Hall's doors should stay closed for Rose

By By Will Bardwell / staff writer
Jan. 8, 2004
You might need to sit down for this one. Ready? Here goes.
Pete Rose bet on baseball.
In another breaking story, the sky is blue.
Rose, Major League Baseball's all-time hits king, will admit tonight in an interview on ABC that he bet on baseball games including his own team's games while he was manager of the Cincinnati Reds. The announcement will carry the shock value of a Gordon Lightfoot concert, but it's significant because Rose has denied up and down for 14 years that he ever bet on baseball, and especially not the Reds.
And now he wants forgiveness, absolution and admission to the Hall of Fame.
Forget about it.
There's no doubt Rose was one of the greatest hitters to ever play baseball. He was one of the toughest outs for pitchers in the history of the game. He batted over .300 for 14 seasons over a 15-year span, and had more than 200 hits in 10 seasons.
But the sins of Pete Rose the man far supercede anything Pete Rose the player could've ever done. He broke the game's highest law, and now freely admits to doing so. For that, he must pay the game's ultimate penalty.
It's amazing to me that Rose believes his confession should bring him a chance to be reinstated. He was, after all, banished from baseball for betting not for lying about it. If Charles Manson admitted to a few murders, should he be given a pat on the back and a key to the city?
That is, after all, the equivalent of what commissioner Bud Selig will give Rose when he readmits him to the game. That probably won't happen for a while, but it's only a matter of time now. Rose's plaque will hang forever in the same place that honors Ruth, Cobb and Mantle.
As a player, Rose is no doubt worthy of such company. But this isn't about what he did on the field.
Rose certainly wouldn't be the first bad egg to be immortalized in Cooperstown. Mantle was an alcoholic. Ruth was a drunk and a womanizer. Cobb was a racist.
None of them was an angel, but there's no reason to believe they gave anything less than their best at every opportunity. With Rose, such reason does exist.
Any player or manager who bets on his team completely taints any accomplishments he ever had.
Two-for-four with two RBIs. Who's to say he didn't purposefully whiff at ball four in one of those other at-bats?
The Reds lead big going into the ninth. Who's to say Rose the manager didn't put in a struggling reliever to let a couple of runs in?
Cincinnati is tied in the bottom of the 11th inning in a meaningless mid-summer game. Who's to say Rose wouldn't throw in a closer who hasn't taken a day off in a week?
I have no proof of any of that happening, of course. I don't have to. Committing baseball's cardinal sin just once opened the door to those questions and questions about everything else that went on in his career. And Rose bet on games at least four or five times a week.
Conveniently, Rose says he never bet while he was a player and that he never placed bets from the Reds clubhouse (that's unlikely, if you put much stock in the Dowd Report).
Above all else, Rose predictably says he never bet against the Reds. But why should anyone believe that? Rose has lied about everything for 14 years. In the face of near-indisputable evidence, Rose looked into camera after camera for more than a decade and swore he never bet on baseball. Does anyone really believe he is coming forward with the whole truth?
Even if he never bet against Cincinnati, on the days he did not bet on the Reds, he sent a very clear signal to all his associates, "I don't think we can win today." By getting involved in gambling in the first place, no bet at all was just as bad as a bet against his own team.
In tonight's interview, Rose will tell the world, "It's time to wipe the slate clean." That isn't what will happen. The slate has been filthy for years for all the world to see. Rose will finally admit to his crimes, but that doesn't change the fact that he did the things he admits. For Rose, the slate can never be wiped clean.
Confession may get you to Heaven, but it shouldn't be enough to get Pete Rose to Cooperstown.