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Letters
Fly Over This
A Lakers-Celtics final is not what "everyone" is looking for (Perfect Ending, April 21). The past is the past. Get over it. If it were left up to the media, we would see New York, L.A., Chicago and Boston in every NBA Finals, and fans in cities like Cleveland, Detroit, New Orleans and Salt Lake City would be left out in the cold.
Jill Garlock, North Olmsted, Ohio
Past Masters
Your story about the Masters (Trevor's Turnaround, April 21) could have been headlined Immelman Wins U.S. Open at Augusta National. Please, Fred Ridley and Billy Payne, return the course to what it once was. We already get to watch the best golfers in the world grind out pars and lay up on par-5s every June. Get rid of the rough and the claustrophobic trees and bring the back-nine roars back.
Rob Kimball, Atlanta
As a black kid watching the Masters in the '70s, I often wondered about the caddies, the only black faces in a sea of whiteness. Thanks to Selena Roberts's Missing Masters of Augusta (POINT AFTER, April 21) for putting names to those faces and pointing out that even though today's players don't use club caddies, they still seek out their advice. As one of those caddies pointed out so eloquently, "They need us, but they don't want us." Augusta National still has a ways to go when these black men who work at the club are still not good enough to get a pass to see the tournament.
Allen Jefferson, Seattle
Indy Pedant
Your story on the struggles of Indy 500--IndyCar champions Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti in NASCAR (INSIDE NASCAR, April 21) just goes to prove the greatness of the Indy 500 drivers of the past. Mario Andretti won the Daytona 500 in 1967, and A.J. Foyt won it in 1972. Legend has it that Foyt was so far ahead in '72 that he pulled into the pits with a few laps to go, rolled down his window (yes, they had windows back then) and shouted, "How am I doin', boys!" to his car owners. He still won by a comfortable margin.
Ron Rose, Peoria, Ariz.
Chemistry Lesson
The most any Yankee knows about Chien-Ming Wang (Chien-Ming Wang Has a Secret, April 21) is that he likes cars and watches? This speaks volumes as to why the Red Sox have been better than the Yankees for the last five years. Money can buy a lot of things, but it can't buy chemistry.
Bobby Green, Columbia, Mo.
The Plains Truth
A die-hard Oklahoma fan, I was delighted by your article on new football coach Bo Pelini and athletic director Tom Osborne and their plans to rebuild the Nebraska program (Nebraska Lost, Nebraska Found, April 21). Here's to a restoration of the natural order of things in the college football world: OU vs. Nebraska for the conference title, each and every year.
Denesha Alexander, Norman, Okla.
I will never understand how former athletic director Steve Pederson, a Nebraska boy with a Nebraska degree and experience working in the Nebraska program, would come in and completely destroy all that made Nebraska football the unique treasure that it is. His destruction of "the Nebraska way" is the equivalent of treason.
Michael Carnes, Omaha
To represent Osborne as a passive observer while Huskers football went down the tubes would be a mistake. There is a reason why former coach Bill Callahan accused Osborne of meddling with his team: It was true. Osborne and his donor friends undermined Pederson from the moment Osborne's handpicked successor, Frank Solich, was fired. Now we have a 71-year-old with no experience as an AD trying to lead the program into the 21st century. Osborne is not a sacred figure to all Nebraskans.
Ricky Lee Fulton, Omaha
Man in the Middle
I just wanted to point out something in the 1963 photo in which you identified Nebraska former coach Bob Devaney (far right) and then assistant Tom Osborne (background left). One of the players is Frank Solich (number 45, and inset), the coach who succeeded Osborne and coached the Huskers from 1998 to 2003.
Bob Norris, Lincoln, Neb.
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JOHN W. MCDONOUGH (COVER)
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RICH CLARKSON (NEBRASKA SIDELINE)
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STACI E. MCKEE/AP (SOLICH)
