As the son of a mother who lovingly recounted growing up in Butler, and a grandfather who made sure I was the only kid in Queens County, N.Y., who grew up with a reverence for Ralph Kiner, Bill Mazeroski and most of all Roberto Clemente (which didn’t exactly endear me to my classmates in October 1960), I am saddened and sickened to see reports from what I consider my “ancestral village” appearing in the national news every day.

I fervently hope that, by late October or early November, the biggest headline with a Western Pennsylvania dateline will be: “Buccos win World Series as Skenes twirls no-hitter.”

Jim Vespe

Mamaroneck, N.Y.

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