Congratulations to class act Clayton Kershaw on a great career now that he’s decided to retire. Hopefully Kersh goes out on top the way John Elway did in his final season — leading the team to a championship.
Ken Feldman
Tarzana
I have been a know-it-all Dodger fan since the late 1950s and after last season I thought, and hoped, Clayton Kershaw would retire. I was wrong.
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Paul Burns
Granada Hills
I am so happy with Clayton Kershaw’s decision to finally retire. Now I hope the Dodgers make the right decision and make him an offer he can’t refuse by making him the highest-paid pitching coach of all time, Whom better?
Russell Morgan
Carson
Clayton Kershaw’s retirement is bad timing for the Dodgers and manager Dave Roberts. Obviously, they will need three or four starters in the playoffs and Kershaw is now fifth or sixth in the rotation. If Roberts does not use Kershaw, the manager will be called a heel, and if he does start Kershaw and he’s bombed, then Roberts will be considered a bad manager.
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Fred Wallin
Westlake Village
Pitching debate
Isn’t it time to allow starters to finish their games, especially when they have a no-hitter going?
Utilizing the pitch count as a preventative measure may or may not work. After all, three lights-out pitching prodigies in Walker Buehler, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin were on restricted pitch counts. They were lights-out prospects, now they’re just out.
It’s impossible to predict when an injury will occur. And there may be something to the theory that more pitches will make for stronger arms, provided they have adequate rest between starts.
Ron Brumel
West Los Angeles
If the Dodgers manage to get to the World Series this year, it will be in spite of Dave Roberts’ obvious incompetence that was fully on display in Tuesday night’s game against the Phillies.
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Not only won’t he let Ohtani pitch more than five innings, despite a low pitch count, but, as he has done on eight other occasions, completely ignores the fact his pitcher was pitching a no-hitter. With his bullpen in shambles, why does he pull his starter so early?
Ken Blake
Brea
Finally, Dave Roberts showed confidence in a pitcher and Blake Snell responded. Roberts has spent his whole managerial career pulling pitchers every time they throw high. Pitchers build arm strength by pitching, not by growing splinters on their collective butts.
Steve Trocino
Simi Valley
No relief needed
The first two games of the recent series against the Phillies said it all. The Dodger bullpen is a five-alarm fire, an unmitigated disaster, a total catastrophe. I side with the recent letter writer who offered a solution to this mess: a two-starter approach. Please instigate a “no call zone” that covers the Dodger bullpen. For two starters to work the playoffs in a three-game rotation, the team needs six quality arms. We have them: Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Shohei Ohtani, Emmet Sheehan, Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
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Craig Rosen
Los Angeles
Most of the time only a four-man pitching rotation is necessary for the MLB playoffs. If the Dodgers make the playoffs, I have a suggestion for their rotation: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and the combination of Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw. You would still have Emmet Sheehan for long relief and spot starting for injuries.
Neal Rakov
Santa Fe, N.M.
Bill Plaschke’s column on the bullpen brought to light in my mind, a notable quote by the late Howard Cosell. Although I never met the man, “Plaschke tells it like it is.” I’m amazed by the way Bill summarized Dodgers weaknesses.
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Patrick Kelley
Los Angeles
A fond farewell
There is an obituary in Sunday’s sports section. It is about Mike Kupper, written by Mike Kupper.
A few additional things need to be said, because Kupper wouldn’t say them himself.
He was hired because the massive Times sports section during the 1984 Olympics needed a master word editor. Once he arrived, you dared not use “that” when “which” was correct. Restrictive and unrestrictive clauses were mostly interchangeable for the rest of us. Not for Kupper.
His title was senior assistant sports editor. It could have easily been Staff Conscience Editor. We were not allowed shortcuts, lazy phrases, vague sources and insufficient attribution. He made all of us better in a quiet, firm way. When he fixed a story, we remembered how and why and dared not repeat the mistake.
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He knew sports, loved its stories, loved writing many of them himself. He covered and wrote about everything. Each story was to the point, accurate, entertaining and without a whiff of the current “look at me” approach of so many writers. His specialty was auto racing. When he arrived at The Times, that specialty was already being handled by Hall-of-Fame auto writer Shav Glick. Without a hint of jealousy, Kupper walked side by side with Glick in the best one-two punch racing journalism has ever seen.
In retirement, he wrote dozens of obituaries, each entertaining and meticulously reported. Today, the one about himself, is the same. Those of us who worked with him would have expected no less.
Bill Dwyre
Baltimore, Md.
Conflicted much
It’s amazing that it took a shot of Tom Brady in the coaches booth at the recent Raiders game for most to understand that the NFL and Fox have a serious conflict of interest on their hands. This seemed glaringly apparent from the get-go, but now that it’s finally come to the forefront, it should allow Fox to rectify a wrong when they demoted Greg Olsen in favor of Brady.
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Dump Tom and his mediocre broadcasting abilities and bring back Greg and his superb in-game analysis.
Axel Hubert
Santa Monica
Lock him up
Dear Chargers,
Can we please lock up defensive coordinator Jesse Minter with a lucrative contract and keep him paired with coach Jim Harbaugh for the long run? Do not let this man out of the building.
Sincerely, all Charger fanatics everywhere.
Felipe Varela
Whittier
Next move?
A lot of your letter writers got their wish with the firing of DeShaun Foster. Now what?
Vaughn Hardenberg
Westwood
Chip Kelly left UCLA in a bad position in February 2024. The coaching carousel had already stopped. DeShaun Foster, who had a nice gig as running backs coach for the Raiders, fell on the grenade that was UCLA football. He probably won’t be remembered for that sacrifice, but he should be.
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Hans Ghaffari
Encino
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