Keidel: When It Comes To Pete Rose, Maybe It's Time To Listen To The Fans
By Jason Keidel
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With baseball comes renewal and removal.
We lose the snow, get our grass back and emerge from our houses for more than five minutes. We remember what we looked like without a puffy coat enveloping us, and we're willing to attend outdoor sporting events.
And we are in for our annual Pete Rose debate. Those on each side think they are the universal arbiters of right and wrong, of course. But maybe it's time -- for once -- to listen to fans, as they have the least to lose from the situation.
And fans, in growing hordes, want Rose in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Fans aren't jaded, they didn't lose a bet or a court case to Rose, and they have nothing to gain by his entrance other than perhaps some provincial pride if you're from Ohio.
Call it friendship, loyalty or nepotism, but the heads of baseball don't understand the point. They're holding onto old-world grudges. They talk about order and fairness, yet none of that is compromised by the man with the most hits taking his natural place in Cooperstown.
Allowing Rose into the Hall of Fame doesn't disrespect the memory of Bart Giamatti. Nor does it send a bad message to good kids.
The message has been sent. If you bet on baseball, you are banished from baseball. A ceremony in Cooperstown doesn't change the fact that Rose bet on baseball, admitted to betting on baseball and subsequently faced consequences.
He still can't get a job in baseball. He still can't draw a check from the game that made him famous. And he can't say he's been forgiven.
He still has to hustle for a check, working trade shows. He's still preening from some Las Vegas outpost, offering his signature and a selfie for money. He still has to explain himself over and over again, regurgitate his mea culpa way beyond its expiration date.
We Americans often refer to ourselves in tender tones. We speak of forgiveness. Yet countless players made countless millions by shooting equine potions into their bulging buttocks. They keep their money. They keep their post-baseball jobs.
You don't see Mark McGwire begging for a job. He keeps his high-end coaching position in MLB. Barry Bonds doesn't have to surrender any portion of his paycheck. Rafael Palmeiro suffers nothing other than humiliation. The worst you can say about a retired or reformed juicer is they won't make the Hall of Fame.
Given the choice of endless millions and financial security for life versus a plaque and a few words from one of your peers, most would choose the former.
Fay Vincent recently told WFAN that this is a no-brainer. Well, that's not exactly true. Being intellectually inflexible hurts a lot more than the fate baseball hands Rose. At some point, someone in authority has to see that Vincent's stance is little more than a ballad to his old friends.
As all of us age, we become tethered to the circumstances of our youth. Or to younger, better days. But that cuts both ways. Some say MLB should keep Rose out as part of some implicit directive. Don't reward cheats.
We've been down that road. And it's all relative. And Rose has paid more dearly than any member of the PED pod ever could. In fact, you can still not forgive him and still allow his likeness to be displayed in Upstate New York.
Or you can forgive him for the sake of those who watched him. Despite his capital baseball offense, he earned every hit, run and RBI. We can't say that about hundreds -- if not thousands -- who came after him.
