19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

Well, I finally located, in an article about "Wondrous" Warren McVea, some mention of my team. It seems that Houston just quit and handed the game over to the Wolfpack, without so much as a whimper.

I refuse to believe that the No. 2 team in the country could possibly be a one-man team. Hard hitting causes fumbles. Good defensive teams make interceptions happen. Furthermore, I do not think Mr. Jenkins even saw the game. If he did, he surely missed a good story.
RICHARD H. STICKNEY
Raleigh, N.C.

NO LOSER
Sirs:
Too many people think that the Red Sox lost the World Series. In truth, there was no loser. St. Louis won the Series gamewise 4-3, but not handily in four or five games as some predicted.

The Red Sox won the pennant in a very close and dramatic race, a pennant expected by no one but the Red Sox themselves. Boston fans and players were satisfied, and many felt that the World Series would be a little anticlimactic. But how can the World Series ever be anticlimactic, and how can any team not long to win it?

Down quickly 3-1 in games, the Red Sox rallied, as they did all year, to tie up the Series and came as close to winning as any young team (100-to-1 shots to win the pennant and underdogs throughout the Series) can be expected to.

So praise the Cardinals, if you want, for they played a fine Series and showed what a good team they are. But please don't, in the same breath, call the Boston Red Sox losers, for losers they're not.
ROGER N. LERMAN
Hanover, N.H.

Sirs:
You and I both know that baseball is the national pastime. The competition is great, and everyone likes to win. The American League race was possibly the most exciting of all. We also know most of the people connected with baseball show good sportsmanship. So can you please explain to me why National League President Warren Giles always has to rub it in when the National League wins an All-Star Game or a World Series? This year's Series was a great one. There was good feeling all around until Warren Giles got to the microphone in the Cards' locker room. Instead of praising the Series and the game, all he did was exclaim how great the National League is. This isn't the first time he has done this, and the repetition gets boring. When Stan Musial got the microphone it was a different story. The first thing he did was congratulate Boston. Is Warren Giles too big a man to show some sportsmanship?

I am a Phillies rooter and I think National League baseball is good baseball. But so is the American League game. Perhaps the National League should have a big-league president—someone like Joe Cronin, who did nothing but praise both teams after Baltimore swept Los Angeles last year.
BOB GRISDALE
Norristown, Pa.

Sirs:
Being a National League fan, I am not given to praising an American League team. But here's hats off to a gutsy bunch of Red Sox. They have nothing to be ashamed of.
DOUGLAS ASHBY
Metairie, La.

Sirs:
Back home in New Zealand I had always considered a World Series to be much ado about nothing. However, the heroics of Yaz, Brock, Gibson and Lonborg—dazzlingly reported and photographed by SPORTS ILLUSTRATED have convinced me that there is no finer or more exciting sporting event than a World Series, even for a Kiwi who could not work out all he subtleties of the play.
SPIRO B. ZAVOS
Washington