Letters to Sports: Dodgers should honor Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor

It would be nice if the Dodgers could schedule a special day to honor Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor, giving fans and teammates a chance to provide a proper farewell for this pair of beloved, true-blue Dodgers.

Anthony Moretti
Lomita

I’m sure Taylor and Barnes are nice guys, but they’ve been making millions of dollars and haven’t performed for years. I don’t think anyone has to feel sorry for them.

Mike Schaller
Temple City

Fans of ’70s-era sci-fi movies can see clear parallels between the classic “Logan’s Run” and the Dodgers’ front office behavior. Like the movie’s plot, the Dodgers have concluded that former impact players now over age 30 are expendable and must be immediately eliminated. The struggling Max Muncy, Kiké Hernández must be taking note.

Rob Fleishman
Placentia

Spell check can be so maddening. Recently a friend sent me a text with a spell check that I thought could catch on.

He was spelling Ohtani and spell check changed it to OTrain.

I like it.

Dave Snyder
Grand Terrace

With Clayton Kershaw returning to the mound for the first time since last summer, why on earth would the Dodgers put rookie catcher Dalton Rushing, who knows nothing about Clayton, behind the plate when Will Smith, who’s been catching him for years and knows everything, was available? Will someone please explain the logic behind that for me.

Jack Wishard
Los Angeles

Times Sports stories on USC (“Riley one of top-paid coaches at $11.5 million”) and UCLA (“UCLA athletics works to trim big deficit”) shows how college athletics has changed since I graduated from college (1964) and entered college teaching (1973). Athletic programs used to be ways in which universities kept students entertained and alumni involved (as donors), a side hustle to their main activity of education. Now, with coaches with eight-figure salaries, athletes with seven-figure NIL incomes, and transfer portals, education at universities has become the side hustle to athletic programs. How time changes.

Henry A. Hespenheide
Hermosa Beach

UCLA wouldn’t need to resort to “dynamic ticket pricing” to improve home attendance were it not for their inability to field an actual dynamic football team.

Steve Ross
Carmel

So Lincoln Riley is considering dropping Notre Dame from its long-term football schedule to enhance the Trojans’ chances of winning a national title?

Lincoln, maybe you should work on beating the Marylands and Minnesotas of the world before annoiting USC a title contender!

Jack Wolf
Westwood

Lincoln Riley says that USC has to “make a decision about what’s best for SC to win a national championship” when considering whether to continue playing Notre Dame every year. I have news for you, Lincoln: If losing to Notre Dame knocks you out of a 12-team playoff, you weren’t going to win the national championship anyway.

Brian Gotta
San Diego

So let’s review this again. Overrated Clippers president Lawrence Frank says he does not regret trade of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and five first-round picks for Paul George. Mr. Ballmer: This one is up there with the Babe Ruth and Kareem trades. Billions don’t guarantee anything if you have poor leaders. Weren’t you CEO of Microsoft?

David Bialis
San Diego

The only time The Times writes about the Angels is during the Freeway Series. I wish the Angels could play the Dodgers more often, not for the articles, for the wins.

Peter Zovak
Temple City

Good thing the Dodgers are not in the AL West.

William Morris
Pasadena

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