Dodgers Have Some Minor Difficulties

Las Vegas: Whatever happens here, ends up in Dodger Stadium.

Danny Lee

Studio City

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With the current Dodger lineup, in your “Today on TV and Radio” they should be listed under Minor League Baseball.

Don White

Palm Desert

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Does somebody pull a string from the back of Dodger Manager Jim Tracy before he conducts a postgame interview or does he just rattle off those redundant excuses and cliches on his own?

Larry Yells

Hermosa Beach

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Did Frank McCourt and Paul DePodesta step on a crack on a sidewalk while mistakenly walking under a few ladders, break a couple of mirrors, spill salt on their dinner table and have several black cats cross their paths at Vero Beach just before spring training?

Mark J. Featherstone

Windsor Hills

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I’m writing regarding the Times’ sports staff’s articles like Tim Brown’s “Marketing Campaign Isn’t Worth the Cost.” [July 5].

I read The Times, cover to cover, every day and the sports section twice. As if we don’t hear enough bad news about the rest of the world, it seems like The Times’ sportswriters are like piranhas feeding off a giant fish of negativism. We’re just reaching the halfway point of the season and Tim Brown is telling the city to give up on the Dodgers. He sounds like my 65-year-old father. Every loss is like doomsday, every strikeout is an end to playoff hopes.

Give me a break. Yes, the roster is depleted. But this is baseball. Dodger Stadium is not the Middle East, and I’m getting sick of reading articles that treat it like that. Now I’m even more thrilled to root for the Dodgers and hope they make it like they did last year. Here’s hoping.

Blake Dorfman

Los Angeles

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Though I generally agree with and like Tim Brown, he’s dead wrong in his article of July 5. The newly hired Dodger spin doctors have hoodwinked fans and writers into believing the Dodgers actually have a great farm system, full of great prospects who can provide a bright future for the Dodgers in the coming years.

Not true. They have a few good prospects -- Guzman, Loney, Hanrahan, Miller, maybe Navarro. Theirs isn’t even one of the higher-ranked systems in baseball.

Meanwhile, only 5 1/2 games out at the time of this writing, Paul DePodesta’s injury-plagued team still has a viable chance to win the incredibly weak NL West. Dodger fans have proved themselves far too loyal and have endured far too much disappointment to sit back and watch the arrogant DePodesta give up on this season and retain their prospects as the empty promises of 2006 and beyond.

We know they have the available funds. So, don’t just stand there, McCourt and DePodesta. Let’s see how committed you really are to your fans. Do something.

Steve Freeman

Los Angeles

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On July 3, I had my first opportunity to watch the hapless futility of the 2005 Dodgers during a 10-3 loss to the Diamondbacks, as well as observe Frank McCourt’s vision for the stadium. Although much has been written on McCourt’s finances, the level of crass commercialism represented by ads splattered over every conceivable wall and electronic space was truly appalling and a shame for this beautiful ballpark.

Between the game and stadium it was clear that the owner is utterly classless and inept. Even the fireworks show was a bust, with an abrupt ending before the finale.

Rex Altman

Los Angeles