Letters: Angels get their man in Albert Pujols

St. Louis stole the Rams from Anaheim; now Anaheim stole Albert Pujols from St. Louis. Seems fair.

Richard Sieger

Valley Village

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Looks like the baseball monopoly in L.A. is over.

John Davison

Inglewood

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I’m all for our local teams going out and obtaining the best players, but paying Albert Pujols $250 million and signing him for 10 years was way overboard. First, the Angels don’t even need a first baseman because they already have young power-hitting Mark Trumbo and veteran Kendrys Morales. Secondly, Pujols will be 32 at the start of the season and the lofty statistics he attained in the National League are bound to start sliding down. That could happen sooner than later.

The bottom line is that paying $250 million is too much for anyone this side of Bill Gates.

Charles Reilly

Manhattan Beach

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It is incredible watching and listening to the response of Cardinal Nation to the departure of Albert Pujols to the Angels. If you are not from St. Louis and turned on the news, you might think he did something horrible such as embezzling from the Cardinals. Not only did he earn every dime he had been paid over the past 10 years, he finally realized his worth in the scheme of this industry by accepting a new deal.

Like it or not, we’re in the big leagues now!

J. Michele Brown

St. Louis

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How dumb is Arte Moreno? He signed one player for $25 million a year while Ned Colletti has signed six for $14 million. And that’s why the Angels are the Angels and the Dodgers are, well, Kansas City.

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

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Albert Pujols is throwing his hat into the ring as one of the bidders for the Dodgers. Apparently Pujois wants to use Dodger Stadium as his workout facility in the same vein as Jamie McCourt’s use of an adjoining house that has a swimming pool.

Pujois, who comes from humble beginnings in the Dominican, is reluctant to comment on the Dodger bid because he wants to be “just one of the guys” in the Angels clubhouse.

Skip Usen

Santa Monica

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The Angels sign Pujols. The Dodgers are trying to sign a new owner. What’s wrong with this picture?

Nothing if you an Angels fan. Frustration if you are a Dodgers fan.

Alan Matis

Sherman Oaks

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With the winter meetings concluded, Dodgers fans are looking toward the upcoming season with great excitement to the some of the new marquee names like Hairston, Kennedy, Treanor and Capuano.

Let the count down to the 2012 new-look Dodgers season begin: 5,4,3,2,1 ... CAST-OFF!

Rich Sperber

Woodland Hills

Block or charge?

Every Lakers fan should send a Christmas card to Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert and thank him for being the antidote to Jim Buss’ incompetence.

Adam Platts

Northridge

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The Lakers truly need a point guard and Chris Paul is a great player, but it’s not close to an equitable deal for Gasol and Odom. Were the Dodgers handling this transaction?

Paul Shubunka Sr.

Santa Clarita

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Dear Lamar Kardashian,

Hey bud, quit whining, it’s just business. Your family certainly understands that.

Maureen Manion

Los Angeles

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An open letter to David Stern:

Liar, liar.

Pants on fire.

Eric Monson

Temecula

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Does anybody really think it’s just a coincidence that David Stern not only chose to ruin the Lakers’ Christmas with their families (again), but then gleefully added coal to their stockings by making them start the season by playing three games in three nights — all without Andrew Bynum? Thanks a lot, Derek!

Brad Kern

Pacific Palisades

The Bruins

2001: Bill Plaschke declares that Los Angeles “is, has been, and will continue to be” a UCLA football town.

2011: Plaschke lauds UCLA’s effort during an 18-point loss in the Pac-12 title game.

2021: Plaschke makes an impassioned plea for Coach Cade McNown’s Bruins to not be relegated out of the Pac-20, based on their (sole conference) win over Utah State and heart shown in close losses to division rivals New Mexico State and Idaho.

Mark Backstrom

Inglewood

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Forget the 6-7 record, the third-rate bowl game and a season sprinkled with some abysmal performances. The fact that UCLA is being turned down by coaches as often as the high school nerd scrambling for a prom date tells one how far this program has fallen.

Bud Chapman

Northridge

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You reported that Dan Guerrero, in his weekly blog post for donors, wrote regarding his search for a football coach, “What you have read and heard is all water cooler talk.”

I would like to put Mr. Guerrero’s suspicions to rest. I work in an office, and I can assure him that no one standing around a water cooler, or anywhere else for that matter, is talking about UCLA football.

Judith Reel

Simi Valley

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If adversity introduces a man to himself, Rick Neuheisel achieved his finest moment at UCLA after his termination by displaying uncommon grace, dignity and humility, along with commendable equanimity, while suffering in the throes of what must have been a heartbreaking professional failure.

Tom Lallas

Los Angeles

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The Dec. 5 Q&A with Terry Donahue was spot on. To be able to compete with the top schools, UCLA needs to expand the recruiting pool, which takes money. Spending millions on a high-priced coaching staff is just another way of passing the buck.

D.G. Artis

Woodland Hills

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Is there any reason the Bruins need to look further than Marty Schottenheimer? All he has ever done is win. He’s Tommy Prothro reincarnated.

Dean Whittet

Las Vegas

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If Steve Spurrier, can revive South Carolina, imagine what he could do at UCLA.

Oscar Fields

Channel Islands

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Chris Dufresne will not win a Pulitzer for his story on UCLA’s search for a coach, but the story which does win it will be no more insightful, no more on point and no more clearly stated. The UCLA job is not one which “can’t be refused.” Guerrero should have offered to Neuheisel the opportunity to resign and should have had the replacement in his hip pocket when he did so.

Admission requirements [are] a solvable problem; not an ongoing excuse for continual failure, and the imagined need to stay within the UCLA family is categorically wrong. Finally, they’re cheap. If they cannot meet the going rate after the $20-million-some annual windfall from selling their souls to television, they either need a new comptroller or they should be playing at the Cal State level.

Paul Ascenzi

Pomona

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Ben Howland has hemorrhaged players. Currently former Bruins Bobo Morgan plays for Baylor, a top-25 team, Matt Carlino plays for BYU, Drew Gordon plays for New Mexico and Chase Stanback and Mike Moser star for UNLV. Howland virtually concedes he cannot attract decent players. How many times since Darren Collison left have we heard Howland bemoan the fact that he had no guard who can stay in front of the opposing point guard? Coaching is supposed to improve performance. Has anyone seen any improvement by Stover, Lane, Nelson or Smith since his first UCLA game?

Even before the disaster associated with revamping Pauley Pavilion there was a marked drop in attendance since Howland arrived. So what is Dan Guerrero’s solution to all this? Fire Neuheisel.

Richard D. Agay

Beverly Hills

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What Reeves Nelson needs is another tattoo. One that spells “idiot” across his forehead.

David Cianchetti

Claremont

Class act

Letter writer Jack Saltzberg listed 10 reasons why Matt Barkley should return for his senior season. Too bad one wasn’t to get a college degree.

Janet Polak

Beverly Hills

From above

In reference to the “All Mighty” article on the cover of Monday’s Sports Section:

The Times, and a good many Broncos fans, seem to suggest that the Almighty has taken to interceding on behalf of the Broncos through the skill and strength of Tim Tebow. And that’s fine. The Big Guy is certainly entitled to indulge in a little football, particularly on His day of rest. Given His apparent interest in such earthly struggles as football on Sunday, it’s comforting to think that on Monday, He might consider interceding on behalf of the millions of starving people across the world.

Steve Gregory

Los Angeles

The Santo clause

The folks in Cooperstown sure have an interesting new criteria for inducting players into the Hall of Fame. 1. Have a stellar career. 2. Get shunned for the rest of your life. 3. Die.

Ron Santo deserved better.

Ron Reeve

Glendora

Name game

Now that The Big East is adding new members, look for this name: “The Big East San Diego State Aztecs of Anaheim.”

Erik Schuman

Fountain Valley

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