Rose won’t be on HOF ballot
November 22nd, 2005
Pete Rose won’t be on the Hall of Fame ballot again this year — his final year of eligibility — because baseball commissioner Bud Selig won’t rule on his reinstatement.
Um, isn’t Selig’s refusal to rule on Rose’s request for reinstatement actually a denial of the request? Why not just deny the request, then?
Either way, I’m happy that Selig isn’t going to reinstate Rose. The guy deserves every bit of what he’s getting.
I’ve always admired what Pete Rose has done on the field, which if you ask me is what the Hall of Fame is in place to judge. If the HOF is going to start legislating morality, there are certainly dozens of current HOFers who should not be there (the most obvious is Babe Ruth, but also Ty cobb and others as well). Rose certainly had his issues off the field, and even bet on baseball. But he has paid his debt and deserves to be in the Hall in my opinion. honestly i think using steroids is worse than betting on the game.
Nick misses the point, that you obviously get Tim.
The reason, I stress primary reason, that Pete Rose will not and should not be enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame is simply because he violated the one ironclad rule that ALL major leaguers must adhere to-you cannot bet on the game of baseball while you are employed as a player or manager. A sign has, and still does, hung prominently in every clubhouse of every major league team stating that you can NEVER BET ON BASEBALL! That’s been the case since the infamous Black Sox scandal nearly a century ago. Rose has admitted that he bet on the Reds while he was their manager and while he was in debt to bookies. It’s not too far a stretch for one to see the importance of the no betting rule, because it could lead to thrown games once again. Baseball is bigger than Pete Rose or any other individual who has every played or managed in it. And while the Sultan of Swat is rarely held up as having been a choir boy, he was never accused of betting on baseball. Same is true for the Georgia Peach. Seeing so many people defend Rose today and root for his enshrinement just shows how gambling has become so accepted in American culture. Bottom line, Rose will always be on the outside looking in, and Charlie Hustle will never be at peace until he admits he has a gambling problem and seeks help.
“Seeing so many people defend Rose today and root for his enshrinement just shows how gambling has become so accepted in American culture.”
Great point. Gambling has become so ubiquitous in this country that we hardly blink an eye at it any more. I’m afraid that within a decade or two the whole Pete Rose controversy will seem like a “silly quaint discussion from a more puritanical age.” I hope that’s not the case but I don’t see gambling ever having the same stigma that it once had in this country.
Hey Tim, this should make you happy, or mad, one or the other:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2233593
Looks like Mr. Rose might have done a little more than lie about gambling…..
Maybe his ban was just afterall. I had disagreed with it fiercly, but recently I’ve started to come around and not liek him at all. If it is true that he corked his bat, that would be the end of the line for me feeling sorry for him.
I still think Sammy “Corky” Sosa should be wiped out from the record books, but that’s just me.