Home : Time Off For Play : Baseball :Pete Rose
A Rose By Any Other NameFirst, I love baseball. I grew up in a town and in a time when your baseball glove was carried on the handlebars of your bike at all times. I don't love Major League Baseball like I used to, but baseball, yeah, like Annie Savoy and Walt Whitman said: I see great things in baseball. It's our game - the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us. Second, I didn't like Pete Rose's betting on baseball. But then again, I didn't like Mantle and Mays working for casinos, the cocaine scandals of the 1980s, nor the steroid scandal today. Third, I think we need to remember this game is not built on the integrity or character of its players. Some of baseballs favorite Hall of Famers have been less than model citizens, including Babe Ruth. In August 1989, three years after he retired as an active player, Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball amidst accusations that he gambled on baseball games while playing for and managing the Reds; this included betting on the Reds but not against them. After years of public denial, in 2004 he admitted the accusations were true. After the initial ban the Baseball Hall of Fame had specified that individuals who are banned from the sport are ineligible for induction; those who were banned had previously been excluded by informal agreement among voters. The issue of his possible reinstatement and election to the Hall remains a contentious one throughout baseball.
So, why isn't Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame?Maybe if he'd played alongside Cobb or Ruth when baseball writers were more interested in the play instead of what they did in their spare time, he would be in Cooperstown now. Even on the field, no one can question Rose's daily play and the moniker Charlie Hustle. No one who watched even one of Rose's games doubts that he did everything within his power, and sometimes things beyond what we would think of as his physical limitations, to win every single one. While Ruth was sometimes less than a Hall of Famer due to a hangover and garnered the disdain of teammates and managers alike. The ban was instated for conduct detrimentantal to the game. I guess my question is how detrimental? Alex Rodriguez and his $250 Million contract are more detrimental to baseball. The Hall of Fame is for baseball's heroes, not its role models. There are people who are probably legitimate role models there – Wagner, Musial, Mathewson, Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Clemente, just to name a few. But there are plenty of others who were honored, deservingly, for their accomplishments even though they embarrassed or dishonored the game in other ways. Hornsby was constantly in hot water for his gambling. Cepeda and Jenkins were busted for drugs. These are the facts that no baseball fan can ever dispute:
Just because Rose made a mistake as a coach, however, does not mean that the all-time hits leader should not be recognized in the Hall of Fame where he belongs. Pete Rose should be reinstated into baseball as the player that he once was, not the manager that he became. I kinda like the idea expressed by the sportswriter J. Upchurch: Work out a deal with Rose making him an ambassador for baseball. For the next five years, he will do nothing but promote the game. He will sign autographs, kiss babies, attend games and fund-raising events. He will service the game at every opportunity, wearing a smile, no less.In my opinion, Rose should be allowed to participate in this sort of thing and he should be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He should not, however, ever be allowed to manage or coach again. By the 1980s, Rose was gambling heavily on several sports, and by most accounts lost large sums. Amid reports that Rose had bet on baseball while Reds manager, he was questioned in February 1989 by outgoing commissioner Peter Ueberroth and his replacement, Giamatti. Three days later, lawyer John Dowd was retained to investigate charges against Rose. A March 21, 1989 Sports Illustrated article tied him to baseball gambling. The Dowd Report asserted that Rose bet on 52 Reds games in 1987, at a minimum of $10,000 a day. On August 24, 1989, he voluntarily accepted a permanent place on baseball’s ineligible list. Rose accepted that there was a material reason for the ban; in return, Major League Baseball agreed to make no finding of fact with regard to the gambling allegations and on the provision that baseball would cease exploring Rose's activities (leading some observers to speculate that Rose may have bet against the Reds while managing them; had further investigations uncovered this, he would have been liable to criminal prosecution under "sports bribery" laws, which typically prohibit athletes from betting against themselves but not on themselves), and that after one year Rose could reapply for reinstatement. Rose, with a 412-373 record, was replaced as Reds manager by Tommy Helms. On February 4, 1991 the Hall of Fame voted to formally exclude players banned from baseball. Leo Durocher always said, if nothing else, don't put me in the Hall of Fame after I die ... do it while I'm here to enjoy it or not at all. Leo was elected the year after his death. You know and I know that Pete Rose will be too, once there's no hope of dragging an apology or a confession out of him. That's a cheap shot, and if baseball takes its honors seriously it will find room to honor Rose for what he did, on the field and in the dugout, to win all those baseball games. And while we're at it, reinstate the Black Sox who are the some of the best in baseball. They have more than paid for any transgressions. | ||||||||||
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