Letters: UCLA fans out for bear

The Times headline last Saturday for UCLA Gameday was “Manhattan Project.” Well, the bomb exploded in our faces —and it was not totally unexpected. No, we did not expect a football John Wooden with Rick Neuheisel, but we expected better.

Andrew Sacks

Fontana

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Bulletin to Rick Neuheisel: Despite what Norm Chow tells you, you cannot win with Kevin Prince at quarterback. He has never done anything to suggest otherwise, and starting him when rusty was ridiculous. Assert yourself as a head coach and give Richard Breuhaut a chance until Brett Hundley arrives. Otherwise it will just be the same old story. And frankly, we fans are getting discouraged.

Alan Abajian

Alta Loma

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You have to feel sorry for Richard Brehaut the UCLA backup QB. Watching Kevin Prince throw inaccurate passes and making bad decisions, he must be thinking, “Am I that bad that this guy is playing in front of me?”

One can only think that a school like UCLA with the great quarterbacks coming out of high school in the L.A. area could do better.

Steve Baker

Los Angeles

Out of it

While Manager Joe Torre contemplates his retirement, five ineffective relievers who should be retired this year by the Dodgers are Broxton, Monasterios, Sherrill, Troncoso and Dotel. Since these players can’t provide the team with any kind of sweep, perhaps management can do it for them. That is how you spell “relief.”

Roy Reel

Culver City

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Instead of the headline, “Ay-Yi-Yi Skipper!” [Sept. 6], it should have read, “Bye Bye Skipper!” It has been truly painful watching a legend like Joe Torre so ineffectively manage the Dodgers from one gaffe to the next.

And does anyone really think that a clueless Don (two trips to the mound on one visit) Mattingly is a worthy successor? Tim Wallach appears to be the much more qualified candidate.

If someone really wants to light a fire under the lethargic Boys in Blue, how about considering this name for the club’s next Manager: Larry Bowa.

Steve Carey

Burbank

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The “Dodgers Live” program following the games needs a new non-working title: “Dodgers Dead.”

D. Duane Wall

Cambria

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This has been a very difficult year for diehard Dodgers fans. From the divorce, to the broken pinkie, to the sore back, the bulging disk and the multiple bullpen betrayals, we have had to watch a team with a lot of potential self-destruct before our eyes.

But somehow the worst of the worst for me was watching the superbly talented Matt Kemp having horrible at-bat after horrible at-bat as he disappeared as an offensive presence in the batting order. Whether it was the verbal attack by Ned Colletti early in the season that set this in motion or whether Ned just noticed it before the rest of us, it seems that Matt is now nothing but a flailing zombie at the plate.

I am sure he will be a superstar somewhere else, but it is clear his heart is no longer with the Dodgers. Maybe we can trade him for a front-line starter for next season.

Larry Weiner

Culver City

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Never before have I been so happily looking forward to hockey season and the Los Angeles Kings. Why so excited about it this year? Two words.

The Dodgers.

Mel Powell

Sherman Oaks

L.A. Law

Thank you, McCourts!

As a Dodgers fan, I read The Times every morning during baseball season. And now, just when my interest was dimming, the McCourts stepped up to the plate with their divorce trial. Last week I was treated to articles and columns every day by Carla Hall, Bill Shaikin, T.J. Simers, and even Steve Lopez. No need to read about last night’s game or check the box score, when I can read about the McCourts houses and what Jamie was wearing. Now that’s what I call taking one for the team!

Bill Harper

Playa del Rey

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So Frank the Truthful says that introducing Jamie McCourt as one of the new owners of the Dodgers in 2004 was nothing more than a public relations myth. Is that another phrase for lying, misspoke, deceit, duplicity, fraud...

Bernadine Bednarz

Los Angeles

House that Vin built

In the last couple of weeks in this Letters section, there have been a couple of suggestions on how the Dodgers can honor Vin Scully. One reader (Deneal Blouin) would have them rename Mannywood as Vinnywood. The other (Bernard Baima) wants them to rename the streets around the ballpark after Vin so that everyone on the freeways would see his name every day. Excellent suggestions, both of them. I’d like to submit a third option.

Vin Scully Stadium.

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Now, I realize that it’s probably the last thing Vin himself would want. However, Vin needs a bigger monument than the press box. If nothing else, it would bring some real class back to a ballpark that has been truly depleted of it lately.

“Hey, let’s roll on over to Vinny’s to catch the Dodger game today.”

Eric Monson

Temecula

Anti-Trojan?

Bill Plaschke’s unrelenting screed against the Trojans is making him out to be bigger lunatic than the semantically challenged Mike Garrett, although as a trained “journalist”, the kook suit Garrett donned is much more ill fitting on Mr. Plaschke’s scholarly frame.

If Mr. Plaschke’s goal in life is to be remembered as the Sen. Joseph McCarthy of sportswriters, ranting “Carroll, Bush, Land Rover”, again and again in place of “commie, red, communist sympathizer” until nobody cares to hear it, or anything else he has to say, then he should by all means continue with what appears to be his life’s work.

Steven Vien

San Pedro

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Reggie Bush may have to return the Heisman Trophy hardware but at least he’ll still have the chassis from the bus his mother and step father threw him under. Where are they during this whole spectacle the last three years? No public apology or remorse as their son takes all the heat? Reggie’s scholarship at USC included housing; had his parents taken better care of there own finances and housing needs Reggie would most likely still have ownership of the most prestigious award in college sports.

Larry Yells

Hermosa Beach

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Hey Plaschke: I suggest that Reggie Bush return his Heisman Trophy just as soon as the university returns the millions generated from games played during the Bush era.

Maury D. Benemie

Corona

Not heavenly

I knew that come September the Texas Rangers would start choking. What I didn’t know was that the way the Angels are playing, it wouldn’t matter.

They had some half-price ticket deals this week. Based on the product on the field, they were way over-priced.

Ron Reeve

Rank amateurs

With Tiger Woods still being ranked as the No. 1 player in golf, I’m not going to say that the ranking system gives too much weight to prior years’ accomplishments, but I understand that Walter Hagen almost made the top 10.

Jim Gillespie

Temecula

No defense for this

Lane Kiffin’s latest problem: “How do I can the old man?”

Woody Taylor

Los Angeles

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