Topic? Malone Again, Naturally

I find it terribly amusing that Kevin Malone would want people to hear the truth several weeks after the fact. Usually one would fight for the truth to be known at once. On May 3, Mr. Malone is quoted: “I’ve got to be careful who I trust, because I’m open, I’m honest, and I said some things that were misunderstood because I am passionate.”

Man, that sounds a heck of a lot like Al Campanis, except to put a baseball mind like Al Campanis in the same sentence (or ballpark, for that matter) as Kevin Malone would totally disgrace Mr. Campanis.

Hey Kevin, you are the weakest link. Goodbye!

SAM RIZZARDO

Harbor City

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Malone’s contention that reporting of the story was “inaccurate” is representative of his myopic management style as GM. He has not disputed the following facts: He was in attendance at a game played in another team’s stadium; he was a management employee of the Los Angeles Dodgers; he became involved in an incident with a hometown fan serious enough to be reported in the national press. That’s all that’s necessary to place the blame squarely in Malone’s court.

There are 29 other general managers in the league, each of whom has attended hundreds of away games without involving himself in a scrap like Malone’s. Evidently they have the ability to recognize that fans who are “loud . . . obnoxious, rude, all over [the opposing] team [and] players” are exercising their right as major league baseball fans to establish some sort of “home-field advantage.”

Malone is lucky he didn’t make the same decision in New York or Detroit; he would have found himself minus several teeth.

MICHAEL RONDEAU

San Diego

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Kevin Malone is a baseball man, a team player. He deserves better. So do we all. Barry Bonds recently became the 17th player to hit 500 home runs and the story was overshadowed by headlines of an overzealous San Diego fan who verbally abused Malone in front of his own son. Jim Murray would be embarrassed at The Times’ staff for its rush to judgment.

JEFFREY L. WISSOT

Woodland Hills

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I was willing to give Kevin Malone the benefit of the doubt until his sorry spectacle of a news conference this week. Sure, anyone who picked up the paper that week could see that The Times played up the San Diego incident big-time. However:

a) Malone did not, at that time, deny the essence of The Times’ summary of the incident.

b) Malone has not asked for a retraction from The Times.

c) The Times did not fire Malone, and

d) Aren’t there more important things for us to worry about, anyway?

RICHARD MATHEWS

Brea