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Pete Rose has paid his debt. Let him back into the game
NBC Sports ^ | November 13, 2013 | Joe Posnanski

Posted on 11/14/2013 12:01:57 PM PST by EveningStar

...We are coming on 25 years of Pete Rose's banishment...

Pete Rose played baseball with an intensity and love that might be unmatched in the game's history. He cracked more hits and reached base more times than anyone ever. He represented a way to play baseball that inspired millions of people. Then, he gambled on games, breaking one of baseball's most cherished rules. Rose is 72 years old now, and I think it's time to let him back into the game. I don't think anyone should ask him to apologize again or come any cleaner than he has. I don't think anyone should expect Pete Rose to be something that he is not. It has been almost 25 years. He has paid his debt.

(Excerpt) Read more at hardballtalk.nbcsports.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: baseball; gambling; no; peterose
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To: forgotten man
He bet his team would beat the other team and did everything he could to win.

You can harm your team in the long run by trying to win every game....overusing pitchers would be a prime example of that. Also, betting on your own team, means that when you don't bet on your team to win, that it can send a signal to bookies.

21 posted on 11/14/2013 12:14:36 PM PST by dfwgator (Fire Muschamp.)
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To: EveningStar
Pete Rose is another poster boy for an asinine "one size fits all" blanket policy. Yes, he bet on baseball. Yes, there is a severe and appropriate penalty of necessity dating back to the 1919 White Sox scandal. Yes, he knew the penalty.

But the key issue here is that he was betting on his own team, not against it. Said bet would not give him incentive to throw any games but to actually try harder.

Therefore, this is an infraction of the rules and not a violation. Rose deserves to be fined, maybe even suspended, but certainly not banned from baseball for life. I'd say that 25 years in the wilderness is more than enough.

22 posted on 11/14/2013 12:15:08 PM PST by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: EveningStar

He needs to declare he is gay, took steroids, hates the Tea Party, and write a book about it all.

He will then be welcomed back with open arms.


23 posted on 11/14/2013 12:18:27 PM PST by PGR88
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To: dfwgator
Steroids at least does not lead to a pre-determined result as is the case of fixing games.

"Pre-determined?" Maybe, maybe not.

For the record, I have to forgive him. I think being banished from baseball for 25 years is sufficient penance....

...Not that I have any say in the matter.

5.56mm

24 posted on 11/14/2013 12:18:58 PM PST by M Kehoe
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To: EveningStar

yawn. Let’s not be mistaking professional athletes and entertainers for people of significance.


25 posted on 11/14/2013 12:19:17 PM PST by Daveinyork (IER)
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To: EveningStar
I think Pete Rose is incredibly stupid (to say the least) for betting on games while a manager.

But his admission into the HOF would be for what he did as a player. And he's obviously deserving based on his playing career.

So, I do not & have never had a problem distinguishing between the two & admitting him into the HOF.

26 posted on 11/14/2013 12:19:23 PM PST by gdani
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To: M Kehoe

The rulebook doesn’t say lifetime ban for those. There are signs, in the dugouts, next to the very phone Pete used to place bets on the game, saying betting on the game will result in a lifetime ban. He broke the biggest rule in the sport, got caught, lied about it in public, eventually “admitted” it (trying once again to get the ban lifted), there’s no wiggle room on this.

Meanwhile steroids ARE keeping guys out of the Hall. And the baseball HOF rules don’t say anything about non-game related activities (unlike the NFL HOF which specifically instructs voters to consider ALL their activities), so wife beating shouldn’t rate. But regardless of all that, he broke the lifetime ban rule, no Pete.


27 posted on 11/14/2013 12:19:40 PM PST by discostu (This is Jack Burton in the Pork Chop Express, and I'm talkin' to whoever's listenin' out there.)
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To: M Kehoe

And for what it’s worth: McGwire, Clemens and Sosa will never be in the Hall of Fame, just like Rose.


28 posted on 11/14/2013 12:20:27 PM PST by dfwgator (Fire Muschamp.)
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To: dfwgator
Kennesaw Landis saved the game by doing what he had to do to the Black Sox, Shoeless Joe, included.


No, Landis was a pompous, racist, ass; Babe Ruth saved the game.

29 posted on 11/14/2013 12:20:48 PM PST by fungoking (Tis a pleasure to live in the Ozarks)
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To: EveningStar
It doesn't really matter to me whether he's in the Hall of Fame or not. He was the player that I tried to strive to be while playing baseball or softball. Hit an easy ground ball to the infield? Run it out, full speed, to first base anyway. Hit a long fly to the outfield? Run it out, full speed, to see how far you can get when the outfielder drops the ball. Going into the bag against the tag or to break up a double play? Within the limits of the rules, do your utmost to break it up or cause the fielder to drop the ball. A baserunner coming in to try to break up the play at home base? Square up and brace yourself, and watch him bounce off ...

I played catcher for 45 years in baseball and softball, until my knees gave out. Pete Rose was my hero then and, even now, knowing that he had feet of clay .. as does every other human being .. I don't regret a moment of it.

He doesn't need to be in the Hall of Fame; he'll always be in my Hall of Fame and it is those playing principles that I teach my players and grandsons.

30 posted on 11/14/2013 12:20:51 PM PST by BlueLancer ("Oh, man, that's a lot of Indians!" [LTC George A. Custer, 1876, near the Little Bighorn Valley])
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To: EveningStar

If we’re going to allow Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame, why not give Lance Armstrong back his Tour de France awards and lift his lifetime ban on competition?


31 posted on 11/14/2013 12:21:52 PM PST by Fiji Hill
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To: BlueLancer

Fair enough, Nothing wrong with admiring how he played the game on the field.


32 posted on 11/14/2013 12:22:11 PM PST by dfwgator (Fire Muschamp.)
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To: dfwgator
People made the (interesting) argument with Shoeless Joe that his lifetime ban ended with, well, Joe's life. The powers that be didn't buy it though.

As for good ole #14, AKA Charlie Whiner - HA-HA!!

33 posted on 11/14/2013 12:23:07 PM PST by Hegewisch Dupa
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To: dfwgator
And for what it’s worth: McGwire, Clemens and Sosa will never be in the Hall of Fame, just like Rose.

And Bonds.

5.56mm

34 posted on 11/14/2013 12:23:35 PM PST by M Kehoe
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To: M Kehoe

Him too.


35 posted on 11/14/2013 12:24:28 PM PST by dfwgator (Fire Muschamp.)
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To: All

Pete Rose admitted that he bet on his own games for a team he was managing. He broke the golden rule of baseball at the time.
It really doesn’t get any simpler than that. Everything else is opinion, not fact.
He should not be allowed into the HOF but his records should be there.


36 posted on 11/14/2013 12:25:07 PM PST by newnhdad (Our new motto: USA, it was fun while it lasted.)
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To: BlueLancer

And you kind of touch on a point that a lot of Rose apologists often ignore: Pete IS all over the Hall of Fame. It’s not like Joe Stalin runs Cooperstown and all traces of him are erased; Rose’s stats and accomplishments are there. All that the Hall decided was not to give its ultimate honor to the dishonorable.


37 posted on 11/14/2013 12:25:26 PM PST by Hegewisch Dupa
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To: dfwgator

Barry Bonds has 762 home runs and no asterisk next to it.

If Bonds is even considered, Rose has to be admitted.


38 posted on 11/14/2013 12:26:22 PM PST by EQAndyBuzz ("Senator Cruz basically made the Democrats fight for a whole bunch of things that they already had.")
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To: Puppage
I've never heard of that order being posted in every locker room in baseball. But I see it stated in this FR post from last summer.

A rule is a rule and if he made his choice to be banned, I guess that was his choice. I still have no problem with anyone betting on neutral teams or on their own team to win.

The mayors of home towns make a big deal of making bets before the world series. I know that's not the same, but it is betting one baseball and it is telling kids everywhere that betting is ok, even if it is just a barrel of crabs or some real dollars.

I'm admittedly in the wrong according to people a lot smarter than I, but I have no problem with wagers until it is against one's own team.

39 posted on 11/14/2013 12:26:28 PM PST by Baynative (Wake me up early, be good to my dogs and teach my children to pray.)
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To: EveningStar

Let’s ask Rose if he is willing to flip a coin on the matter.
If he answers yes, then no.
If he answers no, then yes.


40 posted on 11/14/2013 12:27:56 PM PST by Berlin_Freeper (posted a total of 2,382 threads and 20,000 replies)
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