Posted on 08/21/2010 9:45:00 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement
Hey, better late than never. John Fay: The Reds have secured permission to honor Pete Rose on the 25th anniversary of him breaking Ty Cobb's all-time hit record.
In an ironic twist, Rose's first official appearance on the field in Cincinnati since his ban from baseball for gambling in 1989 isn't likely to come on the actual anniversary of his greatest achievement as a player. Rose has commitments to Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, Ind., on Sept. 11, which is 25 years to the day he passed Ty Cobb with hit No. 4,192.
The Reds likely will move the celebration to Sept. 12. The club is home from Sept. 10-15. Rose also has commitments to Hollywood Casino on Sept. 10.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.go.com ...
Rose bet on how well the team did, perhaps he bet on how well he did, but I don't recall hearing that he ever bet against his team or himself.
McGuire, Sosa, Bonds etc were using steroids to improve their performance, set the personal records. Other major leaguers used steroids just to stay in baseball. A me-me thing.
Last time I checked baseball is still a team sport.
According to the report in 1987 Rose bet 52 times on games that involved his team (that they can prove) and he had a daily gambling habit of between 2 and 10 thousand dollars (depending on which people were asked) and many of those bets were made from dugout phones during games. And that’s just 1987 the investigations found gambling back to at least 1985 when he was player and manager. Even if he never once bet against his team or players, which is pretty hard to believe with that level of gambling, that constant level of gambling must have cost his team. Being more concerned with his bookie than the game is a pretty me-me thing.
How about "2nd highest lifetime BA in the American League"?
Gotta slap my son around for providing me with bum info...
Rose has a contract: Rose was banned and Baseball swept away all the illegal stuff, more that you know.
As someone who played catcher for 45 years .. from Little League, through Babe Ruth league, high school, college, and all degrees of softball .. I wholeheartedly agree with you. A catcher has three choices: set up and block the plate, taking whatever the runner dishes out; move aside and hope that you can make a sweep against the runner to tag him out before he crosses the plate; or move out of the way and allow the run to score.
In 45 years, I never moved out of the way. Some of the hits were worse on the runner than they were on me, if I had time to set up properly. Some of the hits were equal; I blocked the plate and tagged him out, but he blew me off my stance afterwards. And several times, I was run over because the ball wasn't thrown to me in a way that I could field it and set up. Those were the worst.
But I knew what I was doing and made those decisions, and I would never have played another position in either baseball or softball other than catcher.
If it happened in the World Series, that’s one thing, but this was the All-Star Game...it’s no wonder now players think it isn’t worth it to play in it...why take a chance on getting injured in something that ultimately is meaningless.
Pete Rose ... never give up ... never surrender. You deserve to be in the Hall of Fame.
Then they shouldn't play if they can't go all out. Stay at home ... sit on the bench ... take up knitting. That's no different than saying, "Well, we're down 10 runs. What's the sense of playing all out ... we might get hurt in a losing game" or "Heck, the team is in the basement of the league. We don't have a chance to get to the World Series. Might as well just shag it in to keep from getting hurt."
Piffle. If you aren't going to play baseball all out, get off the field.
A winner plays to win, ALL the time and the All Star game is a venue in which the best of the best get to show people WHY they were chosen to play in the All Star Game.
That play perfectly epitomized Pete Rose. Besides Fossi’s injury was a bit overblown since he went on to win the MVP the following year and spent another 10 years playing in the majors.
It’s not about the speed of the ball coming off the bat. It’s about the greater bat speed that is generated by swinging a lighter bat. A corked bat doesn’t help home run hitters, but it is a great advantage to a contact hitter like Pete Rose.
Two different problems, 1) steroids; 2) the betting and throwing games. Rose hosted a Mafia enforcer in the clubhouse to watch (policed) the ballplayers.
The scandal killed the commissioner with a heart attack.
Ironically, Rose was sent to the federal prison in Marion, Illinois- the hometown of Ray Fosse!
And now you know, the rest of the story!
I have my disagreements with MLB, especially with the PED issue but this is the right thing.
Just by betting on his team, he put into question the integrity of the games that were played. Unless he bet that his team would win all 162 games, he gave the impression that the games he didn’t bet on, they were not going to win. If he bet on his team to win, he gave the idea that there was going to be some sort of extra effort because he had money on it.
You can’t give the appearance that you are throwing games or shaving runs by not doing everything to score as much as possible in games you did not bet on. Why didn’t he bet on every game, what did his bookie do with the info when Pete wouldn’t call in to place $500 on his team?
The extent of what he did will probably never be known, but he deserves the punishment as set out in the rules.
Now I hope there can be some sort of agreement reached where his name is enshrined in the HOF because he was one of the best of his generation and a lot of fun to watch.
If Shoeless Joe isn’t in, then neither should Pete be in.
More than anyone knows, per the private contract Rose and the late commissioner executed.
It is a contract. You don’t know. I don’t know. Keith Olbermann don’t know. :)
Rose knows. Fay Vincent and John Dowd know.
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