Letters to the Editor: Justin Turner’s World Series celebration was an insult to 230,000 dead Americans

To the editor: If it wasn’t shocking enough for Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner to be pulled from Game 6 of the World Series because of a positive COVID-19 test, seeing him unmasked and sitting close to his teammates celebrating their victory was heart stopping. What were he, the Dodgers and Major League Baseball thinking? (“A win for the Dodgers is another tonic for Los Angeles,” Oct. 27)

Last month, the National Football League fined three head coaches $100,000 for not wearing face masks on the sidelines, a safety precaution that is required at games during the coronavirus pandemic. The coaches’ teams also were fined an additional $250,000.

I love baseball as much as anyone, but Turner’s behavior was a slap in the face of the more than 230,000 people in the United States who have died from COVID-19. I urge MLB to immediately fine Turner and the Dodgers $1 million each. The money should go to Los Angeles County for its efforts to mitigate this terrible virus.

Denny Freidenrich, Laguna Beach

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To the editor: Words fail me (almost) to let you know how uplifting it was to read in the L.A. Times about the Dodgers winning the championship. As I watched the World Series, I kept thinking we need this win.

Our world has been turned upside down, but the Lakers and now the Dodgers have all made it right side up for a while.

I was thinking of my husband Mike, a Dodger fan who never would consider leaving a game early, and who must be smiling from above with many other fans.

Los Angeles needed this. Thank you, Dodgers, for putting a smile on my face too.

Esther Friedberg, Studio City

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To the editor: A front-page article in Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times rightly criticizes the “mostly maskless fans” photographed at a viewing party near Dodger Stadium. But it says nothing critical of maskless Dodger players “hugging and mobbing” one another after their World Series victory.

Why the double standard? There’s one for elite, wealthy athletes, and another for lowly fans.

At least be consistent when you judge others.

Richard Olivas, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: Divine intervention? How else to explain how the Dodgers prevailed through a dramatically shortened regular season, oddly expanded playoffs, and a three-games-to-one deficit in the National League Championship Series?

Verily, in this fraught year the baseball gods have smiled on Los Angeles.

Glenda Martel, Los Angeles