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Pete Rose: My Life Without Class
January 11- With the risk of furtherly glorifying Pete Rose by actually mentioning
his name and playing right into his grandstanding nature, I still wanted to
get off a blast about good ol' Charlie Hustler. Last week, Rose came forward
and admitted to betting on baseball while managing the Cincinnati Reds.
Coincedentally, his admission became public right before his new book
came out. No way. Never expected that out of Pete.
The admission was Rose's final step in his master plan to supposedly get re-instated.
The whole thing has been brewing since 1989, but Rose seriously began conspiring in
1997. His son, Pete Rose, Jr. made it to the Reds that year and the elder Pete began publicly
bellyaching about not being able to go to the park to see his boy play. Also around that time,
Rose gained controversy by giving an impromptu "coaching clinic" to
a group of minor league players. Rose was playing it up for sympathy and at the time
it did in fact seem like re-instatement was on the horizon.
Then Rose REALLY began to conspire. In August of 1999, he appeared on several sports magazine
TV shows, commemorating the tenth anniversary of his banishment. Commemorating the
tenth anniversary of a famous screw-up?! That's like going out and celebrating
the anniversary of your first auto accident or last job firing. Rose turned on the crocodile tears
and played it up, again.
Rose appeared at the World Series in 1999 and came off like the good guy, when he was
ambushed by TV reporter Jim Grey. Grey blatantly asked Rose if he did,indeed, bet on baseball.
The incident drew outrage from media types, players and even baseball's front office.
Grey was subsequently "re-assigned" from MLB broadcasts.
I believe it was the 2002 World Series when Rose notched the next step in his plan.
MLB was having another bullshit "greatest moments of all-time that have occured
in baseball while a game was being played"...or something along those lines.
Aside from the ridiculous annointment of Cal Ripken's as #1, and
leaving out any mention of Lou Gehrig's retirement speech or Bill Mazeroski's
Series-winning homer, the list included Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb's
hit mark. Surprise, surprise, but there was Rose himself.. standing in
the middle of Pac Bell Park with announcers Ray Liotta and Andy Garcica screaming
and fans actually applauding. Not surprisingly, Rose had a smug smile on his
face, as if he was saying "take that, Bug Selig. Here I am at the World Frickin' Series,
and people dig me! Get my ass in the Hall of Fame, ya ol' coot"
And that leads us to last week's "shocking" admission. If Rose was
sincere about admitting his guilt, he should have done it of his own accord,
when a $25 hardback book was NOT on the horizon. As it is, it's another step in
the grandstanding career of baseball's all-time egocentric king.
I've alwasy been suspicious of Rose, but there was a time when I belived he deserved to be
re-instated and in the Hall of Fame.
It was 1995, and my justification was "hey, if that asshole Ty Cobb's
in the Hall, why not Pete?" Using the transitive property I figured that
Rose broke Cobb's record, therefore he should be in the Hall. But that was before
I grasped the reality of gambling and affecting the outcome of the game. This is baseball's
cardinal sin. You only have to look at the 1919 Black Sox scandal to know how
serious these charges are.
After it became public knowledge that the White Sox may have thrown the World Series,
baseball was almost strapped to the electric chair. Fan interest was at an all-time
low and the big leagues were on the brink of extinction. To make up for
the attrocity, baseball created the comissionership and brought in judge Kenesaw "Mountain"
Landis. Landis was a hard-nose but his ascension was a message to the players and the public.
Even with Landis's presence, things were still shaky. It wasn't until the Red Sox shipped
off their best player to the New York Yankees that baseball was officially saved.
To say that Babe Ruth and the Yankees reignited baseball would be an understatement.
Ruth was a once in a lifetime phenonmenon- larger than life- and without his feats
baseball may very have died in the 1920's. It took baseball's greatest player to
reinvigorate the game and erase the stigma of the Black Sox. Ever since, baseball
has considered gambling the anti-Christ. It's not taken lightly.
Which is why Rose should remain exiled. Not because of his self-promoting actions, because
he committed the cardinal sin. Nevermind that he
used his own son as a ploy, or had no problems about
upstaging the Hall of Hame inductions of Paul Molitor and
Dennis Eckersley. Rose has a gambling problem. While he promised to
never bet on baseball again, he opened the other side of his mouth and stated that
he didn't see anything wrong with going to the horse track every other week.
True story: In June 1992, I was young and naive and drove up to Northglenn, Colorado
for one of those foolish sportscard shows. Pete Rose was there, signing autographs.
I saved up 15 bucks and was dumb enough to buy a ticket. There was a little kid in front of
me, wearing an Oakland A's hat. The newly goateed Mark McGwire was off to a torrid homerun pace that year (1992) and had everyone talking about breaking Roger Maris's mark.
The kid went up to Rose and Rose noticed the youngster's cap. "Hey, you like the Oakland A's?
How many homeruns do you think Mark McGwire will hit this year" The kid didn't really know
why he was in line, and just kinda stared. "I'll betcha' he won't hit
50! I'll betcha' an ice cream on it! okay?! Let's shake on it". Everyone in the crowd raised their
eyebrows. Rose looked over at the startled ticket vendors and said "oh wait! Forget
that.. you should never bet on anything!" Ayup.
In all fairness to Rose, he should quit bitching and wait until he's eligible for Hall of Fame
election by the Veterans Committee. That way a jury of his peers can decide if he should
be among them. This would be the fair plan... as long as Ray Fosse has the deciding vote.
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