Letters: Sports and politics collide with Dodgers’ planned White House visit

I agree with Dylan Hernandez’s very insightful column regarding the team’s upcoming planned visit to the White House. The Dodgers have long been leaders in many different ways, and by not refusing to go to the White House, they are essentially green-lighting the very mean-spirited, bullying tactics of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. What a shame.

Shawn OBrien
Wilmington

Please reconsider a visit to the White House. In the names of Jackie Robinson and the O’Malley family, don’t put a stain on one of the greatest Dodgers championships ever.

Art Peck
View Park

Dylan Hernandez, you are wrong. Period. Your efforts to politicize baseball, and the Dodgers’ decision to accept the honor and privilege to attend the White House, has no place in the Sports section of the L.A. Times. Your article on the matter is filled with bias and your effort to somehow classify Dodgers fans as Trump haters is ill-served and demeaning. Sports is one place where a fan should hopefully be able to escape political biases and rhetoric. The Dodgers earned the privilege of being invited to the White House, a place of great historical significance to our country. Put your personal biases aside and let them enjoy their day.

Steve Kaye
Oro Valley

It is so pathetic how everything is rabidly political these days. The Trump haters loathe the Dodgers for visiting the White House but Stan Kasten said it well: If they visit, 50% of the people will be upset, and if they don’t visit, the other 50% will be upset. The coaches and players who want to attend should go, and those who don’t want to should skip it. Will you still hate the Dodgers if some of the players are Trump supporters? Remember this is the “land of the free, home of the brave.”

David Waldowski
Laguna Woods

Tickets to a Dodgers game: $400. Parking and refreshments: $200. Witnessing Shohei Ohtani slug a walk-off home run on the night he’s honored with his own bobblehead: priceless!

Marty Zweben
Palos Verdes Estates

Dodgers games are must-see TV! How long will the team’s unbeaten streak last? L.A.’s list of late-inning heroes continues to grow. We’re getting an opportunity to watch Major League Baseball history. Weather you watch in person or on TV, you’ll be able to tell your kids that you saw it happen!

Patrick Kelley
Los Angeles

Although the Lakers lost to the Warriors, it was a treat to be at Crypto on Thursday night to see LeBron James and Steph Curry combine for 70 points at a combined age of 77.

Ken Feldman
Tarzana

Austin Reaves hits 88% of his free throws, plays tough defense, is an excellent rebounder and ballhandler, can score from anywhere with a variety of shots and has won games with jumpers or a driving layups at the buzzer. The recently departed Jerry West was one of the greatest Lakers of all time, but I am sure he would also agree with many of us fans that Reaves should inherit West’s title of “Mr. Clutch.”

Willie Quiñones
Long Beach

As a longtime Bruins basketball fan, I am saddened but not surprised that Aday Mara is leaving Westwood. There are greener pastures elsewhere where he’ll be better coached and properly utilized in the low post.

Connie Giguere
Palos Verdes Peninsula

I’m glad student-athletes are paid now. However, it suddenly has changed from “one and dones” into an older version of AAU basketball. Players transfer like baseball trading cards. Mid-major colleges will never keep their teams together and the big schools will cherry-pick the best players. When you have some “student-athletes” playing at four different schools in four years, it’s a bad look. I still love watching the NCAA tournament, but the system needs some serious changes.

Tim Boyd
San Juan Capistrano

While the Bruins beat LSU to move into their first NCAA basketball Final Four, it is hugely important to remember that they had been AIAW tournament champion in 1978, thanks to the skill and leadership of Ann Myers and Denise Curry. Ironically, the transition from AIAW control to NCAA control is clearly seen by looking at the college playing history of now-colorfully dressed Kim Mulkey, who coached the LSU team that the Bruins just beat. Kim, wearing her then-signature pigtail hairdo we older basketball fans remember, starred for the Louisiana Tech team that won the last AIAW championship in 1981, followed in 1982 by winning the first NCAA championship. Nowadays, the Bruins have USC as archrival. Kim Mulkey and Louisiana Tech had Immaculata with front-row nuns as archrival. The past and present were melded in that UCLA-LSU matchup, exemplifying the skill seen and fun of following women’s sports.

Ray Stefani
Lake Forest

Great to see UCLA women’s basketball voice Dave Marcus get his well-deserved recognition. A little nugget: I remember Dave as far back as 1969 as the sports voice of KBHS — the radio station of Birmingham High School, where a bunch of us launched successful careers in radio and television. Congrats, old friend.

Jeff Prescott
La Jolla

Congrats to Steve Smith for his induction into the City Section Hall of Fame. At USC, he was a one-of-a-kind receiver, and my favorite, as he would lay out for those not-so-great throws.

David Marshall
Santa Monica

I think they should torpedo bats a step further and give aluminum bats to all major leaguers. And make it a torpedo aluminum bat. Then we can see banjo-hitting second basemen clobbering 50 homers a year and Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge trying to outdo each other at 100 to 110 homers a year. Bring in the fences too. Commissioner Rob Manfred seems to like plenty of offense anyway. Of course, there won’t be a pitcher alive who will pitch without a screen in front of him. And third basemen will begin wearing catcher’s gear. But sometimes you have to pay the price to “even” things out.

Steve Trocino
Simi Valley

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