In Analyzing Dodger Sale, Readers Touch All the Bases

I just woke up from a nightmare. I dreamed Peter O’Malley had sold the Dodgers and the new owner:

--Sold PSLs in the bleachers.

--Changed the team color to teal.

--Raised the price for parking to $15.

--Converted Vero Beach into a time-share resort.

It was only a dream, right?

STUART WEISS

Los Angeles

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As I gazed at your wonderful file photo of Walt Alston waving to an orderly crowd of Angelenos from the back seat of a ’58 Edsel, I was taken back to a simpler time. I then became aware of how the O’Malleys tried to freeze that period of time, and how Peter retained the spirit of his father’s vision. It may seem silly to those who did not grow up with the Dodgers, but that period of time ended Monday.

DAN JENSEN

San Clemente

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Baseball may be able to survive the designated hitter, having no real commissioner, and the strike of 1994. But baseball without the O’Malley family as owners of the Dodgers is an affront to the spiritual roots and purity of America’s beloved pastime. Indeed, the sale of this last family-owned franchise will complete the decline of baseball from a recreational outlet for the great unwashed masses into a cutthroat monopoly where big business and corporate greed prevail.

IBM in cleats? GE with jock itch? Microsoft as purveyors of the split-finger? Forget it!

JOHN LILLPOP

San Jose

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Peter Ueberroth, please step up to the plate! Our beloved Dodgers and baseball itself need your type of class, style and business ethic. You could put together the organization that would best serve the fans and the game.

God bless the O’Malleys for what they have given to baseball and give them the strength to sell to the right buyer who will continue the tradition.

MIKE HICKEY

Irvine

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Let’s get creative. Can’t Peter O’Malley and his buddies (the ones with lots of dough, of course) round up some investors and form some sort of partnership, whatever entity is most suitable from a tax standpoint, wherein the O’Malley influence and class can continue? Surely there’s something the good people of Los Angeles can do to keep integrity, commitment and love of the game alive.

O’Malley is right--it has become virtually impossible to compete as a family enterprise on any level, O’Malley’s or the mom-and-pop type operating on a shoestring. He’s right about the risk as well. The free-agent situation is wildly out of control. Somebody, please save the baseball owners from themselves!

JULIA COOPER

San Diego

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After reading Bill Plaschke’s column on Jan. 7 regarding the sale of the Dodgers by the O’Malley family, I realized that the Dodgers are indeed the last bastion of old-fashioned baseball, and perhaps the last team with that intangible, “home-spun” feel in all of professional sports (save the Green Bay Packers).

Having grown up in Detroit (Plaschke refers to the sale of the Tigers to Domino’s Pizza mogul Tom Monaghan as a catalyst for the team’s demise), I realized that all of Plaschke’s dire predictions for the Dodgers are indeed imminent and should be expected. We are foolish to think our halcyon summers in Chavez Ravine will be unaffected by corporate acquisition.

Be prepared. The Dodgers may be on their way to becoming a corporate arm whose marketing schemes and formats will be revolutionary, and perhaps lead baseball into the 21st century. But we don’t have to like it.

MICHAEL BISCH

Los Angeles

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The announced sale of the Dodgers was received with great enthusiasm in our household. A rich baseball tradition, brought to Los Angeles by Walter O’Malley, had slowly and painfully been eroded over the years to one of complacency and a philosophy of being “competitive” in their division.

The Dodgers have many fine players and prospects, as the rookies of the year demonstrate, but management did not match the loyalty and commitment of the fans. Since 1990, two or three top-quality available players would have meant the difference between simply being competitive and playing at an elite level.

Well, thanks for the past, Peter O’Malley. You have gone from low to no profile and reaped a profit. Goodbye to Fred Claire, at long last, and hello to a much brighter future.

BILL BENDAT

Westlake Village

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This decision is certainly bad news for Los Angeles, but it could turn out to be very good news for major league baseball. Is there anyone, anywhere, as qualified as Peter O’Malley to take on the complex responsibilities of baseball commissioner? I don’t think so.

GORDON HEARNE

Encino

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Roger Kahn’s book, “The Boys of Summer,” certainly is one of the best sports chronicles, by one of sport’s best writers, but I think his bitterness of the Dodgers’ move nearly 40 years ago still taints his objectivity. He even put Steinbrenner a notch above Peter O’Malley, and that’s a pretty low blow in anybody’s book.

Peter O’Malley’s biggest problem is his appearance. He looks more like Clark Kent than the leader of one of baseball’s most popular teams. Quietly, and more unassuming than his father or Branch Rickey, he continued the family business with as much dignity and grace as one can ask of anyone in today’s world.

You did OK, Peter, even for a rich guy.

MERRILL BANDILOW

Long Beach

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Estate planning . . . another prime example of the need to totally revamp our onerous, intrusive and ruinous tax code.

BOB THERRIEN

Ventura

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After reading Roger Kahn’s article regarding Peter O’Malley, I have come to the realization that Kahn’s experiences of the past have made him a bitter old man. I guess he will never get over the fact that a classmate made a bigger success of his life than he did. Peter O’Malley is a class act. He has accomplished more for major league baseball than Kahn’s wounded ego will give him credit for.

PAM SMITH

Fullerton

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If Robert Shapiro takes over as the new Dodger owner, do you suppose he will sell O.J. at the concession stands?

DAVID M. REID

Whittier