19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

L.A. TO N.Y.: THE SEASON CONSIDERED
Sirs:
Well, everyone seems to have had their fun. The New York magazines, sports-writers and newspapers have blown off steam because the Dodgers and Giants pulled up stakes and moved west on Mr. Greeley's advice.

The baseball fan out here in California has been cussed and discussed. O'Malley has been castigated for coming out "in favor of money," the Coliseum has been called everything from Smog Field to the Memorial Cow Pasture, and the short left-field fence (SI, May 5) has been dubbed an annex to Chinatown.

Well, the baseball season is pretty well started now and we should be able to look at a few facts.

Many of us here in California, myself included, did not look forward to the Dodgers. We didn't want a bunch of money-hungry hogs from New York, which is what it appeared at first that O'Malley and his gang were. But since they arrived we have learned that the Dodgers are a darn nice bunch of fellows and a pretty good baseball team. They've given a good show and they're trying with all their hearts. Which is what counts. These fellows are sportsmen. I can understand why New York hated to lose them.

New York apparently still doesn't know what happened, but I think I do. The New York fan won't help keep what he has. If he gave a Chinese home run for his sports, he'd be out to every game the Yankees played. Since New York has only one-third of its baseball left, Yankee attendance should triple, or at least double, over what it was last year.

In the first two weeks the Dodgers have averaged 41,956 fans per game at the Coliseum. The Yanks, in "baseball-mad" New York, have pulled in only 16,378 fans. So the biggest city in the nation, with almost four times as many people as Los Angeles has, contributes only one-half as many fans per game. You people may not be baseball fans, but you certainly have a healthy pair of lungs to yell with.

Why don't you guys quit crying and start supporting your team before California or Oregon takes your Yankees away from you?
BEN PREECE
Santa Monica, Calif.

N.Y. TO L.A.: REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
Sirs:
Concerning Mr. Walter O'Malley's letter (19TH HOLE, April 21) criticizing Ravielli's drawing of a baseball, let me submit just this one thought: with the number of baseballs flying daily over the scandalously short left-field wall in the L.A. Coliseum, how could Mr. O'Malley possibly even remember what a baseball actually looks like?
JEFF FRACKMAN
New York City

N.Y. TO L.A.: WHY NOT...
Sirs:
Mr. O'Malley, why not have a screen, say 10 feet high, extend back up into the stands? Thus, pop flies, if they hit into this net (which would be somewhat similar to the type used behind home plate), could be ruled as ground-rule doubles, eliminating the pop-fly homers. Those high, hard liners which the old screen intercepted would skip off this screen if hit hard enough and go up into the stands for home runs. The screen could be terminated at a realistic major league park distance, say 340 feet down the line.
BARRY ROYDEN
Hartford, Conn.

?It's fun, but is it baseball?—ED.