So Pete Rose doesn't have the integrity to make it into the Hall of Fame. Zach Baker takes issue with a sport that condemns Rose's character while swindling its fans.
By Zack Baker
210 west Writer [send email]
Congratulations if you have survived this whole Pete Rose fiasco without forgetting that Rose was a baseball player at one time.
It’s funny how people said that all he had to do was admit he bet on baseball, and he’d be in the coveted Hall of Fame. (Although now that Gary Carter is in, just how special the honor is up to question.)
So he comes out with a somewhat delusional version of the truth, and people want to pounce on him for admitting what they had claimed they already knew.
Pete did confess. It wasn’t a perfect confession, but he admitted he broke the rules.
I don’t condone what Rose did as manager of the Reds in the late 1980s. But baseball has no place at this point to talk about integrity.
This is a sport that has players on steroids, and their answer to the problem is treatment rather than suspension. They have dealt with an obvious problem like a labor issue, one that was bargained for with the players union. If you get caught breaking the rules four times, you might get suspended for a year.
During the Tuesday's State of the Union address, Pesident Bush called on sports to eradicate steroid use.
Somehow I don’t think the baseball players association is listening.
This is a sport that lies to its fans, charging $70 to an all star game and then having it end in a tie, a sport that has its finances so out of whack that a team can spend more money than anyone else and basically guarantee themselves the American League Championship. (Yes, Mr. Steinbrenner, I’m talking to you.)
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is himself a walking contradiction. He’s the supposed unbiased commissioner who actually OWNED a baseball team, and still has his family in charge of it. If that doesn’t make you question this man enough, consider that he tried to contract the first place Minnesota Twins in 2002, while his loser franchise, the Milwaukee Brewers, would remain in tact.
Hey, come to think of it, which baseball team is closest to Minneapolis and therefore would gain more television revenue should the Twins fold?
You got it, the Brewers.
Only now has his family decided to sell the Brewers, almost a decade too late.
Well, to hell with baseball and its self-righteousness.
Pete Rose is a troubled man, but make no mistake, baseball is a troubled sport.
Hall of Famer and former Reds manager Sparky Anderson once said of Rose in Pete’s playing days: “He’s the best thing to happen to the game since … well, the game.”
Time and reality have proven that to be false.
Baseball has written rules about gambling, but it also has rules about drugs, about cheating, about all sorts of things.
Ask Steve Howe and Darryl Strawberry about how strictly those rules are enforced.
Ask Gaylord Perry if he always played the game without cheating.
He’s in the Hall.
Pete is still lying, I think. He bet on baseball, and he bet on the Reds. He should never be allowed back in the game in any capacity.
For Rose, that’s more than a just punishment. But don’t insult the intelligence of the fan by arguing that Rose doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame.
There is some passage in the voting credentials about character.
Boy yeah, character. If Rose gets in, they’d have to let in Ty Cobb.
Oh wait, they already did.
Had Rose not gotten into trouble, he would have been a first ballot Hall of Famer. He made a mistake, and has yet to really apologize for it or even correct it.
But look at the Walls of Cooperstown, and you’ll see the names of Cobb, Perry, and others with bad records off the field.
It’s not a Hall of Character.
If it were, you’d have to hire a U-Haul to take all the plaques away.