Pete Rose: idiot of the day award

I've always supported Pete Rose. He was a fantastic baseball player: a 17 time All-Star at 5 different positions, Rookie of the Year, NL Most Valuable Player, World Series Most Valuable Player, Roberto Clemente Award winner, 3 time league leader in Batting Average, 7-time league leader in hits, and all-time Major League leader in games played and hits. Charlie Hustle was no slouch, but he bet on baseball and that's a big no no. I don't condone the negative actions of Pete Rose, but I do support his entrance into the Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is about the history of baseball and sometimes there is a bad that goes along with the good. Keeping out one of the best players of all time is akin to stripping baseball of part of its history. Pete Rose committed the ultimate sin of betting on baseball, but his achievements are too good to overlook. He should be allowed into the Hall with a hearty explanation of his sins as a manager. In fact, this wouldn't be that dissimilar from the perception surrounding the acceptance of Barry Bonds' record breaking home run ball with Mr. E*ko's logo imprinted on it -an asterisk-, which the Hall seems nothing short of eager to do. On Wednesday night, Pete Rose will appear on Sports Unfiltered with Dennis Miller and say some really stupid things. "The Mitchell Report's come out and I never thought anybody would make me look like an altar boy." "I've been suspended 18 years for betting on my own team to win … I was wrong … but these guys today, if the allegations are true, they're making a mockery of the game." Actually Mr. Rose, the players named in the Mitchell Report are quite the distance behind you in terms of making a mockery of baseball. In fact, they probably register below the 1919 Chicago White Sox, Commissioner's Landis and Selig, and pre-1947 baseball among other things. In terms of making a mockery, your lapse in judgement far outweighs the use of performance enhancing drugs because of its implications. If Rose is telling the truth, that he only wagered on his team to win -he did have a .525 winning percentage as a coach-, then he should be awarded for his brazenness. If he is telling the truth, no manager can honestly say that they put more on the line each and every night than Pete Rose. If he is telling the truth, then his statement of looking like an altar boy would surely ring true. Yet in this situation, the truth escapes us. We do not know what Pete Rose did or didn't do. The implication of his actions, that he could have been betting against his team and thereby purposely swayed the result of games in an unacceptable manner - winning is always acceptable -, is the reason he has been banned from baseball. The implication of his actions is an unforgivable offense. I'm willing to overlook Rose's negative undertakings but I will not overlook his idea that gambling on baseball as a manager of the ball club is less of a sin than a score of players using performance enhancing drugs. I especially am unwilling to do this when medical science, hitting coaches, and weight trainers have all played down the effectiveness of performance enhancing drugs for baseball players. The mental edge is undeniable - while also achievable thru so many other means - but the physical edge's shape and size has evaded our detection. We do not know what the result of these drugs on baseball has been and until we do we shouldn't be so quick to demonize them. They are currently illegal and should be treated as so, but ranking them as a bigger sin than gambling on the sport you participate in is truly questionable. Taking some time to understand the issue at hand could be quite preventative when it comes to saying stupid things. When asked how he would have fared if steroids had been prevalent in his day - which is a weird question because they were - Rose responded: "I would have got 5,000 hits." Pete Rose, you once said that you would go through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball, and that kind of love for the game is honorable if not somewhat shocking, but today, you are an idiot*.