Bad News Bears’ fields of dreams

For someone who loves the original “Bad News Bears” as much as Dog Davis [“Here’s the Pitch: Put ‘Bears’ in Right Field,” Aug. 18], it’s eerie that he missed the point of the movie: Misfits exist, and we ought to stick together.

Bill Lancaster, who merely created every line of every character in every scene of “The Bad News Bears,” did play baseball on Sepulveda Boulevard, true -- with, it is worth noting, a brace on his leg, having been crippled by polio during his Little League career. Misfit, certainly, and the brace (as Hamlet said of his own unhappiness) was “but the trappings and the suits of woe.”

Lancaster understood the suffering of misfits, the desire to belong, the love of baseball -- and, yes, he was a screenwriter. That calling is regarded in this town as inconsequential, ignorable, maybe even ignoble. Getting a Little League field named after Lancaster is not unlike Lupus’ catching the ball -- a miracle. Which makes the score (someone wake up the sleeping Dog): Misfits 1, Idiots 0.

SARA WILLEN

Beverly Hills

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I am the mother of one of the original Bears, Ahmad. I have fond memories of driving to Chatsworth before dawn many mornings for “practice” and filming. Walter Matthau had a special role in forming the professionalism and character that has played a major influence in my son’s life. He gave my son Erin and all the boys a feeling of really being on a team, and he put his greatness within their touch.

My son grew up being a Bear; he was in the two consecutive movies. A fitting tribute to the children’s rite of passage known as “The Bad News Bears” and all the cast and crew who created this experience should be honored at the original site of the “blood, sweat and tears” that went into this tale -- the Mason Recreational Center in Chatsworth.

DOLORES SHEEN

Los Angeles

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Does it seem inappropriate for Hannibal, Mo., to dedicate places in the name of Huck Finn? It’s not where the movies were filmed. But it is where Mark Twain lived and found the inspiration for his writing.

I was on the board at West L.A. Little League at the time the field was dedicated to Mr. Lancaster. The reason we felt it was appropriate was that the Westwood Park field was where he played and had the experiences that were drawn on for the film. It’s where he encountered the real idiots who showed him how badly adults can behave and played with the real kids who taught him that baseball was really just a game.

It’s not the make-believe Hollywood version of the field that you feel should be honored. It’s the source of the man and the writer’s experience and inspiration. The reason it wasn’t named after Mr. Lancaster himself is that the family specifically did not like their name used in association with the donations they’ve made in L.A. His father, Burt Lancaster, was also instrumental in acquiring the land and getting the original ballfield in the complex built.

Bill Lancaster was an inspiration. I can’t think of any better example for what the true spirit of what youth sports should represent. It was the field where he got to play in spite of the fact that he had a physical disadvantage -- not the field where a movie was made.

BILL HABEEB

Los Angeles

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I agree completely with Dog Davis about “The Bad News Bears” and Mason Park. I love the Bears, always have and always will. I played college ball and, when it was the end of the road for me, I started coaching and I’m a high school baseball coach in Covina.

My good friends and I still utter Bears lines when we get together; I think this has been going on for 25 years or so now. I want to go to Mason Park and feel the presence of Buttermaker and the boys.

DARREN MURPHY

La Verne