Posted on 11/14/2013 12:01:57 PM PST by EveningStar
...We are coming on 25 years of Pete Rose's banishment...
Pete Rose played baseball with an intensity and love that might be unmatched in the game's history. He cracked more hits and reached base more times than anyone ever. He represented a way to play baseball that inspired millions of people. Then, he gambled on games, breaking one of baseball's most cherished rules. Rose is 72 years old now, and I think it's time to let him back into the game. I don't think anyone should ask him to apologize again or come any cleaner than he has. I don't think anyone should expect Pete Rose to be something that he is not. It has been almost 25 years. He has paid his debt.
(Excerpt) Read more at hardballtalk.nbcsports.com ...
Yes...posthumously.
If he were a black superstar basketball player with an enormous golf gambling debt, he could have taken a year off then come back and play some more.......
And the great thing about America is that we're all entitled to our own opinion. I don't have to agree with it, but I do respect it.
The gambling rules are also posted in every NFL locker room.
No! He knew the rule when he broke it.
If you travel to the original Olympic Stadium in Greece, there is a long row of statues on which were carved the names of those found cheating in the Olympics, forever to be shamed by a permanent memorial that everyone walked by on the way into the stadium. Shame was intended as a deterrent for other cheaters.
The winners won laurels, literally branches from a tree or bush that were wrapped around their head.
It was meant to show that all glory is fleeting, and it is the competition that mattered.
My, how society has changed from those original Olympics. Those that cheat no longer feel shame, and we feel that shame, rather than glory, should be fleeting, while we erect monuments to the winners, lauding it as a permanent glory.
What then, to do with Pete Rose?
Rose should be in the Hall as a “player”. In fact he is. His 4,256 hits is still the record. He just doesn’t have a plaque.
The big reason for the betting rules are NOT whether or not you’re for or against your team, it’s what happens when you get in debt to people that live on the wrong side of the law. By illegally betting on sports you’re volunteering to be blackmailed. That’s where most of the big point shaving scandals in history come from, not because they bet against their team, but to “work off” debt.
A friend of mine played in the Reds organization while Rose was manager. He actually got to make a short trip to the majors, but pretty much topped out at AAA ball. He said that in Spring Training, in the morning Rose would pick some guy who was probably not going past AA, and send him over to the dog track across the street to place Rose’s bets.
In the afternoon, Rose was nowhere to be seen around the Reds’ complex; he was at the track himself. My friend told me nobody knew more about baseball than Pete Rose. And he’d never met someone whose personal life was so messed up.
It seems pointless to keep him out after going through the steroid era. As they say, when he was a player he played the game “the right way.”
A sad fact which I have heard from other close sources through the years.
Pete Rose should only be admitted to the HOF after he is dead. He should not be given the opportunity to make a speech at his induction ceremony.
YES!
Yes to the hall of fame. No to any other baseball involvement.
If we can have cheaters hitting home run records on roids Pete should be in as well.
He’s white and male. Screw him. </sarcasm.
If no Pete then I want McGwire and Bonds taken out now. Ban Aroid as well. Steroid use is more of taint on the game imo.
Don’t put him in for managing put him in for his play.
perfect
No.
Sad, because I like Pete and hated Giamatti. But, there is one rule above all, Pete broke it and admitted to it. Case closed.
All the socialist blowhards who complain about the $$$ ballplayers get need to realize that the days of gamblers fixing pro sports are long over. The players make more than the mobsters! It’s irrelevant nowadays. When Pete came up, the team bus driver made as much as half the players. Bribery was a real threat.
I bet there’s point shaving going on in college all the time.
I’m in agreement about Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, Palmeiro, A-rod, Clemens and all the roid players. They should not be allowed into the HOF. It is a stain on the game. What makes their conduct so bad is that baseball is so stat driven. Their stats are not legitimate. And one wonders how “illegitimate” all the stats of that era are.
There will be a drought of inductions for a while because of this. Greg Maddux for sure should be inducted. But after that, there are a lot of question marks.
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