Charlie Hustler has struck out for the last time.
Pete Rose won’t be reinstated by Major League Baseball. Not now, not ever.
He won’t be enshrined in Cooperstown, N.Y. Not now, not ever.
New documents obtained by ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” indicate that Rose bet extensively on baseball, not just as a manger with the Cincinnati Reds, but as a player. He committed one of sports unpardonable sins.
If you can find the time, read the entire ESPN story. It’s a fascinating look into the dark and shadowy world of gambling that consumed Rose.
The new documents — betting books, essentially — dig up even more dirt than the evidence from the 1989 Dowd report that led to Rose’s banishment from baseball. The documents provide the first written record that Rose bet on baseball while he was still playing.
“This does it. This closes the door,” said John Dowd, the former federal prosecutor who led MLB’s investigation, told ESPN.
Dowd said one of the most troubling aspects of the new report is that it indicates that Rose was betting with mob-connected bookies.
“The implications for baseball are terrible,” Dowd said. “(The mob) had a mortgage on Pete while he was a player and manager.”
That’s scary stuff.
I’m old enough to remember Rose in his glory days. My image of Rose will always be of him launching himself into the air like Superman for a head-first dive to third base after hitting a triple. Great stuff.
But I have to admit, I thought all of the “Charlie Hustle” stuff was a bit overdone and part of Rose’s “see how dirty my uniform got” self-promotion. But there is no denying he was one of the greatest players of all-time. Over his 24-season career, he knocked out 4,256 hits, the most in MLB history. That’s an almost unfathomable number.
Bernie Miklasz, the fine columnist for the St. Louis Post Dispatch, has a great read on the latest chapter of the Rose scandal.
He ends his column by writing:
“There’s no reason to pretend Rose’s career never happened. It’s fine to keep the ban in place and deny Rose official status in the game.
There’s no reason to make him invisible. Rose was a record-setting hitter and a driving force on those great “Big Red Machine” teams.
You can’t ban him from occupying a special place in the fans’ hearts and memories.”
Those are wonderful words, but I think Mr. Miklasz is more forgiving than I am.
I admit I was beginning to feel a little bit sorry for Rose, who at age 74 has become rather pathetic figure, like the high school jock at the class reunion trying to rekindle the glory of his grand slam in the championship game.
Yet there is a bottom line that can’t be bent for the sake of sentimentality.
It’s know as Rule 21:
“Any player, umpire, or club or league official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform shall be declared permanently ineligible.”
“PERMANENTLY INELIGIBLE.”
Rose knew about that rule when he bet on a baseball. And keep in mind, that MLB puts the warning on signs for prominent display in every MLB clubhouse.
Rose, desperate to get back in the good graces of the game, admitted in 2004 that he did, indeed, bet on baseball. But only as a manager ….
It turns out he lied again.
Rose does not belong in the Hall of Fame. Not now, not ever.
CHEW ON THIS
• I’m not a big fan of the NBA, and haven’t been for years. I haven’t given much thought as to why until I read Phil Jackson’s interview with Bleacher Report in which he calls the style of NBA basketball in the playoff as, “Four guys stand around watching one guy dribble a basketball.”
Jackson is absolutely right. The motion, passing and teamwork of basketball makes it a delight to watch, but the NBA has lost much of that magic.
• NASCAR issued a statement Tuesday supporting the movement to take down the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds. For a sport with deep Southern roots, that’s a big step.
NASCAR also said while it discourages the use of the Confederate flag, it will not ban the flag from being flown by fans during race weekends.
It will be interesting to see how the fans in the deep South respond.
• On this day in 1400, Johannes Gutenberg, the blacksmith who invented the first printing press with moveable type, was born in Germany. His invention sparked the printing revolution of the 15th and 16th century, changing the world forever.
I wonder if he ever envisioned a newspaper sports section?
Patrick Saunders: psaunders@denverpost.com or twitter.com/psaundersdp
