Where did everybody go?

The Lakers have shut the eyes and ears of millions of viewers (six in my household) with their new TV contract with Time Warner Cable. Millions of those blindsided Lakers fans will be watching the surging Clippers instead on their cable and satellite networks. Out of sight and out of mind.

Ken Johnson

Pinon Hills

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Want to congratulate the L.A. Times for having the best fiction writers in the business. They write about UCLA’s loss to Cal and they write about the Lakers’ preseason games, but we know they’re making it all up. Along with 19 million other subscribers to DirecTV, I know if there were games being played, we would be viewing them on the sports-oriented satellite provider, but since we’re not....

Also, want to congratulate the Pac-12 for hiring a magician, Larry Scott as commissioner, as he makes games disappear from the airwaves.

Finally, I want to tell Pat Haden and Dan Guerrero that I know some uber-rich alums from both schools, who have promised they will not donate another nickel to their favorite school, unless and until the games reappear.

Fred Wallin

Westlake Village

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If Time Warner Cable can partner up with the Lakers for broadcast rights for $3 billion, then TWC is making too damn much money!

Sandy J. Sand

West Hills

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It was great seeing Bill Plaschke air the sentiment shared by so many L.A. sports fans, in his Oct. 7 piece. The Lakers picked an awful time to move most of their broadcasts off of FS West and onto a new network that so many fans won’t get. In case they have forgotten, we are still in a recession, and cable providers are leery of increasing costs that they have to pass on to customers.

Lakers management fails to realize that this move dumps fans and it doesn’t bring more in. This is very sad because many people lost the opportunity to see one of the greatest Laker teams of all time this season. Shame on you, Lakers!

Forrest Woolman

Canyon Country

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I wish to make an emphatic edited ditto to Bill Plaschke’s fine article, with “UCLA, USC et al” replacing “L.A. Lakers” and “Pac-12 Cable Network” replacing “Time Warner Cable”.

Mark Weissman

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Last year, I was paying $100 for DirecTV, and got the Dodgers, Angels, Clippers, and Lakers. Oh, and also USC and UCLA football. This year, I’m paying $100, but now I only get the Dodgers, Angels, and Clippers. What is reasonable about paying an extra $3.95 just to watch the Lakers? And what is the Pac-12 channel asking for? And will I be paying less for FS West/Prime Ticket? Not likely. So why should I pay perhaps $5 a month more this year for the exact same thing I had last year? There is no added value here, just companies that want to take more money out of my pocket.

Bill Plaschke seems to have only written half an article here.

Matthew Klipper

Studio City

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Poor Jeanie Buss — she can’t get the Lakers because she has DirecTV. She says, “So I understand what everyone is going through.” If she really knew what we were going through, she would attend one or two Lakers games a year while sitting in the nosebleed section.

Jeanie and her family did business with TWC, and now TWC is putting a gun to everyone’s head until we start coughing up the money. Now if Jeanie could not attend or see any preseason games because she’s stuck with DirecTV, she would have a small inkling of what we’re are going through. When DirecTV finally pays its ransom to TWC, guess who they’ll pass the cost on to so that the Buss family and the bloated superstars can have a few extra million each year. What a pathetic joke!

David Waldowski

Alta Loma

Blue Bruins

USC in 2006, Tennessee in 2008, Texas in 2010, and Nebraska in 2012 — landmark, program-changing victories, right? Wrong! Cal’s 43-17 thumping of the UCLA Bruins proves this program is no further along, and the schedule looks daunting the remainder of the season. Plot sound familiar?

Jack Wolf

Westwood

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The kids at UCLA are playing their hearts out and beat national power Nebraska. If their superb coach Jim Mora is to be blamed for an avoidable error, it’s having agreed to an interview with T.J. Simers.

Konrad Moore

Bakersfield

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In asking the UCLA coach questions, our Page 2 scribe managed to include himself using “I and Me” 30 times, while the very accommodating subject of the interview found it necessary to refer to himself five times — but then, Coach Mora did get a lovely color picture.

Gerald Earle

Los Angeles

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Don’t know what happened to UCLA this season, but it’s getting out of whack. First this silly idea of forming the Pac-12 network. What the heck good is it if you can’t find it, can’t watch away games, or home games for that matter. I’m sorry but Time Warner is just not cutting it.

Then they suspend Geoff Strand? I’ve had season tickets for over 25 years and this guy has led the Bruin Alumni section with dignity and class. Why in the world the UCLA AD would even think of kicking him to the curb is beyond me and all the folks in Sections 2 and 3. He may be annoying to some, but to us it’s everybody up, up, up! It’s third down and we need every man woman and child, no slackers here! Now get ready, not yet, not yet, but NOW!!!

Bart Bogy

Whittier

Take him out

I watched the USC-Utah game and read Bill Plaschke’s article. Plaschke addressed the hit on Robert Woods, his collapse on the field and his return to the game two plays later. He was not critical enough about the decision to return Woods to the game. This should be criminal behavior on the part of our universities and the NCAA for permitting players with these types of injuries to return to the game.

David King

Palmdale

Empty Cup

Why is Bill Plaschke bothering with an apoplectic rant about our temporary inability to watch meaningless Lakers exhibition games when he should be commenting on our inability to watch meaningful Kings and Ducks regular-season games?

Daniel Lacker

Torrance

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After a wait of four-plus decades, it was great to be at Staples Center on Friday night to see the Kings unveil the Stanley Cup champions banner and see the Cup again in the building. Rather, how nice it would have been to see this happen. In baseball you are out after three strikes. This now makes three work stoppages in the Gary Bettman regime, meaning it is time to get rid of the Donald Sterling of commissioners and get someone in charge who appreciates the game and will prevent what is happening from actually happening.

Erik Schuman

Fountain Valley

Rant and rave

The amateur, boorish and childish behavior of today’s athletes is mirrored by the comments of many who write letters expressing their opinions. In last week’s letters, one writer suggests that high salaries should negate poor performance. Another feels that Vin Scully should not praise a member of a rival team while still another thinks that Americans are “too nice and polite.” Unfortunately, comments like these appear each Saturday and in my opinion show extreme bias and narrow-mindedness is rampant in our culture. High-paid athletes are going to have off days and our team is not going to win every game. Enjoy the game and wait for the next one.

Arthur P. Nelson Jr.

North Hills

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Is it just me? Or do L.A.’s radio sports stations go suddenly mad on weekend mornings. ESPN gives us repeated playings of smarmy Jeremy Schaap and his unctuous “The Sporting Life” soap opera. Followed by self-promoting Dr. Clapper spending precious air telling the millions of us who don’t have a sports hernia how to avoid one.

OK. This is a free country. Switch over to Fox. And there we find two hours of a hyped-up betting service shill trying to separate us from our grocery money.

On Sundays, both stations — in a supposed nod to public service — sell their time to anybody promoting a wonder drug for diabetes or a way for your nerdy kid to keepfrom getting beaten up.

Please tell me why.

Bill Lane

Hollywood

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Last week, a gentleman criticized Vin Scully for extolling the virtues of Giants players — in this case Buster Posey.

I have watched and listened to the remarkable Vinny since the Dodgers arrived in L.A. in ’58. To me, part of the Scully charm is his objectivity and his willingness to commend players’ abilities irrespective of the team for which they play.

There are fans of baseball who enjoy watching superior players. Some of them, like me, are Dodgers fans who love to see the Dodgers shellac the Giants, but that doesn’t mean we can’t recognize and appreciate exceptional baseball talents like Posey, Sandoval, Cain, Belt, Pagan, Pence, Affeldt, Lopez and others.

Stuart L. Olster

Calabasas

Rough diamonds

The Giants made a courageous stand in voting not to let Melky Cabrera compete in the postseason due to his 50 game suspension for testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs (testosterone). One must ask, however, what sort of message it sends when reliever Guillermo Mota, who received a 100-game suspension for failing his drug test a second time, was allowed to stay on the Giants’ roster for the playoffs. What were they thinking to justify that?

Roger Riccard

Tujunga

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The baseball gods still have it in for Dusty Baker. As well they should.

Mike Davison

Toluca Lake

Road games

Tiger Woods was playing this week in the eight-man Turkish Airlines World Golf Finals. So Tiger can’t find time to play in his hometown Northern Trust Open, yet he has time to play in Turkey? Tiger, you wonder why so many of us question you?

Brian Haueter

Ventura

Smush? Really?

It was disappointing to see Kobe Bryant publicly insult former teammate Smush Parker, saying he was so bad, “he shouldn’t have been in the NBA.” Any psychologist will tell you that such a comment is a sign of insecurity. It’s going to be fun to watch this egomaniac grow older and slower, as opponents become younger and faster. No doubt, he’ll blame teammates for his shortcomings.

David Macaray

Rowland Heights

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Is this Bryant’s way of letting us know he’s going to be looking to take over T.J.’s job when his current contract with the Lakers is up?

John Snyder

Newbury Park

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