19TH HOLE: The readers take over
BASEBALL: THE SERIES
Sirs:
All hail the Yanks! As for Milwaukee—they still make good beer!
SAM SMALLEY
Auburn, Maine
Sirs:
Baseball is sick, sick, sick. The Yankees couldn't play .500 ball during the months of August and September, yet they have another world championship.
MATT E. HEUERTZ
Wheaton, Ill.
Sirs:
A Milwaukee fan shouldn't be writing this, but....
The splendid recovery of the Damn Yankees in the World Series is surely the sport feat of the year. If Sportsman of the Year cannot be awarded to a team, I'm suggesting Casey Stengel.
Forgive me, Braves!
ART PEARSON
Reading, Pa.
Sirs:
Never have I seen such arrogance in victory! Mr. Stengel & Co. had won my admiration for coming from behind so magnificently. However, Stengel's egotistical rerun of the seven games (in the TV interview following the victory) was unnecessary and in extremely bad taste.
Mr. Haney's gracious manner in defeat is much more worthy of the great American pastime.
I have been forced to join the loyal legion of Yankee-haters.
ARDES L. LINSCOTT
Needham, Mass.
Sirs:
Never has this Yankee-born, naturalized Texan sat so tall in the saddle as when he read your would-be prophetic pronouncement of doom for Casey Stengel and the World Champion New York Yankees. The thought of Robert Creamer eating such words (SI, Oct. 13) as, "The Braves...moved confidently toward the denouement" and, "The Series was over except for the formality of the coup de gr√¢ce..." gives me almost as much pleasure as does the prospect of an American League team in Houston (I could watch the Yankees in person). I reckon I'm branded for life—with a big N.Y.
DAVID D. PRINCE
Houston
BASEBALL: AN AUDIT FOR O'MALLEY
Sirs:
It's a cloudy day in Long Beach, which seems an appropriate time to reply to your "Sunshine in L.A." (EVENTS & DISCOVERIES, Oct. 13). I'm an auditor for an oil company writing up an audit of our Lancaster bulk plant this morning, but will take time to audit your balance statement for Mr. O'Malley & Co. first.
Since I was reared in the deep South, the first big league baseball game I saw was as an adult while stationed in Washington, D.C. in the Air Force. Since a kid I've been a Cardinal fan by proxy and got to see the Cardinals play for the first time here this year. I also took my mother to see the Pirates and the Phillies while she was visiting me here this summer. That was in July, and she still writes me about how much she enjoyed those two ball games. I saw one other game with some fellows from the office.
I'm wondering if that $3,357,220.16 profit before taxes isn't made up mostly of the receipts from people who each saw three or four games this year for reasons such as the above. Such incentives can be valid for one year at the most, I think.
If I'm correct, then Mr. O'Malley had best:
1) Find a location for his new ball park away from the already impossibly overcrowded freeway intersection, which was what attracted him to Chavez Ravine.
2) Put most of this year's profits into building a winning team.
3) Put most of the remaining profits into the best ball park with the most parking space. Walt Disney found that southern Californians will drive 50 miles or more if you give them a place to park when they get there and a show worth the money and if they don't have to creep bumper to bumper en route.
4) Put the Game of the Week from the East back on TV, at least when the Dodgers are on the road. The Dodgers will have more baseball friends and fans that way.
Mr. O'Malley probably doesn't like auditors any better than the next man, but I hope you will pass this on to him anyway.
CLARENCE R. MARTIN
Long Beach, Calif.
BASEBALL: TWILIGHT FOR LUCY
Sirs:
Thank you for "Lucy to the Showers" (EVENTS & DISCOVERIES, Oct. 13), the most incisive and honest editorial of the baseball year.
If New York sees another Series next year, let us hope that Lucy Monroe attends only as a spectator.
R. D. MARKEL
Omaha
TURF: HOW TO MAKE A MILLION
Sirs:
I am not one for writing letters to magazines, but the campaign that Round Table has been subjected to has amazed me to the extent that I feel forced to express my views.
First of all, I must say "cheers!" to the fact that Round Table is now the leading equine millionaire. His owner admitted that all he wanted was to have Round Table pass Nashua's record. I hope his owner is now satisfied and that at last his bread winner will get a much-needed rest. Having been shipped around the country to run in races where the pickings were easy and the stakes high, then taking a trip to Mexico to make $31,800 in the Caliente Handicap, his financial record is not astounding. That race was certainly a giveaway and a joke.
Round Table is a good horse, indeed a very good one, honest and big-hearted. A great horse? No. To compare him to Seabiscuit, Citation or such, is like comparing night to day, and had such horses run when they could pick up $100,000 almost any week, Round Table would be moved far down the line.
I am ashamed to admit that I have actually rooted against a good horse. I am so fed up with the quest for money and the publicity. May it stop now!
A good horse, an honest one and surely stout-hearted! I salute him and only wish he had been owned and campaigned by one who really loved Thoroughbreds, not publicity and money records.
RENEE N. O'DONOHUE
Atherton, Calif.
OUTER BANKS: GO, GO, GO
Sirs:
My wife and I spent several happy days on the Outer Banks about a year ago, and we second everything Virginia Kraft wrote, in her fine article (Down the Banks to Ocracoke, SI, Oct. 6). We're even more enthusiastic than she and would like to make a couple of small amendments.
There are plenty of other places to stay in Nags Head besides the Carolinian (which we think is tops). For instance, there are motels, such as Campbell's Cottages, which are comfortable, warm and reasonable.
There used to be another way of getting to Ocracoke besides taking the boat from Atlantic. You could ferry across the inlet from Hatteras and ride the mail jeep down the beach, which was lots more fun. I'm sorry to learn the road has finally been completed. Progress isn't always for the best.
Ocean-front property was still available on Hatteras (up to the time of your article anyway) at about 1/5 the price of comparable Florida property. Hatteras is only a one-day fast drive from New York City.
HAL SPEER
New York City
•There is no longer any ocean-front property available. The last of it went this spring to complete the National Park seashore project.—ED.
OUTER BANKS: OTHER CHARTERS
Sirs:
Congratulations on your fine article on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This is surely one of the finest hunting and fishing areas in the country.
In the section entitled "The Gulf Stream," you mention only Edgar Styron and the Blue Marlin Dock. This completely neglects Ernal Foster and his three boats Albatross I, II, III which comprise the other charter fishing operation in Hatteras. Ernal, born and raised on the Outer Banks, was the original charter boat captain there.
The Fosters are as fine people as you will meet anywhere, to say nothing of their skills as fishermen. They rely entirely on word of mouth to maintain the business, and thus a visitor sees no advertising. There is only a small sign saying "Foster's Quay" nailed to the barn near the dock.
JOHN M. CLEVELAND
Greenwich, Conn.
OUTER BANKS:
A DUCK BY ANY OTHER NAME...
Sirs:
Maybe "down on the Banks" you call the wildfowl shown in the color photograph "geese," but out here in Indiana we refer to them as Anas acuta tzitzihoa.
RALPH B. SOLLITT
South Bend, Ind.
Sirs:
We call them drake pintails.
DAVID S. FOSTER
Lafayette, La.
Sirs:
Sprigs are what they are.
ROY E. WALSH
Easton, Md.
Sirs:
Pintails; the local name is water pheasants.
T. C. PETERSEN JR.
Berkeley, Calif.
Sirs:
Cock sprig ducks.
DAN BUSH
Keyer, Calif.
Sirs:
Pintails. Dafila acuta.
H. G. STEVENSON JR.
Annapolis
Sirs:
The local name is spike ducks.
K. I. OBERG
St. John, Kans.
Sirs:
Sprigtails I would call them.
WILLIAM FLOYD
Norfolk, Va.
Sirs:
American pintails.
C. M. A. ROGERS III
Tuscaloosa, Ala.
•Right. Pintails, sprigs, water pheasants, spike ducks, Anas acuta tzitzihoa—a duck by any other name is still a duck and not a goose.—ED.