Tag Archives: Black Sox Scandal

Rose in the Hall of Fame? No way

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Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is a man after my own heart.

He has told Pete Rose categorically this: No matter how great you were on the field of play, you do not deserve reinstatement in the game you dominated for so many years.

I totally agree with Manfred.

It’s been speculated that Manfred’s edict might open the door — if only slightly — for Rose to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. I hope that isn’t the case, either. Most experts, though, say that Manfred’s decision slams the Hall of Fame door shut — forever.

Look, I am as big a baseball fan as any red-blooded American male. I used to love watching Rose play hardball. He got more out of his fairly limited natural athletic ability than any 10 players who ever donned a uniform. Rose played hard and he played to win.

Even in all-star games. Who can forget when he bowled catcher Ray Fosse over in the 1970 all-star game, injuring Fosse so severely that the Cleveland Indians star never recovered fully?

That said, he also violated one of MLB’s cardinal rules. He bet on the game. The rule book stipulates clearly: violation of the no-betting rule shall result in a lifetime ban from the game.

As others have noted, MLB instituted the rule as a reaction to the 1919 Chicago “Black Sox” betting scandal that has kept Shoeless Joe Jackson — another Hall of Fame-quality player — out of the Cooperstown, N.Y., shrine.

I also am acutely aware that the Hall of Fame is full of assorted scoundrels; they are drunks, racists, womanizers, drug users … you name it, they’ve done it and are still in the Hall of Fame.

The Grand Old Game doesn’t stipulate — in writing — that holding racist views or bar-hopping the night before a big game disqualifies you from having anything to do with the game.

It does with betting.

Pete Rose bet on baseball. As Manfred said, Rose “has not presented credible evidence of a reconfigured life either by an honest acceptance by him of his wrongdoing … or by a rigorous, self-aware and sustained program of avoidance by him of all the circumstances that led to his permanent eligibility in 1989.”

Rose's ban from baseball should stick

Being a hard-ass isn’t really my style, but there’s something about Pete Rose that chaps me royally.

The former great baseball player has been banned from baseball for life because he bet on the game. That’s the rule: You bet on baseball, you face a lifetime ban. It’s in the rule book, which I’m certain Rose knew when he broke the rule.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/04/23/rob-manfred-pete-rose-all-star-game/

Now we hear that Major League Baseball, which will have its all-star game this summer in Cincinnati, will allow Rose to play some role in the game ceremonies.

I’ll stipulate a few things: First, I know that Rose had a Hall of Fame career. Second, I also know that he’s applied for reinstatement and Hall of Fame eligibility. Third, I also know that the Hall of Fame is full of racists, drunks, womanizers, adulterers and overall reprobates. Fourth, I also know that no one in the Hall of Fame was caught betting on baseball.

Pete Rose deserves reinstatement on one condition. MLB needs to reinstate Shoeless Joe Jackson, who in 1919 was caught betting on baseball in the infamous Black Sox Scandal in which Jackson and other Chicago White Sox players were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series. Indeed, the no-betting rule was installed because of Shoeless Joe’s actions.

If Major League Baseball sees fit to reinstate the late, great Joe Jackson, then it ought to follow suit with Pete Rose.

First things first, Commissioner Rob Manfred.