Mike Greenberg of espn’s mike and mike wants to admit Pete Rose
into the major league baseball hall of fame, “warts and all.”
One of the warts is betting on major league baseball, which is
verboten and to which Rose denied for a long time. Add to that the fact that
Rose bet on his own team while he was manager of that team. Add to that the
fact that Rose bet on his team to lose while he was manager of that team.
Enthusiasts love the statistics of baseball and how
statistics have become the living history of baseball. People don’t watch old
baseball games, they monitor stats and records.
With that in mind:
The stewards of baseball have to have an eye on the future
of baseball not just the revered past of baseball and the stewards know the
risk of the hall of fame becoming meaningless because Pete Rose bet on his own
team to lose. The stats which are so revered in baseball become meaningless
when the game is doctored for gambling purposes; like overusing your bullpen,
pinch hitting at inopportune times, stealing at inopportune times, which Pete
Rose most assuredly did do, to better ensure his team’s chance of losing, and
his personal chance of winning. When Pete Rose bets on his team to lose he not
only impacted his team’s stats but the other team and its players as well.
There is no hall of fame for the WWE and there aren’t box
scores in the morning newspaper because we all know the stats aren’t meaningful
or representative of true competition. Letting Pete Rose into the hall of fame
runs the risk of rendering meaningless, true competition.
Measuring, statistics, and records are de facto meaningless
if a competitor is trying to lose.
Pete Rose was trying to lose.
Mike Greenberg should know that if Pete Rose is allowed into
the Hall of Fame, baseball will lose.
