IN HARNESS
Sirs:
One of the finest exhibitions of reporting I have ever read (Shep Tangles with the Boys, June 5). Everyone in Pennsylvania harness racing should realize the position in which they have been placed and do everything in their power to expel all politics from racing and place the integrity of racing on a plane above reproach.
Mr. Sheppard has proven that he has the knowledge, honesty, integrity and devotion to do an outstanding job in administering the sport. Should harness racing and Mr. Sheppard lose this battle, it will be a sorrowful fiasco in Pennsylvania.
PRES JENUINE
General Manager,
Western Harness Racing Assn.
Hollywood
Sirs:
This exposé should awaken the American public.
H. J. BULGERIN, M.D.
Eastland, Texas
Sirs:
In all the publications devoted exclusively to harness racing there never was a more enlightening nor comprehensive article published (How to Enjoy a Trotting Race, May 29). You should be proud.
JAMES B. JOHNSON JR.
Kensington, Md.
U.F.L.
Sirs:
Thanks very much for your story on the United Football League (SCORECARD, June 12).
This is another example of the sports-mindedness of the citizens of Ohio. As you know, we are preparing for an all-Ohio world series between Cincinnati and Cleveland.
We appreciate the reminder that football is just around the corner.
MICHAEL V. DISALLE,
Governor
Columbus, Ohio
Sirs:
Even though you wounded the toddling United Football League slightly with a TV jab, your brief mention of new minor grid circuit was highly appreciated. Tune in next year, check damage made by TV.
TOM KEYS
Columbus, Ohio
PRESIDENTIAL TURF
Sirs:
To add to your editorial on presidential track fans (SCORECARD, June 12), Jennie Holliman in American Sports (1785-1835) says Madison once owned part of a race horse. Jefferson couldn't get his riding horse to pass a race track. John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren once attended a race track together. Grant was a racing fan.
JACK LEVEL
Elmhurst, N.Y.
•And Andrew Jackson, whom we mentioned, was not only a trainer but an enthusiastic gentleman-jockey who rode his own horses back in Tennessee.—ED.
YE GODS
Sirs:
I enjoyed the article by Rex Lardner on the Kansas City Athletics (Charlie Finley and Bugs Bunny in K.C., June 5) for the way it was written, but I hated it for what it means to professional baseball.
As president of a Little League, I think pro ball and Ford Frick should be ashamed of themselves.
Candidly, I can see no difference between a 12-year-old who aspires to a Big League future and those who have made the Big Leagues except time, experience and money. All right. So the Little Leaguer should not have stars in his eyes. He should not plan on playing good, clean league ball. He should look forward to some club owned by a "self-made millionaire businessman" who is using a fine tradition as a showcase for his egotism. He should look forward to "Bugs Bunny" delivering new balls to the plate umpire. Oh, ye gods! What a travesty on our National Pastime.
J. M. LOCHART
Santa Monica, Calif.
Sirs:
The hidden ball dispenser and the plate duster were first installed by Bill Veeck at Comiskey Park early last season, if I'm not mistaken. It's fortunate that K.C. hasn't installed an exploding scoreboard or you might have credited Finley with that invention too.
How about finding an owner who comes up with a team that plays interesting baseball? That would be a real innovation.
ROBERT ROSENBERG
Sausalito, Calif.
Sirs:
At last you let baseball fans know that the game exists in Kansas City.
RON HOLBROOK
Moberly, Mo.
BIOLOGY
Sirs:
Congratulations on your article and photographs, particularly the photographs (Joys of a June Week, June 12). It is nice to know that after all the summit conferences, space shots, freedom riding, tractor dealing and foreign aiding we can still enjoy a bit of biology.
R. W. JOHNSON, D.V.M.
Mason, Ohio
PREDATORS
Sirs:
I am appalled at the prospect of public hunting in Yellowstone Park (An Agony of Abundance, June 5). Let the public hunt in this national park, and these are some of the results which are sure to follow: 1) irreparable damage to Yellowstone's thermal areas wherever hunters cross them; 2) greater numbers of big game animals other than elk—particularly grizzly bears; 3) disappearance of game animals from areas where the public has had opportunity to view them as it has in no other national park.
My personal opinion is that the hunters bringing pressure on park officials are simply greedy for an opportunity to hunt in the nation's finest wildlife refuge. They must not be permitted to do so.
DONALD C. STEWART
Yellowstone Park, Wyo.
Sirs:
I am surprised that no mention is made of another aspect of the problem, that of the lack of predators. Mountain lions and wolves, although protected inside the parks, range widely and once outside a park are not only unprotected but, I believe, persecuted by a federal bounty. Just as hawks are still wrongly regarded by many people as pests, lions and wolves are hunted down relentlessly by professional hunters. At the rate these animals are disappearing the hunters will soon have to be employed to shoot the small rodents, deer, etc. that will multiply faster and faster. Lions live almost exclusively on large hoofed mammals and, although their preservation would obviously not prove a complete solution to the problem at this stage of the game, it would certainly contribute substantially. This was nature's answer to the problem, why not let it at least help? My bet is that encouragement of these predators would in a few years reduce the problem to proportions that could easily be handled by rangers.
JEWETT COLE III
Memphis
VROOOM
Sirs:
Well, it seems as if Jack Brabham wasn't the only man at the "500" after all.
DON JORDAN
Speedway, Ind.
PHOTO
JOCKEY JACKSON ON A FAVORITE MOUNT
