Joe Jackson and Pete Rose Should Be HOFers Because...

[BobC]

Originally Posted by ThomasL

Rose, an active bettor, by not acting and betting on his team to win is catamount to him tipping off gamblers that he, the best player and manager of the Reds, did not think the Reds would win and thus from a betting perspective is on the same level as a player throwing a game. He didnt throw a game but instead basically said my team isnt likely to win this game...same thing and that's the point

So what? Back in those times MLB didn't want fans to think the games were somehow rigged so they'd end up losing interest, not come to the ballpark, and the owners would lose money. Who gives a rat's ass if some gambler didn't see Rose bet on his team that day? So what if that gambler figured that meant he had a better chance to win if he bet against Rose's team then. As long as Rose didn't purposely try to lose the game, he didn't really break the spirit of the rule against gambling. What you're implying is that the rule is there in Rose's case so that one gambler doesn't have inside info that another gambler has. At that time MLB couldn't have cared less about gamblers as they supposedly had nothing to do with gambling and didn't want to be associated with it. Your argument makes it seem MLB was concerned with unfairness to gamblers. What they were afraid of was fans finding out and the perception that maybe Rose was purposely throwing games and therefore they weren't legit. How about this, what if instead of Rose betting on only certain games to win he had bet on his team winning every game. That would nullify your argument about gamblers having inside information when he didn't bet on his team, which would somehow be tantmount to Rose throwing the games he wasn't betting on, according to you. Think about it this way, you're Rose and it is late in the season and your #5 starter is going up against the staff ace from another team that is in the heat of a pennant race. I wouldn't bet on my team either in that case, and neither would anyone else unless they were stupid or they got some ridiculous odds. I'm tired of hearing that lame argument aganst Rose's claim he only bet on his team to win, and therefore never purposely threw a game. The problem is when the fanbase finds out about his gambling on baseball if anyone then thinks he could possibly be throwing games to win bets, not that it somehow gives certain gamblers inside info for betting purposes. And that is what is likely the funniest thing about all this. For all the people who know of Pete Rose and his character as a player and competitor, even though they know he bet on baseball, they pretty much can't see him ever betting against himself or ever losing on purpose. That is probabably the main reason there are so many people that think he should be in the HOF. Now if it could be shown that he did purposely try to throw games for his own economic gain, I think we'd see a huge change in the number of people who currently feel he should be in the HOF.