Posted on 02/13/2013 6:42:56 PM PST by SMGFan
Baseball card collectors and fans of the game are left scratching their heads after Topps made the decision to scrub mentions of Pete Rose and his Major League Baseball records from their products.
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Yet, when it comes to players chasing Rose' records, his name is omitted. For example, Chicago White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski's card mentions his standing in regard to the "all-time record of 4,256" hits, but no mention as to who holds that mysterious record.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.zap2it.com ...
Baseball has taken a harsh stance on players betting and for good reason.
Still Rose never bet against his own team and he always gave it all he had. Yes kick him out of the game but leave his records, he earned them fair and square.
Pete did not use drugs. It was all heart.
Agree.
I agree—its going too far.
If only Pete had been a Democrat politician he would not have had any problems. I think he has been punished far beyond his crimes.
After Rose is dead, the rehabilitation will start.
Seeing Pete selling his wares at a sports store on the Vega$ strip is sad enough. But this is just too much. Charlie Hustle played the game the way it was supposed to be played.
Gambling on baseball by a player or manager is infinitely worse than players using performance-enhancing drugs, from a baseball perspective.
And like many baseball players going back to the 60s, Rose took amphetamines as a performance-enhancer.
Fans should decide, not Topps.
Rose’s records are legitimate and shouldn’t be ignored. There is a case to be made for his exclusion from the Hall, but even the Hall of Fame lists his records and achievements, he just isn’t enshrined.
...and as time has passed, IMHO, the veteran’s committee should consider him in light of the steroid era.
Not so, if they do not bet on games they play in or influence. His records were one on the field of play and he did not use performance enhancing drugs to break a record like Bonds did or others.
Pete who?
Look. We all know that Pete Rose is an asshole. But we all also know that he belongs in the HOF. Cut the sanctimonious bullshit and put him there.
This is all going to make Pete rose’s cards worth more than all the rest combined.
These idiots must have been educated at the same University (Wisconsin Superior) that feels it’s unfair to be white.
Anyone with a Pete Rose card, your wealth has been increased by these idiots.
This is all about race.
Okay. I’ve decided that I don’t my grandchildren admiring a guy who insulted the game. He’s dead to me. And I hope my family.
His misdeeds came after his playing days were through.
Good God! All the man did was gamble, it’s not like he murdered anybody.
TOPPS, MLB, need to get a life.
Love him or hate him, Rose earned his on-field credentials honestly, as far as I've ever heard, and simply being made to disappear from the record books (and the Topps cards) is just ridiculous, IMHO! Hall of Fame is a different story, of course...rules is rules, I reckon.
Well I hope for his sake he gets in to the HOF. Everytime I am in Vegas he is doing autograph sessions at either Caesars or like 20 minutes ago when I waved at him at Mandalay Bay. He was by himself and did not look happy at all.
You would think he punched Rihanna or something.
Sad state of affairs when you can't bet on your own team to win !
And we have his word on that....
Rose spoke Wednesday with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann on ESPN Radio to discuss the new Pete Rose exhibit that will be on display at the Great American Ballpark as part of the Reds Hall of Fame. The exhibit will be on display for 11 months.
"I bet on my team every night. I didn't bet on my team four nights a week. I was wrong," Rose said.
Rose said that he believed in his team so much that he bet on them to win every night.
"I bet on my team to win every night because I love my team, I believe in my team," Rose said. "I did everything in my power every night to win that game."
Exactly. Something stupid that he did as a coach should not erase his records as a player. The fact that the hall of fame will never touch him and his caricature of a public image is punishment enough.
Whew! I’m glad that’s settled....
And his cards will be worth big money. He will be folk lore.
That said, his records are legit and should be recognized. I don't have an issue with him being in the HOF posthumously. While he's alive, however, he should be banned from official MLB activities IMHO.
Seems reasonable.
I've got to respectfully disagree there. Pete Rose is sort of like the Benedict Arnold of baseball. Like Arnold, Rose did many good things, but then he went over to the dark side.
Arnold won great victories early in the Revolutionary war. But Arnold should not be on an American coin. Rose should not be in the Hall of Fame.
For crying out loud, he bet on baseball, he didn’t bugger the commissioner’s pet goat.
Leave him alone, he’s paid enough.
Totally agree!
Pete was such a hero to me growing up. But the guy simply can't stop lying.
Don't forget he AGREED to the lifetime ban. He signed the papers with Giamatti.
First it was I never bet on baseball, then it was I bet on the Reds to win most of the time (except when he knew a starting pitcher wasn't up to snuff), then it was I bet on the Reds to win every game (foolish strategy BTW).
I'm at the point where I truly don't believe anything he says.
I really would not be that surprised if he bet against the Reds on occasion, just to cover his substantial losses.
Anyone who knows a patholgical gambling addict knows that there is virtually nothing they won't do.
Oh, I know he's sorry. But I think it's because got caught.
Free Republic is a Conservative website. We espouse morality, respect for the law, contracts, loyalty, not consorting with organized crime, not using and/or pushing illegal drugs, not fixing sports events, not gambling against your employer, management, players and other people that you supervise, not threatened those people, etc.
MLB’s investigation linked Rose and his drug-dealing, bookmaking, baseball gambling, race-fixing, steroids using/dealing, amphetamine using/dealing, income-tax fraud friends, many whom lived in Rose’s houses and hotel rooms.
MLB released some of the investigation but much more was not disclosed as per Rose’s contract with MLB, which threatened to turn the investigation to the government. There were a lot of people, very scary people, who urged Rose to take the deal.
And all of these undisclosed facts you know how???
There were a lot of people, very scary people, who urged Rose to take the deal.
And also this fact, you know how???
Note: They said, was rumored, unnamed sources are not adequate answers, btw.
Free Republic is a Conservative website.
Why thanks Captain Obvious!
I've been stumbling around here for 14 years and didn't realize that.
Fans should decide by never supporting anything “Tops”
I don't know if you know who runs the bookmaking business, but let me assure you, it ain't the Boy Scouts.
Rose associated with all KINDS of low-lifes during this time. He even met them in the clubhouse at Riverfront.
Read the book "Hustle".
Pete was very very stupid.
Just makes his cards all the more valuable.......
We? You got a mouse in your pocket? That may have been the crede when I first joined but this site has changed since then.........
They also had betting slips with his fingerprints on them.
It wasn't even arguable. Giamatti had him dead to rights.
Rose signed the ban. Apparently he must have assumed that Giamatti would keep his mouth shut, but said "Pete Rose bet on baseball".
That's when Pete started to lie.
And acted hurt and betrayed that Giamatti said this publicly.
And as has been said above, Rose was a true hero on the field, and those records will stand. But for those who say, "Well, he gambled as a manager. Doesn't negate his on-field acheivements." Don't forget that Rose was a PLAYER-manager at the end of his career.
Pete was known as a heavy gambler long before that. In his biographies from the 70s he even talks at length about how being a pro athlete requires a certain level of adrenaline and he got that "high" off the field by betting on horses, or football, or what have you. In one particular biography he even brags how "good" he was at playing the ponies. He's extremely knowledgeable at handicapping.
I find it very difficult to believe that he wasn't betting on baseball while still a player (or player-manager), but all of a sudden just "happened" to start when he became a manager full-time.
Sorry to be Debby Downer, but the man is essentially dead to me. Not the hero I loved so much as a kid.
Fans don’t print the cards, Topps does. That’s their decision to make. If fans don’t like it they shouldn’t buy the cards, that’s their decision point.
Essentially that is what I'm saying.
The records of those hitting it out of the park while *Juicing it* should not.
As far as I know Maris or Mantle never juiced it, well Mantle maybe booze, but that is not a performance enhancer :)
Completely agree!
For those who defend the "juicers" of the 90's, I always wonder just what Mantle or for that matter Babe Ruth COULD have done, had they not drank and partied so much.
I'd lay money down that Mantle would have broken the Babe's HR record had he stayed "clean".
For baseball historians, they always comment that Mantle was ungodly with his power. And looking at the distances he hit, he came pretty close to the Bambino.
Alas, alcoholism and a bum knee, and we'll never know.
Then again, the Babe hit in parks that had 500 ft. fences, so maybe he would have approached 1000 HRs in the modern era.
I've read that Mantle tripped over a drainage pipe in the outfield that didn't have the cap on.
Twisted his knee fierce.
Was never the same after that.
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