Take Me Out to the Ball Game

To the Editors:

Babe Ruth and Yankee Stadium symbolize the all-time greats of the national game [April 26]. Babe Ruth started his career as a pitcher, but in the American League today pitchers never come to bat. This great talent would never have been discovered today. Let's get rid of that "designated hitter" rule and a new great batting talent might be discovered.

Charles F. Post Pacific Grove, Calif.

Every time a batter gets a hit off Andy Messersmith or any other million-dollar pitcher, he should be given a raise simply because a million-dollar pitcher should be unhittable.

Sunil Thomas Queens, N. Y.

I applaud your return to coverage of the finer entertainments in life.

Christine Childers St. Louis, Mo.

When Tom Seaver bared his muscle, the Mets may have winced, but I bet millions of TIME'S female readers swooned. More! More!

Kathe Anderson Washington, D.C.

Having called their favorite sport the "Summer Game," baseball fans may find it surprising to learn that Alaska has more than its fair share of fanatics and has produced more than its share of talent.

One of the lead characters in your article, Tom Seaver, is a graduate of the Fairbanks semipro team, the Gold Fanners, and this year's first major league draft choice, Steve Kemp, played for Fairbanks for the past two seasons. In all, nearly 40 major leaguers have played for the Fanners. The Fairbanks team won the National Baseball Congress championship in '72, '73 and '74, and nearly repeated in 1975 before being nosed out by those archrivals from the "Deep South," the Anchorage Glacier-Pilots.

Larry Gedney Ester, Alaska

Million-Dollar Manager

It looks like Mr. Hughes' take-home average was more than $3.6 million a month during his working years [April 19]. By what standard do they suddenly decide that he was a lousy manager?

Bernard Mahon Rockville, Md.

Howard Hughes trucked his HK1 flying boat (in pieces) to Long Beach Harbor, assembled it in a graving dock in Long Beach Harbor and flew the Spruce Goose in 1947, again in Long Beach Harbor--not Los Angeles Harbor, as your captions twice incorrectly indicate.

The Spruce Goose has been stored,

and maintained, in a huge hangar in the

Port of Long Beach ever since that time.

Elmar Baxter

Director of Public Relations

The Port of Long Beach

Long Beach, Calif.

Crimes and Criminals

Wilson's Essay "Crime and Punishment" [April 26] is typical of the shallow analysis and rhetoric so popular with armchair criminologists. Those crimes most damaging to our society, corporate, whitecollar, governmental and organized crimes, are conveniently ignored. The real criminals are not, as Wilson would have us believe, burglars, thieves, or those who have otherwise developed "deformed personalities." The real criminals are those who have manipulated the growing interpenetration of the political and economic spheres of our society.

Discussing crime in America in terms of fornication laws, Yale locks, and "unrelated roustabouts looking for fun and profit" is simplistic and misleading.

Ivor O. Paur, Coordinator

Institute of Public and Urban Affairs San Diego

Question for Henry

Criticizing and badgering the Communists in Italy [April 26] can only result in one thing: alienation of the Italians. There is some doubt whether the

Italian Communists are allied with the Kremlin, but to expel Italy from NATO and the Common Market would force them to seek aid from the Soviet Union. Why play into Russia's hands, Henry? Italy might turn out to be the Yugoslavia of Southern Europe rather than the Cuba of the Mediterranean.

Guy Reel Kingsport, Tenn.

I cannot understand the fear in the Western world over Italy's becoming a Communist state. World Communism would be erased from the earth within two decades. Italians make the best saints, poets, gangsters and artists; they make very poor politicians and soldiers.

I am very proud of my heritage but I think it is time the U.S. recognized Italy for what it is--our best "secret weapon."

Frank G. DeGiacomo Colorado Springs, Colo.

Not an Adviser

You say that "Ball ... is advising Democratic Presidential Candidate Henry Jackson [April 26]." That is not correct. I am not advising any of the presidential candidates.

George W. Ball New York City

Elective Education

It should come as no surprise that none of the 23 prospective Milwaukee jurors knew anything about the Nazis or their atrocities in World War II [April 26]. This is the predictable result of school systems that replace the required study of history with trashy courses in "social studies" and emphasize electives in such trendy subjects as consumerism and witchcraft.

Gerald H. Early

Major, U.S.A.

Fort Bragg, N.C.

Rate War

The troubled airlines of the nation, already losing $110 million, will face even greater storms if the Government's plan for deregulation is approved [April 19]. Sure, fares will go down in the rate battle that will ensue, but so will the airlines. We will end up with an incredible array of fly-by-nights offering "cheapies," until eventually all carriers go under, and then the country will be left the single alternative of a nationalized airline.

J. Merrick Fowler

Vice President'

Pacific American Airlines

Tokyo

A Vote for Silber

The statement that Boston University faculty, stars and incompetents alike, favor John Silber's dismissal

[April 26] is false. Whether I qualify as incompetent or star, I am, like many Boston University faculty, strongly in favor of continuing Silber, and against dissident deans and faculty, most of whom have opposed and obstructed every effort to improve the quality of Boston University.

The loss often deans would not leave a ripple; Silber's loss would irreparably damage Boston University.

William Arrow smith

Professor of Classics

Boston University

Boston

Piercing the Page

Oh TIME, your bony fingers pierce

the page And render voices silent with each

jab; You count with one hand tied behind

your ear, Ignoring poets many watch and wait

for.

Allow us one more breath to speak And then Perhaps we 'II rise With Will And sing again. (Do you read me?)

Grayce Rychards Newmarket, N.H.

The statement that "poetry is a prestigious loss-leader on publishers' lists" is quite understandable in view of what passes for poetry today.

There might still be a market for a Robert Burns or a Robert Frost, if one could be found.

James C. Hepler Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

Speedy Pythonophile

Regarding T.E. Kalem's article concerning Monty Python Live! [April 26]: What bumblingly inefficient corpsman is responsible for the picture captions? As any Pythonophile could detect with horrifyingly God-awful speed, the young Briton identified as one Neil Innes is none other than charter Python member Michael Palin.

Karen J. Gagliano Warminster, Pa.

What Might Have Been

When I saw All the President's Men [March 29] I thought if Germany had had a Bradlee, Woodward and Bernstein --not to forget Sirica--maybe, just maybe, we might have been spared World War II.

America, you are indeed a very unique country.

Mr. & Mrs. R.L. DeFreitas Scarborough, Ont., Canada

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