Reader apologizes to Day; how much money does Lefty need?
Editor's note: Unfortunately, we don't have room in the print edition for all of the great reader feedback we're getting. For more of the letters, go to Dispatch.com. Have more comments, questions? Reach out to me at bwhite1@dispatch.com.
On Ryan Day's salary
To Brian: I want to publicly apologize to coach Ryan Day for poking fun at him in last week's letter. The truth is, coach Day is an excellent coach and a gentleman, and more than capable of leading OSU to a national championship. And as to his salary, if the market dictates $9 million a year, absurd as that figure seems to me, he has every right to accept it. Go Bucks!
Thad Woodman, Westerville
To the editor: I grew up living behind Woody Hayes. He lived in a modest home in Upper Arlington, two miles from the Horseshoe. He would leave every morning for work at 6:30 a.m. and return every evening at 5:30 p.m. His EL Camino truck had an astroturf liner in the back. His life was OSU football. I believe Ryan Day is the best coach since Woody. His salary is in line with the other top coaches in the country. We have to ask the question: Why is a college football coach the highestpaid person in a university? When I attended OSU (1976) the tuition was $400 a quarter. Speaking of inflation, we need to question why universities are over-charging students for tuition? Is it because they need to pay their football coach $10 million a year? John Leahey
To John: The football coach is the highest-paid person at a university when the market dictates it. And student tuition has nothing to do with Day's salary, as the athletic department is fully self-funded and receives no money from the state or student fees.
To the editor: I don't root for OSU at all, but make all the money you can get. Good for him.
Chris Degennaro
To Chris: For sure. I get the feeling that a lot of letter-writers won't be happy until Day turns down all the cash the school is offering him and works for Woody Hayes' salary.
On LIV Golf
Dear Mr. White: Winning a PGA tournament is a big deal: big bucks, coveted exemptions, loud jackets and hardware and your name etched on the wall of champions next to the likes of Hogan, Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods. Even if it's the John Deere Classic, that wall is forever and represents one perk the LIV Tour can't pump out of a barrelful of petro-dollars.
Ratings for televised golf are anemic on a good day, and while I get why LIV will always lure golfers for hire (The Chronically Bored: DJ and Koepka(?); The Aggrieved: Garcia and Phil; The Lost: Dechambeau and Reed, and a gaggle of “I used to contend and now I'm all out to make the cut” types), who is going to watch 54-hole exhibitions where the combatants have already been paid and there are no loud jackets or gold-leaf champions walls at stake?
And speaking of the “I used to contend” crowd, Ricky Fowler, the upstart tour will continue to recruit top talent while limiting their fields to 48 players. The ongoing culling of the herd suggests some tenures on the tour could be very short LIV-ED.
Jon Armstrong, Columbus
To the editor: Dear Phil: Your new allegiance with the Saudis raises one simple question. Exactly how rich do you feel it's necessary to become?
The short answer: stupid rich.
John Meyer, Worthington
On OHSAA divisions
To the editor: Recently the OHSAA released new divisions for high school golf for the next two years. The lack of consideration for what is or isn't fair is testimony to how obtuse the people who run that organization really are, that or they couldn't care less.
The differential in the number of male students for the teams competing in Division II and III is approximately 125 boys each school has in grades 9,10 and 11. In Division I the differential is over 1,025, almost nine times what it is in the other divisions. So Bexley, with 280 boys in grades 9,10 and 11 (eight over the limit of 272 for Division II) must compete against schools that have up to 1,300 male students in the same three grades.
Every kid who plays high school sports would ultimately like to win a state title, but with this type of disparity, it is an impossible hill for many of them to climb. This has been brought up to the OHSAA for years, but it falls on deaf ears as they refuse to seek a more equitable format. The terse response that has been given in the past: “If you don't like it, then don't play in the qualifying tournaments.”
Shame on them! For an organization that exists to promote sportsmanship, fair play and the overall development of children, they fall far short of their stated mission.
Jimmy Ryan, Canal Winchester
On Rafael Nadal
To the editor: I'm so excited that Rafael Nadal won his 14th career French Open men's singles title! He defeated Casper Ruud 6-3, 6-3, 6-0 to become, at age 36, the oldest champion in French Open history. He also extended his record of Grand Slam men's singles titles to 22.
I think Nadal is not only the greatest men's tennis player of all time, but also the greatest French Open player of all time, men's or women's. Congratulations, Rafael Nadal.
Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach, Fla. To Paul: It's a great argument as to the best men's player of all time. Nadal? Laver? Federer? Djokovic? Sampras? ...