Rant #1,399: Thorny Situation

Word is that Pete Rose, baseball's all-time hits leader, will be asking new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred for reinstatement.

He believes that he has paid his debt, and then some, for gambling on the game he loves, and with a new commissioner in place, Rose feels now the time may be right for a re-examination of his case.

Manfred will, in fact, review the case, but don't think that whatever due diligence he does on Rose's case will change things for the former star, who bet on baseball while he was a manager with the Reds.

I understand Rose's consternation, and I also understand the embarrassment his banishment has caused MLB, but that does not mean that the door will open for Rose.

Every sport has a Hall of Fame to enshrine its best players, but somehow, the Baseball Hall of Fame seems to be the most cherished of the lot.

Much of that has to do with the incessant nostalgia that surrounds the game, something the other three major sports in this country--football, basketball and hockey--all have, to a certain degree, but not like baseball does. Not even close.

And the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, New York, is probably the most cherished place for baseball purists in the world. Heck, the real Yankee Stadium is being sold off bit by bit since it closed down a few years back, and a faux Yankee Stadium sits in the Bronx, but really, that cathedral to the sport is no more.

The Baseball Hall of Fame is all baseball purists have, it is what it is, the real home of baseball champions of yesterday and today, and tomorrow.

And it wants to stay as spotless as possible.

So any player who did illegal drugs, used PEDs to boost performance, or gambled on games that his team played in is guilty of making a mockery of the game, and will never be let into this hallowed HoF, to a certain extent (read on).

However nice that is to think about, things are going to change in the next 20 years or so, and we will see liars, cheaters and scoundrels heading into the HoF. As if there are none there already.

Pete Rose is one of them, and while he might not be around when he finally is allowed entrance, he is setting the groundwork for a period when he will finally gets in, no matter how many protests there are.

We are coming off an era in baseball--and in professional sports--where there has been wide drug usage, whether of the illegal kind or of the should be illegal kind.

Although someone like Barry Bonds hasn't really been convicted of much of anything, the court of public opinion has already given their verdict--he used PEDs to put up monstrous power figures when he should have been in the twilight of his career, and he was followed by the likes of Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, and Alex Rodriguez.

The old-time stalwart baseball writers are still with us, and most of them won't give these players any consideration when it comes to the Hall of Fame voting.

But this group is not getting any younger. Younger sportswriters will come into the fold, and their childhoods were spent being astounded by the likes of Bonds and the others.

Did these players take PEDs? Who knows, but these younger sportswriters will vote on what they actually saw, not on what may have been, and while it might take some time, Bonds--the all-time home run leader--and some of the others will get in.

Ferguson Jenkins, the great Cubs/Rangers pitcher who is already in the HoF in spite of being convicted of using illegal drugs, said that he knows of at least one player who is in the HoF who used performance enhancers. I guess he should know.

It is going to be harder to ferret out those who used and those who didn't, and I don't think the newer group of sportswriters is going to care about such stuff.

Again, it might not be for 20 years, but it will happen, and Bonds and his brethren will get in, even if it is through the back door of the Oldtimers Committee.

And back to Rose.

His indiscretions happened a generation ago, he has admitted to betting on baseball and has apologized--it took him a while, but he finally did some years ago--and, at age 73, he isn't getting any younger.

He has had a big mouth about it for years, which is a ruse that probably backfired on him. He probably should have laid low, but what was he going to do? He wasn't the type to stay silent to begin with.

That being what it is, why not try to get this done while he still has some breath in his body?

Reinstate him, and do it during All-Star week in Cincinnati, this year's site for the classic confrontation of the best players in the American and National leagues. What better place to do it?

Once reinstated, will the Oldtimers Committee vote him into the Hall of Fame? That is another issue for another time, but at least if he is reinstated, there might be that chance that Rose will join the other greats of the game in those hallowed halls.

Previous commissioners gave him a thumb's down, but he really has nothing to lose by asking the new commissioner to take a look.

And it will happen, eventually, maybe not now, but it will happen.

Look, I think more important to Rose is that he gets in the good graces of baseball again while he still can. Right now, he really cannot have anything to do with MLB directly, and a full reinstatement will allow him to enjoy the fruits of the game he epitomized all those years ago.

When Derek Jeter was a tot, Pete Rose was the face of baseball.

And it will happen to Rose, and for Bonds and the like, too.

They will all get their plaques in Cooperstown, but it won't happen in 2015 or 2016.

They will have to wait their turn, but it will happen one day.

I am not saying that this is right, only that I see the tide turning, and the tide is turning in the ballplayers' favor.