Letters to Sports: Dodgers go all-in on Shohei Ohtani; readers not so much

$700 million for Shohei Ohtani!

Dear Dodgers fans: Get ready to see those ticket, parking and concession prices skyrocket!

Jack Wolf
Westwood

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Dave Roberts, you really got lucky. The signing of Ohtani got you off the hook. You almost blew it for the Dodgers by opening your big mouth. The entire Dodger organization was warned ahead of time not to mention any meetings with the Ohtani group. The Dodgers even closed the stadium the day of the meeting to guard against any slip-ups by Dodger personnel.

Yet, Mr. Roberts, you took it upon yourself to tell the world, the Dodgers met with Ohtani’s group immediately after the meeting. That could have killed the deal and Dodger fans would have ostracized you and blamed you if the Dodgers had not signed him. Well, Dave Roberts, thank your lucky stars they signed him. You lucked out.

Paul Kessler
Los Angeles

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Shohei Ohtani is one step away from the Diva Zone with Barbra Streisand, Mariah Carey, Beyoncé Knowles, etc., with his privacy and silence demands.

Dave Roberts did the world a favor and said so what.

Brad Clevinger
Tehachapi

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Dodgers break the bank with $700 mil committed to one player.

“I pledge to always do what’s best for the team and always continue to give it my all to be the best version of myself. Until the last day of my playing career, I want to continue to strive forward not only for the Dodgers but for the baseball world,” Ohtani wrote.

He can start by giving back some of that $700 million so ‘his’ team can sign some starting pitchers. …

Brian Haueter
Ventura

While Bill Plaschke may not like Martin Jarmond’s answers regarding the status of Chip Kelly, UCLA alumni should be proud of those responses and the AD’s decision to retain Coach Kelly. Think Cal, Duke, Northwestern, Stanford, Vanderbilt. UCLA justifiably belongs in that group of highly respected universities. Another commonality? They are not football factories. They will field football teams that may win 10 games every few seasons. They will, however, have rosters of true student-athletes who are serious about their academic pursuits.

Dave Sanderson
La Cañada

Caleb Williams is “sitting out” the Holiday Bowl? So much for his professed loyalty to his teammates. He might make a great quarterback someday, but right now he’s got some growing up to do.

Ted Herrmann
Los Angeles

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While Lincoln Riley has struggled at USC this year, his predecessors are all doing great. Ed Orgeron won a national title at LSU. Steve Sarkisian has Texas in the College Football Playoffs and Lane Kiffin has Ole Miss in the top 10. Even Clay Helton is doing fine at Georgia Southern.

To quote Joni Mitchell:

Don’t it always seem to go,
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone

Darryl Thomson
La Cañada

Just have USC play UCLA in the L.A. Bowl. No one goes to the game anyway. The less seen, the better.

Brent Montgomery
Long Beach

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After all the idealistic blather on both sides, it boils down to TV money, and Florida State sold its soul to that devil long, long ago.

J.M. Wilson
West Hollywood

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Being undefeated used to mean something. Like USC’s perfect season in 2004. Alabama’s loss by double digits at home this September was minimized by the selection committee’s recency bias.

Adam Silbert
New York City

Well into the season, some NBA teams are barely recognizable. How can fans be loyal when rivals last year now play for the home team? It is disorienting to see a favorite Clipper, Reggie Jackson, play for the Denver Nuggets and James Harden, former foe, play for the Clippers.

Owners want their teams to win the NBA title, players want the rings and fans want victories. At what cost loyalty?

Donna Sloan
Los Angeles

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The NBA with the help of the media is trying to con the public into thinking that the current “tournament playoff games” are important. Sorry, but games in November and December are still as meaningless as ever. So until the real playoffs begin in April, I’ll refrain from wasting my valuable TV time on the usual regular season bore-fest.

Gary H. Miller
Encino

Regardless of what Jon Rahm and all the other defectors of the PGA Tour say, the only attraction of LIV Golf is the barrels of money coming from Saudi Arabia.

Jim Blumel
Santa Clarita

Thank you for continuing to allow our own GOAT, Helene Elliott, some space for her columns covering our Kings, who have become a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Forget that coverage of their record-breaking win last night in Montreal was again relegated to yet another Associated Press writer; today’s piece on Quinton Byfield was well worth putting up with the otherwise paltry game coverage.

Elliot Powers
San Diego

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