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Chris CountsI agree with you, Pcelli60. I do believe it's significant that Rose bet on games after he was a player. Sure, you and I know he probably did bet on Reds games as a player, but it's never been proven, just like the rumors of Cobb and Speaker. As for breaking the law, gambling is legal in our society in many, many ways. Look at all the state lotteries. We live in a society that clearly condones gambling. I am not a lawyer, but I don't believe it's illegal for a private citizen to bet on baseball games. Why else does Las Vegas post odds? For what's it's worth, I don't gamble. I've never even bought a lottery ticket. Gambling, in many ways, is legal. And even if Rose did break the law regarding gambling, he joins a list of HOFers who broke the law at some point in their lives.
Rose clearly broke baseball's rules. I simply believe baseball is full of hypocrites. Bud Selig, one of Rose's biggest detractors, was once caught borrowing money from the Twin's rich but cheap owner Carl Polhad. Baseball rules clearly prohibit this for the same reasons they prohibit gambling. What Selig did, in my opinion, is practically the same thing that Rose did. He used money in such a way that his intergrity and his commitment to his own's team's welfare (the Brewers) was clearly in question. He compounded the problem by endorsing a plan to kill the Minnesota Twins so Polhad could get an inflated price for his team in contraction and add another $100 million or so to his pile of cash. That's a conflict of interest the size of a mountain. For Selig to argue otherwise is like Pete saying he only bet on his team to win. It's still a conflict of interest that undermines the sport's integrity. And mark my words, one day someone will be lobbying to put Bud in the HOF.
And what about Charlie Comiskey? Here's a guy who not only was reputed to incite violence by drunken spectators against opposing teams from his days in the American Association (they had to put barbed wire between the St. Louis fans and the players), but he arguably contributed to the Black Sox debacle by cheating many players, including Eddie Cicotte in particular, out of money. If what Comiskey did with Cicotte was legal (holding him out of the lineup so he couldn't win a bonus for winning 30 games) was legal, it was only because he had the best lawyers and a system tilted in his favor. I believe gambling became entrenched in baseball partly because of how crooked many of the owners were.
I'm not condoning what Pete Rose did. But he was one hell of a player. He did things on a field — in terms of his effort, his passion and his sheer determination — that made me a young kid take notice of him over all other players (I've always been a Reds' fan). I still feel the effects on my body of all my head first slides in my younger days. As human being, it's hard to admire Pete. He clearly broke the law as a tax evader and, as a manager, he clearly broke baseball's rules. But as a ballplayer, I believe they should put him in Websters' Dictionary as an example of what a real one is suppose to look like ...