Bloom Is Off the Rose, but Many Say He Still Has a Place in the Hall

Mike Downey’s World Cup coverage was embarrassing enough, with all the insights of an “Entertainment Tonight” special on arms control. And who can forget his hysterical call to cancel the World Series, even after a two-week delay? Now he tells us, in a fervent apologia for Pete Rose, that Rose “hurt nobody but himself.”

Rose was convicted of willful tax evasion, not miscounting. He did everything he could to conceal income from the IRS (income, I might add, that was not all obtained legally). Far from hurting nobody but oneself, tax evasion is stealing. By hiding $350,000 in income, Rose cheated the government out of $162,000--money that could have paid for a lot of day-care or drug treatment or lost savings accounts. Rose is going to prison because he behaved like a thief. He should feel lucky: Most people caught stealing $162,000 would get a lot more than five months.

MARSHALL GOLDBERG

Los Angeles