Harken back with me, dear readers, to a time now long gone and missed by many. That time when sports talk radio was more about the games, the issues and the stories surrounding said events and their athlete. Contrasted to the more recent “now”, a place where mentally pre-pubescent grown men hammer away at attractive women who wouldn’t touch them with the proverbial ten foot pole, and live shows “on location” were being held at sex toy conventions. The conversation centered around having an admitted sex worker as guest and discussing ways to attract said ladies and how to bring them to orgasm, despite the fact they really didn’t want to be pawed at by these dwellers of Mom’s basement and purveyors of a fine Mountain Dew or other energy swill.
I’m not kidding. That was the actual conversation one day on the South Florida sports yakker then known as “940 The Sports Animal”, more legally known as WINZ-AM. Today the station is known as “FOX Sports 940”, and in keeping with the high broadcast content standards of anything and everything FOX, they are completely syndicated save for just the local morning show which is populated by aging jocks and their requisite sniffers still trying to remain relevant, and still leering with their “guy talk” babble. While they’re told this is what the audience wants, their nearly imperceptible ratings prove otherwise.
However, I digress.
For those of us on the air during those halcyon days, no difference the market, the conversation. or even what was actually happening in sports, it was always about making the phones ring. Program Directors, at the time, erroneously and arrogantly tried to make us believe that the number of phone calls received showed how popular we were, and would be used in contract negotiations when time came to try and cheat the air-talent yet again out of a working wage. This despite consistent research that showed less than 5% of listeners ever picked up a phone to call.
Every show, especially those during the evening hours, were going to eventually hit a lull where nothing was working. Not much controversial to talk about, nothing out there that could be fabricated into controversy for the sake of conversation, so every host held in their figurative back pocket an “ace in the hole”. Those one or two topics that no matter when you brought them up, no matter the audience, and no matter if it bore any relevance whatsoever to the moment, was guaranteed to light up the phones like the New York City skyline during 4th of July fireworks.
For me, and so many others, the button was punched every time bringing up Pete Rose and the issue of his not being in the Baseball Hall of Fame. A guaranteed winner every single time. A veritable cascade of jabs, jerks, opinions, over the top bellowing, the placing of blame and a descent into a conversation where, thankfully for the host, there was no winner. It was self-generating. Just pick up the phones, let them spew, and 10 more would line up to blast away.
Saved more than a few jobs, I’m here to tell you.
Those experiences are without question the reason why I never get involved in any discourse over Rose and his numerous transgressions. The debate is exactly the same today as it was decades ago. There is nothing new to add, save for Pete wandering his way thru the autograph desert and always trying to embellish his self-tarnished reputation. In recent years, Rose had succeeded in having more people see him in a sympathetic light, an old man reaching the end of days and, at least in his mind and that of his faithful, deserving of our sympathy and with it, a rewriting of history to fit the sad moment.
What nonsense.
I am not here to denigrate Rose nor to insult him in the days following his passing. I have no axe to grind with Pete. And there is no need to purposely speak ill of anyone after their demise.
Well, there are a few people I can think of that deserve it, and those that will. Let’s leave that for another time.
The death of Pete Rose should be properly viewed thru the lens of historical fact, because in that manner, all the screeching discourse comes to a close as, again, the same old argument from days gone by.
In the sense of purely baseball, Rose remains unmatched in so many categories. Few played the game with such zeal and passion. His numbers from the baseball diamond speak for themselves with no need to list yet again.
Which brings us to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the erroneous statement from so many that Pete Rose deserves to be in Cooperstown.
He already is.
Rose’s accomplishments on the field are numerous, and in the Hall, one can and has been able to find plenty of mentions and accolades about his many records.
Rookie of the Year at 22. MVP at the age of 32. An All-Star 17 times. The All-Time leader in base hits with 4.256. Games played. At-bats. Singles. They’re all there in the Hall of Fame. His name has not been blurred out, and anyone who visits the shrine or looks into the record books has an easy time learning about the astounding trail he blazed.
On the field.
The Rose HOF bandwagon also carries with it those who spread more than a little disinformation. For instance, once again we are bombarded with seething anger toward members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, known as the BBWAA. Honestly, I have a very dim view of many of their members, who have made arrogance a calling card over the years.
In this case, the anger is misdirected when noting “the writers who banned Rose from the Hall”. Fact is, the BBWAA has nothing to do with it. Then MLB Commissioner Bart Giamatti is the one who slapped Rose with a lifetime ban and thus made him ineligible for Cooperstown. The Hall itself, and the writers, are powerless and without blame.
The arguments that Rose should be granted individual Hall of Fame status because MLB is now in bed with legalized gambling is also specious and wayward. Rule 21 remains in effect and has never wavered. It stands today with just as much force as it had when Rose was caught betting on his own team. Just remind yourself of the recent furor over Shohei Ohtani, his assistant, and the depth baseball went to in seeking the truth, one where Ohtani was completely exonerated.
Just because baseball, like every other major and even college sport, is profiting from legalized gambling now has absolutely no bearing whatsoever on what Rose did, and what he admitted to. The steroid issue that has hung over baseball for decades, also, has no bearing on this case. The only things that are pertinent are the facts.
The fact remains, Pete Rose was an addict, and while he pined for forgiveness, he spit on every opportunity he was given to make simple amends and be given his day in Cooperstown.
What his champions also forget is the secret meeting held between Rose and then-MLB Commissioner Bud Selig in 2002, a gathering arranged by friends and former teammates Joe Morgan and Mike Schmidt. Selig made it crystal clear. He would be inclined to lift the lifetime ban if Pete stopped participating in every form of gambling. No more hanging around the casinos or racetracks. Period. He would then hold a press conference and openly admit to his crime against baseball. He would apologize to everyone and promise nothing of the kind would ever happen again. Certainly, the pride in Rose would be damaged, but this was far short of Draconian.
They two men shook hands on the deal. Rose then walked away from the meeting and headed straight for an appearance at a sports book. Selig was furious, and knew he was betrayed by a man who made habits of betrayal. That moment sealed Pete’s fate forever. All he had to do was a simple act of contrition, but it was either his addiction or his pride, or a little of both, that showed yet again who Pete Rose really was.
Despite all his pleas, Rose thought himself above the rules and hoped swaying public opinion would get him the hook he needed. He was wrong, and rightly so.
Certainly sounds like others in the public eye at the moment, but let’s not deal fastballs on that one for today.
I’ve held steadfast for many years that the only way Pete Rose should have been allowed in Cooperstown was if he made that public admission, showed even a modicum of contrition, and then his plaque would be engraved with the facts. Along with all his accomplishments, it would be noted forever that he was banned for life for breaking the rules, yet was allowed back in after being honest.
Pete Rose took his chances at being singularly honored to his grave. He had every chance imaginable, where those in power bent over backwards in seeking to give him what he earned.
He made the decision. No one else.
Those figurative phones will continue to light up on social media and across the various broadcast babble-fests. The issue of Pete Rose and the Hall of Fame will never simply fade.
Unlike his chances at redemption, which faded, disappeared, and are now merely history due to his own actions.
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