Charlie Hustle

by The Last Hollywood Star

In an ironic scheduling twist, the Cincinnati Reds left Pittsburgh just as the Philadelphia Phillies arrived.

The Pirate day off in between the two series was the twentieth anniversary of the day Pete Rose was officially banished from baseball.

Rose on the Reds: .307 with 3,358 hits; on the Phillies: .291 with 826 hits.

During his 24-year career, Rose was named to the National League All-Star game 17 times at five different positions: 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, RF.

Most remarkably, Rose played in 1,791 winning games. In case the magnitude of that escapes you, what it means is that if a rookie this year plays seventeen consecutive seasons on teams that win 100 games a year, Rose would still hold the record.

I’m not going to get into a lengthy rehashing of the whys and wherefores of whether Rose should be in the Hall of Fame. I’ll simply state that I think he should be. I’ll write a more detailed analysis defending my position during the Hot Stove League.

Today, I’ll comment on what strikes me as an unpleasant and hypocritical oddity among the baseball talking heads at ESPN.

Peter Gammons, Buster Olney and Tim Kurkjian have been much harsher on Rose than they have been on all the steroid abusers who exposed in recent months.

Gammons is the most adamant about his feelings against Rose.

Yet the three analysts all put Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez and the rest into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, no questions asked.

To them, steroids were “part of the era” in which Rodriquez, Ramirez, et al. played so all is forgiven.

Granted, Rose is not a likable character. Baseball begs Rose to tell the truth; he lies. The commissioner suggests Rose stay away from gambling; he moves to Las Vegas. His friends urge him to show contrition; he hawks his autographs in Cooperstown during the Hall induction ceremonies.

But the steroid guys are no charmers either. If Rose is kept out of the Hall because he’s a shady guy, then ditto for Ramirez who threw the Boston Red Sox traveling secretary and senior citizen to the floor in a dispute about how many free tickets he should get.

Rose’s peers including Hank Aaron, Mike Schmit and Joe Morgan want him in. Their opinions carry more weight than Gammons, Olney and Kurkjian.