Here I am big guy!......wink wink. 
Posted on 01/02/2004 10:20:59 AM PST by presidio9
Here I am big guy!......wink wink.
Betting on baseball by a baseball player is more dangerous TO BASEBALL than a baseball player selling drugs, shooting somebody, raping somebody, or beating up their pregnant girlfriend.
Baseball isn't society.
If Shoeless Joe Jackson is ever admitted to the HOF, I'd like to see the HOF blown up with a MOAB, the wreckage burned, and then the crater covered with salt so nothing would ever grow there again.
Sorry to nitpick, but Montreal has never been in the playoffs.
That being said, Pete Rose was a tremendous ballplayer, but professional sports need to make harsh examples of those who harm the integrity of the game.
Pete Rose is a greedy, vulgar lowlife. The ironic thing is that his fan club is comprised of people who spend all of their time bitching about current players being greedy vulgar lowlifes.
His idiotic running to first for a walk was pointless showboating, worse than a hitter admiring a homerun. It was a "look at me" move, just like anything Terrell Owens has done.
He took advantage of his status as manager to play himself when he'd clearly lost it, in order to break the hits record.
All Pete Rose has done for the last 15 years is bitch about his "unfair" treatment. And no, he didn't do his time. His punishment was a lifetime ban from baseball. He is still alive.
You must be a Cubs fan
If that were the question the discussion would be complicated...should O.J. Simpson, for example, be in the football HOF?
But that is not the correct question -- the Rose situation is clearer than that. Betting on the sport you are a part of is NOT off-field behavior. It implicates your on-field play. It creates a presumption that your competitive effort is for sale. There is no need to have actual proof of throwing a game. The HOF honor is not just for guys who put up great numbers; it also indicates that you honored the game by your presence in it.
Rose, unarguably one of the best hitters in history, has not honored the game. Rose deserves the ban.
Not so. Check out 1981 at NLCS history
In 1981, the Phillies (and I am a lifetime Phillies phan) were in first place at the time of the major league players strike. This was the year after the Phils won their first and only World Series in 1980. And Pete Rose was on the 1980 and 1981 Phillies teams.
When the strike was settled and the games resumed, they decided to split the season so that there was a first half division winner and a second half winner. The first half winner was the Phillies and the second half winner was the Montreal Expos (the Phillies tanked in the second half).
The Phillies and Expos played in a playoff series to determine the division champ, and the Expos won that.
The Expos went on to lose to LA in the National League Championship series, 3 games to 2.
Remember: They split the season in two halves. The Expos beat the (defending champion) Phillies in the "Divisional Series" in 5 games, then went on the lose to the Dodgers in the NLCS.
BTW, I know this because I'm Phillies fan and at the age of 17 was really bummed out about it...not because I'm a "need to get a life" baseball fanatic who just wants to be a pain in the ass!
I remember Game 4 of that series when George Vochovich hit the game winning home run to send the series to game 5. Unfortunately for the good guys, Steve Rodgers then beat Steve Carlton to end it.
Yes, I remember that. In fact, I think that's the only thing I remember about that series....
He was one of the greatest players who ever lived but to this very day, he has no idea was baseball is really all about.
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