Letters

Hi, Jinx

Thanks so much for putting Jonathan Papelbon (Late & Great, Oct. 1) on your cover only a week after the Sox nearly blew their onetime double-digit division lead, and only a week before the playoffs were set to begin. Haven't we Sox fans been through enough? Now we have to go into the playoffs worrying about your cover jinx.
Louis Frank, Kennebunk, Maine

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Karch de'Triomphe

Thanks for your appreciation of retiring beach volleyball legend Karch Kiraly (Now Let Us Praise Karch Kiraly, Oct. 1). Karch is truly one of those rare individuals who define the sport they play. Everyone who loves beach volleyball will miss him.
Chuck Hersey, Port Byron, Ill.

I have seen Gretzky, Jordan, Favre, Marino, Elway, Tiger and Federer, but I have never seen a more dominant athlete than Kiraly. To play as well as he did at age 46 is more impressive than what forty-somethings like Roger Clemens or Barry Bonds do in baseball—those guys barely even have to run.
Brian Murphy, Frisco, Texas

Big Little Men

Zach Thomas, at 5? 11? and 228 pounds, has been a five-time first team All-Pro selection and seven-time Pro Bowler at middle linebacker for the Dolphins. You called the sidebar to your Oct. 1 Bob Sanders story "Small Wonders," but it's more than a small wonder that Thomas was left off David Epstein's list of undersized NFL players who pack a wallop.
Terry Davis, Pembroke Pines, Fla.

Alive and Punching

I am getting a little tired of your using the "save boxing" story line every time you guys decide to cover the sport, as you did in your story on Kelly Pavlik (PLAYERS, Oct. 8). If boxing is dying, why did our 24/7 De La Hoya--Mayweather reality series average 4.7 million viewers a week over a four-week period? And how did the fight itself do 2.4 million buys? If boxing is dying, why was the Sept. 29 Pavlik vs. Taylor fight the highest-rated program on our network the week it aired, with more than 2.1 million viewers? If boxing is dying, why is the anticipation for Calzaghe vs. Kessler, Cotto vs. Mosley and Mayweather vs. Hatton so great? I think magazines and newspapers that characterize boxing as dying are trying to rationalize their stubbornness in not covering the sport. Boxing fans are out there in the millions. You and others are just not serving their needs. We are.
Ross Greenburg, President, HBO Sports New York City