Letters

Did someone forget to tell Frank Thomas that baseball is a team sport?
—COREY STILL, Wahpeton, N.Dak.

Nobody's Neutral Here
So Frank Thomas is charmless (Hurtin', March 13). So what? To say that it's Thomas's fault that he's not a Chicago civic treasure or a marketing powerhouse assumes unfairly that he is supposed to be these things. He's paid to hit baseballs, and until White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf gutted a fine team, Thomas hit them everywhere.
NOAH LIBERMAN, Chicago

Congratulations to William Nack for painting an all-too-familiar picture of today's superstar athlete: arrogant, self-centered and out of touch with reality. The picture of Thomas's house offers the perfect metaphor for Thomas himself: oversized, unnecessary and too expensive.
KEN PETERSON, Mentor, Ohio

You devoted the cover and 11 pages to a player who doesn't want to play first base and has built himself a house that looks like an office building. Incredible!
PETE CLARK, Pompey, N.Y.

Thomas has a point about American League pitchers being more willing to come inside because they don't have to worry about batting for themselves. Of course, if he played in the National League, he couldn't spend 80% of the game sitting in front of his locker. National League players must field a position. That means hitting with the cuts, scrapes, bruises and injured hands that are often the result of being complete ballplayers.
FRED KAUFMANN, San Diego

I only hope that Thomas's record company is able to produce more hits than he will, given that music will probably be his sole source of income soon.
SCOTT CHRISTENSEN, St. Paul

It's a shame that Thomas should have to endure the crucifixion of his character and skills. He is one of the best players ever to don a White Sox uniform. Chicago's treatment of this superstar is a prime example of why the Cubs and the Sox are mired in mediocrity and won't win a World Series for another hundred years—if ever.
JIMMIE STAGGS, Lubbock, Texas

Signed and Delivered
In your March 13 SCORECARD item on Vince Carter you state, "on hold are several deals that have yet to be sealed, including pending endorsement contracts with Fleer and EA Sports." Your information concerning Fleer trading cards is incorrect. Vince Carter has entered into a new five-year exclusive trading card, memorabilia and autograph agreement with Fleer.
ROGER GRASS
President
Fleer Trading Cards
Mount Laurel, N.J.

Double Standard?
You were right in criticizing the boorish behavior by Notre Dame students at several basketball games (SCORECARD, March 13). Unfortunately, in the same issue you published a photograph of Duke students holding up "mug shots" of North Carolina's Ed Cota that alluded to Cota's arrest last fall on misdemeanor assault charges (INSIDE THE WEEK IN SPORTS). This demonstration at Duke seemed just as uncalled for as those at Notre Dame aimed at Connecticut's Khalid El-Amin and Jake Voskuhl. Cota's arrest and the Duke crowd's attack based on that incident did not need to be publicized in your magazine as an amusing distraction.
CHRIS NEWBURY, Arlington, Va.

The Joy of Jody
Everything that Seth Davis wrote about referee Jody Silvester and the high level of respect that he has earned is true (INSIDE COLLEGE BASKETBALL, March 13). However, Davis missed an attribute that sets Silvester apart from other basketball officials working today: He has fun refereeing a game. This attitude is unusual and, with Jody's retirement, may become extinct. Jody has remained a breath of fresh air in a game that has become too much of a business.
RON JOHNSON, Madison, Wis.