Letters

Vive Le Lance

Thank you for the cover story on the Tour de France and Lance
Armstrong (King of the Hill, Aug. 5). Hopefully, your recognition
of his accomplishments will be followed by numerous Athlete of
the Year awards. Please take this as a direct hint. Lance's feats
are no less than those of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.
Eric Virkler, Lowville, NY

Your cover billing, Super Man, usually conjures up the image of a
hulking bodybuilder, but Armstrong has earned the encomium
because he's developed the most important muscle of all--the
heart.
Larry Glaser
Olney, Md.

The most famous cyclist in the world on your cover without a
helmet? Thank goodness for the helmeted pictures on pages 35 and
36. Those I could show the kids.
Mike Porter
Statesboro, Ga.

Fixing Baseball

Tom Verducci's proposals (Let's Make a Deal, Aug. 5) make sense,
but he forgot one thing. Small-market teams should be required to
spend the money they receive from revenue sharing on players'
salaries. Otherwise some owners will pocket the extra money and
continue to cry that they can't compete with the big-market
teams.
Raymond Scott, Baldwin, N.Y.

Here's why none of this will ever work, or even be implemented:
It makes sense.
Benjamin C. Fox, Wyckoff, N.J.

What the baseball owners and players should be negotiating is how
to get a family of four into decent seats, fed and back home for
under $75. If they do this, I won't care how much money the
owners or players make.
Dino Haidaris, Cortland, Ohio

Verducci's simple plan to avoid yet another baseball strike
misses the mark. MLB's central problem lies with neither its
greedy players nor its corrupt owners. It is the myopic fans
alone who are to blame for supporting taxpayer-funded stadiums,
paying high ticket prices and continually forgiving MLB for its
never-ending saga of labor disputes. Verducci's simple plan would
do nothing about the fans.
Giles Caver, Nashville

Thorny Problem

Frank Deford's contention that Pete Rose should be allowed in the
Hall of Fame (Scorecard, Aug. 5) because Rose will then cease to
be a public issue seems very similar to the idea that heroin
should be legalized because that would lower the crime rate.
Travis M. Nelson
Bethlehem, Pa.

My view on Pete Rose has always been based on my experiences in
the bowels of the L.A. Coliseum during the summers of 1959 and
'60, when my father, Wally Moon, played with the Dodgers. Reading
has always been important to the Moon family, and the earliest
thing I can remember reading and studying was the warning about
betting on baseball posted on the Dodgers' clubhouse door. As a
six-year-old I understood that if you gambled on baseball, it
meant you would be expelled from the game. If I could grasp that
at age six, why couldn't Pete get it?
Wally J. Moon, Auburn, Ala.

Talking Heads

Finally someone dreams up a new idea for a talk show! Hats off to
Stephanie Mansfield for her article on ESPN's Pardon the
Interruption and the best duo on TV, Tony Kornheiser and Michael
Wilbon (Revenge of the Words, Aug. 5). I want their job!
Scott Bricker, Redwood City, Calif.

A League of Their Own

Thank you for L. Jon Wertheim's excellent piece on the WNBA (Fast
Times in the WNBA, Aug. 5). I have season tickets to the
Redskins' games and occasionally attend Wizards games, but the
best show in town is a Washington Mystics game. It is pure fun
and entertainment. Hail to the WNBA.
Fran Tomlinson, Washington, D.C.

Minnesota Lynx consultant Mary Jo Kane and the lesbians in the
WNBA must realize that most fans are not suffering from
homophobia. Homophobia implies that fans are afraid of
homosexuals. I am not afraid of homosexuals. They have the right
to live their lives as they see fit, but I have the right not to
take my children to events at which behavior I find objectionable
is openly promoted. If the WNBA wants my money, it will have to
create an environment that I feel is suitable for my children.
Chuck Noble, Casselberry, Fla.

SI should do the world's trees a favor and forget that the WNBA
exists--just as the rest of the world has done. You devoted 11% of
your issue to covering a sport that barely draws enough fan
support to fill a YWCA gymnasium, yet there was not a single
article covering NASCAR, today's fastest growing, best attended
sport. What a monumental waste of paper. Wake up and smell the
gasoline fumes.
Ed Toebes, Earlham, Iowa

Kudos on your insightful, substantive article on the WNBA. I
wasn't sure SI--or most of the magazines and newspapers I pick
up--gave a damn about women's sports that don't involve bikinis.
Now if some folks who complain about how greedy and
unsportsmanlike the NBA has become would just put their money
where their mouth is and go support their local WNBA team.
Kate Jackman, Ypsilanti, Mich.

COLOR PHOTO: BRUNO FABLET/REUTERS/POOL