Here I am big guy!......wink wink. 
Posted on 01/02/2004 10:20:59 AM PST by presidio9
So word is that Pete Rose finally admits in his new book that he bet on baseball. I guess I am supposed to feel vindicated since he spent the last 14 years calling John Dowd and me names. Mr. Dowd was the baseball lawyer who did the investigation of Mr. Rose and prepared a report we're now told was accurate. Next we're likely to have the spectacle of Mr. Rose being embraced by Bud Selig, the baseball commissioner, and, like the Prodigal Son, ushered to the front row of baseball's most honored citizens.
Pardon me while I rise to urge some caution. Ever since St. Augustine set the bar pretty high, there has been a certain style to confessional tomes. Now we have a mea culpa by Mr. Rose and no saint is he. Augustine, having lived it up, saw the light and wrote with a sense of guilt and regret. He even anguished over having stolen a pear. Early reports are that Mr. Rose confronts his past with very little remorse. Between him and Augustine, there is little doubt whose book will live longer.
Why are we hearing from Mr. Rose now? Credit Mr. Selig for insisting on the admission of betting before letting Mr. Rose in baseball again. It's possible that Mr. Rose wants some of the big money being paid top managers like Joe Torre. But I think there is more at work here. A player has 20 years after he last played to be elected by the baseball writers to the Hall of Fame. After that time has run out, the election can be done only by the living members of the Hall. Thus, Mr. Rose, who last played in 1986, is running out of time. He knows his best shot is with the writers, many of whom share the view that the only conduct that counts is what took place on the field. The Hall of Famers are a cranky lot who last year failed to elect Marvin Miller, who led the players union and whose credentials are solid gold. So Mr. Rose, a careful historian of the game, is playing the odds wisely. Nothing wrong so far.
Now the issue for Mr. Selig is what to do. I suggest that if Mr. Rose is to be reinstated to full rights in baseball, there should be a two-year period of transition. During this time, I would require Mr. Rose to travel the baseball highway to spell out to youngsters and fans why gambling is a threat to the game and why his decisions as manager were corrupted by betting on one game and not another. The sincerity of his redemption can be tested and he will have done some public service to earn his way back. After all, the issue now is not what is best for Mr. Rose, but what is best for baseball.
The two-year delay in reinstatement will give him one shot at being elected by the writers. And then, if he fails that, he may receive the honor via the Hall of Famers themselves. And I can live with that, as I suspect most fans would, though I am not at all certain his election is a sure bet, if I may be excused that term.
I also suggest that Mr. Selig pardon all those whose names are still on the ineligible list, including Max Lanier, banned for jumping to the Mexican League to make more money, a Phillies owner who bet on his team and was tossed out and, of course, Shoeless Joe Jackson, whose participation in the Black Sox betting scandal might in today's jurisprudence be excused by his diminished capacity to have known fully what he was doing.
Perhaps this will be the end of the whole sorry Pete Rose case. As the baseball commmissioner at the time, Bart Giamatti, said when he announced that Mr. Rose had agreed to banishment, baseball has been hurt, badly, by Mr. Rose's actions. Now as we confront his plea for mercy and a second chance, we ought to remind ourselves of Mr. Giamatti's wisdom in identifying the pain inflicted by such a great player. I only wish Mr. Rose had a better sense of why Augustine's "Confessions" strike such a chord with the rest of us sinners.
Here I am big guy!......wink wink.
Betting on baseball by a baseball player is more dangerous TO BASEBALL than a baseball player selling drugs, shooting somebody, raping somebody, or beating up their pregnant girlfriend.
Baseball isn't society.
If Shoeless Joe Jackson is ever admitted to the HOF, I'd like to see the HOF blown up with a MOAB, the wreckage burned, and then the crater covered with salt so nothing would ever grow there again.
Sorry to nitpick, but Montreal has never been in the playoffs.
That being said, Pete Rose was a tremendous ballplayer, but professional sports need to make harsh examples of those who harm the integrity of the game.
Pete Rose is a greedy, vulgar lowlife. The ironic thing is that his fan club is comprised of people who spend all of their time bitching about current players being greedy vulgar lowlifes.
His idiotic running to first for a walk was pointless showboating, worse than a hitter admiring a homerun. It was a "look at me" move, just like anything Terrell Owens has done.
He took advantage of his status as manager to play himself when he'd clearly lost it, in order to break the hits record.
All Pete Rose has done for the last 15 years is bitch about his "unfair" treatment. And no, he didn't do his time. His punishment was a lifetime ban from baseball. He is still alive.
You must be a Cubs fan
If that were the question the discussion would be complicated...should O.J. Simpson, for example, be in the football HOF?
But that is not the correct question -- the Rose situation is clearer than that. Betting on the sport you are a part of is NOT off-field behavior. It implicates your on-field play. It creates a presumption that your competitive effort is for sale. There is no need to have actual proof of throwing a game. The HOF honor is not just for guys who put up great numbers; it also indicates that you honored the game by your presence in it.
Rose, unarguably one of the best hitters in history, has not honored the game. Rose deserves the ban.
Not so. Check out 1981 at NLCS history
In 1981, the Phillies (and I am a lifetime Phillies phan) were in first place at the time of the major league players strike. This was the year after the Phils won their first and only World Series in 1980. And Pete Rose was on the 1980 and 1981 Phillies teams.
When the strike was settled and the games resumed, they decided to split the season so that there was a first half division winner and a second half winner. The first half winner was the Phillies and the second half winner was the Montreal Expos (the Phillies tanked in the second half).
The Phillies and Expos played in a playoff series to determine the division champ, and the Expos won that.
The Expos went on to lose to LA in the National League Championship series, 3 games to 2.
Remember: They split the season in two halves. The Expos beat the (defending champion) Phillies in the "Divisional Series" in 5 games, then went on the lose to the Dodgers in the NLCS.
BTW, I know this because I'm Phillies fan and at the age of 17 was really bummed out about it...not because I'm a "need to get a life" baseball fanatic who just wants to be a pain in the ass!
I remember Game 4 of that series when George Vochovich hit the game winning home run to send the series to game 5. Unfortunately for the good guys, Steve Rodgers then beat Steve Carlton to end it.
Yes, I remember that. In fact, I think that's the only thing I remember about that series....
He was one of the greatest players who ever lived but to this very day, he has no idea was baseball is really all about.
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