sid Skolnik

West Hollywood

*

OK, I admit it. As a Dodger fan I watch the Angels with shameless envy. Not because they’re in postseason play and the Dodgers aren’t, but because the Angels’ offense does everything Dodger offenses haven’t done for years.

Every player in Anaheim’s lineup and on the bench understands the importance of a quality at-bat. Angel batters are patient at the plate, work long counts, move runners over, hit the ball where it’s pitched, consistently lay down sacrifice bunts, don’t overswing ... the list goes on and on.

Attention Bob Daly and Dan Evans: Angel postseason baseball should be mandatory viewing for Jim Tracy, the Dodger coaching staff, and the entire player roster. Either the Dodgers learn to handle their bats, or I learn to become an Angel fan.

Robert Show

Palmdale

*

Hear ye. Hear ye.

As of Oct. 4, 2002, the residents of Orange County request that all further letter writers to the L.A. Times refrain from using the term “Mickey Mouse Club” in referring to the Earth Angels of Anaheim.

Jeffrey S. Glueck

Newport Beach

*

How gratifying that Mo Vaughn finally gets to experience the “intensity” of West Coast baseball from the comfort of his East Coast sofa!

Michael Miyamoto

Mission Viejo

*

Like most Dodger fans, we didn’t want the Giants to beat Atlanta and win the series. But how great was it to see Gary “Don’t disrespect me” Sheffield strike out in the bottom of the ninth in the deciding game and the Braves’ season on the line? Didn’t they get him for this exact situation? The “franchise” player Sheffield batted a whopping .063 for the series by going one for 16 and was a non-factor.

I think I actually like Barry Bonds more than Gary Sheffield, and that’s saying a lot. But of course, I’m an Angel fan now.

Matt Butler

Redondo Beach

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We Angel fans would like to welcome the long-suffering Dodger fans who have hopped aboard the Angel bandwagon. We can definitely sympathize with your club’s extended postseason drought.

Craig Dunkin

Tujunga

*

I know how much L.A. hates the San Francisco Giants, but the lack of NLCS coverage in the Oct. 10 sports page is just unbelievable. You didn’t even mention that the Giants broke the record for consecutive hits with six in the second inning in Game 1.

Is it that painful to watch a team with Dusty Baker at the helm be so successful?

Brian West

Los Angeles

*

Just when you think things can’t get any more stupid in Major League Baseball, they do. The ALCS and the NLCS playing their nationally televised games at the same time Wednesday. What is this?

I watched baseball all year long, despite my disgust over the commissioner’s attempts to eliminate two teams, including one that is three games away from the World Series, and might win it; despite my disgust over billionaire owners and multi-millionaire players pushing the sport to the brink of a strike, making us live under that cloud of possibility all summer; despite my absolute disgust at the first All-Star game where the commissioner stopped the game before it finished, for reasons that seriously strained the legitimacy of competition.

And now I have to decide which of the two playoff games to watch?

Why is not one game an afternoon game, as in previous years? Fox, Bud Selig and Major League Baseball seem to be interested only in pushing the fan to the brink of forgetting about baseball.

Art Good

Palm Springs

*

With the demise of the Braves, we finally have gotten rid of the sophomoric, inane and annoying tomahawk-chops chant. Now, if we could only be rid of the sophomoric, inane and annoying baseball coverage by Fox.

There is a baseball game in there somewhere buried under the screen-hogging graphics, intrusive music and sound effects, endless promotions (Kiefer Sutherland, anyone?), and the uninformative blather of Tim McCarver and Steve Lyons.

Please, Fox, let me watch the ballgame!

Ned Shapiro

Los Angeles

*

My brother and I were arguing the other day over who is the worst television sports color analyst. I said it is Joe Morgan, someone who cannot resist the urge to say anything about anything without first considering what he is about to say. My brother says it’s Tim McCarver, who cannot resist the urge to say something about everything to propose that he knows more about baseball than anyone

I said Morgan repeats everything he says at least once. My brother said he learned that from McCarver. (Just listen, he said. I can confirm he’s right.)

I said Morgan brings a joyless and inane dissection of the ordinariness of the events in a game, expecting to educate viewers who have actually seen these things before. My brother says that McCarver pontificates endlessly on the play on the field as though his palaver is required by viewers to know what is going on, sucking all the fun out of the game.

My brother and I weighed each other’s comments and decided to put it to a vote. It was unanimous, two to zero. The worst television sports color analyst: John Madden.

John Thom

Westchester