Bordick's defense will be sorely missed

I trust that since the Orioles did not chose to sign shortstop Mike Bordick, they have someone to take his spot who can offer the same stellar fielding that Bordick has for several years. Believe me, that replacement is not currently on the Orioles' 40-man roster.

Bordick made one error last year and has the active consecutive errorless game record. He might be the only Oriole who performed in a manner described as "The Oriole Way."

The club failed to offer more than $1.5 million, which for us mere mortals is a fortune, but by baseball salary standards is a pittance. There are utility players making more than that.

The Orioles will miss Bordick, especially the young pitchers. Mike Flanagan and Jim Beattie should know this since they are former pitchers. They should understand the feeling of seeing a ground ball hit to an infielder for the third out as they confidently start walking to the dugout. That is not likely to happen in 2003.

Burl Wolfe

New Freedom, Pa.

It's time to move on from Masters debate

I tend to avoid reading the main sections of The Sun because of its overwhelming liberal bias.

I thought that the sports section was at least safe from this liberal infection, but I was wrong. In regard to Laura Vecsey's column of last Tuesday ["We've come a long way ... but we might be going back"], her bashing of male sports and the current administration in Washington smacks of a liberal woman who has an ax to grind.

If she really wants to show injustice, why doesn't she point out that Martha Burke of the National Council of Women's Organizations has created her own little personal vendetta against Augusta? The debate has clearly been given the sympathetic vote by Martha's favorite puppet, and champion of liberal causes, The New York Times.

It's time to move on, Laura.

Here's my suggestion to defuse this situation. In the spirit of sportsmen and women everywhere, why don't the two organizations simply make a trade with each other? Hootie Johnson for Martha Burke. She can run Augusta, he can run the NCWO.

Maybe then she can see that the Masters tournament is about tradition and class, not discrimination and oppression as it has been falsely accused of.

Stephan Koch

Towson

Orioles get Griffey? Let's get serious

Peter Schmuck's article suggesting that the Orioles should try to sign Ken Griffey had me rolling with laughter ["O's should a take swing at Reds slugger Griffey," Dec. 8].

Surely, he must be joking. The Orioles will try to sign him only if they can get him to accept minimum wage! Why does Schmuck think the Orioles haven't signed a big-name free agent in years? Peter Angelos doesn't want to spend any money. He wants players cheap, so he gets cheap players.

Also, as far as hiring two front-office managers to run the Orioles' entire baseball operation, Mike Flanagan and Jim Beattie may have a surprise in store for them when they try to make a decision that any of the Angelos boys don't like.

Peter Angelos and sons enjoyed having Syd Thrift around to take the heat when they made bad baseball decisions. Syd was glad to do it, too, because he liked having a paycheck coming in regularly.

All Flanagan and Beattie will get from their dual roles will be each other to help share the blame when the Angelos clan makes bad decisions.

Ron Parsons

Glen Burnie

Past-their-prime stars wouldn't save Orioles

It's official: Peter Schmuck is Fantasyland's newest resident. To think that the addition of Ken Griffey and Ivan Rodriguez will somehow transform the Orioles into playoff contenders and set the turnstiles afire is preposterous.

They can't stay healthy and are long past their primes. Even if they were to have career seasons in 2003, they alone couldn't overcome the total lack of talent at all levels of this organization.

Frank Whelan

Timonium

Ravens fans deserve credit for politeness

As a New Orleans native and longtime Saints fan who relocated to Baltimore in 2001, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Ravens' fans.

My father came to visit me from New Orleans, and we had an opportunity to attend the Saints-Ravens game last Sunday. The fans in Section 501 and around us were very polite to us as we watched the game.

With our Saints fan gear on, it was apparent who we were cheering for. We did expect to get a couple of heckles and bad comments, but for the most part, everyone was very polite.

When all was said and done, we laughed, shared beers and met some great people sitting around us.

Brandon W. Whitaker

Glen Burnie

Redskins, Bengals have much in common

If the fans of the Washington Redskins haven't realized yet the stark reality of the state of their football team, let me inform them:

You will soon be the Bengals.

You have an arrogant, egomaniac owner who will never turn control of the team over to a football-savvy general manager no matter how far or how long the team falls.

This describes perfectly the operations of Mike Brown, the bumbling owner of the Cincinnati Bengals, who have been the laughingstock of the NFL for over a decade.

The Ravens have shown what happens when an owner steps aside and allows a quality general manager and talent scouts to run the team: a Super Bowl victory and a rebuilding that has far exceeded expectations.

For Redskins fans, get used to losing seasons and chronic salary cap purgatory.

Tom Bullinger Jr.

Timonium