Letters: Dodgers don’t appear willing to pay the price to the next step

How can the Dodgers not afford Giancarlo Stanton? I’m reminded of how much money they have every time I can’t watch their games on TV.

Jack Wishard

Los Angeles

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The Dodgers’ Friedman and Zaidi are becoming the Penn and Teller of Major League Baseball. The reality Dodgers fans expect has become nothing but an illusion.

Barry P. Resnick

Orange

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The Dodgers most certainly did not come within nine innings of ending “the drought.” They came within two first innings.

Steve Alcorn

Sierra Madre

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Dodgers fans’ dreams of becoming the National League version of the Yankees and Red Sox, smartly constructed and spending their way to numerous championships, is now officially over. When the game’s premier young slugger practically begs to come home to L.A. and can be had for what amounts to a salary dump by the Marlins, what do we do? We punt.

The Yankees are the last team that needed more offense, but still they signed another great hitter because they don’t believe in Andrew Friedman’s vision of winning their division and hoping for luck in the playoffs. But hey, at least we still have our precious (read: affordable) prospects, so all is well in Dodger land. Julio Urias, anyone?

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

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Even if he didn’t get hurt by falling down the dugout steps, should we call the Angels’ newest big signing Mohtani?

Nick Rose

Newport Coast

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I wasn’t surprised that Shohei Ohtani signed with the Angels. He wanted to play for a small-market team. “Los Angeles of Anaheim” is not only a small market, it doesn’t even exist.

Ron Reeve

Glendora

Be positive

The Chargers beat up on an injury-riddled team with nothing to play for, and “This is a team that can play with anyone.”

The Rams lose a heartbreaker to arguably the best team in pro football today, and “they’re just not quite ready.”

Wow, what a difference in perspective. Sam Farmer’s glass is half full. Bill Plaschke’s glass is broken.

Steve Mehlman

Beaumont

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Was Bill Plaschke watching the same Rams-Eagles game I watched? This was a close, hard-fought game between two of the top teams in the NFL. The Rams trailed by double digits at halftime, then came back in the second half to take the lead. Except for a meaningless fumble return touchdown as time expired, it was a two-point game at the end.

The Rams played an admirable game against a very good team, and they came up short. If anything, I would say that that means they are ready for prime time.

They didn’t embarrass themselves at all. They showed that they are right there with the best team in the NFC.

David Trigg

Desert Hot Springs

Balls not in their court

It is 49 miles from Chino Hills to UCLA, one of the finest academic institutions in the world. It is 5,949 miles, or 12 hours in a jet plane, to Lithuania, and they do not speak English there. You can take dozens of classes at UCLA and study cultures from the world over, while I suspect that the only class available in Lithuania for a young person is culture shock.

Kevin Park

Mission Hills

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Are there any Louis Vuitton stores in Lithuania?

Alice Glasser

Los Angeles

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So now we learn that the Lakers’ top management including Magic Johnson had a sit-down with LaVar Ball to see if he would “tone down” his criticism of coach Luke Walton and others. According to LaVar, “we’re just trying to do what’s best for the team.” We? I didn’t know that this guy’s input was a critical factor in the team’s decisions. Anyway, I doubt that Ball will tone down any part of his act. On the contrary, it looks like he’ll be turning up the volume. Magic and Rob Pelinka have only themselves to blame for allowing this colossal windbag to make them look like fools.

Charles Reilly

Manhattan Beach

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Do you think whenMagic Johnson and Rob Pelinka met with LaVar Ball to tell him to tone it down a little bit with the press, that they also offered LaVar a one way ticket to Lithuania?

Chris Sorce

Fountain Valley

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Months ago, people came out of the woodwork to defend LaVar Ball calling him a good father. Their reasoning was he was a good father because he didn’t leave. He didn’t leave? Is the bar set that low? This fool is committing what is akin to child abuse. He pulls his 16-year-old kid out of high school, self-determining that a high school diploma is a worthless piece of paper and insignificant to his child’s future. He pulled his second son out of college because he didn’t think committing a crime in a Communist country was a big deal.

Enough of the media love affair with this man. Between the L.A. Times and ESPN, you’d think this man walked on water. He is the antithesis of a good father. He’s a clown. A carnival barker. An ignorant blowhard. Based on the limited social development and passionless demeanor of his eldest son, these kids don’t have a chance to properly develop into well-adjusted human beings.

Geno Apicella

Placentia

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Please do not print another photo or article about the overhyped, overblown, underwhelming Ball family. When Lonzo is spectacular you may make an exception. Pulling a son out of school because the dad believes he should have no punishment for an internationally embarrassing incident does not deserve more than one sentence. And please, no articles of how they are doing in foreign countries. Ever.

Janis Austin

Solana Beach

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So LaVar is taking his three-ring circus to Europe. Not sure that part of the world is ready for a Twitter happy, loud-mouthed, ego-centric American who craves negative publicity and lives in his own reality. Oh wait. Never mind.

Jerry Hiller

Rancho Santa Margarita

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Luke Walton, Magic Johnson and LaVar Ball are all Laker fans are writing about?

I’ve watched this long slog to respectability. Two years ago we endured one blowout after another. Last season it was great first halves followed by disintegration in the second half.

Still too many turnovers now, but the games are exciting and blowouts are rare. They remind me of Golden State in the early days of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson when the Lakers still beat them on a regular basis. The Lakers were a team built around Kobe Bryant but now are a team of contributors as opposed to facilitators.

The Lakers lost to Golden State in overtime to a Warriors team that includes Kevin Durant. Now that’s improvement. Defense is still inconsistent, but they are no longer a team to be taken lightly.

Depending on how free agency goes, they could be fearsome.

Michael Solomon

Canoga Park

Bad Bruins

I don’t care how many points Aaron Holiday had against Michigan, if Steve Alford had the sense to pull him with even 10 minutes to play, UCLA would have won going away. I’ve been watching the Bruins since 1953, seen a lot of great teams, some not so good; this team qualifies as the latter. In all my years though, I’ve never seen a more disgusting display of me, me, me basketball by one player. Where were the coaches? Were they not watching what we were?

Additionally, if this team’s offense depends on their three guards, who can’t handle the ball and make good decisions, or by Goloman and Olesinski standing beyond the three-point line chucking up bricks, they will get their heads handed to them in the Pac-12 Conference.

Dennis Holran

Simi Valley

Military defeat

The one sentence reference to the Army-Navy football game is a disgrace to the L.A. Times, a disservice to sports fans; and an insult to the military. The Times should be aware that there are ten of thousands of veterans of who care about this classic game and rivalry and give it 5% of the attention it gives to LaVar Ball.

Tom Umberg

Villa Park

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