By CHUCK POLLOCK, Wellsville Sun Senior Sports Columnist
What do you say we talk a bit about Pete Rose and “Shoeless Joe” Jackson?
Last week, Commissioner Ron Manfred reinstated the eight players involved in the 1919 Black Sox World Series scandal, including Jackson, plus Rose, Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader (4,256).
All nine are deceased — Rose died last September — and Manfred’s ending of the lifetime bans ostensibly opened the door for their entry into the Hall of Fame. Rose ,who played in the most major league games and has the record for at bats and numerous other MLB standards, and Jackson, who has the fourth-highest batting average in major league history (.356), are the most likely candidates for the Hall.
THERE are those who maintain that Rose, who had myriad personal flaws, should never be enshrined in Cooperstown. And that’s valid. But he was banned for betting on baseball.
And if the hypocrisy of that reality eludes you, the obvious is being ignored.
These days baseball, pro and college football and basketball, and the NHL are sleeping with online betting web sites.
You can wager on whether the next pitch will be a ball or a strike.
But the NFL is the worst.
Back in 1963, Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras and Packers star running back Paul Hornung were suspended for a season for betting on games between 1959-61. Karras was wagering $50 a game, Hornung about double that.
Pro football had set itself up as the high-court of gambling in its sport.
Of course, these days, on sites such as Fan Duel ,you can bet the over-under on an NFL game, which coach will be fired first and the team that will have the most losses.
Hornung and Karras have to be spinning in their graves.
ROSE bet exclusively on his own team, the Reds. Now, it could be argued that if there was a game where he didn’t bet on Cincinnati, it was a subtle message to interested gamblers.
But Pete wasn’t throwing games.
However, Jackson was even more of a victim.
Even now there’s a major question whether he was involved in the Black Sox scandal. The other seven who were swore he wasn’t part of their meetings. Supposedly, he threw the $5,000 bribe — twice his salary — on the floor in front of the participants and walked away, though he admitted under oath to taking the money.
But he was a lousy cheater … if, in fact, he was.
In the White Sox 5-3 World Series loss to the Reds, Jackson hit .375, his 12 hits were the most for either team, he didn’t make an error and hit the only home run.
OF COURSE, Manfred’s reinstatements have regenerated other arguments.
What about Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Alex Rodriguez, Jose Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, Andy Pettitte, Jason Giambi, Manny Ramirez and Gary Sheffield who had varying degrees of Hall of Fame credentials?
Baseball banned steroids in 1991 but didn’t test or issue punishments until 2003.
That’s a fairly major failure of enforcement.
But here’s the real problem … no sport is more dependent on statistics than baseball. And what the steroid users did was artificially inflate their numbers. In short they cheated players who performed honorably and they absolutely don’t belong in Cooperstown, no matter how many mea culpas they issue.
Does Ty Cobb, one of the game’s greatest players belong in the Hall of Fame?
Maybe not. He was an avowed racist and possibly the meanest player ever to walk onto a major league diamond.
Does Rose deserve induction based on the dubious aspects of his personal life? That’s a tough sell.
What’s certain is, given the current gambling climate of college and pro sports, it’s unlikely that betting on his own team should be the violation to keep him out.
(Chuck Pollock, a Wellsville Sun and Olean Star senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@wnynet.net.)
