19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

COUNTDOWN
Sirs:
I take issue with the fact that you would select Ohio State as your preseason No. 1 pick (College Football 1970, Sept. 14). Of your predicted Top 20, 10 teams play the new 11-game schedule, nine play 10 games and only Ohio State plays nine games. Let's pick our champion from the teams that prove their ability by taking the extra chances. After all, isn't this the era of upsets?
ED BAIN
Atlanta

Sirs:
Texas, with an outstanding team, a prestigious record and a No. 1 coach, was picked fourth in your Top 20. Ohio State plays a marshmallow schedule, Ole Miss seems to have a one-man team and Arkansas just has lots of revenge on its mind. Who else could be No. 1 but Texas?
STEVE HAMBY
Carter Lake, Iowa

Sirs:
I was gratified to be set straight on Stanford's position in the national rankings, since most of the other polls failed to point out that there are actually 16 teams better than the Indians. Be assured, however, that Mr. Plunkett & Co. are resolved to improve. Perhaps their 34-28 victory over third-ranked Arkansas will help (Eating High on the Hogs, Sept. 21).
JAMES G. DONART
Stanford, Calif.

Sirs:
What have you got against the University of Southern California? First, you rate the Trojans only sixth. And then it's all well and good to mention those four farmers who haven't missed a Nebraska home game since 1962, but you should have mentioned Giles L. Pellerin of San Marino, Calif., too. Mr. Pellerin hasn't missed a USC game since 1926, at home or on the road.
LARRY SARGEN
Inglewood, Calif.

Sirs:
Congratulations on picking Nebraska fifth. But we don't want to hear a history of the city of Lincoln, we want to hear the whole success story of Nebraska's football team!
RICH TREINEN
Omaha

Sirs:
I do not see how you can buck the President, who honored Wittenberg University, with its outstanding 78-9-1 record, as the top small-college football team of the '60s. We'll repeat as No. 1 in the '70s.
MAURICE E. CORBIN III
Fairview Park, Ohio

Sirs:
Your statement: "In 1968 they [Grambling College] drew a crowd of 64,000 to Yankee Stadium" is too much! Don't you think that Grambling's worthy opponent, Morgan State College, had something to do with attracting that crowd? Morgan State won that game 9-7.
ERNEST F. SILVERSMITH
Baltimore

WHO'S WHO
Sirs:
Your timely article on Archie Manning was great (...And the Best of Them All Is Archie, Sept. 14). If ever there was a quarterback who could do it all, Archie is the one.
STEPHEN NAPIER
Ozark, Ala.

Sirs:
With Rex Kern of OSU and Jimmy Jones of USC still around, there is no way in creation that some freckle-faced kid from Mississippi can be the best.
WILLIAM DENSON
Philadelphia

Sirs:
If Dennis Dummit is not a better quarterback than Jack Mildren, Joe Theismann or Jimmy Jones, then the sun doesn't rise in the East.
JIM ESTERBROOKS
Los Angeles

Sirs:
Jim Plunkett of Stanford. He is that good!
LARK DOWNS
Denair, Calif.

Sirs:
Why should a quarterback win the Heisman Trophy? Your scouting report stated that Ohio State Cornerback Jack Tatum is "probably the best college player in the land." Shouldn't the winner be the best?
JANE WONDERLY
Helena, Ohio

TRIBUTE
Sirs:
Not only a great football coach but a great American has passed from the sports scene. Vince Lombardi was truly an example of high standards for sports lovers—young and old—but the best recognition you could give him was a few weak paragraphs (SCORECARD, Sept. 14). Instead, you gave four full pages with full-color pictures to a draft dodger who is about as un-American as anyone can get, and you even praised him.
DAVID L. BEECHER
York, Pa.

Sirs:
You said more in your 295-word obituary on Vince Lombardi than was said in all the thousands of words I have read in other publications.
AL POELLINGER
Neenah, Wis.

TRIBUNAL
Sirs:
Somewhere down the road some thoughtful and fair-minded soul is going to remember the national magazine that had the guts to give Cassius Clay a fair hearing. I, for one, will forever recall your moving and penetrating farewell to Cassius following his refusal to compromise principles. And I shall be forever grateful to Martin Kane for still another beautiful story (Welcome Back, Ali!, Sept. 14).
THE REV. LEWIS P. BOHLER JR.
Church of the Advent
(Episcopal)
Los Angeles

Sirs:
I was appalled by the Cassius Clay article. The whole theme of the story seemed to be poor persecuted Cassius, persecuted by everything from "timid politicians" to veterans' organizations to racism, which is completely irrelevant to the Clay case. Since Clay has chosen to break the law and discriminate against the country and its people, let him accept his deserved boycott and /or exile!
ROBERT T. JACKSON
Rye, N.Y.

CALL OF THE SEA
Sirs:
My thanks for your excellent coverage of the America's Cup trials. SI's reporting has been outstanding and the photographs stir the fantasies of those of us who have set a genoa. In fact Eric Schweikardt's photograph of Intrepid on page 14 of the Sept. 7 issue captures the essence of yacht racing better than almost any I have ever seen.
PAUL FRANCIS JACOBS
Pasadena, Calif.

MINOR INTEREST
Sirs:
Your comments in SCORECARD (Aug. 24) concerning the experimental use of the designated pinch hitter by the Omaha Royals during the 1969 season implied that the DPH may have played a leading role in the Royals' capture of the 1969 American Association championship. I will not attempt to debate the pros and cons of the DPH, since the true value of the innovation has not been definitively established. I am also certain that the fine job done by our designated pinch hitters last season (Steve Boros and Bo Osborne) definitely did contribute to the Royals' success. I feel, however, that you were a bit premature in selling Omaha short this season. Without the DPH, the Royals did not "languish" in third place but finished on top of their division. They then went on to defeat Denver, the Western Division winner, four games to one to become American Association champions for the second year in a row.

With or without the DPH, the Omaha Royals play winning, exciting baseball, the kind that obviously appeals to the local fans. They surpassed last year's league-leading attendance record.
Lou GORMAN
Director of Scouting and Minor League Clubs
Kansas City Royals
Kansas City, Mo.

Sirs:
Minor league pennant races usually do not merit more than local enthusiasm. But the pennant race this year in the American Association has been amazing to me because of the narrow margins between all eight teams in the two divisions. Every one of the teams won between 67 and 73 games. The margin between the best and the worst teams in the league (.050 percentage points) is smaller than the margin (as of Sept. 14) between the first two teams in three of the four major league divisional races.
BOB PERCIVAL
Des Moines

HOCKEY PREVIEW
Sirs:
Why don't hockey players grow up? We have a friend who likes to demonstrate various hockey fighting techniques. Unfortunately he always demonstrates them on us. Quite often we've been taken by surprise by his sudden attack of fighting skills. It's certainly not enjoyable. Not that it's entirely the players' fault, but they definitely set a bad example for younger people. We're sure that the players' sons aren't proud of their fathers when they scrap on the ice.
TOM CORMEN
LON DIAMOND
Oceanside, N.Y.

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