LETTERS
Gladiators charge more, win less, lose supporters
To the sports editor:
Just when you think Gladiators management can't get any worse, on top of a bad Arena Football League season was the lack of forewarning to season-ticket holders that the last game would be played on a Monday at 1:30 p.m. How about a credit to our account, team owner Jim Ferraro?
The Gladiators raised ticket prices this past season due to the intimate Orleans Arena versus that of the large Thomas & Mack Center. Truth is, this year's team would have had difficulty filling Cox Pavilion.
My seven friends and I will not be buying season tickets for 2008. Maybe it's time for the Gladiators to leave town, just as the circus that kept them from playing their final game on a Sunday last week.
John B. Steen
Loose usage of 'dogfight' belittles animal cruelty
To the sports editor:
In light of the trend of NFL players' involvement with dogfighting, we urge sports editors to refrain from calling pairings of rivals or closely ranked teams as "dogfights." Considering that some players might be involved in this cruel and illegal activity, using this term to describe a game belittles the gravity of criminal behavior.
Dogs used for dogfights are raised under horrific conditions and often are chained, beaten and tormented into behaving aggressively. Dogs who do not win enough fights might be abandoned and left to starve or die from their injuries.
A contest between two teams of willing, highly paid athletes cannot compare to the suffering endured by dogs who are forced to rip each other to shreds for someone's idea of "entertainment."
Daphna Nachminovitch
PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS, NORFOLK, VA.
Admit it, Barry: We know you, others are cheaters
To the sports editor:
Barry Bonds admitted to having rubbed a cream on his body but not knowing what it was. That is stupid at the least and insulting to our intelligence at the worst.
Like Bonds and his obvious steroids use, Mark McGwire, Jason Giambi, Sammy Sosa also are baseball cheats. They know it, and we do, too.
Lorelle Ellis
HENDERSON
Berman, other bombastic 'experts' should be muted
To the sports editor:
Regarding a recent Bill Taaffe "Remote Control" column dealing with some of the out-of-touch sportscasters on TV, finally someone else besides myself is tired of the baloney that never ends -- particularly with ESPN baseball broadcasters Chris Berman and Rick Sutcliffe.
Whether it's baseball, basketball or golf, please get Berman back into the studio -- if he has to be anywhere near sports. He is brutal covering live events. At least with him in the studio, a viewer can change the channel without missing any action.
As for Sutcliffe, just get the hook. I played professional baseball briefly and am confounded by the pronounced "expertise" in every position on the baseball field by ex-pitchers. I spend a good deal of the summer in Colorado struggling with whether or not to watch Rockies games because they employ a TV analyst, George Frazier, who is like Sutcliffe -- a broadcaster on steroids.
What can be done to rescue the viewing public from the moronic outbursts of Berman and the overbearing diatribes and manner of Sutcliffe?
Bob Fitzner
MESQUITE
The Review-Journal welcomes letters from its readers. Letters should be 150 words or fewer and must include the author's name and phone number. Send letters to: Letters to the Sports Editor, Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125-0070. Letters also can be e-mailed to: jhawk@reviewjournal.com.
