Points East
THE fans have spoken. But, in the real issue, they don't have much of a say. Rose isn’t helping
his own causeWith 629,742 votes, Pete Rose outdistanced Roberto Clemente, Stan Musial and 12 other Hall-of-Fame outfielders for a spot on baseball's All-Century team. Rose, banned from baseball in 1989 for gambling, received a huge ovation last night before the World Series game in Atlanta, when he was introduced with the other all-time greats.
Does this mean he deserves official reinstatement to baseball and a plaque in Cooperstown?
Certainly. If all those votes aren't enough to convince you, there are 4,256 other reasons -- Rose's record-number of career hits.
But his reinstatement probably won't happen anytime soon, because Rose keeps doing boneheaded things and rubbing the wrong people the wrong way.
His latest miscue was skipping yesterday's All-Century team news conference so he could make a paid appearance -- at a casino of all places.
While Rose has the public's support (at least in the acknowledgement of his greatness as a player) he will never be forgiven by the two entities that can get him back in baseball's good graces and into the Hall -- the commissioner's office and the Baseball Writers Association of America -- until he loses his stubborn and stupid streaks.
Stubborn because he refuses to acknowledge that he might have had, or still might have, a gambling problem.
Stupid because even when given another chance at repentance in a network interview last night, he was instead combative and defensive.
YES, baseball's Hall of Fame includes many social miscreants, including an alleged murderer in Ty Cobb, a guy who pulled a Latrell Sprewell on his manager in Babe Ruth, and a convicted drug smuggler in Ferguson Jenkins.
So why exclude a guy who allegedly bet on a few of his own team's games as a manager, but had the most hits of all time? Scandalous behavior, including everything from spitting on fans to swapping wives, has always been a part of baseball and is more or less forgiven with time.
But not gambling, the seemingly victimless crime that actually can impact the game more than most other vices or crimes.
Shoeless Joe Jackson didn't bet on games, but gambling was his downfall. While his precise involvement in the Black Sox scandal of 1919 remains unclear, Jackson was one of eight players who took money from gamblers manipulating the outcome of the World Series. Those who say Jackson belongs in the Hall, including Ted Williams and Bob Feller, point out that Jackson did nothing to help his team lose the series. Jackson batted .375 in the eight games.
Like Rose, Jackson was banned from baseball.
Rose's situation is different, probably worse. If he bet on his team while managing, it could have affected the game's integrity because of its unique nature. More than in any other sport, managerial decisions made in one major league baseball game can and do affect future games; Rose could have gone through his bullpen in games he bet on rather than saving some arms for the next day.
Many baseball fans don't seem to care about this. Even if they don't believe Rose when he says he didn't bet on baseball, they are ready to forgive and enshrine.
But this is one vote the fans don't get to make.
As long as Pete Rose keeps snubbing his nose at baseball's establishment, he'll never see the Hall of Fame in his lifetime.
And yesterday might have been his last on a big-league baseball field.
That's sad, because it could have been a long-awaited welcome home.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii
from 1977 to 1998, is a sportswriter at the
Gainesville Sun. E-mail reardod@gvillesun.com