http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5553785
What is the point of a lifetime ban if you let him into the park for a day.
Either ban him, or reinstate him.
Considering Clemens, Bonds, and McGwire–isn’t he going to be a hitting coach now–have had little punishment from baseball, you would think Pete might catch a break afrer all these years.
Either way, seems kind of fucked up if you ask me.
I can’t access the story, but it’ll be a sad day in sports if any you mentioned make the hall of fame and Rose is still out.
I think they should reinstate him. Sure, he bet on baseball, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he may be the GOAT. The hall should be for the best (clean) players, not just the most virtuous ones.
Not to hijack the thread, but ESPN.com also has an excellent companion story on Eric Show, who gave up Rose’s record-breaking hit and caused a controversy by sitting down on the mound afterwards in what many felt was a display of disrespect. Show battled personal problems his entire life and his career was cut short by drug addiction, and he eventually died of an overdose. Long piece but worth reading.
I can’t access the story, but it’ll be a sad day in sports if any you mentioned make the hall of fame and Rose is still out.
The link should be ok.
This is the beginning of the piece:
An evening of forgiveness
I never saw a man enjoy his work more than Pete Rose. He played every game like he’d been let out
of solitary confinement for the day. He didn’t read books, never went to college and was unfit for cocktail parties. He was 99-44/100 percent baseball, from that butcher-block head to his endlessly tapping feet.
He would sprint to first on walks, slide face-first into second and slam baseballs into the AstroTurf on third outs.
He could compute his average on the way to first. He knew which were strike umps, ball umps, high umps, low umps, hitters’ umps and pitchers’ umps. Rose even knew which ground crews were bunt-friendly.
“He thinks about baseball day and night,” Sparky Anderson once said of him. “He can’t sit five minutes in a chair and talk to you about something else. He’ll get up. Baseball is all he thinks about. He’ll never leave the game.”
Instead, the game left him. Banned from baseball in 1989 for gambling on it, there was never a crueler punishment devised for one person. It was like taking beer from Norm or mirrors from Demi Moore.
Which makes this Saturday night in Cincinnati that much more delicious for him.
Rose has been granted one evening’s pardon by MLB commissioner Bud Selig to re-create base knock No. 4192, the one that made him the undisputed hit king. It will be 25 years to the day at Great American Ball Park. And it will be the first time he’s stepped foot on a Reds infield in 21 years, a kind of solitary confinement in itself.
Naturally, a lot of cranky dandruff collections have their boxers in a wad about it.
“When the keeper of the Rules does not enforce the Rules, there are no Rules,” former commissioner Fay Vincent e-mailed the NY Post. “…I totally disagree with the Selig position. Either enforce the Rules or reinstate him. … I do not believe Selig wants to bring Rose back. But he wants to be loved in Cincinnati.”
Selig is an idiot.
I ma surprised she not headed that way since I guess there are still tickets available. They are also offering some signed something for the first X amount of fans who pay full price for tickets or something like that.
Obviously I am fuzzy on the details.
Originally they weren’t going to have the celebration today, the 25th anniversary of 4192, because Pete had a prior committment at a nearby casino. The casino rescheduled his appearance to be later in the evening to allow Pete to be at the pre-game ceremonies.
True story.
Selig is an idiot.
Could not agree more.
What Pete did as a manager is unexcusable, but his on field performance is amazing. As a kid I hated Pete he always seemed to have great games agains the Dodgers.
Selig Part Two
His Unwillingness to budge on instant replay really pisses me off
In his personal life I think the guy is a scumbag (west sides finest). But as a player, he deserves to be in without question. It will be interesting to see what happens when Bonds becomes eligible.