Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe - Thank Bud Selig - Today is Your Day!
| 14
|
by Mlnsports
First, let me say that I hate Pete Rose. He was a great player, but he was also a lying, cheating scumbucket, in my opinion. He disgraced the game, and he was exiled. Shoeless Joe Jackson was a great player, a little thick between the ears, and went along with the gang on the game fixing during the Chicago Black Sox scandal to get even with Charles Comiskey. Thanks to Bud Selig and George Mitchell, both of them have an excellent case to be reinstated in the game and have their accomplishments hit the Hall of Fame.
Yesterday, Mitchell's team in their report wrote:
"The Commissioner should give the players the chance to make a fresh start, except where the conduct is so serious that he must act to protect the integrity of the game. This would be a tangible and positive way for him to demonstrate to the players, to the clubs, to the fans, and to the general public his desire for the cooperative effort that baseball needs to deal effectively with this problem. It also would give him a clear and convincing basis for imposing meaningful discipline for future violations."
This is intended to give Selig the out to only pick a few, like Bonds, who are doomed anyway, and make examples of them, while letting the rest skate. Let's break that down, though:
[E]xcept where the conduct is so serious that he must act to protect the integrity of the game
All of the conduct here has been "serious." On the player's side, it is both against the law and a violation of baseball's rules. On the operations side, every trainer identified in the report has committed "serious" violations of baseball's rules that, were it one or two people, would be dealt with by exiling them from the game for life. On the ownership and front office side, there are players who are known as juicers to the point that it affected their salary negotiations and yet none of those in the front office felt compelled to turn them over to the Commissioner. That's a particularly "serious" violation.
Let's talk about the "integrity of the game." The national pastime has always struggled with that "I" word. From the owners of the early era that raped and pillaged the players, to the back swing from the free agency movement that culminated in the End of Days strike in 1994 and then the "Let's shoot up and heal baseball" drug-fest that followed, Major League Baseball on all fronts has a hard time with the word integrity. There is no integrity in a game full of cheats who know they're cheating the public from the locker room to the board room. Shame on every last one of you for putting a spectacle of lies out on the field for the last thirteen years in particular, and trying to pass it off as business as usual in the great and storied history of the game of baseball. Baseball is a game of records. Maris and Aaron are both the legitimate holders of their record.
To end the "Dead Brain" era, and bring "integrity to the game" all of the records involving juicers must be reversed, and the record restored to pre-steriods holders. Integrity means that Hank Aaron, who worked his record the real way, gets to keep his record. Integrity is a system where the exploits of Barry and Mark and Sammy never find their way into the same company as Cobb, Ruth, Aaron, Williams, DiMaggio and the other legions of players who didn't cheat the game.
"Integrity of the game" means that everyone who cheated has to go. Everyone in the Mitchell report. Everyone who gets found out. Field. Front office. Coaches. Trainers.
The Rebirth of Charlie Hustle
Of course, if you are going to sweep this mess under the rug for the sake of the immediate moment, and flush away the entire history of baseball, which is what the Mitchell Report recommends, then we have to talk about Rose and the Chicago Black Sox.
Gambling is bad. It taints the game because someone can fix the outcome for their own gain.
Steroids are bad. They taint the game because someone can fix the outcome for their own gain.
Hey wait! Theyre pretty much the same! Cheating is cheating. They should all be out of the game for life. If you let in one, as much as I dislike Rose and what he did, I have to say that all bets are off when it comes to further suspension, pun somewhat intended.
According to Mitchell, cheating is something that we can overlook for the greater good. According to Selig, the fact that you fans show up in record numbers to games mean that no one really cares about steroids.
Stand Up Before the Next 7th Inning and Be Counted
So show that you care. Boycott Spring Training. Boycott April. Let them see that the national pastime reflects the moral character of this great country of ours, and not the greedy losers who will do anything or say anything to keep your cash coming in over the transom.
For Robinson, Ryan, Ripken, and Ruth; For Wagner and Williams; For Drysdale and DiMaggio. The legions of great players who infused American life with a love of a sport and who left an honest mark on the game deserve better, and need your help to keep their history alive with some dignity.
If left to Selig and Mitchell, the historic game of professional baseball is over. Don't let that happen, if you love baseball.
