Selig shows no sign of thaw in Rose's final year of eligibility

AP via CBS Sportsline ^ | 11-21-05

[cloud8]

NEW YORK -- The Hall of Fame's doors will remain shut to Pete Rose, who won't appear on the baseball writers' ballot in his final year of eligibility.

Commissioner Bud Selig will not rule on Rose's application for reinstatement before the 2006 ballot is released Nov. 29, according to Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer.

Rose, who last year admitted he did bet on the Cincinnati Reds while managing the team in the late 1980s, doesn't understand why the rules, unless changed, won't allow him to ever appear on the annual ballot of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

"How can I be on a list that expires after 15 years if I'm suspended?" Rose said Sunday in comments relayed to the Associated Press through his manager, Warren Greene. "It should be that time stops."

Rose, baseball's career hits leader, agreed to a lifetime ban in August 1989 following an investigation of his gambling, and the Hall's board of directors decided unanimously in February 2001 that anyone on the permanently ineligible list couldn't appear on the BBWAA ballot.

Rose applied for reinstatement in September 1997 and met with Selig in November 2002. His efforts to end his suspension appeared to falter after he admitted in his 2004 autobiography, Pete Rose: My Prison Without Bars, that his previous gambling denials were false.

"The matter remains on the commissioner's desk. He has given no indication that he's prepared to issue a formal decision," DuPuy said.

Rose's final season as a player was 1986, and the rules for the Hall's BBWAA ballot state that players must have been retired for at least five years but no more than 20 to be eligible for election.

He received nine write-in votes in 2005, his lowest total, and has been written in on 239 of 6,687 ballots (3.6 percent) over 14 years.

Jane Forbes Clark, the Hall's chairman, left open the possibility that the Hall would give a Rose a chance to appear on the writers' ballot if he ever regains reinstatement.

"I think that we would look at the situation if the commissioner changes the situation and the position of Major League Baseball," she said. "If something happens, we'll react to it."

In 1989, just after baseball's investigation began, Rose considered himself a shoo-in for the Hall.

"4,256 hits. 2,200 runs. That's all I did," he said. "I'm a Hall of Famer."

Now 64, Rose might never get in despite a career in which he became a 17-time All-Star and the 1973 NL MVP.

"It would be a great honor if I made the Hall of Fame," he said through Greene. "If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't."

[highball]

But you get them after the horse is out of the barn.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but what's your point? Unless you're willing to give up on the game altogether, I'm not sure what your pessimism accomplishes. They're getting closer to doing the real thing, and we should encourage them to go further, not complain that it took them so long to go this far.

Yes, he bet on baseball and he is being made to suffer for it.

Not if some FReepers have their way. They want to let him off the hook.

[thoughtomator]

There's nothing wrong with holding Rose accountable. His pre-gambling actions were more than enough to earn a place in the HoF. That he later was caught gambling doesn't change the earlier accomplishments - there's no direct link between the HoF-level play and the later gambling. To benefit from gambling he can only do one thing - lose more than he would otherwise. Gambling cannot in any way translate into more hits, which is what should put him in the HoF. If they want to punish him for his later actions, then indicate that in the HoF entry.

[sinkspur]

Unless you're willing to give up on the game altogether, I'm not sure what your pessimism accomplishes.

I have. I watch the playoffs and the World Series. That's it.

I once had season tickets to the Texas Rangers, and enjoyed going. But my disillusionment started with Jose Canseco and his obvious performance enhancements. I couldn't watch as the rest of the nation was enthralled with two roid-heads duking it out in 1998 to break the Babe's record. MLB sat in silence as Barry Bonds bulked up nearly 40 pounds in two seasons.

Haven't been to a game since.

[highball]

There's nothing wrong with holding Rose accountable. His pre-gambling actions were more than enough to earn a place in the HoF. That he later was caught gambling doesn't change the earlier accomplishments - there's no direct link between the HoF-level play and the later gambling.

We can argue the merits of the rule as much as we like. But the fact remains that the rule was in place, Rose knew the rule and the consequences for breaking it, and chose to break the rule anyway.

If we're going to discuss changing the rule, it should not be retroactive. He made his choice, let him live with the known consequences.