19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

MANTLED IN GLORY
Sirs:
Thank you. For the first time this season I have read an unbiased and completely truthful article about the Yankees (Decline and Fall of a Dynasty, June 21). When I first saw the cover I expected another article dripping with contempt for the Bombers, but I was surprised most pleasantly. The story did not belittle the Yanks in any way, and it gave credit where credit was due. Although an era may indeed be ended, the entire league has benefited from it. Happily, all attempts to bring the Yanks down to the level of the rest of the league failed. Instead, the league has come up to the Yankee level—which is why it is a better league, providing better baseball and better pennant races.
MIKE BARRETT
Miami

Sirs:
Methinks you speak too soon. The Mick is mighty and shall prevail.

I agree with Jack Mann that the era is over, but this Yankee-lover (and there are many more of us than George Weiss would care to admit) will have the last laugh when the Yanks beat the Braves in the 1965 World Series.

Mickey Mantle still leads both leagues in cheers, boos, oohs and ahs.
MICHAEL JAY KALTER
Brooklyn

Sirs:
The Yanks are far from through, and when Mantle leads them back you'll have to eat that eighth cover with his picture on it.
F. JULES LUND JR.
El Paso

Sirs:
No doubt this is the time all Yankee-haters have been waiting for. But one must ponder what the end of Yankee domination really means. Just how excited will fans get over the likes of a Mazeroski winning a World Series with a home run against, say, Detroit? How dramatic will it be when a Lou Burdette wins three Series games against the White Sox? Will the center-field area of the Kansas City ball yard ever bear shrines serving to immortalize their past heroes? Will anyone ever retire the uniforms of Willie Horton and Billy Williams?

The Yankee tradition has helped, perhaps even saved, baseball. My real interest in the game arose from the legendary feats of the New York Yankees. I believe all baseball fans will one day be telling their football-minded sons and nephews about the Yankees that were and the baseball that was.

True, there'll always be the sport of baseball, just as there'll always be an England. But hasn't England changed, too, with the demise of Churchill?
DON M. DUSSIAS
Grand Rapids

Sirs:
Tell me, Mr. Mann, what AL team has a fellow that hit 61 homers, the best catcher in the past decade, a second baseman unchallenged as the best in the AL, a pitcher with the best won-lost percentage in the majors and an anonymous man with the initials M. M.? No Ruth or Gehrig? Well, nobody has the likes of them anymore.
STEVE MUHLSTOCK
Teaneck, N.J.

Sirs:
Now that the dynasty is falling, I am sure there are millions of sportsmen who feel a deep twinge of regret.
MICHAEL MESSINA
Pittsfield, Mass.