Simers

While reading T.J. Simers' column (Aug. 1), I came across a small blurb in which Simers insinuated Carson Palmer was destined for the NFL Hall of Fame. Shocked, I read the piece over and over until it became clear--T.J. was actually saying something positive about a sports personality. All I can say to T.J. is he had better watch it, feel-good stories about A.C. Green and his little green bear could be just around the corner. MER VALDEZ Long Beach T.J. Simers' way of honoring Jerry West's "brilliant beyond compare" career is to rip its ending.

-- Times' columnist T.J. Simers argues Lakers fans owe Jim Buss, the Lakers' executive vice president of player personnel, an apology for all their criticism toward him. -- The Times' Mike Bresnahan reports Lakers coaches are fine with Andrew Bynum taking three-pointers, but only if he practices them on off days and makes some of them. -- The Orange County Register's Kevin Ding notes Bynum reintegrated himself back in Wednesday's practice. -- ESPN Los Angeles' Brian Kamenetzky highlights how Lakers Coach Mike Brown stood firm over benching Bynum.

In his usual slanted, biased style, T.J. Simers once again succeeds in editorializing his way to a slam of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum while he boosts yet another project, this time in Carson [May 7]. A ceremony full of celebrities and leaders of Los Angeles, honoring one of our own, the great Pete Rozelle, took place on Monday at the Coliseum. The Times didn't print one word about it. Where was Simers? While you're at it, why not rename the paper The Carson Times? SHELDON H. SLOAN, Los Angeles (Sloan is vice president of the Coliseum Commission)

I had to write a Lakers column, so I went to the Clippers' game Saturday to at least have some fun while scribbling. It seems to be pretty well established now that the Lakers are a bore ... and there goes Blake Griffin with back-to-back dunks. Staples Center seems to be shaking. What a game! Sorry, back to the ho-hum Lakers, where Mike Brown is now Ben Howland . No question both are very good coaches. Everything begins with defense, and now I lay me down to sleep.

I praise T.J. Simers and pity the readers who chose to rebuke him [Viewpoint, Aug. 7]. As for Cade McNown's behavior? Repulsive. Just because it isn't murder, drugs or rape doesn't mean we should support scofflaws. I question the character of the readers who wrote in support of McNown and against T.J. Simers. Where are we going if we can't repress flagrant abuse of any law? EVA JEAN GIESE Culver City

T.J. Simers colored the picture perfectly with his comments on the ludicrous selections of Curtis Crayon [Aug. 22]. There must have been a lot of head nodding (and laughter) from the horse players in Southern California. What isn't funny, however, is the fact that his selections render the Consensus column virtually useless. Bob Mieszerski and Fred Robledo must be embarrassed that their "real" handicapping is wasted. BOB KNODELL Laguna Niguel T.J. Simers is an irritating, unsettling, disrespectful, sarcastic sourpuss and a merciless deflator of our sports heroes.

When you live in a basketball-centric town such as Los Angeles, you expect the kind of spleen-venting rant that T.J. Simers issued (Feb. 10) on "Miracle," the film about Herb Brooks, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Clearly Simers didn't like the film. But his real objection -- the outrage that infused every word -- was that America's greatest international sports triumph occurred in a fourth-rate sport such as hockey. Monty Mickelson West Hills

Upon further review, it is now obvious why L.A. does not have an NFL team . . . T.J. Simers. Yep, his drivel in Thursday's Times confirmed it. The NFL powers-that-be are ignoring L.A. because of Simers' obsessive bashing of the Packers over a blown call against Simers' beloved 49ers. Hey, Simers! Did you see the rematch? The NFC West championship game? The infamous Mud Bowl at Lambeau? The best team won . . . again. Will someone at The Times please take away Simers' crayons so someone in L.A. can get a return phone call from Paul Tagliabue?

While I always enjoy T.J. Simers' stories--even when I don't agree--this time I can't ignore what I believe is a gross exaggeration. In his recent column extolling the Raiders [Nov. 7], he suggested that the only reason Denver has more wins than the Raiders is because Mike Shanahan got his "training" from Al Davis. To suggest that Al Davis taught Mike Shanahan anything (except why coaches don't last with the Raiders) is laughable. SANDI CAIN Laguna Beach T.J. Simers refers to John Elway as "the whiny one."

Re "Put soccer on steroids," Current, June 4 T.J. Simers is making fun of the fact that only one-fifth of the world's population is going to watch the World Cup soccer final. Considering that a large percentage of the world's population does not own a TV and that the time difference forces many fans to wake up in the middle of the night during their workweek to watch, that apparently small fraction is a great achievement for any sport. I don't think that any baseball, football or basketball match has ever come even close to one-fifth, if not one-fiftieth, of the world's population.

I'll get to what all this has to do with the Clippers, Lakers and why you shouldn't get down on yourself for being critical of Page 2 in a moment. On Sunday we went to see "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. " Across the street there was a line of maybe a 100 or more waiting, and that's waiting, to get into a Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour in Brea. It might take that many to drag me inside. When the movie was over I was expecting the daughter and wife to be sobbing into their buttered popcorn-stained napkins, but I've seen golf fans more emotional while telling me the movie was OK at best.

From San Diego — There was a youngster eating lunch with his father in our newspaper cafeteria the other day, the kid proudly wearing what looked like a new Dodgers' T-shirt. Father and son had been to a game recently, maybe the single best thing about going to a baseball game no matter who owns the team. I got in this business, in part, because I remember those wonderful days when baseball was fun, a glove in one hand, food in the other and overwhelmed by the way the players zipped the ball around during infield practice.

How nice for T.J. Simers that he toils in the cool shade of Page 2, where his many missteps under the daily pressure to fill a few inches of newsprint can pass easily without notice to the world at large. He should know a lot about choking, since he does it so regularly in his column, despite having hours, even days, to hone his words and sharpen his attacks on the mistakes of athletes who are required to make instantaneous decisions while performing against well-prepared and dangerous opponents who are equally skilled and determined to win. T.J. needs to be advised that no team enters a competition under an entitlement to victory.

I know why Kobe is angry and unhappy with me, but what's he got against everyone else? He has championship rings, millions and now more millions to come, doesn't have to work another day in his life and he always looks upset. What will he be like when he must mingle with the common folk, no more basketball and another 40 or 50 years to live? He's adored by many as a basketball player, and yet it's difficult to find anyone in the Los Angeles-area media who has a decent working relationship with the guy. Most hold him in contempt, as he does them.

From Houston He knew it before you did, before you began to question the Lakers' obvious weakness, before you hit the message boards with mounting criticism of Derek Fisher . "I knew it before the season began," Fisher says, then mentioning Kobe Bryant , Pau Gasol , Ron Artest , Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom . "Where else is anyone going to point?" He's not scoring like he has, as the criticism goes, little help in reserve behind him, and the Lakers are vulnerable at point guard as the playoffs loom.

It started with a verbal kick. T.J. Simers asked Sandy Koufax where he'd been, said Koufax could have made millions off his name, hammered home the point. "Where did you go for 45 years?" Simers asked Koufax. "Went home," Koufax said. "This is going to be a short program," Simers said. It wasn't. Dodgers Manager Joe Torre and Koufax, the little-seen but much-remembered Dodgers' Hall of Fame pitcher, shared a stage Saturday night at the Nokia Theatre LA Live.

I am a schoolteacher, and after reading the "Mouth from the South," I thought of an equation for T.J. Simers: Assumption of controversy plus loaded questions divided by personal jealousy equals poor sports journalism. I am envious of T.J.'s forum. After all, he is a featured writer for a major-market newspaper. He has access to a world that is inaccessible to 99% of the public. It would seem to me that all he has to do is show up, write his stories and eat the free food the clubs provide.

It was bad news when The Times eliminated its San Diego edition; however, the good news was that it meant that T.J. Simers would no longer be writing his negative articles on the Chargers. In your Aug. 29 paper, Simers attacked the Chargers' Chris Mims with a typical mean article. The real background is that Simers is still unhappy that after he called Mims "a wasted draft choice" in 1992, Mims was named the AFC defensive player of the month in November of that year. In San Diego, we miss The Times, but if you ever reopen a San Diego edition, please leave Simers in Los Angeles.

Joe Torre, baseball may be what you are remembered for, but the bravery it took to talk openly about your childhood pain [T.J. Simers' column, Nov. 6] is what well may matter most as your legacy. My hope is that the thousands of youngsters who turn to sports for solace from the domestic violence in their own homes will take some of that courage and run with it. They may be in for a rough ride, but, as a child, I survived domestic violence, physical abuse, incest, and abandonment at the hands of a schizophrenic mother and an alcoholic father.

Mark Cuban says he wants to buy the Dodgers but, oh yeah, they're not for sale. Jamie McCourt, the "baseball girl," has her own plan to buy the team -- good news for Little League presidents throughout the city. The mediocre left fielder announces that he will indeed come back to suck up $20 million of the payroll, thus insuring that Juan Pierre and his exciting brand of ball will stay on the bench. It's the third day of the general managers' meeting, and not a word of activity from Ned Colletti.