In August of 1989 baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti announced that, “One of the game's greatest players has engaged in a variety of acts which have stained the game, and he must now live with the consequences of those acts.”
Giamatti was referring to Pete Rose, baseball’s legendary Charlie Hustle, then the manager of the Cincinnati Reds. In May of that year, an investigation revealed that Rose was a degenerate gambler wagering thousands on games in which he participated as both player and manager. His actions calling into question the integrity of Major League contests.
Giamatti banned Rose for life from any association with the game, cancelling the hit king’s coronation in that sport’s Hall of Fame.
Last week Rose’s ban expired when he did at the age of 83, still the most controversial figure of baseball’s modern era. His death reignited among baseball fans a conversation as polarizing as Harris-Trump:
Should Pete Rose be forgiven and enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame?
Rose is the owner of four Major League records three of which seem likely never to be broken: for most games played (3,562), most at-bats taken (14,053) and most singles hit (3,215) in any one career.
Rose’s fourth record is for most hits in a Major League career an astounding 4,256, as impenetrable as any of the game’s most armored records. For context, this season’s hit leader was shortstop Bobby Witt who recorded 211 knocks and was one of only two major leaguers to reach the 200-hit plateau this season; a first for Witt.
So another 20-years at this pace and he’ll (almost) catch Rose.
Seventeen times an All-Star Rose was the only player elected to the team at more than one position making the squad at five: left and right fields, as well as first, second and third base. Add three World Series championships and Rose’s baseball life was a field of dreams which should have led to a plaque Cooperstown.
Though Pete should still not get that nod.

I’ve been advising Connecticut chapters of my college fraternity and recently one group had to deal with the consequences of a Rose-like act; a behavior so egregious it cannot represent us, or we are no longer who we say we are.
In short order though my brothers were able to move on from the event in a way which baseball has never moved on from Rose. That quick recovery allowed by a brother’s contrition and willingness to accept responsibility for their actions.
Traits which Pete Rose never displayed. Had he, I find it likely that Baseball would have forgiven Rose and allowed the hit king to wear his crown in Cooperstown.
But Rose chose a different path and instead denied that he bet on baseball; despite a preponderance of evidence proving otherwise. In-fact, it would not be until 2004 before Pete came clean about his behavior and then, it was only in an effort to sell more books.
By then Baseball had enough of Rose and his lies so despite three appeals for reinstatement he remained on the permanently ineligible list until his passing last week, where he is now likely to remain for eternity.
Which as baseball’s all-time greatest pariah, is where he belongs.
Laying a Dime
With post season baseball fully in swing, Saturday football continuing to thrill and my fiancéeic Gaetana spending her days (and nights) caring for her recently widowed mother, watching sports has become my significant pastime.
And Pete was right! It's more fun to watch with some skin in the game.
Before his passing Rose argued that baseball’s coziness with wagering was his Get Out of Jail Free card. A hall pass allowing him to dive head first into the Hall of Fame, though that reasoning fails to move me. Because even recreational gamblers don’t want to bet thinking a game may be fixed.
Not to mention what I think of liars!
A Blurb
As a retailer October always meant high sales volume frequently double that achieved in February, a pattern which imbues the lives of most paint dealers I know. THE trend so dependable it’s possible even my father would had noticed.
Though it would not have been his POS which pointed it out!

