If the reports are true, Pete Rose's case for reinstatement to baseball fell apart yesterday. Of course Rose is presumed innocent until proven guilty, but let's face it, the guy is a pathological liar whose ability to come clean when confronted with damning facts is in inverse proportion to his ability to hit a baseball.
His legions of apologists will still argue morality is not a condition for admission to the Hall of Fame. True enough...up to a point. For every good guy there is a bum, wife-beater or racist in the Hall. But Rose's transgressions fall under the category of genuine integrity of the game, which is precisely why gamblers have always been punished and banned.
Rose always felt he was a special case above the game. Not only have we found out he lied about gambling as a manager, only to recant two decades later in a desperate and pathetic attempt to have his Hall eligibility reinstated, we now learn it is likely he bet on games as a player, too. No doubt we will have to wait 20 years for his to confess to these allegations.
If nothing else, the new information coupled with what was already known prove one things beyond a shadow of a doubt: Rose was a first class hitter but a lousy gambler. His losses and debts to bookies prove he belonged in another pantheon, that of big-time loser.
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