Letters: Lots more trouble from Frank McCourt

So, the new Dodgers owner may buy the team and stadium only to be surrounded by a Frank McCourt-owned parking lot. There hasn’t been such a blunder since General Custer.

Gary Stein

Westlake Village

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Frank McCourt’s continued ownership of the Dodger Stadium parking lots could be the greatest boon to the use of public transportation this city has ever seen. The multitude of fans McCourt drove out of Dodger Stadium, all eager to come back this season, will find it a pleasurable act of defiance to avoid McCourt’s parking lot. The buses will be full, car-pooling to the stadium will be hip and the only traffic jams leaving the stadium will be pedestrians.

Tim Healey

West Hollywood

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If McCourt has anything at all to do with the Dodgers in the future, any new owner will be buying a poisonous product. He and all of his family, including his ex-wife are essentially persona non grata in the Los Angeles sports community and should gracefully leave the scene. He has done more than enough damage to our beloved Dodgers.

William Bergmann

Hollywood

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Would you buy a home if the garage and driveway were not included in the sale?

Wayne Muramatsu

Cerritos

Picking the pros

Much kudos to Sam “Prognosticator” Farmer for correctly predicting all four winners last weekend and a 20-13 score for the Texans-Ravens game. Now that we all have come to the realization that you have a certified oracle on staff, I’d like to ask Sam a few simple questions for my benefit.

When exactly are we getting an NFL franchise in this town?

Is the Mayan calendar really correct about the events happening on Dec. 21?

If the answer to the previous question is no, could I have the winning Mega Millions lottery numbers for Saturday?

Mark J. Featherstone

Windsor Hills

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Wisconsin is the Dairy State, and the Green Bay Butterfingers got creamed by the Giants.

Kenny Johnson

Pinon Hills

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The media-manufactured “controversy” regarding Tim Tebow seems to be finally coming to an end. It’s about time. Compared to all the other players doing backflips, dunking the football over the goal posts and dancing in the end zone, Tebow’s brief kneel-down prayer looked downright dignified. As for his football career, I’m sure that with his work ethic, he’ll improve on his skills and move up to the next level.

Charles Reilly

Manhattan Beach

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Personally, I believe in the separation of church and football. Good job, New England!

Bill Piercy

San Pedro

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I’m sure the NFL playoff system has its defenders. No doubt there were many football fans who enjoyed watching San Francisco’s thrilling 36-32 victory over New Orleans, with its last-minute lead changes and late-game heroics. Notably, the game occurred 30 years to the week after “the Catch” that vaulted the 49ers past heavily favored Dallas into their first Super Bowl.

But the guiding lights who rule college football insist they have a better way. Instead of deciding their championship game’s participants on the field in a multiteam playoff, in which anyone could potentially win and advance, the NCAA relies on a select group of sportswriters and computers to match the two best teams in a process that squeezes all excitement and suspense out of the process. Other elite teams are then paired in meaningless “bowl” exhibition games, with no opportunity to advance or play for a title.

For those who believe that too much excitement in football is a bad thing, the NCAA offers the perfect elixir to counter NFL playoff madness.

Stephen A. Silver

San Francisco

The (yawn) Lakers

Congratulations to Mike Brown. He has transformed the Lakers into the most boring team in the NBA. Now it takes two cans of Red Bull to get through one of their games. Can’t shoot. Can’t defend. Pass me the energy drink.

W. Lee Miller Jr.

Inglewood

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His recent scoring outburst may help cement his status as perhaps the most highly skilled shooter in NBA history, but if Kobe Bryant thinks his latest basket binge will culminate in another championship this coming spring he’s a fool — as are the people who think it’s OK if the Mamba continues to heave up an average of 28 shots per game for the rest of the season while ignoring his two 7-footers ... and everyone else.

Clifford Burton

Santa Monica

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“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” — Mark Twain, after reading his obituary in the New York Journal.

48, 40, 42, 42: Kobe Bryant, points scored in successive games after reading ESPN ranked him seventh-best among NBA players.

Tom Lallas

Los Angeles

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It’s clear that the Lakers have management problems, and it has shown for the last several years. Now, it’s about to explode. Buss got rid of Farmar and Vujacic, both promising prospects, to cut their payroll. Then they trade a player like Lamar Odom, who had a great year in 2011, and it just doesn’t make sense. They ignore and humiliate the legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar by snubbing him and revoking his minimal coaching salary, and Jerry West wants nothing to do with them. Even Kobe can’t float a ship of fools.

Lamar, climb in that saddle in Dallas, have a great year, and make Lakers management run and hide, like little mice.

Chet Chebegia

Long Beach

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Hey, Lamar! Take out the “i” from tirade and you get trade. Which is what you demanded. In an economy rife with unemployment and foreclosures, you really expect people to feel badly that the $9 million you’re making this year is in Dallas instead of your beloved Los Angeles? Poor Lamar. You miss Jack and the other courtside celebs to look in the eye and boost your spirits because you have their DVD? What about the real fans sitting up in the nosebleed sections who actually pay for their seats? Don’t you miss them?

C’mon, man, eat some candy and grow up.

Gary Miller

Encino

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Too bad the Lakers already traded Lamar Odom for virtually nothing. If they still had him they might well have been able to trade for something they desperately need, a solid point guard in Mo Williams. That would have filled a Clippers need as well, a rebounder off the bench. It could have worked well for everyone, including Lamar and the L.A. fans.

Jack Wishard

Los Angeles

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I think it’s time for Metta World Peace to change his name again, and I have a suggestion: Mark Landsberger.

Joe Haakenson

Huntington Beach

Hooping coughs

After the UCLA-USC basketball game, Baxter Holmes declared both teams irrelevant in spite of UCLA’s recent 8-2 record following a slow start. They may or may not make the tournament, Mr. Baxter, but it is laughable to put them in the same category as that awful USC team.

Alan Abajian

Alta Loma

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Baxter Holmes reported that UCLA’s victory over USC left little doubt that UCLA is the best basketball team in Los Angeles.

I have only one comment: Loyola Marymount 69, UCLA 58.

Mario Bonura

Santa Ana

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Only a living-in-the-past Trojans fan would proudly wear a “50-0” T-shirt to a basketball game, while watching his team get crushed by 20 points to UCLA at the Galen Center.

I guess that hoops is the only USC sport playing games in January this year.

Jay Ross

Los Angeles

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After reading Diane Pucin’s story on Ben Howland’s high rate of success in preparing players for the NBA [“Pro-Rated,” Jan. 18], one would think that the top high school players from across the land would be lining up to attend what is also one of the finest academic institutions in the country. It would seem, however, that getting the national television exposure afforded to the ACC, Big East and Big Ten is what these players are looking for. Judging by the lack of even one squad from the Pac-12 in the top 25, it is rather obvious that ESPN’s anti-West Coast bias has now taken full form.

Bud Chapman

Northridge

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It was nice to finally see an article that actually showed some thoughtful research into the UCLA basketball players who have left the program and how Ben Howland’s coaching has affected their careers. It is all too easy to criticize from afar without actually being involved other than sitting at home and watching from the armchair. We have seen him criticized for his style of play, his recruiting, his whatever. There is no greater tribute to a coach than to have former players testify as to the values they have received once they have gone on to other pursuits.

Dave Reid

Corona

Two meetings

Great article about Johnny Bench [Jan. 14]. Growing up a Dodgers fan I always felt that I was a traitor because of my Philadelphia roots and the fact that I was a huge Bench fan. Somehow, when I was 11, my mom stepped up and got two Dodger Stadium box seats for us to see the Boys in Blue against the Big Red Machine.

After the Reds beat the Dodgers that evening, we waited outside the visitors’ locker room and I got a chance to get a few autographs. Including Dave Concepcion, Joe Morgan, Tony Perez, and Pete Rose. Then in my sights, there he was. Johnny Bench. My idol. The moment I dreamed of. In my high-pitched voice I said, “Mr. Bench, can I please have your autograph?” He looked me straight in the eye and said “Sorry, not tonight kid” and got on the bus to continue his Hall of Fame career — without me to root for him.

Heartbreak and bad memories last forever when you’re scorned as a young man by your favorite athlete.

Lonnie Berger

Tarzana

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I had the opportunity to have a good seat in the Chicago arena 54 years ago when Cassius Clay won the Golden Gloves heavyweight title. I told people that I had just seen the future heavyweight champion of the world. He was already awesome at age 16. I do not believe he was being the “Bad Ali” with the Frazier encounter. He was not only the greatest fighter, he was also the sport’s greatest promoter.

I saw Ali at LAX in 1988. I approached close enough to say, “Hi, Champ”. He was already ill, but his smile was great to see. I asked one of his assistants if I could possibly get Ali’s autograph for my two grandsons. Ali said yes. His assistant asked me to print my grandson’s names for him. When he handed an autograph to me with only one name on it, I started to return it to get the second name added. He waved me away because he had already started doing another autograph for my second grandson.

Happy birthday, Champ. You are the greatest!

Theron Collier

Brea

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