Letters: NFL lockout is over. Yay.

To characterize the NFL lockout, which started after last season ended and ended before this season started, as a work stoppage is like accusing a kid of playing hooky because he didn’t go to school during spring break. And now, the leaders on both sides are being lauded as labor statesmen because they were able successfully to distribute a huge amount of money among a small group of people without peeving anyone beyond the breaking point.

I view all this as the late, great labor leader John L. Lewis did when asked his thoughts about an impending strike by the Air Line Pilots’ Assn. against the nation’s major air carriers: “I have little interest in disputes among plutocrats.”

Bart Robertson

Torrance

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I had to laugh when I read that Roger Goodell said the NFL must work to gain back fans’ trust. Is he kidding? NFL fans, including myself, are like lap dogs at his door, just waiting for the festivities to start again so we can watch players beat the hell out of each other on the field.

Given the economy and the ever-growing divide between the haves and have-nots in our nation, a distraction like football is a welcome respite from reality. But I worry our fate will resemble that of the ancient Romans: As the republic crumbles at the hands of lost politicos far removed from the common folk, we’ll be content to lose ourselves in all manner of entertainment, violent or otherwise.

Chris Boyd

Redondo Beach

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Why does AEG, a private company, ask our city to help them finance a plan to bring a pro football team to Los Angeles? If AEG wants to build a stadium to entice a team here, let them put their money where their mouth is and pay for it. Shame on the mayor and City Council if they float any kind of financial package to help them do it.

We do not need a pro football team in Los Angeles. It has been more than 16 years since we had a team here. I dare say it has not changed the life of one person living here.

Jerry Baruch

Los Angeles

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In pro sports today, television revenue is greater than gate receipts and other revenue combined. Thus, Los Angeles being a great TV market, why would the NFL genuinely be interested in a new franchise here? Without a team, we will continue to watch four-five games per week during the season, and the NFL will have no complaints.

Wayne Muramatsu

Cerritos

Qatar? Really?

A high-ranking member of international soccer’s governing body was recently banned for life for bribing voters during the organization’s presidential election. A few months earlier the tiny nation of Qatar was shockingly awarded the 2022 World Cup, despite having no soccer history, no stadiums and summertime temperatures of 125 degrees. The man who received the lifetime ban is from Qatar and was the leader of their campaign to be awarded the 2022 World Cup.

Come on FIFA, I think even the NCAA could connect the dots on this one.

Rob Osborne

Manhattan Beach

Lightweight sport

Is there no greater show of poignancy in sports than the pursuit of lost causes, best illustrated by Kevin Baxter’s profiles of Mikaela Mayer and Patricia Manuel [“Games of Their Lives,” July 24]?

Consider that the International Olympic Committee sanctioned women’s boxing for the 2012 Games in only three weight divisions, one of which, the middleweight division, is the least competitive.

Hardly a show of confidence or of having been convinced of its viability beyond a reasonable doubt.

Beyond the amateur game, boxing’s ever-diminishing fan base has demonstrated fairly exactingly they really aren’t buying the notion of women in the ring.

Phillip Kruger

Alhambra

Yo, Rocky

Yogi Berra’s humor helped the Yankees win. Rocky Bridges [Crowe’s Nest, July 25] could do the same if the Dodgers hire him just to bring his proven talent to inspire people. Is he not worth a million bucks? What MLB player would not want to join the Dodgers to hear him speak?

Duke Russell

Hollywood

Justice for juice

Bill Dwyre [July 27] is wrong and Bill Dwyre is right! Yes Aunt Nellie needs her Medicare. However, baseball, as important as it is to the American spirit, needs its integrity back. Our national pastime will never ever be right until Bonds and Clemens and all the rest of the steroid users officially answer up for their cheating.

Aunt Nellie is important but so are the official records of baseball, and right now a heavy dark cloud hangs over the game. It must be removed, and if it is done in the courts or done by baseball, it must be done.

Joseph Di Sante

Burbank

The NBA plan

Deron Williams is heading to Turkey. Kobe Bryant may be joining him. And several other basketball superstars are considering taking their talents abroad during the lockout. This makes me wonder: Is the NBA lockout really just part of David Stern’s master plan to increase the NBA’s popularity internationally?

Frances Sharpe

Pacific Palisades

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What Manny Ramirez was to the Dodgers, Andrew Bynum is to the Lakers; only the Dodgers didn’t let their parasitic dead-weight linger nearly as long. How convincingly must Bynum demonstrate that he is but a long lost bet, a man of little consequence to Lakers championships, a graceless, fumbling, useless, rich boy with a temper and a penchant for ignorance? Shown to be successful only in maintaining immaturity and consistently performing on a level nowhere near his eternally predicted but unrealized “potential.”

The oversized handicap he presents to Lakers success may ironically justify his occupation of two parking spaces designated for the physically disabled.

Michael E. White

Burbank

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As a Lakers fan since they arrived in L.A., I am dismayed and disgusted by the way Jimmy Buss has treated the team’s longtime loyal employees [July 23]. Why would he want to use Donald Sterling as a role model instead of his father? This does not bode well for the team or the fans.

Richard Strober

Tarzana

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I was in Europe this month on a two-week Baltic cruise. As my carry-on, I took a small duffel the Clippers had given as a promotion several years ago. Upon my return to LAX, the customs officer looked at me, carefully, noted the duffel, asked whether I was a Clippers fan and upon my saying that I was one of the original season-ticket holders, he said with a resigned shrug, “I was going to make you the next random person to send for a full luggage search, but I see that you have already suffered enough. Welcome back.”

Twenty-seven years of misery, priceless.

Andrew E. Rubin

Malibu

Complete mess

Regarding the July 19 story on complete games, the owners don’t want their pitchers going nine innings because that makes for shorter games. Pitchers expected to go nine innings throw strikes in the early innings so they have something left for the later innings.

Pitchers expected to go only six innings nibble at corners and the batters respond by working the count. Then comes the parade of relief pitchers.

Longer games mean more TV commercials and more stadium concession sales.

A typical game 30 years ago was 2 1/2 hours. Today a typical game is three hours. Maximizing revenue is the bottom line.

Lengthening games is no different than when owners canceled all scheduled doubleheaders to make more money. Or playing games in the rain to avoid giving out rain checks.

Bob Munson

Newbury Park

No to No-No

The Angels announcing the team’s refusal to inform their audience that Ervin Santana was pitching a no-hitter because of some silly superstition was unprofessional. What’s next? They don’t show up for a game on Friday the 13th?

Daniel Rivero

Los Angeles

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What’s more surprising? That Ervin Santana threw a no-hitter, or that Mike Scioscia allowed him to complete the game?

Mark Cortes

Northridge

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When I was told Ervin Santana had thrown a no hitter, it reminded me of Don Drysdale’s response once when told about a Sandy Koufax no hitter: “Did he win?”

Rick Van Kirk

Irvine

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With the Angels once again in discussions about adding a new bat or some relief pitching at the trade deadline, I can’t help but think back to all the potential deals they didn’t make because the other team insisted on getting Brandon Wood. Think Bill Stoneman and Tony Reagins would like to have a do-over on those deals?

David Ayers

Huntington Beach

Field of dreams

Memo to Frank McCourt: If you leave, we will come.

Jeff Tritch

Eagle Rock

No pools allowed

As a longtime UCLA football fan I am excited about the start of Rick Neuheisel’s Farewell Tour. I have entered an office pool and I am trying to pick the time and date of Neuheisel’s termination. Can you advise me if UCLA’s last game of the season, on Nov. 26, is a day or night game?

Dave Pick

Solvang

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