Well, it appears that Commissioner Robert Manfred will be continuing Bud Selig’s pompous, arrogant, stubborn, pigheaded attitude when it comes to the Pete Rose gambling situation. Earlier today, Manfred announced he would not be re-instating the all-time Major League hits leader, twenty-six years after he was banned from the game for betting on baseball.
Rather than embrace the
twenty-first century (this is the sixteenth year of that century, by the way)
Manfred has thrown MLB back into the 1800s by continuing the hypocrisy that
Selig refused to release for twenty-odd years. Manfred would do best to
remember that it’s the fans that are most important to the game of baseball, and
the fans want Rose re-instated.
Instead, we get the archaic
ruling from the commish, who is quick to point out that Rose still bets on
sporting events, including baseball. Really? Are you that ignorant and naïve to
think that he’s the only current or former athlete who bets on sports? Wake-up,
Rob. Baseball players bet on March Madness. I know because I worked at a major
hotel in Toronto for ten years and I heard them sitting on the couches in the
lobby discussing how bad or how good they did on their brackets. I heard them
tell each other to hurry up and get their football picks in because the NFL had
a Thursday game this week.
If gambling is so bad, why do
the newspapers post game-day odds, not just on baseball, but hockey, basketball
and (the biggest one of all) football? The NFL would not nearly be as popular
as it is if it weren’t for gambling. Why do you think teams have to post injury
reports? Because the NFL is concerned for the well-being of its players? No, so
gamblers aren’t at a disadvantage, not knowing who will or won’t play, when
wagering.
While gambling can be a problem,
it’s not the biggest problem baseball has had over the years. I find the
hypocrisy sky high, particularly after Barry Bonds (steroids user) has been
hired as the batting coach for the Miami Marlins. Or that Mark McGwire
(admitted steroids user) has been the hitting coach for two organizations. Mr.
Manfred’s willingness to let cheaters continue to be involved in the game, yet
keeping someone out for gambling will continue the most confusing and hypocritical
decisions that baseball continues to enforce. (See Shoeless Joe Jackson and the
1919 Chicago White Sox.)
So while they turn blind eyes to
multiple busts for cocaine (Steve Howe), perpetrators of domestic abuse (David
Justice), racism (Hall of Famer Ty Cobb, was the biggest), gambling will
continue to be the unpardonable sin as far as Major League Baseball is
concerned. But it sends the wrong message as far as I’m concerned. Basically,
they’re condoning all these other criminal acts while frowning on something
that is legal.
So what’s next for Pete? I
suppose he’ll continue to try and get his banned lifted. And I will continue to
write articles like this in support of him. Baseball needs to forgive and
forget something that happened 26 years ago. They need to move on. Manfred had
a chance to put this incident behind all of us. He failed. In his first big
decision as commissioner, he failed miserably. Perhaps one day he will change
his mind. If he’s not blinded by his own power, that is.
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