Letters To The Editor

ALEX RODRIGUEZ

Not about the money? Yeah, right

Enough already. Alex says it was the way he was treated and it was not the money. Give me a break! When it reaches these mega-contracts, it is always the money.

It is disappointing to know that every pro athlete who may pass our way is exactly the same.

A-Rod had the city of Seattle, indeed the entire Northwest, in his pocket. The fans worshipped him and management made decisions around him. Our legislators went to bat and convinced their constituents there were valid reasons to build A-Rod and the other superstars a new home. All gone. They all left for a “winning program.”

I guess two games short of a World Series wasn’t commitment enough. Don’t beat yourselves up fans. These all-stars were gone as soon as their sleazeball agents started dreaming of bigger mansions and world cruises.

I wonder if A-Rod started Little League worrying about winning the most awards. I wonder if he played in high school because he thought he could be the richest athlete ever. I’ll bet he played to the delight of his mother and the love of the sport. Too bad it has come this far. I can only hope the Mariners, who will win without A-Rod, will finish ahead of Texas for the next 10 years! Dave Scoville Spokane

Fans being priced out

This is a letter to A-Rod, his agent, Scott Boras, and Tom Hicks, owner of the Texas Rangers.

A-Rod, as much as I love baseball and enjoyed seeing you play for the Mariners, neither you nor any other professional athlete is worth $252 million. It just goes to show that you are greedy, and not team loyalty or the fans mean a thing to you.

Boras, you should be ashamed to ask that much for one of “your boys.” How much of a cut are you getting, and how many houses and cars do you really need?

Hicks, I guess this is the way you “big-shot Texans” play the game. I just hope A-Rod will be able to play for you all 10 years. The sad part of this whole scenario is who will pay for his huge salary? The fans of course, through higher ticket and concession prices. Soon baseball as a family outing will be a thing of the past. It will be so expensive only a few rich people can afford to go.

Mariners baseball and our fans found out we could do without Ken Griffey Jr., and we will also do without A-Rod. Mariners baseball and life at Safeco Field will go on. We can find other players to take his place. Barbara Beck Colbert

Rodriguez goes tuxedo route

The Mariners must be in line for a World Series appearance. Every time they get rid of a so-called superstar (Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey Jr.) their game has improved. Getting rid of Junior helped the team immensely, and the same could happen without Alex Rodriguez.

A-Rod used to say Seattle was a blue-collar team. Looks like he traded his blue collar for a tuxedo.

Wonder what Texas’ former No. 1 man, Pudge Rodriguez, thinks about this now that he is being paid peanuts compared to A-Rod. Ed Booher Airway Heights

Baseball suffers major blow

As a devoted Mariners fan, who took it personally when Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey Jr. were traded, I am heartbroken over Alex Rodriguez’s decision.

And sadly, my disappointment is not because Alex has chosen to leave a team he helped create, but because baseball itself has suffered a great blow. Alex said it was about baseball. But as far as I’m concerned, it quit being about baseball when $252 million entered the picture. Whatever happened to playing the game for the love of the game … and not just for a blessed buck? Traci Partch Spokane

Owners the stupid ones

I, for one, am glad to see A-Rod leave Seattle. The state of Texas and A-Rod deserve each other. Both are overrated and over-egoed.

A-Rod has set a precedent that not only smells with the pungent odor of greed, he could probably be sounding the death knell of sports as we, the common man, know them.

Surely you sports fans out there can’t possibly believe this mere mortal is worth $129,000 per game. If you do, you are sicker than he is. Discussions I have had with sports fans all end the same, “if the owners are dumb enough to pay him that much, then he is stupid not to demand it.”

That is where the real answer lies - in the word “stupidity.”

It starts with the fans. Who do they think makes it possible for the owners to pay him that kind of money - Santa Claus? The fans continue to pay overinflated prices to be a fan and the cycle continues to spiral. Goodbye, A-Rod, I’m glad they didn’t give you the keys to whatever they call that stadium in Seattle. And when you leave, don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out. James A. Nelson Spokane

With A-Rod, it’s only about the money

My name is Mariner Fan. I pick up the sports section every day to see if there is any news about my team. I have suffered through years of bad managers and start-up players, has-been players and dashed hopes.

I travel to Seattle every year to see a game or two live. I spend a portion of my meager salary to pay the outrageous prices for tickets, parking, hot dogs, pop and beer. The prices are overblown, but I do my part to not only cheer my team, but financially support it as well. After all, I want my team to have the money to keep pace with today’s escalating salaries.

I have suffered through the loss of Randy Johnson and the trade of Ken Griffey Jr. I remember watching Norm Charlton grab his throwing arm in pain one night in Texas and leave the mound never to be the same again. I was there the night Ken Griffey Jr. slammed into the outfield wall and broke his wrist. I was there when Chris Bosio threw a no-hitter. We watched on television the night Edgar Martinez hit the ball hard into the corner past third base and Junior ran home from second base sending my team to the American League Championship Series.

I sat in shock when Alex Rodriguez put on a Texas Rangers jersey and ballcap and thanked them for the $252 million contract.

A-Rod went on to comment how he was insulted by the Seattle Mariners by not sending the owner to meet with him. How he was insulted by only receiving a guaranteed three-year contract for $18 million a year from the Mariners.

A-Rod has done pretty well for kid who is just a high school graduate and never has had to work for a living.

I was upset when Junior left for Cincinnati. However, it was his home, his parents were there and he took less money to get there. I respect his decision. When A-Rod stands in front of the media in a thousand-dollar suit, having just stepped out of a limo with his agent and he tells the world it was not about the money. Please, that’s all it was about. Mark J. McCracken Spokane

One player worth more than team?

The Texas Rangers have made Major League Baseball look like a financial circus. Their ballclub just spent $252 million on one player. A few years ago, they spent $250 million on their ballpark, the whole team, and the land their new ballpark lies on. They have spent $2 million more on a individual who has a contract for the next 10 years, with the option to leave Texas after seven years if he feels his team is not a contender.

What does this say for the game? America’s pastime is turning into who has the biggest checkbook. In earlier days, individuals played for the pride of the game. Jared Allen Farmington, Wash.

Greed won’t ruin national pasttime

Mitch Albom made some interesting points in Thursday’s edition (“As payrolls ride the elevator, fans get the shaft.”)

Yes, the fans get shafted and Alex Rodriguez never brought a championship to Seattle. Neither did Ken Griffey nor Randy Johnson.

And, yes, the ridiculous salaries professional athletes like Alex receive are disgusting to say the least. But the game doesn’t change. Baseball will always remain the national pastime regardless of the ongoing greed by baseball stars and their agents. The days of growing up idolizing one player who begins and retires with the same team are over.

It’s sad, but until fans literally stop going to the stadiums, the game survives, owners continue to hand out enormous amounts of money to average and above-average players, and we’ll continue to sit back and talk about how the game and its players meant so much more to us long ago. Joe Speranzi Spokane

WSU ATHLETICS

WSU doesn’t ignore local athletes

In the past few weeks, I have read a number of letters featuring countless reasons for the demise of the WSU athletic programs. I agreed with some and disagreed with more. However, I haven’t found one more uneducated and shortsighted than R.K. Brauner’s letter Dec. 10 (“Cougars our local team? Haw!”), where he blamed the lack of Spokane athletes for the Cougars’ recent failures on the field.

Brauner, can you name the two best football players to come out of Spokane in the past two years? That would be Jeremey Williams and Erik Coleman. And guess what? They’re both on the WSU football team! Last time I checked, the Cougars, just like any other program, recruit players based on talent, not geography. To expect them to recruit inferior athletes just to keep fair-weather Spokane fans like you happy is ignorance at best.

If recent football seasons are any indication, GSL teams can’t compete with the Big Nine. What makes you think those same athletes could compete with the rest of the Pac-10?

Does Spokane and the Inland Empire have Division I-caliber players? Of course. Players like Mark Rypien and Paul Mencke prove that. (I’m not from Spokane, so you’ll have to excuse me if I don’t name them all.) And the Cougars will recruit those players if they think they will help the program.

Yes, like you said, WSU wants your children to attend WSU and pay tuition. That’s how they stay afloat. But for you to say they are not going to give your student-athlete a scholarship is childish. If your student-athlete is good enough, he will get a scholarship. If he’s not, he won’t. It’s that simple. And do you know why? Because WSU wants to win.

Oh, but I’m sure WSU is sacrificing winning seasons for the express purpose of alienating the people of Spokane, right? Sure.

Brauner, if you want to continue rooting for Colorado State like you did at the Cougars basketball game, go right ahead. True Cougars fans won’t miss “fans” like you. Michael Rose Pullman

Winning at WSU is possible

For those who say winning in football is impossible at Washington State, I have just two words: Oregon State.

It is true that it has traditionally been difficult to win at Washington State. It is also irrelevant. Have you stepped on the world-class playing surface and practice fields at WSU lately? Have you seen the new athletic weight room, now among the best in the nation? Have you noticed that compensation for our head coach is on a par with other Pac-10 teams? Others before Mike Price did not have these advantages.

Price does a terrific job of recruiting. He gets talented young men to come and so has a good year now and then, but then he fails to provide the coaching and leadership necessary for them to achieve their full potential.

It is profoundly disturbing to see class after class of talented young men, who have the ability to compete, in a disorganized mass Price calls a football team, being assessed penalty after penalty, making critical mistake after critical mistake, game after game not even showing the level of discipline and organization of a good high school football team, and ultimately becoming demoralized about their chances to compete.

Without a team that is giving its all, revenue is becoming as scarce as wins and the whole program is moving in the wrong direction.

Let’s offer Price the position of recruiting director and hire a new football coach when his contract expires. Timothy R. Paul Spokane

PREP SPORTS

Foul calls ruin basketball

I am a freshman at West Valley High School. I agree and disagree with the (Nov. 30) article “Basketball needs to get its hands off,” by Dave Trimmer.

I agree with Trimmer because basketball is physical. There is a lot more pushing and shoving than there should be, but according to players, that is how they like it.

I disagree with Trimmer because basketball was fun to watch and now it is not. The players like it aggressive, and that’s how it was. Now they say it’s too sissy. I went to my brother’s game on a Friday night and in the first quarter there were 12 total fouls. There is no way there should be 12 fouls in 8 minutes.

In Trimmer’s article, he said it shouldn’t be played as they see it on TV. I also disagree with that, because the way they play it on TV isn’t too aggressive at all. With all the new rules, there is a lot more bad sportsmanship because of all the bad calls. I mean that if a player is going up to lay it in, he bumps the defender and the ref calls a foul that really isn’t a foul. Even if they barely touch they still call a foul and I think it is bull because they call a foul that really isn’t a foul.

I disagree with the actions of the WIAA because basketball was fine just the way it was, and now it is a foul-fest. I think the refs and the WIAA should just relax and let them play basketball like it should be played. Jeremy Epler Spokane

Newspapers slight JV, C sports

I am a freshman at West Valley High School. I am writing about why the newspaper companies don’t put JV sports scores in the sports section for high school.

I play soccer and participate in track. During the soccer season of 2000, the JV girls team did a great job, with 10 wins, five losses, and one tie! Never once when I looked in the newspaper did I see an article about how well the JV teams did. We tried just as hard as the varsity sport players. I think the JV teams and C squad teams should get paid as much attention as the varsity players!

When varsity players play their sports, they always get more people to come watch them play. I think the newspaper companies should put articles about JV and C squad teams in there so people also know those people have a game. They would like to get people to come watch them in their games.

When I go to football or basketball games, yes, they are always varsity games, but it’s because sometimes I don’t hear about the other teams and their games. I would just like to see about the JV and C squad teams for a change in the newspaper, like where they play, what time, and how well they did at their last game, just like the newspaper companies write about varsity players. Stacy Fielder Spokane