A new season for baseball & our shared humanity

Huntington, L.I.: Perhaps it was the March 22 back-page headline: “PLAY BALL!” Or better yet, it was Bill Madden’s excellent and heartfelt column “Classic was a classic” (March 22) wonderfully describing Team Italy’s thrilling performance in the World Baseball Classic that conjured the pure joy and magical memories that Opening Day still gives.

After a brutal cold winter with record snowfalls, tariff issues and now the war in Iran, the distraction of a new baseball season couldn’t come soon enough, with the Yankees playing MLB’s first game at San Francisco. Baseball is a wonderful way to congregate and connect by having conversations about the game, strategies and life, all at its own pace and rhythm. The game lends itself to dialogue with total strangers, irrespective of political leanings, and over the years has brought me joy, fascination and faith in humanity.

Babe Ruth hit a three-run homer on Opening Day in 1923 in the newly built Yankee Stadium, coining the phrase “The House that Ruth Built.” On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson first stepped onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn as the first Black man to break into Major League Baseball. World War II had ended and democracy prevailed. The New York Metropolitans opened Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows, Queens, on April 17, 1964, when Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates got the first hit ever at Shea, a home run. Enjoy the new season, and may it bring you endless new distractions and memories! Chris Karalekas

Performative play

Rego Park: I don’t watch much sports nowadays. I don’t like the grunts, growls and fist-pumping. Did Joe DiMaggio or Tom Seaver carry on like this? Michael Jordan? There is an element of homoerotic sadism to it. How about a tip of the cap? The fans who go for this look like they brought notes from their mothers excusing them from gym in high school. Jeff Rosenblatt

Songs for the seasons

San Francisco: As we move from the NFL to the Olympics to March Madness, we’re also moving through the iconic, seasonal sports theme songs. Like constellations in the night sky, we go from Johnny Pearson’s “Heavy Action” (ABC’s/ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” theme) to John Williams’s “Olympic Fanfare and Theme,” incorporating Leo Arnaud’s “Bugler’s Dream” (the Olympics), to David Barrett’s “One Shining Moment” (CBS’s NCAA basketball tournament highlights montage music). Sadly, the others from my childhood are gone: John Scott’s “Gathering Crowds” (from “This Week in Baseball” with Mel Allen), Keith Mansfield’s “Olympic Champion 2” (NBC’s 1980s Wimbledon theme), Jan Stoeckart’s “Horizontal Hold” (CBS’s 1970s-1980s “NFL Today” theme), Sam Spence’s “Journey to the Moon (Preparation)” (1980s “NFL Week in Review” closing theme), and Craig Palmer’s “Energy” (1980s NFL SuperPro Club theme). Stephen A. Silver

Win-win-win

Bartlett, Ill.: Someone should explain to former MLB umpire Richie Garcia that there is no “umpire’s strike zone.” There is only one strike zone, the one defined in the rulebook, which the Automated Ball-Strike System will enforce. I predict three outcomes for this initiative: egregious mistakes will be corrected, umpires will become more consistent, and we will discover that they’re much better at their jobs than we thought. All are great outcomes. Glenn Bischoff

Off-side

Beechhurst: On a recent MS NOW broadcast, the villainous and execrable ex-CIA Director John Brennan said he tends to believe Iran more than President Trump. There you have it, folks — a former deep state operative dumping on the honored American foreign policy tradition that “politics stops at the water’s edge.” Like so many other snobby lefty loons who view American power as a problem for the world, Brennan would like nothing better than to see Operation Epic Fury turn into an epic failure. Trump’s revoking of that bum’s security clearance back on Aug. 15, 2018 was a wise decision, but he should have done it on day one of his first term. James Hyland

That was fast

Brooklyn: How is it possible that 30 seconds after we dropped the first bomb on Iran, gas station owners were falling over themselves to post higher gas prices, which have now risen to about $1 more per gallon than they were a month ago? Yet, media outlets are warning that even if the war ended today, it would take quite some time for gas prices to return to their previous levels? Could it be that price-gouging is taking place? Carol Katz

Profit motive

North Bergen, N.J.: The war with Iran shouldn’t be seen merely as a costly error or the result of confused leadership. It isn’t even about the availability of petroleum and natural gas. It’s a manifestation of the dangers inherent in the military-industrial complex that President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about in his 1961 farewell address. Munitions have become profitable consumer items. Once used, bullets, missiles and even $100 million fighter jets shot down by “friendly fire” have to be replaced. War has become a costly game for the entertainment of the few in which the many suffer, die or just pay taxes to keep the game going. For the war games to end, the public must be made aware of the vast profits made by the military-industrial complex, and we must see Congress expose the excesses and actively work to rein them in. Irving A. Gelb

State sanctity

Manhattan: Voicer Steven Davies is outraged by Joshua Davidson’s absolutely correct observation that antisemitism globally has exploded with both violent and verbal attacks against Jews all over the world since the massacres and mutilation of Israelis on Oct. 7 2½ years ago (“Hatred’s global war against all Jews everywhere,” op-ed, March 22). He epitomizes the self-hating Jew who throughout history sought to placate Jew-haters because he wanted to fit in with the “in crowd.” Well, Mr. Davies, there is one place on Earth where Jews are not afraid to show they are Jews without fear of attacks by the antisemites you identify with — the state of Israel, our only true ally and partner against the terrorist state actors and gangs that threaten all decent people everywhere. Ephraim Savitt

Century of conflict

Springfield Gardens: To Voicer Terry Hansen: The Arab-Jewish conflict began on April 4, 1920, when a Muslim religious procession in Jerusalem left six Jews dead, about 200 wounded and a handful raped. The crucial question is how to end this endless conflict. Hamas must be abolished and the current Israeli government voted out. The new government must again offer the 2008 plan for a Palestinian state and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas must accept the plan. If he had accepted it in 2008, the current problems in the West Bank indicated in your letter would not be occurring. Ebere Osu

Out of range

Lake Placid, N.Y.: It’s a sad day. After 30 years, I can no longer get your paper in Lake Placid? They stopped sending it to the North Country. I don’t know why, but it is a huge bummer! Sam Tilden