MLB: THE PETE ROSE SAGA

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // MLB: THE PETE ROSE SAGA---THE most compelling reason for former Cincinnati Reds ballplayer and manager, Pete Rose, to be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame comprises four digits: 4,256. Yes, 4,256 hits, which placed the great Ty Cobb’s record of most career hits, 4,189, into the vault that contains wondrous but second place stats. . . COBB became a Hall of Famer many decades ago, 1936. Had Rose not been found gambling on baseball repeatedly in the last century, he would have been a Hall of Famer probably before year 2000. Rose played in the majors 1963 through 1986, banished from the game for life in 1989 because of his gambling issues, along with elimination of any right to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, this in spite of his having been the game’s best on-base hitter, his having accrued 160 home runs, 1,314 RBI’s, a career batting average above .300, also being a Gold Glove winner, a National League MVP, and an All Star selectee 17 X. . . YET a recent Sports Illustrated article and book by SI writer, Kostya Kennedy, reminds that baseball and gambling have developed mutual market-value relations, which is not the best reason for Rose to be a Hall of Fame inductee but does underscore that it’s time to revisit the Pete Rose/Hall of Fame story, to ask, “How valid is that which has kept Rose from Cooperstown, and what else besides his career hits could justify Rose joining Cooperstown as soon as possible?” . . . LET's examine, starting with knowledge that behind Rose’s Hall of Fame ineligibility has been one factor, gambling’s consequences affecting any sport, for instance, a betting athlete, manager or coach could attempt to throw a game in order to earn what he needs to cover losses. Not that Rose ever did that, but a precedent was established in the early 1900’s when several players of a Chicago ballclub confessed to throwing games. Right after, professional American baseball sent up a flag that still reads, “Never Again.” Rose violated that ethical pronouncement, a disloyalty that he has not only confessed to but has felt shame and remorse over, saying so publicly. . . SO, there’s what has amounted to a rule that any MLB player, manager, coach, member of a front office discovered to be gambling on game outcomes is to be banished from baseball and disallowed Hall of Fame consideration. Some analysts and Hall of Fame officials will argue that the Rose matter should end at this black-and-white line, with Rose’s banishment from the game, no Hall of Fame consideration ever. Even so, any rule could thin considerably and lose meaning from actions and attitudes as time goes by, producing circumstances that should overturn a decision meant to punish. . . CONSIDER, as the recent SI article suggests, that more than just a few ballplayers have committed crimes against baseball that are far worse than Rose’s gambling problem, and they have not been banished from the game, and some still have an opportunity to be Hall of Famers, namely boys from Steroid-land---Bonds, Clemons, others. . . ALSO positive for a Hall of Fame Pete Rose induction is that not one of his amazing stats occurred under the influence of gambling, and Rose never used steroids or any other illegal substances to enhance ability. Moreover, excessive gambling is now known to be an addiction, and the major leagues, the NFL and the NBA have been second- and third-chance providers for rehabbed athlete-addicts. Without naming names, teams from these leagues have helped to rehab heroin addicts, alcoholics, even wife-beaters, and appropriately let them back in their sport. An important aside here is that Rose has defeated his gambling impulses. . . TOO, denying Rose a return to baseball and a Hall of Fame billet can hurt baseball and Cooperstown the way that a solution to a problem can be more damaging than the problem itself, this by making the game appear hypocritical, even clownish, not to be taken seriously. A related argument that has been made in Rose’s favor is that in any sport the numbers accrued by individual players and by a team surely reflect many of the sport’s core values---commitment, discipline, hard work, etc. Athletic competition is much about numbers, and the best numbers play a role in any sport’s demonstration of superb athletic prowess. Among baseball players, the creation of a performance record that will last is “the holy grail.” From stats alone, then, Pete Rose is a giant, and baseball’s giants belong in the Hall of Fame. This argument points to the fact that the Hall of Fame was created to honor an athlete’s extraordinary accomplishments afield, to respect and place into history that which has been translated into significant stats. Ignoring those numbers to send a message to players who might be tempted to “break bad” contravenes what Cooperstown was meant to be. . . BY keeping Rose from the Hall of Fame for his now gone gambling addiction, the reputation of the Hall of Fame as an institution that is expected to reward great accomplishments is reduced, marred certainly from its collusion with a judgment about a ballplayer’s character deficiency and the punishment from that judgment. This is a position that today pales, it has shifted toward absurdity, especially in light of baseball’s proper compassion toward players recovering from addictions and the leniency given certain steroid-users, all those stiff fines and short suspensions instead of what Rose has endured. . . END/ml.