Time to name names?

Major League Baseball and the players’ union need to stop holding the fans hostage on this secret 2003 list. Enough already. MLB and the union owe the Dodgers and their fans an explanation. We deserve to hear why, while we were celebrating the acquisition of Manny Ramirez, cheering him and the team on in the playoffs, hoping they re-sign him, the whole time baseball and the players’ union had been sitting on this 2003 list, that quite frankly, could have saved this Dodgers fan some computer time, at the very least.

Jesse Rodriguez

Los Angeles

I agree with Bill Plaschke. It is time that sports fans stop encouraging illegal conduct, and time that we demand a return to the pristine ethical norms that once ruled the world of sport. For this reason, Plaschke should be suspended from writing his column for the next 50 days.

As I see it, Manny Ramirez fully cooperated with Major League Baseball in 2003 in participating in a drug testing program that, by all accounts, was supposed to remain confidential. According to reports, Manny tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug. There were no penalties for this at that time, yet his confidentiality was clearly violated.

Plaschke, by contrast, sees no problem whatsoever in coddling the behavior of certain unnamed lawyers who, it appears, may have acted illegally in disclosing results that apparently remain under court seal.

Disclosing this confidential information is illegal; a positive test in 2003 was not supposed to lead to punishment. Yet Plaschke gobbles and disseminates this tainted data like a man addicted to this never-ending issue, which is exactly what he is.

Grow up, Bill. Get off your anti-Manny soap box, start admitting your own role in this crisis, and try to enjoy the game of baseball again.

Stuart Tochner

Los Angeles