Talking Sports: It's time to bring Rose back to baseball

I just completed my first summer—or three weeks I should say—covering Sidney Post 17 legion baseball and I have to say it was a blast.

Despite an unfortunately early exit from the district tournaments for both the junior and senior teams, getting to know the players, coaches, parents and everyone behind the program was a gratifying experience for me.

I would like to take a moment to congratulate the players and coaches on fine seasons.

I would also like to thank everyone involved with the program for welcoming me so warmly into the community.

I greatly appreciate how professional everyone was about talking to me after the games, even when it was difficult at times. I’m eagerly looking forward to another fun season next summer.

Now you all know I’m a massive baseball fan and because of that, I have a hard time moving on from the end of the summer season.

I know this is also a baseball-centric community and so I wanted to keep the baseball topics rolling in.

The topic of my column today is one that I have many thoughts on—many more than can be expressed in this space—and one that I hope you’ll enjoy reading about.

I think it is becoming one of the most pressing debates in the baseball world: The future of the great Pete Rose.

One of the best pieces I’ve ever read on Rose was a Sports Illustrated feature by Kostya Kennedy that came out on March 5 titled “A Quarter Century Later, There are No Easy Answers to the Pete Problem.”

Out of the entire piece, two lines stuck with me the most. They read:

“Rose has been banished [from baseball] for the incalculable damage he might have done to the foundation of the game. Steroid users are reviled for the damage they actually did.”

In other words we know exactly—and with a great amount of detail—the effect notorious PED users such as Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire had on the game. We do not know the magnitude to which Rose’s gambling had on the game. We can speculate all we want but we do not know for certain.

Baseball should operate on the same foundations this very country was built upon: innocent until proven guilty. And in this case I argue that being “proven guilty” entails having in-depth factually certain knowledge of exactly what the offender did.

In the case of those other three names we absolutely do. In the case of Rose we do not.

Bonds, McGwire and Roger Clemens among other possible users were eligible for Hall of Fame induction on last year’s ballot and even received a substantial amount of votes.

Clemens received the most votes with 214, or 37.6 percent of the ballot. Bonds pulled in 206 votes, good for 36.2 percent. McGwire, arguably the most notorious of the three, still received 96 votes, which is 16.9 percent of the ballot.

I realize that those players weren’t even close to reaching the 75 percent of the ballot needed to earn an induction. But just the fact that their names appear on the ballot, while the man with the most hits of all time is still in exile from the game after 25 years is utterly outrageous.

Tim Kurkjian once said on an ESPN.com podcast that it might take 80 to 100 years for Rose just to be allowed back into baseball, let alone inducted into Cooperstown.

Kurkjian—and I do not disagree with his assessment at all—noted that it would take the dying out of the “Golden Age” generation of older baseball writers who pledged themselves to the honoring of each and every rule, before Rose is finally exonerated.

Kurkjian believes it will also take the emergence of a new generation of younger baseball writers—hopefully myself one day—who grew up in the darkness of the PED era to just say, “You know what? 4,256 hits are simply too much to not trump a silly gambling accusation. What he did really wasn’t that bad when put in perspective.”

I’m not saying that what Rose might have done is not a serious violation of he rules at the time. Rather, I’m simply saying that the punishment has far exceeded the crime.

This whole fiasco is an embarrassing indictment of Major League’s Baseball’s priorities when it comes to player discipline. It shows a complete lack of competence when examining the context of Rose’s situation in comparison to other offenders and even repeat offenders. This stinks of hypocrisy.

I argue that Rose should not only be re-instated into baseball immediately, but that he should also be put on next year’s Hall of Fame ballot.

This is highly unlikely to happen, but his allowance back into the MLB community at least, should be one of the first tasks of the league’s new commissioner who will take over for Bud Selig after this season.

That’s just the moral case I make for Rose.

If that isn’t convincing enough for all the old-timers out there—I know many of them—who believe that “the rule at the time was the principal rule and he broke it,” here are some of his most prestigious accomplishments on the field.

Rose surpassed in number of hits—by nearly one half an average season’s worth—Ty Cobb, who many still consider to be the greatest contact hitter to ever lay hands on a bat. That speaks volumes when you consider that Rose thrived in what was perhaps the most dominant twenty years of pitching ever, against the likes of a young Nolan Ryan, Juan Marichal, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Catfish Hunter and the Vida Blue. The listgoes on and on.

The bottom line in the statistical arena with any argument in favor of Rose is I believe, that the number 4,256 trumps any opposition that might spring up.

Generally in this game, reaching or surpassing one or more of four major benchmarks gets you a sure fire ticket to Cooperstown: 3,000 hits, 500 home runs, .300 career batting average or 1,000 RBIs. Rose destroyed that first one which might be the most difficult of all to achieve.

Rose also finished his distinguished career with a .303 accumulative batting average and a .375 OBP. In 15 of his first 18 seasons he hit .300 or better, including a stretch of nine years in row between 1965-73.

Nicknamed “Charlie Hustle” because of his world-class work ethic, Rose was a 17-time All-Star, a Roberto Clemente Award winner in 1976 and is a member of

Baseball’s All-Century team. He was the best player on “The Big Red Machine” teams of the mid 1970s, which is thought to be oneof the strongest teams ever.

If Rose had hit for more power—he only hit 160 homers in 24 years—I believe he could be included in the discussion as the best player, or at least the best hitter of all-time.

For the record, my pick f

or the greatest of all time is not the Babe, but rather William Howard Mays, Jr, who gets the nod over the Bambino for his legendary defense and all-around play.

Feel free to discuss that with me. I always welcome such baseball debates.

Now tell me how in the world Rose, with that kind of career, is still banned from the game after 25 years. Many in the baseball world, particularly San Francisco Giants fans, wildly celebrated Bonds’ record-breaking 756th home run in the 2007 season.

We know he cheated and it is believed that as many as half of his career numbers are tainted by steroid use.

Yet 206 people who are supposedly hand-selected to vote for Hall candidates—individuals who are chosen based on a display of the highest level of integrity in their work, voted for Bonds to be inducted.

When will we ever learn?

It’s time to move on.

Rose had one of the five best individual offensive careers of all-time and after a quarter of a century, it’s time to reassess his career compared to others who are being considered for induction.

Pete has served a fair sentence. Now it’s time for one of the greatest this game has ever seen to be allowed to return home.