Letters

"Once there was a coach who acted the way I wish coaches would act today. His name is John Wooden ."
Dick Hoch, Fishers Island, N.Y.

Coaching Basketball
Hats off to William F. Reed for wanting to curb basketball coaches before they become too much like football coaches (POINT AFTER, March 28). While we're at it, let's eliminate timeouts during the last two minutes, when basketball too often comes to resemble football as coaches try to choreograph precise plays. Basketball is essentially a continuous game. Excessive interventions by coaches detract from it.
ROBERT W. KEIDEL, Wyncote, Pa.

Reed 's suggestion that college basketball coaches be confined to practice and banned from the sidelines during games is brilliant. It's time to lay to rest the notion that the childish antics of coaches can serve some sort of positive function.
BILL MOHAN, Clarks Summit, Pa.

As a former college football player, now a college professor, I have long advocated a similar policy for college football. On game day I would have football coaches assume a role like that of a professor on exam day. Until the exam begins (kickoff), the professor (coach) can be drawn upon fully, but during the exam (game), the professor (coach) is removed and the student (player) performs entirely on his own, displaying what he has learned.
GEORGE MACINKO, Ellensburg , Wash.

If for some reason Reed 's ideas don't fly, here are some less drastic measures that could keep egomaniacal coaches from intruding on the pleasure we fans get from the action on the court:

Assess technical fouls on coaches who wear anything other than sneakers and sweatsuits to games; limit the number of assistants on the bench to two; every time coaches call timeouts, thereby injecting themselves into the action and dragging out the game, award points to the opposing teams.
JOE BARKS, Wayne, Pa.

Reed calls for basketball coaches to sit in the stands, but that would only result in crowds heaping their abuse on the players instead. Maybe we should have writers like Reed stay in the hallway and let their secretaries do the writing.
BEN BALKEMA, Grand Rapids , Mich.

Baseball Brothers
I enjoyed your article about baseball brothers (Oh, Brother, March 21), but you left out some great ones, such as Dizzy and Daffy Dean, the best brother pitching combination of all time. Dizzy's Hall of Fame career has been well documented, and Daffy won 50 major league games and pitched a no-hitter in 1934. Also, Lloyd and Paul Waner are the only pair of brothers to be elected to the Hall. They combined for more than 5,600 hits and 1,900 RBIs.
STEVE TURNER, Chesterfield, Mo.

I'm sure many Red Sox fans will feel slighted by the omission of the Conigliaro brothers, Tony and Billy. Great ballplayers.
TOM COLLINS , Swampscott, Mass.

I was surprised that no mention was made of Jim and Gaylord Perry , arguably the best sibling pitching combination ever. The Perrys had almost as many victories (529) as Phil and Joe Niekro (538) in considerably fewer cumulative seasons. Both Perrys won the Cy Young Award (Jim in 1970 with Minnesota , Gaylord in 1972 with Cleveland and in 1978 with San Diego ). Gaylord was elected to the Hall of Fame, but with 215 career wins and a Cy Young Award, Jim was hardly lost in his brother's shadow.
CHARLES W. STUBER JR., Vienna, Va.