Howard Cosell

At the recent passing of Howard Cosell (April 24) I have noticed a number of articles regarding his contribution to sports broadcasting and subjective viewpoints regarding the nature of his personality. I have been more than a little surprised at the personal jabs that have been taken, particularly by other sports writers. While it is true that he was controversial and at times caustic and self-aggrandizing, I would like to share with readers that there was another side. Ten years ago I was part of the "Saturday Night Live" program and Cosell was our host one week.

Howard Cosell: The Man, the Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports Mark Ribowsky W.W. Norton: 512 pp., $29.95

Howard Cosell: The Man, the Myth, and the Transformation of American Sports Mark Ribowsky W.W. Norton: 512 pp., $29.95

You wonder if, in those last moments before he died, Joe Frazier felt one last sting of defeat, knowing Muhammad Ali would outlive him. Their trilogy of heavyweight boxing matches ended 36 years ago, but they never left Frazier's frontal lobe. As writer Erik Brady of USA Today put it so nicely in a 2009 story, Frazier and Ali are forever "joined at the arthritic hip. " In death, Smokin' Joe may finally receive a measure of the positive attention he always felt was stolen from him by Ali, a man he lost to twice in three matches and always claimed, "I whupped him three times.

Anybody who throws up on cowboy boots can't be all bad! SAM GORMLEY Van Nuys

Scott Ostler's Monday column (about Howard Cosell and his other friends) was brilliant. I laughed myself silly and am going to cut it out and frame it. It is a gem. Scott may not know much about sports, but he is a great writer. ARTHUR N. WOOTTON Newhall

Over and over and over again that Monday night in 1985, Joe Theismann's leg snapped grotesquely under the violent charge of New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor. In instant replay, in super slow-mo, from the reverse angle, millions watched the Washington Redskins quarterback's leg do something no human being's leg was ever designed to do.

Howard Cosell, one of the most controversial broadcasters in the history of sports television, died Sunday of a heart embolism at the Hospital for Joint Diseases in New York. Cosell, 77, was for decades a flamboyant figure in the sports world, but he spent the last several years of his life a virtual recluse. After his wife died in 1990, Cosell retreated to his New York apartment, suffering from cancer, heart disease and Parkinson's disease.

Howard Cosell, 73, underwent further chest surgery as part of his treatment for cancer.

Les Keiter, a longtime sportscaster who was known for his radio re-creations of San Francisco Giants games for New York listeners in the first few years after the baseball team moved to California, died Tuesday at Castle Medical Center near Honolulu. He was 89. Honolulu television station KHON, where he had been a sports anchor for many years, reported that Keiter died of natural causes and had dementia.

Tommy Davis often talks about how a phone call in 1956 from Jackie Robinson convinced him to sign with the Dodgers rather than the New York Yankees. He recounted the story Feb. 1 at Jackie Robinson Legacy Day at Dodger Stadium and repeated it Saturday night at the 83rd Assn. of Professional Ball Players of America banquet in Long Beach. Former major leaguer Darrell Evans, who followed Davis to the podium at the baseball banquet, said, "Tommy, you got a call from Jackie Robinson.

A look at some of the highlights as the TV industry unveils its upcoming shows to the entertainment press at the Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena: * Is Tony Kornheiser the next Howard Cosell? His colleagues on ESPN's new "Monday Night Football" seem to think so.

Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell are warily circling each other, like fighters in the ring, a young giant with rippling muscles and a lightning-quick jab versus an aging sports commentator with wobbly legs and a bad toupee, two men equal only in their blustery braggadocio and gift for gab. They're doing the dozens, teasing each other with a tornado of street-corner taunts. "Honestly, champ, I fear for your survival," Cosell says with his uniquely stentorian diction.

Everyone forgets one key point why "Monday Night Football" was so successful and exciting with Howard Cosell: It was his halftime review of all the highlights of the weekend's games. There was no satellite or cable television to view the games or highlights. Howard was the only one! MIKE BALTZER Long Beach

Dennis Miller and his new "Monday Night Football" partners appeared together in public for the first time Sunday in Pasadena, and no one could accuse Miller of grandstanding or trying to steal the show. If anything, he was subdued. No ranting. Actually, Dan Fouts and Al Michaels got off the best lines. About the only thing that made Miller stand out was everyone else on the featured panel was wearing a jacket. Miller showed up in a denim shirt and jeans.

What: "Howard Cosell: Telling It Like It Is" Where: HBO, tonight, 10-11 HBO's documentary on possibly the most famous--and infamous--sportscaster of all time is typically well done. But HBO falls short of telling it like it is in its portrayal of Howard Cosell. The man was brilliant, yes. But that was possibly his only good quality.