Mike Piazza and the Boys of Diversity

Before Mike Piazza claimed team diversity impeded winning, he might have checked Dodger history. The Boys of Summer overcame deep racial bias, hate mail and death threats associated with Jackie Robinson and won championships.

SHEL KAPLAN

Rancho Palos Verdes

*

Thank you, Mike Piazza, for doing in one interview what I have been trying to do in the last year while teaching seventh- and eighth-graders. You made it perfectly obvious why they should not look up to sports figures as heroes. We toil day in and day out trying to build a tower of compassion, understanding and peace only to have some hotshot athlete bring it down with one lousy interview.

Thank God you don’t want to be the team leader.

SHEILA JENCA

Los Angeles

*

Give me a break! Cultural diversity! Isn’t this team ever going to run out of lame excuses? What will it be next year? Not enough players over 5-11? Too many guys with halitosis? The Ex-Cub Factor?

RICK SINGER

Los Angeles

*

Determining just the right amount of cultural diversity must be a difficult task. According to Mike Piazza, the Dodgers are losing because they have too much; according to some minority groups, UC Berkeley Law School will be damaged because it has too little.

JIM STEIN

Marina del Rey