Running Baseball Diary for 2004

This will be posted for the entire year, on a weekly, monthly, or whenever I want to post it basis.  It will start over in 2005.

January 5

Well, it's a new year, and already we have a pressing baseball story.  Pete Rose has admitted that he gambled on baseball.  Well, with the announcement of who will be joining the Hall of Fame as the class of 2004 coming tomorrow, let's take a look at this man that still is on the outside looking in, and things should remain that way.

The first thing I would like to discuss is the whole disclosure about Pete RoOse gambling.  I think that the majority of us that have followed this case over the years probably believed he had gambled.  The fact of the matter is that he never said he didn't gamble in his life.  Fay Vincent took all kinds of information and there was a plea bargain in which Rose decided to end the investigation and agreed to be banned for life from baseball.  That just is not the action of a person that knows he was innocent.

So, now we know that Rose wagered on baseball, including on his team.  Well, you know what, I can look past that.  Assuming he isn't continuing to lie about the fact that he didn't bet against his team, then I really have no problem with what he did.  And, here is why.  A player, coach and manager should be doing everything in their power to win every game.  They owe it to their bosses, themselves, and the fans.  Certainly if Rose had additional incentive, in cash form, riding on the outcome of the game he was probably trying even harder to win.  And, this is a guy that was known as Charlie Hustle and for his desire to win.  In reality, how does that hurt the integrity of the game?  In fact, I wish every player was forced to bet on their team, that way maybe with some money on the line players wouldn't just play out the string.  We have all seen teams mail it in.  Yes, I am being sarcastic there, but seriously, if he only bet on the Reds who was really hurting?  Assuming he wasn't paying anybody off on another team to throw a game, and that allegation has never been made.

As for him lying to the public for years about betting, that I think is a worse offense.  For well over a decade he has been not just lying, but knowing what he had done and trying his best to sell us a lie.  He was trying to win in the court of public opinion, and now out of the clear blue has decided to admit to gambling.  How is anybody supposed to trust anything he ever says again?  Not that he is the first person to lie, and he certainly won't be the last, but to go on and on like he has over the years to me is worse than what he did....or what I think he did.

So, should he be reinstated?  Well, sort of. He should be allowed into baseball's Hall of Fame.  It is not the humanitarian Hall of Fame, it is baseball's.  The guy has more hits than anyone that ever played the game.  How can you have a credible Hall of Fame if one of the best players to ever lace a pair of spikes isn't included?  Is basketball going to hold Michael Jordan out of their hall because he wagered on golf and played cards?  Certainly not.  Pete Rose did not harm the integrity of the game.  Oh my God, he placed a bet.  I bet you (no pun intended) that if you were in the clubhouse of any Major League Baseball team over the course of a season somebody would place a wager on their own performence.  Something along the lines of "I bet I get three hits today" or "I bet I can take this guy deep".  As long as people aren't betting they will fail who is harmed?  There is a problem if there is a perception of players throwing games, but again, that was never the allegation.

However, that is where I draw the line.  I don't think I would let Pete Rose have any official role in baseball.  While I can't imagine anybody would hire him to a coaching or managerial position (even if the Reds have allegedly discussed it), I don't think he should be given the chance.  He needs to pay a price for what he did, which was against the rules, and he knew it.  He deserves to have a spot in the Hall of Fame, and the Hall of Fame deserves to have a place to immortalize one of the game's best players of all-time.  If Major League Baseball even wanted to appoint Pete Rose as an ambassador for the game, after all he is rather popular, that would even be fine.  Allow him to do anything in baseball that he'd like to do other than to have official involvement in the operation of a baseball team. 

In the end, all I ask is that they punish the crime, not the person.  He broke the rules while managing the Reds, so don't allow him to be a coach or manager.  If public opinion wants to punish him for a decade of lies, that's fine.  However, baseball's Hall of Fame is a joke without a plaque of one of the game's best players.  And, this is totally different from other people that are banned from baseball.  The players involved in the Black Sox scandle did harm to the integrity of the game by laying down.  They threw the World Series.  Pete Rose was a gambler, as a manager.  That doesn't discount any of those 4,256 hits, and that is the reason he belongs in the Hall.