Today is Pete Rose's 68th Birthday. Pete was one of my childhood heroes.He and Hank Aaron were the only visiting players I ever cheered for (who hadn't previously played for the Cubs) at Wrigley when everyone else was booing (Well, no one booed Hank in the 70's). I wore number 14 as a child playing Little League, played 3rd and 1st bases and had a similar crouched, chubby-like hitting stance.
I've been listening again, to the writhing and wailing about whether or not Pettite, Clemens, Sosa, McGwire, Bonds, Conseco, etc should ever be considered for the Hall of Fame and I really just puke at it all.
As has been said countless times before, but will continue to be ignored by the Commissioner's office, using "not in the best interest of baseball" as an argument to keep someone out of the Hall of Fame loses all credibility when:
- Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and others were notorious womanizers, alcohol abusers and gamblers
- The magic list from 2003 is not going to be made public which means that all baseball stats from that season (and likely those before and after) will be put into question
- Baseball itself refused to address the steroids issue until being called before Congress and
- the number of times drug users have been allowed back in the league is more than words in this post
He's clearly paid his dues with jail time for tax evasion, the fact that he basically can't enter any baseball stadiums continues to hinder his ability to make money and yet, his record, without steroids still stands.
So Happy Birthday Pete. I hope that before you die, you get what you deserve by being inducted into the Hall of Fame. But then again, the Veterans committee continues to prolong the agony of Ron Santo in spite of all of the information they've been provided that shows his stats are as strong as anyone elses for the time including Brooks Robinson.
Maybe you're better off NOT being there. Seems like they are a bunch of arrogant assholes.
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