* Legendary basketball coach John Wooden, who passed away Friday, was not what you would have expected such a successful and famous person to be like. Rather than being loud and arrogant, he was rather humble and low-key. I was a UCLA Daily Bruin sports reporter in 1966-1967, the first year New York product Lew Alcindor (now Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) started playing for the UCLA varsity. Though Mr. Wooden probably didn’t know my name, he recognized my face, and always smiled and said “hello” when I passed him on the campus. That was just the type of person he was. Modest to a fault, I don’t think he knew what the word egotistical meant. I only wish other coaches could be like him. Rather than seeing himself as a celebrity, he saw himself as a dedicated and devoted teacher.

KENNETH
ZIMMERMAN

Huntington Beach, Calif.

‘Perfect’ storm

* Reversing umpire Jim Joyce’s wrong call at first base and giving Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga his perfect game is a no-brainer. It was the 27th out. It did not affect the outcome of the game. So in the name of fair play, it would hurt no one to say it was the wrong call and put it in the record books as a perfect game. If it was any other inning, it could not and should not be changed. Think about it: 27 up, 27 down is a no-brainer.

JOHN BUONAGURA

Stewart Manor, N.Y.

* Rules are rules, commissioners are commissioners, and men of good intentions are men of good intentions. But you have to be some kind of cockeyed umpire to miss the 27th out of a perfect game. Somebody, somewhere has got to stand up for baseball. We don’t need instant replay, just umpires who know their jobs are on the line when they make bad calls. Better for us, better for them, better for baseball.

KEN DREXLER

North Woodmere, N.Y.

* It’s good that Jim Joyce admitted his mistake that cost pitcher Armando Galarraga his perfect game, but veteran umpires know the importance of any call when it gets to the ninth inning of a perfect game. The real question is why Joyce didn’t give the benefit of a bang-bang play to the guy with history at stake.

MICHAEL J. GORMAN

Whitestone

* It’s somewhat incongruous for Bud Selig to uphold Jim Joyce’s ruling when video replay is not used and then say that the replay will be considered for future use. If Selig is going to uphold the ump in this instance, he should be backing the judgment of the umps down the road, too — no video replay in the future, either.

RICHARD REAY

The Bronx

* Bud Selig’s decision not to reverse Jim Joyce’s call not only robbed a young pitcher of a place in baseball history, but also placed a fine umpire in infamy. I do not want to hear about precedent. The DH rule, instant replay, and interleague play have all come about through breaking precedents. Changing the call would be getting it right without affecting the outcome of the game. This was a special set of circumstances and should have been treated as such.

CHUCK ECKSTEIN

Brooklyn

* Not only doesn’t baseball commissioner Bud Selig have the authority to change the outcome of that near-perfect game, but by doing so he’d probably be in violation of the law: Fixing the outcome of a sporting event is, I believe, a federal crime.

LARRY WEITZMAN

Manhattan