Letters

Revolutionary War enthusiasts may find it ironic that the man who led the Yankees to victory was a Torre.
DAVID BLUESTEIN, NEW YORK CITY

The World Series
As a Red Sox fan I never thought I could root for a Yankees club after that tortured summer of 1978, and yet I was actually happy that the Yankees beat the Braves (Stroke of Fate, Nov. 4). Maybe it was because these Yankees don't seem to have the arrogance of past Yankees champions. Most of the players on the current roster are likable, low-key guys. They played great ball and deserved to win.
BOB ROSSI, Stoutghton, Mass.

There's no greater championship moment in sports than when a baseball team celebrates its World Series victory immediately after the final out. My congratulations to the Yankees for their achievement, and my thanks to SI and photographer John Iacono for capturing their moment. The cover itself is a Fall Classic.
PETER T. KELLY, Milton, Mass.

The cover photo of pitcher John Wetteland and catcher Joe Girardi about to leap into each other's arms with joy captured the excitement that only a baseball comeback can produce. It even made the spine of an old Brooklyn Dodgers fan like me tingle. But in an instant the image was erased: Wetteland and Girardi filed for free agency less than two weeks after the end of the World Series. Whether they re-sign with the Yankees or not, the wonderful simplicity of being a fan is gone. Business as usual. Fan loyalty is an anachronism, equally unimportant to team owners and players.
NED SCHNURMAN, New York City

What a wonderful compliment Gerry Callahan paid to the Braves when he compared them to the Buffalo Bills (Going Down in History, Nov. 4). The baseball Braves and the football Bills have shown a sustained excellence over an extended period of time. Just don't call our beloved Braves the Atlanta Falcons of baseball.
MIKE VAN FRAYEN, Duluth , Ga.

Instead of comparing the Braves to the Bills, I suggest that a better comparison would be to the Dodgers of 1952 through '56. Each team played in four out of five consecutive World Series, and each was victorious only once. Forty years later those Dodgers are remembered as one of the greatest teams in baseball history. It may be hard to call the Braves the team of the '90s, but they've put together a run not many teams have been able to match.
STUART GREENLEE, Duluth , Ga.

Only in sports journalism can appearing in four of the last five World Series (including one title) be deemed a failure. The Braves went from perennial losers in the 1980s to contenders in the '90s. For some reason SI seems bent on fostering the image that wins and, worse yet, championships are the only things that define a team's success. Braves fans have had the pleasure of seeing their team in the Series on a regular basis. We'll take those "flops" any day.
ANITA D. PRATHER HARVELL, Philadelphia

A Remarkable Act
I want to thank Rick Reilly and SI for the moving article about Daniel Huffman (An Easy Choice, Nov. 4), who sacrificed his senior year of high school football to donate a kidney to his grandmother. I wept while reading this article because it brought back memories of Jan. 23, 1995, when I donated a kidney to my mother, Josephine. As with Daniel's grandmother's illness, dialysis wasn't a long-term solution for my mom's kidney ailment. I just wanted to let Daniel know that he will never regret making this decision. Even while I was struggling through the tremendous pain after the surgery, I never regretted the gift I gave to Mom, who died suddenly on Oct. 8 as a result of health problems unrelated to the kidney. After she died, I was even more grateful that I had had the chance to help her, even though she had my kidney for only 20 months.
STEVE KAMINSKI, Walker, Mich.

An Easy Choice was read in all five of our English classes by 120 eighth-grade students. We learned a lifetime lesson.
NICOLE STEFFEN, KRISHNA SCALI, ANTON ZITZ, TODD DECATALDO, SETH STEIN and JIM MURPHY , Teacher Manalapan-Englishtown Middle School Manalapan, N.J.

People often hear about the sacrifices that athletes have to make to be successful. It isn't every day that you hear of a sacrifice of the magnitude of Daniel Huffman's. The courage and selflessness that this young man displays far exceed the courage and selfishness that consume pro sports.
MATHEW KENNY, Grand Haven , Mich.