Reaction on Both Sides of This Picket Fence

Now that the baseball strike is no longer an issue, I find myself completely ambivalent about the situation. There was a time when I would have felt anger about the way the players and owners have turned this sport into a business. Of course, I’m not going to kid myself: All sporting franchises are businesses. The atmosphere and mind-set of the entire league have shifted from a sport to a job.

If I want to see a baseball game, I’ll catch a college, high school, or minor league game--games where money is not the motivator, games where the players still like playing for the sake of baseball itself.

Thomas Pfau

Orange

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No matter how much motivated by greed and general selfishness, we should still recognize that averting the work stoppage was no small accomplishment. There are no losers but only the fans, the vendors and the various related workers who are all winners.

No matter how we feel about Don Fehr, Bud Selig and those they represent, we should congratulate them for seeing the bigger picture and finally learning how to act on it.

Ken Marcus

Los Angeles

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Not to rain on anyone’s victory parade, but the problem is that this compromise, like all the others before it, is only a temporary fix. Eventually, whether it’s in four or five years or 20, the players’ union will keep demanding more and more until the owners will have no choice but to shut the game down for as long as it takes to finally break the union and start from scratch. It’s inevitable.

Steve Smith

San Gabriel

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My wife and I (Angel season-ticket holders) were a part of history Thursday night at the Big A. All of us fans demonstrated against the strike and stopped the game three times to have debris cleaned from the field.

“Totally classless,” Scott Schoeneweis said. Wonderful, say I. I can’t help but believe this demonstration got back to the negotiators in New York and helped settle the imminent strike.

Jerry Mazenko

Garden Grove

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After years of bemoaning the lack of national sports coverage focused on the Angels, we’ve discovered the trick to getting attention. Forget touting the resilient, superb players. Forget shouting about the Angels’ possession of the AL wild-card lead. All it takes to get national coverage is for the fans to act like dogs. Bingo!

Clyde Dodge

Corona del Mar

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In the Aug. 25 edition of The Times, Don Fehr alluded to the movie “Casablanca.” I would hope he knows more about the issues in the baseball labor dispute than he does about the movie. For the record, the “Gambling is going on in here” quote is made not by Humphrey Bogart (Rick) but by Claude Rains (Capt. Renault).

Tom Kornegay

Murrieta

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After what has occurred in this country over the past year (not just 9/11, but the brutal crimes against children), I have nothing but contempt for these players who, because of these current times, I can only view as spineless, gutless cowards.

Steve Throneberry

Santa Ana

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It’s a game. It’s a game that I love dearly and that I have spent countless hours enjoying for about 40 years. But it’s a game, and there are so many more important things in the world to worry and to write about. That’s why my letter ends here.

David S. Ettinger

Oak Park

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To all of baseball: Good luck, good riddance and goodbye. I am glad it’s football season.

Barry Platz

Whittier

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Now that the baseball dispute has been worked out, let’s put Selig and Fehr to work figuring out what to do with Shaq’s big toe.

David Macaray

Rowland Heights