What About, ‘Defeat Our Neighbors to the South?’

Allan Malamud, in his criticism of Bay Area fans who cannot come up with a more creative chant than “Beat L.A.,” apparently does not fully comprehend the magnitude of the Northern California-Southern California rivalry. A true Bay Area fan (a redundancy) reaps no greater satisfaction than from watching an L.A. team--any L.A. team--going down in crushing and humiliating defeat. If Mr. Malamud belittles this asserted lack of creativity, it is only because he does not realize that no other phrase can fully represent the sentiment that these die-hard, stay-until-the-end fans feel toward their teams.

DINESH RAMDE, Westwood/San Jose