[D. Brian Carter]

Free Shoeless Joe Jackson!

[RoughDobermann]

If you bet, he will come...

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Thanks for posting this. Since BP went pay per read I haven't been able to read the awesome articles. My favorite BP article was the one describing batted ball put in play batting avg..

[over3Owithabrain]

Rose coming back will bring a lot of added interest to baseball. Whatever one thinks of Rose, and he is IMO a selfish bastard, the guy knows and loves the game. He will generate a lot of buzz and I believe will be successful in a coaching position.

[GreatOne]

This is a disgrace. But with that clown Selig in charge, anything is possible. This s.o.b. is as unrepetant as Clinton. Yeah, Pete, all those phone call logs, fingerprints, and other evidence were made up in a conspiracy to get you out of baseball. Hell, Hertz should just go sign O.J. back up for more commercials. Time has passed, let's move on, right? Bastard Selig.

[xzins]

HALLELUJAH! PETE'S BACK!

Signed,
Hometown Cincy Fan

[xsmommy]

baseball ping.

[jpl]

I never really had a problem with giving Rose HOF eligibility. Letting him back into baseball in an active role is an absolutely horrible idea, assuming that this report is true.

[IronJack]

Pete Rose has ... a lifetime ban from baseball for conduct detrimental to the sport ...

The August 23, 1989 agreement ...

Apparently, "lifetime ban" in the phony (and rapidly declining) world of professional baseball means 15 years.

Baseball, after years of strikes and chicanery, is so desperate for heros that it's trying to resurrect the old ones, even the ones who are already corrupted.

[mhking]

In a time where integrity in the major leagues means even less than it ever did, Rose's return is par for the course.

There's a commissioner who doesn't know his head from a hole in the ground, players who don't know if they're going or coming, increasing prices, continued strikes and work-stoppages, and egos a-plenty. Pete will fit right in.

I'm a long-time Rose fan; I want to see Charlie Hustle in the Hall for his accomplishments on the field. But to have him back "in baseball" managing? Nope.

[Petronski]

What a boondoggle. Put him in the HOF after he's dead, but never before.

[al_c]

It's about dang time!!! It's amazing how they have continued to allow druggies, wife-beaters, etc to play but banished Rose for his alleged gambling. Say ... wasn't Michael Jordan a gambler?

[Steely Glint]

If this is true, then baseball can kiss me goodbye.

All Pete Rose deserves is humiliation.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Rose managing by 2005?

Another sad day for a once-great sport.

[StoneColdTaxHater]

Pete should be in the hall, after all somebody got all those hits.

[grumple]

Too much focus on Pete Rose while others go unnoticed...

Deborah Kendrick - July 20, 2003

Deaf ballplayer 'Dummy' Hoy succeeded on and off field

His life, all 99 1/2 years of it, tells perhaps one of the most classically American stories any of us have heard in a long time.

William "Dummy" Hoy, deaf since age 3, was outside his Houcktown, Ohio, cobbler shop, as was his custom so many afternoons, throwing and chasing balls with the children of the town. A passer-by, recognizing his talent, invited him to come play a game with Findlay's baseball team in a town 12 miles away.

Before long, Hoy was heading for Wisconsin in search of serious ball playing, promising his mother he'd be back in time to help fill fall shoe orders.

The first deaf baseball player to play in the major leagues, Hoy played for several teams from 1886-1902 but had his longest stint with the Cincinnati Reds. Reds fans adored him, and he loved Cincinnati so much that he settled here with his wife and six children, buying a 60-acre dairy farm in Mount Healthy.

He played 1,792 major league games, batted .288, had 2,054 hits and 597 stolen bases, and was the first outfielder to throw three runners out at the plate in the same game. In his earlier games, his success was particularly impressive because all calls were verbal, never heard by Hoy. In Oshkosh, Wis., early in his professional career, he asked a third-base coach to signal strikes and balls. That accommodation led to the signs flashed in the game today.

Hoy was a magnificent human being, as well. His friendliness and love of children led to discovery of his athletic gift in the first place, and his work ethic fostered not only a remarkable baseball career but success as a dairy farmer, personnel director of several hundred deaf workers for Goodyear, and achievement in a variety of other jobs.

Stories are plentiful of his walking 72 blocks from Mount Healthy to see his son, Judge Carson Hoy, preside in court; of dancing the Charleston in his 80s, and pruning trees in his 90s. Although the term might be considered offensive today, "Dummy" was the name Hoy preferred, correcting new acquaintances who thought it would be more courteous to call him William.

In 1951, Hoy was unanimously voted the first athlete inducted into the American Athletic Association of the Deaf's Hall of Fame. In 1961, he threw out the first pitch for a World Series game in Crosley Field. Two months later, just five months shy of his 100th birthday, he died in his sleep. Despite lobbying on his behalf during his lifetime and since, he has not yet been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

At noon on Aug. 3, preceding the Reds-Giants game, Hoy will be inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame. In honor of the magnificent player whose first language was American Sign Language, the game (for the first time in Reds history) will provide both American Sign Language interpreters and closed captioning.

As Jeff Carroll, advocacy and education specialist for Cincinnati's Community Services for the Deaf, says he and about 50 more deaf people have tickets for the event. "Dummy Hoy was very active in the Cincinnati Deaf Club and a strong supporter of the community," Carroll says.

"Plenty of deaf people, including myself, are Reds fans and Hoy fans, and feel this recognition is seriously long overdue."

Find more at http://www.dummyhoy.com

Freepers,
Throw your support and have this man inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown... any and all help is appreciated.

[Khurkris]

I am very happy to read this...very happy.

[Diddle E. Squat]

No admission of guilt by Rose?

A total sellout by Bud Selig.

[.cnI redruM]

Pete Rose belongs in the Hall. Right next to Ty Cobb.

[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

Pete Rose will be allowed back into baseball when they make queers bishops.

...uh nevermind