Taking a gamble

Bill Dwyre’s July 28 column was right on the mark. It is the height of hypocrisy to condemn gambling on sports events and then commence a new column whose sole purpose is to aid and abet in betting on major league baseball games. Shades of Pete Rose! Why not give the spread on college basketball games or, better yet, on high school games? You could do even better by recommending which “performance-enhancing” drugs are available and in use.

It would be better use of the space by giving us more than the one line of major league games or resuming meaningful coverage on collegiate sports like track and gym meets.

Rubin M. Lazar

Sherman Oaks

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Sports sections walk many a fine line, but betting odds is a wide one. Bill Dwyre writes that published betting odds are “useful for no other purpose than to bet.” T’aint so, Bill.

I and my sports buddies have never placed a football bet, but we always check the lines on upcoming games. We, of course, want to know who is favored and by how much, how the gamblers rate the teams for those days. Even while watching USC win another game, there is the final bit of interest: “Will they beat the spread? Are they playing as well as predicted?”

Don’t take away this interest by withholding spreads out of some prissy qualm that someone will break betting laws -- as if they needed The Times to do that. A tip -- bookies have that information, really they do, Bill.

David Eggenschwiler

Los Angeles