Letters: Adding insult to Matt Kemp’s injury

It’s hard to believe that Matt Kemp has made the Dodgers’ $160-million investment disappear quicker than Bernie Madoff ever could have.

Herb Schoenberg

Tarzana

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I have never heard of a team being worse off if a guy that’s hitting .251 with two home runs and 17 RBIs goes on the disabled list. I’m pretty sure that a minor leaguer could equal or exceed those numbers in half the time. How does Matt Kemp injure his hamstring when he hardly, if ever, goes full speed?

Geno Apicella

Placentia

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Lest we forget, Matt Kemp is a paid performer and he’s not earning his keep. Baseball is a business. At any other company he would have been dismissed long ago for his woeful performance. Kemp would do well to invoke the ghost of the late Lyman Bostock who memorably asked the late Buzzie Bavasi, then the GM of the Angels, to withhold his salary because of poor performance.

Skip Nevell

Los Angeles

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Don Mattingly might not turn out to be the best baseball manager of all time, but in response to Jerry Moore from last week’s letters: Criticizing Mattingly as a ballplayer is just plain blasphemy.

More than likely after reading his letter as well, another great Yankee is looking down from the heavens and responding, “Holy cow, what a huckleberry that Moore is!�

Gary Abel

Marina del Rey

Also forgotten

Bill Plaschke is correct in criticizing the Dodgers for failing to recognize greats Zack Wheat and Dazzy Vance [May 26]. And then he does it himself by not including Gil Hodges in his list of non-Hall of Fame Dodgers greats. Hodges certainly should be in the Hall, and if the Dodgers can make an exception for Jim Gilliam, they should have long ago hung No. 14 up on the wall as well.

Bert Bergen

La Cañada

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Bill Plaschke’s article about the lack of recognition given Zack Wheat and Dazzy Vance was great. However, there is another Dodger who fails to get recognition and he is still alive. Maybe a bobblehead for Tommy Davis? In 1962 he led the league in hits with 230, RBIs with 153 and batting average with .346. He then came back in 1963 and won the batting title again with a .326 average.

Unfortunately, he broke his ankle in a 1965 game and was never quite the same.

Gary Droeger

Huntington Beach

Not Angelic

Of course Oakland’s Lew Wolff [Letters, May 18] is going to side with Arte Moreno, they’re members of the same club. Lew has an agenda that requires the help of his fellow owners. He has stated on an Angels broadcast what a great ballpark Angel Stadium is. He will continue to schmooze his fellow owners until he gets what he wants — a move from Oakland to San Jose.

If Arte wanted to relocate elsewhere in SoCal, Lew would be his biggest supporter in that too. It has nothing to do with the fans, it’s all about revenue. Our sport is their business, and the bottom line is the bottom line.

Patrick McAtee

San Pedro

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Because hitters who are slumping get measured against the dreaded “Mendoza Line,� shouldn’t pitchers whose hit yield has reached historic proportions now be faced with the “Blanton Barrier�?

Michael Jenning

Van Nuys

The best we’ve got

How can the fact that L.A. has become a hockey town be a sign that our sports teams are in a steep decline (Letters, May 25)? The Kings are the only local pro team whose performance has matched expectations, and I don’t see any other franchise bringing a championship here any time soon. Other than local media who are forced to emerge from their comfort zone and cover a sport they typically ignore, what is the downside of hockey finally getting its due here?

Olivia Jones

Santa Monica

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Kudos — again — to Times photographer Wally Skalij.

A few years back, he captured the quintessential shot of USC’s Reggie Bush dancing down the sidelines. This week, his shot of Kings goalie Jonathan Quick facing down the Sharks’ Joe Pavelski — in a game- and series-saving moment — was spectacular. In between, his work has regularly made reading The Times’ sports section more enjoyable.

Gordon Morris

Glendale

By/buy the book

Is it well known by the media and in basketball circles that Phil Jackson is tight with his dough and a bit money-hungry? Why else would he write yet another tell-all expose sure to insult and anger athletes who have helped to make him famous and successful? I’m sure he doesn’t need the money, but I guess feeding an oversized ego doesn’t come cheap!

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

Now you don’t

The new movie “Now You See Me� featuring mind-boggling illusions puts me in a “Magic� state of mind. Our own Magic Man, Earvin Johnson, was a great basketballer and businessman. Lately he has been reduced to flip-flopping tweets (Lakers), losing politics (Wendy Gruel), and disappearing acts (Dodgers).

I guess you could say he has become our own “Phantom Menace.�

Ralph Martinez

Arcadia

Indy-climactic

The ending of the Indy 500 on a yellow flag ruined what promised to be an exciting finish and was a travesty. They should institute a rule that if there is a yellow flag at any time during the last five laps, the laps run under the yellow flag will not be counted and the race will continue on the restart so that every finish is competitive.

Tony Medley

Marina del Rey

He said it

“Ethier scores easily as Trout’s line was way upstream.�

Yet, another pearl from L.A.’s living legend, Vin Scully.

Bob Ginn

Arcadia

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