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Afterword

Alan Amitin, take a letter

By Claire Noland
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Glendale resident Alan Amitin was a lifelong Dodgers fan who wrote many letters to the editor of the L.A. Times Sports pages -- and saw many of them published. A few years back his son Aaron followed his lead and wrote to Times columnist T.J. Simers, who at the time was challenging Dodgers players, managers, coaches, fans, bystanders, haters, anybody really, to contribute to the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA.

Aaron Amitin reminisced in his letter to T.J. about how his grandfather Cy had been Dodgers season ticket holder No. 187 and along with Alan and another son, Michael, enjoyed their spot in Aisle 22, Row E, Seats 1-4 for many years.

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And at the end of that Simers column, Alan reiterated his firm belief that Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda was right to have let Dodgers pitcher Tom Niedenfuer pitch to St. Louis Cardinals slugger Jack Clark in the 1985 National League Championship Series.

Alan Amitin evidently still believed that, making sure that tidbit was included in the paid obituary his family placed in The Times this week. Alan Amitin died Oct. 10 at 61.

-- Claire Noland

Afterword
Claire Noland

Claire Noland, who joined the Los Angeles Times in 1994, became editor of curated email newsletters in spring 2015. She had been in the Obituary Department since 2006, the last six years as editor. Before that, she was an editor in Sports. A California native and graduate of Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles, she worked at the Antelope Valley Press, Los Angeles Daily News and Minneapolis Star Tribune. She left The Times in December 2015.

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