Swinging strike three for Charlie Hustler

Throneberry Fields Forever ^ | 14 December 2015 | Yours Truly

[BluesDuke]

Yes, I would rather be thinking aloud about such things as Jeff Samardzija’s slightly ridiculous contract. (Shades of Bud Black.) About whether John Lackey’s and (especially) Jason Heyward’s signings with the Cubs really do make them a 2016 World Series entrant. (Berra’s Law still applies, as the 2015 Nationals can tell you.) About how much financial flexibility Michael Cuddyer’s retirement leaves the Mets. (Some, but maybe not quite enough to think about re-signing Yoenis Cespedes.) Or Johnny Cueto signing with the Giants. Among other things.

But commissioner Rob Manfred has let it be known that Pete Rose isn’t going to be reinstated to baseball on his watch, either. Manfred on Monday made official what The New York Times reported about the ban being kept in place. He might have taken what the Times called “a quick, and genuine interest in Mr. Rose’s case” when he succeeded Bud Selig formally last January, but that didn’t necessarily mean Rose was going to be removed from purgatory.

It ended with a telephone call to Rose from Manfred, and with a somewhat lengthy but stone cold sober statement in which the commissioner said in essence that Rose has not only failed to glean the complete depth of why he’s banished but has failed to “present credible evidence of a reconfigured life.”

Rose petitioned Manfred last March to consider his reinstatement, and Manfred said then he wanted to hear what Rose would have to say, refusing to decide on reinstatement until hearing it, after he first made certain of the Dowd Report’s details and the decision then-commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti made. Well, Manfred has heard what Rose now has to say, and he decided accordingly. As if it would have been a terrible shock once Manfred let it be known he wouldn’t reinstate Shoeless Joe Jackson, either.

Manfred also wrote of Charlie Hustler’s failure to present “a rigorous, self-aware and sustained program of avoidance by him of all the circumstances that led to his premanent ineligibility in 1989.” Meaning Rose bets on baseball even now. He might be entitled to do so legally, but it isn’t exactly the wise thing to do, when trying to convince the chief executive officer of the game that banished him that he gets why baseball has formal rules against its personnel gambling.

Rose’s noticeably shrinking community of defenders probably won’t let Manfred’s decision be the absolute end of things. There will remain those, whether they support or oppose Rose’s banishment, who think it’s entirely irrelevant to whether Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame. Never mind that the Hall has a rule saying those on baseball’s permanently ineligible list are likewise ineligible to stand for election to the Hall. And there will also remain those who think it’s entirely fatuous to think that a man banned from baseball for breaking one of its cardinal rules is worthy of Hall enshrinement.

In June, ESPN’s Outside the Lines uncovered a smoking gun that blasted Rose’s final line of defense away, a notebook once belonging to a man through whom Rose bet with mob-connected bookmakers, showing Rose bet on baseball extensively, including on his own team, during the final year he was a player-manager. The program revealed that in April 1986 Rose bet twenty-one times on the Reds one or another way, including a few games in which Rose might have played.

“During our meeting,” says Manfred’s statement, “Mr. Rose told me that he has continued to bet on horse racing and on professional sports, including baseball. Those bets may have been permitted by law in the jurisdictions in which they were placed, but this fact does not mean that the bets would be permissible if made by a player or manager subject to Rule 21.”

And, in this footnote to that section, Manfred reveals just how badly Rose swung on and missed. “Even more troubling, in our interview, Rose initially denied betting on baseball currently and only later in the interview did he ‘clarify’ his response to admit such betting.”

What about the Hall of Fame? Manfred had something to say about that, too: “The issue of whether Mr. Rose should be eligible for Hall of Fame election under the bylaws of that organization presents an entirely different policy determination that is focused on a range of considerations distinct from the more narrow question before me—i.e., whether I believe that Mr. Rose’s reinstatement would be consonant with the policy rationale underlying Rule 21. Thus, any debate over Mr. Rose’s eligibility for the Hall of Fame is one that must take place in a different forum.”

The Hall of Fame settled the question in 1991. There’s no known hint that the Hall is even thinking about modifying that settlement. Manfred’s denial makes for a third time a Rose reinstatement petition has failed. Does a man like Rose, whose comprehension of the rules depends on what your definition of the rules is, understand what happens when you swing with two strikes and miss?

[BluesDuke]

There must be a program glitch. I didn’t put all those bizarre symbols where apostrophes ought to be!

[Mr. K]

I feel bad for Rose, but he knew the rules

Then he denied what happened for years

then he only halfheartedly admitted it - I STILL don’t think he has come 100% clean

They probably feel they have not gotten nearly the Mea Culpa they needed to reconsider, and I don’t blame them. This is a problem of his own making

[Pelham]

That glitch has been here for several weeks. If you copy and paste you have to go back through and replace any apostrophes and quotation marks and dashes in the original text or you get the bizarre symbols.

[Busko]

He will be dead and gone and then he will get in! If he was a piece of sh!t like the juice boys he would be in. I think it is just another day in the life of a white man!

[wideawake]

I think it is just another day in the life of a white man!

Roger Clemens, Ryan Braun, and Mark McGwire are black?

Wow, those steroids have some powerful side effects!

[wideawake]

Correct.

If he had come clean, taken responsibility, and then done something proactive - like use his name and celebrity to oppose gambling addiction - he probably would be in a different position.

But he lied, came somewhat clean, then lied again, over and over, signed autographs at casino sport books, did commercials on TV where he mocked the HOF, etc.

Gambling almost brought the sport down in 1919. Juiced players are a different level of magnitude from canned outcomes.

He refuses to acknowledge the seriousness of what he did.

[BluesDuke]

1919-20 was merely the culmination of a plague which infested baseball since the founding of the original major leagues. In 1977-78 the Louisville Grays, an early National League team, were destroyed by a gambling scandal that forced the team to fold. Prior to Pete Rose in the modern baseball era, only William Cox---then the owner of the Philadelphia Phillies---was banned for life when it was discovered he'd been betting on his own team.

And to those who'd like to keep thinking Rose has been singled out for whatever nebulous reasons, there is but one question: Which portion of Rule 21(d) do they not comprehend?

[discostu]

I don’t think any of the known juicers are in. And he did break the one rule that lists the punishment as lifetime.

[BluesDuke]

Correction: It should have said 1877-78 regarding the Louisville Grays. My mistake!

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Barred From Baseball: Pete Rose Is Most Famous, but He Is Far From Alone
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/sports/baseball/others-banned-by-major-league-baseball.html?_r=1

[wideawake]

Thanks! Didn’t know about the Grays.

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

Nobody to blame but himself. He valued gambling above restoration of his reputation and good standing in baseball.

All he had to do was stay away from bookies and casinos and do an occasional speech to problem gamblers therapy groups. But he was too arrogant to take that route.

[BluesDuke]

Thanks! Didn’t know about the Grays.

You can read the full story in William A. Cook's The Louisville Grays Scandal of 1877: The Taint of Gambling at the Dawn of the National League.

[Sivad]

That’s what it is? I thought it was the Muzzies going
all jihad on FR.

[Busko]

I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about the how he gets treated in the media, don’t hear nothing from the media about the rest of the cheaters that are in out there!

[wideawake]

None of them are demanding to get into the Hall of Fame.

[Don W]

It was Charlie Hustle, , not that skank-filled magazine hustler.

I hate ignorant journalists that are too lazy to spend 20 seconds checking themselves. AArgh.

I'm not even a baseball fan, but know about Pete Rose...

[Beave Meister]

I post this every time about Pete Rose.

From the time he broke into the majors in 1963 until he retired in 1986, Rose amassed 4,256 hits (1st all- time), 746 doubles (2nd all-time) and 2,165 runs (fifth all-time). He played for three World Series Champions, and was named the MVP of the 1975 Series. Those are un-godly numbers. They are the numbers of a Hall of Famer.
Unfortunately, he also ignored Major League Baseball’s Rule 21 (d)

Rule 21 (d) is posted on the clubhouse door in every major league stadium, and has been for years. Rose probably walked by those signs 15,000 times during his career.

Rule 21 (d), which states: d) BETTING ON BALL GAMES. Any player, umpire, or club official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform shall be declared ineligible for one year. Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.

It doesn’t say... unless you’ve got 4000 hits or 700 home runs or won 300 games or have 3000 strike outs. It says ANY PLAYER....He chose to ignore the signs, he chose to bet on baseball, and he’s being punished in accordance with the rule. He also chose to lie about his actions for 14 years, and even after acknowledging them, still doesn’t seem to understand that his mistake wasn’t failing to apologize sooner. It’s that he bet on baseball in the first place. How gutless.

[RayChuang88]

Look, if the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) won't vote in Shoelsss Joe Jackson into the Hall of Fame, they will NEVER vote in Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame.