LETTERS: Blown baseball call and the LIRR payroll
What if bad call had gone the other way?
I wonder if those who wish to change history by having baseball commissioner Bud Selig overturn the call that deprived pitcher Armando Galarraga of a perfect game , would feel the same way had the situation gone the other way - that is, had the umpire called a guy out who was safe . . . thus creating a bogus perfect game?
Would there be a clamor such as this one to reverse the call and void the "imperfect" perfect game? I doubt it. It has been argued for many years that the final strike of Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series was high and outside the strike zone. Yet this perfect game is engraved in baseball lore.
As to allowing managers to challenge calls, similar to the NFL system, by expanding the use of instant replay, you can be sure it would be abused. A manager who wants to give his pitcher a break, who wants to slow down the game to change momentum, or to hope for a rainout while behind will request challenges purely as a tactic.
Baseball has dealt with much worse, whether it be labor unrest or scandal. It will certainly survive something like an umpire's bad call.
Brian Bakal
Two sides on the LIRR payroll
What a deal! Workers on the LIRR make so much money that poor riders can't afford to go to work riding the LIRR . Does this make sense?
Workers on the LIRR received pay raises last year. Does that make sense when workers elsewhere have had salaries frozen and cut?
Workers on the LIRR earn much more money than teachers, whom we're cutting back on and asking to freeze salaries. Does this make sense?
Workers on the LIRR have salaries and pensions that are doubled because of overtime, because union leader Anthony Simon says the LIRR doesn't have enough workers. Does that make sense when we have 8 to 10 percent unemployment? I know several college graduates who'd gladly work on the LIRR, even for less.
Irene Levy
Why do you insist on attacking the very people who make the railroad go? "A close look at LIRR pay" seems bent on criticizing those whose intense training for important and responsible positions results in their qualifying to move trains safely. You just don't go out and hire engineers and conductors off the street. They work long hours away from their families and loved ones through the night, on holidays and weekends, so others may reach their destinations.
The salaries you cite in your article are not typical - those at the top of the roster have been working for many, many years and deserve every cent they earn, as do others who go through a very tough training process.
Carole Weigel
Glen Head
