Free Republic

Maury Allen, the longtime New York Post sportswriter, who lost his battle with lymphoma 3 October, had the peculiar fortune of priviness to and then shying away from breaking the story of the no-questions-asked weirdest and most troubling trade in baseball history. The traders, in essence, were Suzanne Kekich and Marilyn Peterson. Wives, respectively, of Yankee pitchers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson. Allen himself had had a serious whiff of trade wind in July 1972, on a Yankee off day, when he hosted a little house party and among the guests were the Petersons and the Kekiches, the latter present...

Five people linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative were convicted of doling out steroids to elite athletes. But in an ironic twist, two San Francisco Chronicle writers who reported on the probe could end up serving more jail time than any of them. Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada are the latest reporters to become entangled in the federal government's ramped-up efforts to investigate leaks. They have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury investigating who leaked them the secret testimony of Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and others. The Chronicle, which published the testimony in a series of stories...

Rebecca A. Brady, 714 E. Fifth St., Brooklyn, writes: For years you have been using the derogatory term, "The Bums," in poisonous contrast to the inspiring, "The Bronx Bombers" for the Yankees. It is shuddering just to think of the pitiful contrast in connotations. In this age when we all know something about psychology, we should realise people respond to the name they are called. If you have children you would not call them "Bums" if you expected them to amount to anything. Every once in awhile a protest of this nature arrives in the mail, but this is the...