Will Lakers ever get the point?

It was interesting to read in Mike Bresnahan’s story of Oct. 2 that Kobe Bryant has decreed that his teammates must score more points and not leave all the scoring up to him.

All us folks with any remaining interest in the Lakers’ soap opera think that is a great idea! However, before it can happen someone (perhaps old what’s-his-name, the coach) should explain to Kobe that before his teammates can score more they must occasionally have the ball.

Grey R. Brooks

Prescott, Ariz.

Media day is supposed to be about optimism and looking forward to a new, untainted, clean-slate season. Well, it was untainted for about five seconds until T.J. Simers started slathering his doom and gloom all over everything. Do us all a favor and send him to report on the Galaxy or the Avengers or something no one watches. That way he can’t poison our beloved Lakers with his painful pessimism.

Mike Dobbs

Los Angeles

The Lakers, according to Phil Jackson, have no problem with Kobe Bryant’s profanity-laced tirade against teammate Andrew Bynum, but the U.S. Women’s World Cup team kicked Hope Solo off the team for rightfully criticizing the coach for substituting a goalie who had a good game three years ago.

Either the U.S. team has over-reacted, or the Lakers are seriously under-reacting.

Richard Raffalow

Valley Glen

What an ending for the Dodgers

Dear Colorado Rockies,

You’re welcome!

The Los Angeles Dodgers.

Bart Bogy

Whittier

Two years in a row the Dodgers did their jobs right just a bit better than half the time. Don’t we all wish we could do our jobs right only half the time and get a raise every year?

Paul Manocchio

Van Nuys

Frank McCourt says he hopes he has learned something from this year’s fourth-place finish, yet he says he will keep Grady Little on as manager. It sounds to me as if he hasn’t learned a thing.

Mike Popov

San Clemente

I remember channel surfing on the radio while driving home from work about six months ago and catching part of the Dodgers’ first spring training game (a game, incidentally, they lost badly). The announcers were marveling at the high number of scouts from other teams that were in attendance, indicating their respect, admiration and awe at the fine collection of veterans and new young players the Blue had put together, and how all the National League was watching them.

My question is: What are the current qualifications for employment as a Major League Baseball scout?

Andrew Sacks

Fontana

After the remarkable ill fortune of the Mets and Padres, perhaps Mike Scioscia’s refusal to count his chickens and talk about the playoffs when the Angels were nine up with 10 to play seems less trite and silly.

Andrew Rubin

Malibu

Near grid lock

Should have seen it coming. The Washington Huskies caught USC looking ahead to their big game with Stanford.

Kent Hollenback

Ventura

No matter how good you are, every once in a while you’re going to have a game in which everything is stacked against you, nothing goes right, and you just have to find a way to win. Pete Carroll said that the Trojans “just couldn’t do more things wrong,” and for the first time, I disagree with him -- they could have lost. Just ask Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, Rutgers and Oregon.

So, the Trojans had their cage rattled. Strangely, it may turn out to be just what they needed.

Richard Sprunger

Pasadena

If Washington didn’t provide USC fans comfortable game seating on a barge out on Lake Washington, then the Huskies missed a chance to serve USC supporters a taste of their own medicine. At their home games for visiting fans, USC chooses to provide seating that’s about a stone’s throw from Monterey Park.

Thus, a few words of advice for fans of the Cardinal attending today’s game.

* If you’re curious about UCLA-Notre Dame, be sure to bring a portable radio tuned to 1070. Revealing scores of other games is a concept totally foreign to USC’s Coliseum.

* From your splintered seats in Section 1, you’re going to need binoculars. And that’s just to see your cheerleaders. If you have designs on actually seeing some plays, that’ll require something Hubble-like.

Gene Miller

Huntington Beach

Further review

Bill Dwyre insults umpires who oppose instant replay by claiming they do so because “they know they’re right.” It couldn’t be they think replay would make endless games even longer, with every pitch up for time-wasting scrutiny, could it?

As for the play that inspired Dwyre’s call for instant replay, neither camera angle made it clear whether Holliday touched the plate -- as Dwyre more or less admits. So what good would replay have done?

David Daniel

Woodland Hills

Did Matt Holliday touch the plate? Perhaps not.

Was it the right result? Absolutely.

The Padres catcher’s right to block the plate ended the instant he failed to catch the ball. At that point, he was guilty of obstructing Holliday’s path to the plate. “Obstruction” is defined in MLB Rule 2.00 “is the act of a fielder who, while not in possession of the ball and not in the act of fielding the ball, impedes the progress of any runner.” Also, “After a fielder has made an attempt to field a ball and missed, he can no longer be in the ‘act of fielding’ the ball.”

And Rule 7.06 elaborates: “The catcher, without the ball in his possession, has no right to block the pathway of the runner attempting to score. The base line belongs to the runner and the catcher should be there only when he is fielding a ball or when he already has the ball in his hand.”

Instant replay wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Phil Weiss

Studio City

London calling

Dear Commissioner Bettman,

Thank you for the most unanticipated NHL opener in history. Just when I think that you cannot possibly ruin the NHL any further, you go ahead and prove all of us NHL fans wrong again.

Thank you to catering to the worst owner in the NHL by filling another one of his arenas, in where? London? Hang in there, Kansas City, you’ll be taken care of soon.

Thanks for a game in London at 9 a.m. on FSN West.

And thanks for filling up AEG’s coffers a little more.

Steven Parks

North Hollywood

Todd Bertuzzi might be the nicest guy in the world off the ice. He might be a wonderful husband and father and teammate, but for a brief moment, he went homicidal in front of about 15,000 fans at the Vancouver arena and millions of people watching the game on their TV sets. Just because Bertuzzi was playing a game doesn’t make what he did right.

Steve Moore will never play hockey again. Todd Bertuzzi will continue to draw a nice NHL paycheck for at least a few more years. Hopefully, Steve Moore will get some justice in the civil court system.

David Ferris

Lakewood

They have a lot of Norv

Well, it looks like the San Diego Chargers might not have to worry about being knocked out of the playoffs in the first round.

Ralph S. Brax

Lancaster

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