19th Hole: The Readers Take Over

NEW WRINKLES
Sir:
Thanks for another intriguing cover of Muhammad Ali (Sept. 29). He is The Greatest, except for those crumpled boxing shorts! Tell Muhammad that it just won't do.

When next you appear on a cover,
Your pose and expression just right,
Make certain your shorts pass muster,
With no ugly wrinkles in sight.
MAUREEN LLOYD
Mill Valley, Calif.

Sir:
With a face as beautiful as All's,
And a punch that stings like a bee,
How could you print a cover photo
With the man's trunks so messee?
BOB WILLIAMS
State College, Pa.

PEPPER'S PERKS
Sir:
Former Georgia Tech Football Coach Pepper Rodgers' list of perks (SCORECARD, Sept. 29) has opened my eyes to the shabby manner in which Carnegie-Mellon treats me. As a volunteer assistant track coach at CMU last year, my perks amounted to:

My minus total obviously does not compare with Rodgers' plus $146,024, but there were other perks, like a second straight undefeated season and a second straight conference championship. And I didn't get fired.
THOMAS STEPHEN TERPACK
Pittsburgh

SNAILS AND PUPPY-DOG TALES
Sir:
I just read your escargot item (SCORECARD. Sept. 22). When I first heard that joke, it was only one paragraph long. Here is another one you can expand: two duck hunters are sitting in a blind, and they are having terrible luck. Finally, one says to the other, "I think I know what we're doing wrong—we aren't throwing the dog high enough."
M.L. CARLSON
Los Angeles

CATERERS AND CARPETMEN
Sir:
In regard to your story on slo-pitch softball and Jerry's Caterers of Miami (Teams That Go Bump in the Night, Sept. 1), I'd like to point out that Jerry's was not just "upset" by Campbell's Carpets of Concord, Calif. at the National Slo-Pitch Conference tournament in Birmingham, Ala., it was beaten. The Carpetmen entered the NSPC tournament with a 102-11 record, compared to Jerry's 84-13, and they were ranked first in the country by National Slo-Pitch magazine, an Indiana publication that serves as the sport's official rating service.

Campbell's has now defeated Jerry's six of nine times this season, including their last three meetings. The Carpetmen have also won the slo-pitch triple crown, beating Jerry's 27-16 at the conference tournament, 26-16 at the American Softball Association tournament in Montgomery, Ala. and 20-14 at the United States Slo-Pitch Softball Association World Series here in Concord, Calif. Campbell's has 10 Luzinski-sized sluggers who can crank it out of any park. In fact, the Carpetmen have more than 10 Luzinski-sized sluggers, but they all can't play at once.
MIKE LEFKOW
Sports Editor
Concord Transcript
Concord, Calif.

Sir:
Not all major slo-pitch softball teams concentrate on power alone. Campbell's Carpets, the most successful team in the country this season, works on defense as much as it does on offense, which helped it to become the first team ever to win all three national titles in the same year.
SAL DIMAGGIO
Martinez, Calif.

YOU KNOW, ETC.
Sir:
For many years I have been driving my wife crazy during the sports segment of the nightly news by counting the number of "you knows" that are uttered by athletes during interviews. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that there was anyone with a like mind. The item in SCORECARD (Sept. 15) on Sportscaster Keith Olbermann was super.