Little Petey’s Charade

By Bryce Ashland

I’ll start with the cold, hard, very-quickly-scanned-for-verification facts: Pete Rose is the only person alive that is banned from baseball for life.

His ban is one of the most tired, played-out, talked about baseball arguments of multiple generations of the sport’s biggest fans. The questions are many.

By Kjunstorm from Laguna Niguel, CA, US., via Wikimedia Commons

Should he be banned? If the ban was lifted, should he be allowed to go up for voting into the Hall of Fame? Mark McGwire isn’t banned, but with recent Hall voting, it’s unlikely he’ll ever see the inside of Cooperstown except if guided by a docent.

Would it hurt baseball if the ban was lifted and Pete got into the Hall?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I can opine all I want.

Here’s the way I see it.  Mr. Rose was a legend on the field, but after the ban, the only title he has held is Baddest Guy Who Used-to-be in Baseball.  The Worst of the Worst.  Mr. Blacklist.  And what does that get him?  A nice coat?  A bronze bust?  No.  It gets him publicity.  Almost unlimited publicity.  Sure, it’s usually negative, but “any publicity is good publicity,” says the wise old… publicist.

“So what,” you say.  You’d rather be in the Hall, I know.  But does Peter Rose really want to be in the Hall?  Of that, I’m not so sure.

Pete is our resident expert in cheating at baseball (though he didn’t actually cheat).  And in this day and age there is a lot of cheating in baseball with all of the PED shennanigans.

Whenever anyone gets suspended or is suspected of PEDs, the media looks for a sound bite, but the guys who have experience in the PED scandal are all mum about the whole thing. They’re hoping not to draw any more attention to themselves in hopes that everyone will forget and they can get into the Hall at some point.

So the press goes to Pete Rose.  He doesn’t hesitate to talk. Rose seems to be taking any and all interviewers.  He’s throwing out gems like, “I picked the wrong vice.” An inappropriate comment, but honest nonetheless.

I mean, he DIDN’T cheat.  He didn’t affect the outcome of games.  And the players these days ARE cheating and ARE affecting games.  And they are getting suspensions.  Pete got banned.

But I digress.  The point is, Pete loves the attention.  He’s obviously a self-centered person.  When asked about his thoughts on the other guys getting suspended, he makes a comment about himself.

Would anyone want to talk to Pete Rose if he hadn’t been banned?  No.  Would anyone want to talk to Pete Rose if he had been reinstated?  No.  And who would Pete Rose be if he was in the Hall?  He would be just another old guy in a museum of baseball players.  One of many.  Normal.  And that is the last thing Pete Rose wants to be.

Oh, he’s still the greatest hitter of all time (though there’s a current player still out there taking aim at that title), but when would anyone want to talk to Pete if that was all he was?  Whenever someone got close to his hits record?  How often does THAT happen?  Considering the guy in second place died 52 years ago, it obviously doesn’t happen often.

If Pete was just another guy in the Hall, he’d be a nobody compared to what he is now.  As much as Pete goes on the press circuit and writes books and says he’s sorry and wants to be reinstated, deep down inside, I think he hopes this charade goes on and on and on.

I, for one, am getting tired of it.  And I think the best thing for everyone is to ban Pete from being banned.  Take away his status.  Reinstate the guy, and induct him as fast as humanly possible.

Bryce Ashland is a long-time friend of fansmanship. He lives in Orange County, CA with his wife and three children. He is almost as fast as Owen.