[Charles Henrickson]

Rose *was* a singles machine--and a lot of doubles, too. Set the table well. Scored a ton of runs. A key cog on an historically great team.

BTW, the guy from the Big Red Machine who deserves a little more consideration than he's gotten thus far is Davey Concepcion. He and Trammell are the only shortstops currently on the ballot, and they probably won't get in, but they should place a little higher than they've been getting.

[Alberta's Child]

My complaint about Rose is that almost every record he holds is based primarily on longevity. There's nothing wrong with that (longevity in and of itself is a good indicator of a player's talent), but when you look closely at his numbers you see that his career was remarkably ordinary for the most part. His lifetime batting average was actually lower than Hank Aaron's -- and Aaron had about 600 more home runs than Rose!

Rose often gets credit for playing a number of different positions, but the reality is that he didn't play any of them exceptionally well from a defensive standpoint.