It’s time to bring on automated balls and strikes. Last Sunday’s Dodgers-Cubs game ended with a called strike three on Freddie Freeman oby a pitch clearly shown on TV to be out of the strike zone. This is not unusual. An analysis from 2018 showed 53 games ended on an erroneously called strike. MLB now devotes such an effort with replays to get everything right. This glaring problem must be corrected.
Richard Balsam
Los Angeles
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MLB must hold these umps accountable for their egregious bad/missed calls. And it wouldn’t hurt for Dave Roberts to channel his inner Tommy Lasorda during games and “gently” let the umps know how wrong they were.
Rich Hardt
Long Beach
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Say what you want about all the changes in MLB rules this year. At least the sport is trying to evolve and improve. But one change that is urgently needed is a computer-assisted strike zone.
Bruce Fischer
Huntington Beach
Sticky situation
Bill Plaschke has gone from being a Monday morning quarterback to a Thursday morning quarterback. He somehow connects Max Scherzer getting ejected Wednesday to his decision to pass on a start two years ago in a playoff game due to a tired arm. Of course, if Scherzer had started that game and given up four in the first, Bill would have said he was selfish and should have given the start to someone else. Anything for a story.
Bert Bergen
La Cañada
Manage this
Here’s a scary thought for Dave Roberts. He might actually have to manage his team during the regular season this year. His previous teams were so stacked with talent that the regular season was essentially on autopilot; not so much this year. In the past, he didn’t start managing until the playoffs, when he often appeared as a deer in the headlights.
David Waldowski
Laguna Woods
Lakers split
Lakers coach Darvin Ham was happy with a split against an undermanned Memphis team? What would the late, great Kobe Bryant think of that?
Tamra Donald
Lomita
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Every now and again a sports personality does something really stupid, and this time it was Dillon Brooks of the Memphis Grizzlies. After an unimpressive home split of their first two playoff games with the Lakers, Brooks felt compelled to publicly criticize LeBron James for being “old.” Aside from the fact that Brooks has not earned the pedigree to make such a criticism, what was the upside of his comment? I don’t know who will ultimately win this series, but as a coach or teammate of Brooks, I would be telling him to button it up because his mouth certainly isn’t doing the team any favors.
Alan Abajian
Alta Loma
Angels lament
The Times treats the Angels as if they’re from a foreign country. The game write-ups often don’t rate a headline on the first sports page, and Dylan Hernández is more focused on character assassination of Anthony Rendon than the actual games. While I enjoyed Sarah Valenzuela’s thoughtful piece on Logan O’Hoppe, from the game write-up it’s doubtful that she even watched it. Why else, as a baseball fan, would I subscribe to a major newspaper, but to read a thorough game write-up. I can find statistics anywhere on the internet.
Robert E. Ameele
Trabuco Canyon
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Thank you for the intimate look at Angels rookie Logan O’Hoppe as he spoke about his family and friends who are watching him at Yankee Stadium. Logan choking up while talking about playing for “everybody that you’ve loved,” both present and past, indicated deep facets of his fiber and makeup. Thank you to reporter Sarah Valenzuela for her touching article.
Richie Locasso
He’s there
Play him or trade him
David Fletcher deserves better than this. The eye test shows that when Fletcher is in the everyday lineup, he is a .280/.290 hitter and capable of playing various infield positions. Yet general manager Perry Minasian acquired Brandon Drury and Jake Lamb so now they have to play every day, even though they are hitting poorly. Fletcher deserves better and I would like to see a contending team pick him up so he can show once again that he is a valuable player both on the field and in the dugout.
Bob Sands
Don’t worry
Lacking ownership
Throughout his ownership of the Angels, Arte Moreno has made too many rotten decisions to count. His latest gaffe has the great radio team of Terry Smith and Mark Langston broadcasting away games from a remote booth in Anaheim. Any listener can hear the difference, and it’s not for the better. Both on and off the field, Arte Moreno has been a failure at running a baseball organization.
Jim Frederick
Manhattan Beach
End of an era
I think it’s pretty clear that the Kawhi Leonard/Paul George era is over and it’s time for the Clippers to move on. They can’t rely on either one to play in a game, much less together.
Alvin S. Michaelson
Marina Del Rey
Coach and mentor
Darryl Stroh is certainly a legend in local sports and richly deserving of induction to the City Section Hall of Fame. My experiences with him many years ago speak to his qualities as a fine human being.
He had a fearsome reputation with the PE classes at Patrick Henry Middle School when I attended in 1965. And he did indeed look the part of a Marine drill sergeant — square jaw with buzz cut.
I knew Mr. Stroh because he also taught the “special” PE class. All of us in special PE had one physical challenge or another, some minor, like my heart murmur, and some more severe. You can imagine how the regular PE classes viewed us.
What I remember so strongly was Mr. Stroh’s support and encouragement of each of us. He kindly pushed us to accomplish what we could and brought a sense of brotherhood to a group that initially would rather have been somewhere else. And heaven help the “normal” kid who teased any of us — that guy would pay a serious price in laps and push-ups.
Even as I’m now 70 years old, that sense of Mr. Stroh’s compassionate caring is with me still — a benchmark and reminder of how we should all treat each other.
Bruce Gibson
San Luis Obispo
Thanks, commish
My vote is for Eric Sondheimer to become the next Southern Section sports commissioner. He clearly knows what it takes to do the job and he writes about fighting for integrity in high school sports.
David Pietrasanta
Encino
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