19TH HOLE: THE READERS TAKE OVER

MILWAUKEE AND MONCRIEF
Sir:
Thanks for the great article by Anthony Cotton on Milwaukee Guard Sidney Moncrief and the rest of the team (There's No Stopping the Bucks, Feb. 22). They are an excellent team and definitely "ripe and ready." They're my pick for the title.
DAVID HESS
Deerbrook, Wis.

Sir:
It was just four years ago, almost to the day, that Sidney Moncrief, your Feb. 22 cover subject, last graced your cover. On the cover of the Feb. 13, 1978 issue you pictured Moncrief, then playing for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, soaring toward the rim for a slam dunk. With due apologies to Carol Alt (Feb. 8), that was truly the most awe-inspiring cover photograph SI has ever run.

As for Moncrief, any basketball writer who fails to acknowledge him as the league's MVP should be stripped of his NBA media pass and relegated to covering high school lacrosse.
TIM O'CONNOR
Dallas

UNUSUAL UMP
Sir:
I'm a charter subscriber to SI, and I've now read more than 1,400 issues from cover to cover. Bang! Bang! You're Out (Feb. 22) by former major league umpire Ron Luciano and David Fisher is the alltime funniest, most interesting, most thoroughly enjoyable article that you've ever published.
DAVE GOWANS
Redding, Calif.

Sir:
Thanks to Ron Luciano and David Fisher for Bang! Bang! You're Out. Luciano's sense of humor should get him into the Hall of Fame if his umpiring doesn't. My family wondered why I was giggling intermittently as I read the article. Trying to explain it to my wife, I finally dissolved into incoherent helplessness amid tears of laughter.
WILLIAM A. HERR
Bluffton, Ohio

Sir:
I was very fond of Ron Luciano's style of umpiring, and your article brought back many colorful moments. Nobody did it better, and nobody will!
JEFF FORZLEY
Lemont, Ill.

Sir:
The article absolutely confirms my opinion that Ron Luciano was an incompetent buffoon as an umpire. He jokes about calling a pitch that was "right down the heart of the plate" a ball, and he brags about missing plays while gabbing with coaches. It was a disgrace that a fool like Luciano was allowed to pollute the major leagues for as long as he did.
RICH O'BRIEN
St. Davids, Pa.

Sir:
The best thing that has happened to baseball in years is that Ron Luciano got out of it.
DICK GARCIA
Chicago

RALPH SAMPSON & CO.
Sir:
I'm not sure if I should congratulate you or curse you for Curry Kirkpatrick's article Not Alone at the Top (Feb. 22). While he did an excellent job of telling those outside ACC country what Virginia fans—and the opponents they've beaten—have known for a long time, you may also have taken away what could have been one of the "other" Cavaliers' best weapons in the NCAA tournament—their anonymity!
MICHAEL F. HUSSEY
St. Louis

Sir:
Curry Kirkpatrick, who had a following in my hometown of Chapel Hill, N.C. until his Feb. 22 article came out, mentioned that Carolina and Virginia are carbon copies of one another. Virginia Coach Terry Holland may have been able to copy Dean Smith's presses, traps, subs and foul-line huddles, but duplicating that 1982 NCAA championship trophy will be tough.
PETE DALLDORF
Ithaca, N.Y.

WEST VIRGINIA
Sir:
Many thanks to Jack McCallum for recognizing that basketball is played in places other than North Carolina, Virginia and Missouri (After the Pits, It's the Peaks, Feb. 15). When you failed to write anything about the West Virginia Mountaineers' football victory in last season's Peach Bowl, I gave up hope of ever reading anything about my alma mater in your pages. Keep that coverage coming!
KYLE MOORE
Maryville, Mo.

Sir:
I'd like to clear up an inaccuracy. Jack McCallum's statement about West Virginia Coach Gale Catlett captivating an entire state is far from the truth. "Good ol' Marshall," which, until Rutgers, was the only team to beat West Virginia this season and the last Mountaineer opponent to win in the Coliseum, is located in Huntington, W. Va. As one of many Marshall fans in the state, I can assure you I'm interested in the Mountaineers only when they show up on our schedule.
RAY CRABTREE JR.
Huntington, W.Va.

Sir:
I'm mad at your low ranking (No. 13) of the Mountaineers in BASKETBALL'S WEEK (Feb. 22). At this writing. West Virginia's record (22-1) is topped only by Virginia's (25-1) and DePaul's (24-1).
JOHN W. HORNE
Mount Vernon, Ohio

Sir:
To even consider West Virginia among the Top 20 is bad enough, but to actually put them there is a disgrace. With the schedule they play, they simply don't belong there.
CLAY MINTON
Williamstown, W.Va.

BOUTIQUE GOLF BALLS
Sir:
I just finished reading Dan Jenkins' story on the Crosby, won by Jim Simons (Simply Simons at the Crosby, Feb. 15). It was entertaining, if you like to read about colored golf balls. However, when someone like Mike Morley shoots 65-67 on the last two days in a top field like the Crosby's, he deserves some ink, too—orange, lime green or black.
ED COMPTON
St. Paul

Sir:
Dan Jenkins quotes Jack Nicklaus as saying that he might use a Safety Yellow golf ball if MacGregor invents one. You would think that if MacGregor invented a colored golf ball, it would be plaid.
BILL FULWILER
Austin, Texas

Sir:
Dan Jenkins suggested that only Calvin Klein can determine what orange golf balls are going to add to the game. However, there were no further comments from SI following the Hawaiian Open, won by Wayne Levi using a Wilson Pro Staff Optic Orange ball. It seems that Levi—and the thousands of other golfers who are using it—appreciate properties in the orange golf ball that have escaped Jenkins and SI.
MALCOLM CANDLISH
Senior Vice-President, Marketing
Wilson Sporting Goods Company
River Grove, Ill.

Letters should include the name, address and home telephone number of the writer and be addressed to The Editor, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y. 10020.