19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

ROOM TO RECREATE
Sirs:
The Forest Service appreciates your excellent article, High Road to a Wild Paradise (Aug. 5). Author Robert Cantwell and Photographer Jack Fields have done a fine job of capturing the spirit of the Pacific Crest Trail, truly a "recreational treasure."

The Forest Service recognizes outdoor recreation of all kinds to be one of the five major forest resources; the others being wood, water, forage and wildlife. The 154 National Forests and 19 National Grasslands are administered—as directed by Congress—to provide sustained yields of these resources in the combination that will best meet the needs of a growing nation. This means that you and all Americans can be assured that there will always be room to "get away from it all" in the National Forests.
EDWARD P. CLIFF
Chief, Forest Service,
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Washington

BLOOD, BRONZE AND BARRYMORE
Sirs:
Hats off to Gerald Holland for his masterfully written article, Is That You Up There, Johnny Blood? (Sept. 2). Nothing pleases me more than reading about such men when the dark clouds of scandal are gathering to tarnish the fine name of football.

Incidentally, I was amazed to see, in the photograph accompanying this fine article, that the 1933 Packer line was so small. By today's hefty standards these ballplayers would be put right into the backfield without being given a second thought as linemen. If this is what occurred from 1933 to 1963, just imagine the size of NFL linemen in 1993. Wow!
ALAN BARCUS
Philadelphia

Sirs:
This fine piece of writing is an insight into the days when a good football player had to have a creative mind as well as a retentive one. I can't imagine a pro team today trying to make up plays in a huddle. And win yet!
LOU HARRISON
North Bergen, N.J.

Sirs:
You say that Johnny denied the Shakespearean bout with John Barrymore, but some of us here in Pittsburgh can attest that such a battle really took place. It happened in the Benjamin Harrison Literary Society—a Pittsburgh watering hole that has since dried up. And, to the best of our recollection, Johnny Blood came out on top.
CHESTER (Swede) JOHNSTON
Pittsburgh

Sirs:
Johnny Blood is such a distinguished-looking member of professional football's new Hall of Fame, I can't help wondering what he looks like "sculptured and cast in bronze."
M. V. BLAKE
Kansas City, Mo.

•See below.—ED.

IN THE RAVINE
Sirs:
That was a fine article in your Sept. 2 issue (Dodgers in a Dogfight). I'll go along with you when you say Walter Alston is a strong leader, but I think the Dodgers aren't trying hard enough: they are too sure of themselves. The Dodgers depend on pitching and speed to win their games, but they don't have to with hitters like Fairly, the Davis boys, Howard, Wills and Roseboro.
TERRY TILTON
Anamosa, Iowa

Sirs:
"Inconsistent" Frank Howard hit .296 with 31 home runs and 119 RBIs last season, and he batted .296 the season before. The only reason for Slugger Howard's inconsistency is his lack of faith in himself, generated by Manager Alston's panic platooning whenever he falls into a slump (which all ballplayers do occasionally).

While you were putting Ron Fairly on your cover, Alston was busily platooning him with banjo-hitter Lee Walls and hot-hitting (.215) Bill Skowron.

Alston's lack of respect for such as Howard and Fairly has made some of us in Los Angeles wonder if he would platoon Henry Aaron and Leon Wagner if he had both on his team.
JIM PERRY
Los Angeles

Sirs:
You infuriated a good many of us when you referred to the "stadium at Chavez Ravine." The Dodgers' home park and the stadium in which they play is called Dodger Stadium, in exactly the same manner as the Yankees' park is called Yankee Stadium. We do, however, agree with your comments about Walter Alston picking the lineup as though he were ordering a Chinese meal.
ROBERT G. FITCH
Burbank, Calif.

TUMPLINEAR
Sirs:
Having been born and raised in the Arctic, I have always been impressed with the words of a great Arctic explorer who said, "Adventure is a sign of incompetence." Your man Austin Hoyt's four "adventurers" surely qualify (Down the Back to the Arctic, Aug. 26).

I would suggest you check with Chuck McAvoy and see if he ever owned a 1938 Fairchild. As for the Hudson's Bay Company not having heard of a tumpline, I know for a fact that there are men in this company's Yellowknife store who were using tumplines before Hoyt was born and could have carried all four to the Arctic coast on their backs.

Author Hoyt must have walked into your office wearing that beautiful beard, which, after all, must prove he had at least been out of doors, Good trailmen, gentlemen, have time to shave each morning, so if you keep up your present standard of acceptance you will never meet one.
D. B. L. JOHNSTON
Kamloops, B.C.

CORSAIR COLONELS
Sirs:
I write not only to applaud the Confederate Air Force (The Confederate Air Force Flies at Last, Aug. 12), but to aid it. As a Corsair jockey for 12 long years, this pilot is overwhelmed to hear that the old U-Bird is still flying—and winning. It was to me what a Lotus-Ford must be to Jimmy Clark, except for the grimmest times. What memories are evoked! What a wry smile cometh forth!

Your efforts and reportorial standards are again to be commended. Thanks for bringing this story to us all. As for me, I am applying to the CAF for permission to activate the Orange Blossom Wing here in California, primarily for the purpose of supplying financial assistance to these sterling aviators. I am dead certain that every living Corsair pilot will want to help perpetuate the species. Let the Mustang gang speak for themselves!

I foresee a trust fund for the acquisition and care of a stable of aircraft that will still be operable at the turn of the century.

Join up, colonels, for one more pass over the field.
MAJOR GEORGE J. YORG, USMCR (ret.)
Manhattan Beach, Calif.

UNCLASSED CATAMARANS
Sirs:
Under FOR THE RECORD in the Sept. 2 issue of your fine publication, your paragraph on boating contained an error that will make every catamaran sailor in the world see red. The error looms large for it is the same one made by many race committees throughout the U.S. You referred to co-skippers Jim Holcombe and Chick (real name is Chris) Mathews winning the national catamaran title. What they actually won was the national title in the Cougar Mark III class.

Primary reason for bringing this to your attention is the fact that there are a number of different catamaran classes racing throughout the world today. But many race committees lump them all together in one class no matter how many are entered in a regatta. For instance, they will fire starting guns for Stars, Snipes, Lightnings, Comets, etc.—and catamarans, even though there may be a number of different classes racing in this multihull category. Catamarans are as different from one another as monohull classes, but many usually well-informed race committees are taking overly long to realize this.
WILLIAM A. KING
Riverside, Conn.

DICK'S CALL
Sirs:
Inexcusably, in your article on Dick Stuart (Best Show Around Boston, Sept. 2), you omit mentioning one of his classics—neither a homer nor an error, just style. Coming to the plate in the ninth inning, bases loaded, two out and the Red Sox behind the White Sox by two runs—a perfect Stuart strikeout situation—Dick had the second-base umpire move to the left. His single, tying the game, passed precisely where the umpire had been standing.
CLEAVER MACTWAEN
Boston

PHOTO

HALL OF FAME'S JOHNNY BLOOD