User:Djy9302/email

Hello. I am a 16-year old male in Long Beach, California. This is a comment about the Los Angeles Times’ June 14, 2007 edition. My comment is about the inequality of coverage of the Angels and Dodgers baseball teams.


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I read the LA Times’ Sports section every day and get all my sports information about local teams from your newspaper. It truly is one of the most detailed I’ve seen, comparing to the local newspapers in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. However, it appears to me that the Dodgers are favored more by your newspaper than the Angels. This contrasts the Anaheim Ducks being covered a lot more than the Los Angeles Kings hockey teams during the 2006-07 National Hockey League season, in which the Ducks were the best team and were covered more than Los Angeles’ own team.

First, on page D2. The article written by T.J. Simers is almost entirely about the Dodgers. There is a short mention of Gary Matthews, Jr. of the Angels, but he is only referred to as "Mr. HGH."

Second, on page D3. The short section underneath "Today on the Air" is a "Now You Know" section about who else but the Dodgers, mainly catcher Russell Martin.

Pages D4 and D5 are equally divided into the "Angels report" and "Dodgers report," but it usually isn't like that. It seems that the Angels always get the short end of the wishbone in the LA Times.

On a related note, during the 2006-07 National Hockey League season, the Kings were behind and out of the playoff picture and the Ducks were the best team in the league. The Ducks got a lot more coverage in your newspaper. Because of this, I know that the reason for the Dodgers getting more attention in your paper isn't because of home-team bias; otherwise, you would've talked about the Kings a lot more than the Ducks.

Another reason I mention the Ducks and Kings is because the Ducks were doing really well and the Kings weren't. Let me give you a couple statistics.

The Angels have the 2nd best record in the MLB. The Dodgers are 6th. The Angels have the best home record in the MLB. The Dodgers are 5th. The Angels have scored the 5th most runs in the MLB. The Dodgers are 17th. The Angels have allowed the 5th fewest runs in the MLB.

The Angels are 24-9 since May 9. The Dodgers are 18-15. The Angels haven't been swept since April. The Dodgers have been swept three times since then. The Angels are 15-7 against the AL West. The Dodgers are 14-11 against the NL West.

The Angels won their 40th game on June 9. The Dodgers were 35-27 then.

John Lackey became the first pitcher to win 10 games this season. Brad Penny only has 8 wins.

Francisco Rodriguez became the first pitcher in the American League to get their 20th save. Takashi Saito only has 18.

The Angels lead the AL West by 4 games over Seattle. The Dodgers are tied in the NL West with San Diego.

The Angels were the only team this season to start 5-0 in interleague play. The Dodgers were 1-4 at that time.

Since 2000, the Angels have won a World Series, had an MVP (Vladimir Guerrero), a Cy Young Award winner (Bartolo Colon), a "Relief Man of the Year" winner (Francisco Rodriguez), a Stolen Base leader (Chone Figgins), and Jered Weaver tied a record for most consecutive wins to start a career. All the Dodgers had was Eric Gagne getting 80-something consecutive saves.

I'm not trying to say that the Angels are better than the Dodgers. But I really feel that the Angels should be more represented in a newspaper that favors another hockey team over its own, local team. The reason why the Ducks were more favored in your newspaper was [most likely] because they were doing so well and led the league. The Angels are close to leading the league and have better records than the Dodgers in several categories. They should be represented a lot better in the Los Angeles Times newspaper. I’m not asking for the Angels to be talked about more than the Dodgers, but as the newspaper serves both teams, they should both be equally represented in the LA Times.

Your newspaper is one of the most popular in the country and the most popular in California. The best newspaper shouldn’t be biased towards a non-local city because its better than another city in one sport and then favor its local city over the same non-local city when the non-local city has better records in several categories.

Respectfully, Kevin Young

PS. I apologize if this isn't the right place to e-mail this comment. If that is the case, could you please tell me the e-mail address of somebody whose attention I should bring this to? Thank you so much.

I would also appreciate it if the reader of this e-mail may e-mail me back simply to tell me that this e-mail has been read. Thank you.