1. Rangers: All winter, anytime you heard from them they were thinking about signing someone in his late 30s or early 40s. A player in his 20s is stronger, faster and will not fall apart, especially in 120-degree weather. Andruw Jones takes the cake. He hit .158 last year, smiling every time he struck out or popped up. This is our hope for 2009.

2. Cowboys: They sign people other teams will not have. You cannot count the times Pacman Jones has been in trouble, and they finally cut him. That's one. They need to make it Terrell Owens.

3. Mavericks: They trade away their young and seem to like the older players - kind of like the Rangers do.

Charles Broach

Jacksonville, Texas

Transformation

Your Dallas Cowboys? Once a model. Now a mockery.

Richard A. Solomon, Plano

Not worth the money

Re: "Still no deal for Leach - Contract extension stalled as talks become contentious," Feb. 7

The idea that an employee has an agent is offensive to taxpayers. Maybe other employees - e.g., custodians - need an agent.

Based on decency, no employee is worth $2.54 million per year. Excesses are the ROOT causes of our current cultural problems.

Charles Florio, Longview

Wandering eye

Re: "Still no deal for Leach - Contract extension stalled as talks become contentious," Feb. 7

So Texas Tech coach Mike Leach refuses to sign a contract extension because Tech officials have wised up to his late-season and postseason antics of dropping his name into the mix for coaching jobs at Auburn, Washington and Tennessee - and that was just this season!

Love Leach, think he's done a great job for my alma mater, but just the same, I resent his roving eye.

Robert Nieporte, Dallas

Don't run off talent

The Dallas Morning News has reported on the contact negotiation roadblocks Texas Tech AD Gerald Myers is throwing in Mike Leach's path.

If Texas Tech allows Leach to leave, the football program will drop to the cellar of the Big 12 South so fast it will make your head spin. I was in school when Steve Sloan left and saw it happen. Tech went from 10-2 to 1-9-1 in five seasons.

What Myers and the Tech administration need to grasp is that Leach is talent. As in Hollywood, talent gets to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Athletic directors are easily replaced, talented head coaches are not. Why waste money on stadium expansion and let the person who makes it a viable project leave?

Mark Brown, Frisco

Didn't take long

Re: "Working hours cause snag - Reeves objected to a clause about mandated time at Valley Ranch," Feb. 6

Jerry Jones wanted total control of the team - and he specifically asked for it in the clause in question. My biggest surprise was that it took only two days for Dan Reeves to figure out what kind of an incompetent fool Jones is at coaching a football team.

Spencer Henderson

Campbell, Texas

Be responsible, Jerry

Thousands of Dallas Cowboys fans believe Jerry Jones should step down as general manager. Keeping the organization stable is an immense task for the owner. General manager is just as big a task.

Jerry, it has been clear to all of us that our underachievement is related to the uncontrolled chaos throughout the season. Please, Jerry, Dallas fans beg you to be accountable and responsible for the sake of America's team.

Simon Rojas

Pembroke Pines, Fla.

Thanks for the checks

Dear Jerry Jones and Mark Cuban:

As a relocated Burgher (that's a native of Pittsburgh), I would like to say, "Thank you for writing the checks." You wrote the check, and therefore you have the right to express your opinion on how your employees perform. Seems another Dallasite was pretty successful doing the same thing. I refer to H. Ross Perot.

Marvin Chosky, Bedford

A perfect fit?

I recently came across an old DMN sports section with an article about J'Mison Morgan decommitting from LSU to go to UCLA "because my momma and I felt it was a much better fit for me." Since he is playing a staggering six minutes per game, averaging 2.6 points and 1.1 rebounds, it seems like it was a much better fit for LSU, which is in first place in the SEC without him.

Frank Caldwell, Plano

Join the club, Rangers

The Mavericks without a doubt have a great TV broadcast crew. Same with the hockey duo; they can have fun and still describe the action so everyone can enjoy it. The Cowboys get a pass in this regard, having no local TV crew.

Would it be too much to ask, at long last, for the same professionalism from the Rangers' broadcast tandem this season?

Jim Janusz, Richardson

Fame, not honor

Cowboy fans are happy because Bob Hayes was finally elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I have no problem with that. If they let Lawrence Taylor in, they should let anyone in regardless of his morals.

Everybody seems to forget Hayes was a convicted drug dealer.

Pro Football HOF OK, but I don't think Hayes belongs in the Cowboys Ring of Honor with the likes of Bob Lilly and Roger Staubach - honor being the key word here.

Jack Reynolds, Garland

Wrong choice

On Feb. 7, I had the pleasure of taking my 8-year-old great-nephew to the Mavericks-Bulls game at AAC. We made noise and participated every way we could to help the Mavs win.

With Sunday morning came anticipation of a great cover story about the game in The Dallas Morning News.

How foolish we were! The sports editor chose to put a color picture of liar and cheater Alex Rodriguez above the fold, along with other color and black-and-white pictures of the same loser throughout the paper. We did find one black-and-white picture from the Mavs game buried on page 5C.

How do you explain to an 8-year-old why The News would glorify a piece of trash who does nothing but bring disgrace to sports, the Metroplex and everything he touches?

Jan Rollins, Carrollton

STEROIDS, Baseball AND THE Rangers

Look under old rocks

Re: "Asterisk must be fair game in Baseball - Selig needs to keep steroid users from fouling up records," Kevin Sherrington column, Feb. 11

It appears all the media members on their high horse, wanting to add an asterisk to those who have been caught using steroids, do not know Baseball history. Gaylord Perry is a confessed spitball pitcher who is in the Hall of Fame. The '60s to the '80s were infested with players using speed (greenies) to help provide an edge over their competitors. I don't recall a controversy about adding those players to the HOF or putting an asterisk next to their names.

Baseball and America turned a blind eye to steroids for an awful long time, but now the media and Baseball writers want to punish those few caught before it was defined as illegal by Baseball. If you are going to take that stance for this era, go back and start turning over the rocks from the beginning.

William Duba Jr., Lewisville

Throw the book at 'em

If they want to clean up Major League Baseball, they need to take Draconian measures, as they did with the Chicago Black Sox.

Anyone identified as having used performance-enhancing drugs should be banned from MLB and his records discarded. If he is out of Baseball, his records should be discarded. As for the Hall of Fame, forget it. The player is tainted and therefore ineligible.

If something major isn't done, all MLB records are questionable and unfair to those who didn't use drugs.

Don McElfresh, Dallas

Who betrayed whom?

Re: "'Betrayed' Hicks: A-Rod's apology not good enough - Rangers owner angry after former star says pressure led to doping," Feb. 10

It is laughable that Tom Hicks' feelings are hurt. Hicks was the one who offered the asinine contract to A-Rod and didn't do his due diligence. He alone shoulders the blame for this train wreck that has turned Baseball into a bigger circus, given the salary issues that plague the league. His team was the poster child for the steroids era, and to be in denial is inexcusable.

The only ones betrayed are the fans of the Rangers, given the team's disastrous performance over the last nine years and continued missteps by the owner.

Bradley B. Livingstone Dallas

Some things never change

Re: "Rodriguez adds more muscle to Rangers' All-Juiced team," Kevin Sherrington column, Feb. 8

Kevin Sherrington's All-Juiced Rangers team demonstrates an even larger problem: Still no pitching.

Louis Dellefave, Dallas