Maybe If He Had Murdered A Nun …

Let me see if I understand this.

Michael Vick, who servd hard time for running an illegal dog fighting gambling ring gets out of the slammer and 20 minutes later gets reinstated in the National Footbal League to pursue his career. Oakie-dokie, got that.

But Pete Rose, who has been banned from baseball for the past 20 years because of gambling offenses still remains on baseball Commisioner Bud Selig’s Elba. Huh?

Selig quickly knocked down speculation earlier this week, that maybe, just maybe he might be entertaining the possibility of reinstating Rose, in the wake of news reporting legends such as Hank Aaron and other Hall of Famers had been lobbying for Charlie Hustle’s rehabilitation.

And why not.

Throughout professional sports, athletes have been involved with drugs, steriod abuse, spousal battery and even the odd,occassional vehicular homicide with precious little consequence to their careers than a slap on the wrist and maybe a few games on suspension.

Isn’t it time to give Rose a break?

A quick qustion. Does anyone seriously doubt if Pete Rose was a younger man and still of of some value to a team on the field, his gambling trangressions would have long ago been forgiven and he would be in uniform somewhere?

But Rose has a number of problems.

First, he is by all accounts a fairly dreadful, boorish, selfish oaf of a human being. So much for the sympathy factor.

And at 68 he offers zero value to any major league baseball team certainly not as a player and hardly as a coach.

Or put another way, Rose has less leverage in making his case for reinstatement than a mob hit target trying to negotiate a change in plans.

Pete Rose did a horrible thing. He bet on baseball and lied about it. And not only did he do some time in the slammer, he will probably never be elected to the Hall of Fame, despite a solid on-field career. On top of all of that, on top of the loss of income, his reputation, his future, Peter Rose has served a 20-year banishment from the one love of his life – baseball.

Isn’t this a strong case for enough is enough?

Pete Rose didn’t try to strangle his coach. He didn’t do drugs. He didn’t get tanked up, get behind the wheel of a car and kill somebody. He didn’t rape anybody. He didn’t beat up his wife.  He didn’t, as Marv Albert did, sexually assault a woman and barely missed a beat in hs broadcasting career.

He did gamble. He did bet on baseball. But there s no evidence he ever was complicit in throwing a game.

He was, yes, an idiot.

But the Hall of Fame is filled with all manner of unpleasant people not the least of whom is Ty Cobb, a degenerate racist.

If Michael Vick, who participated a dog fighting ring, who abused animals, who particpated in a massive gambling operation can be welcomed back into the NFL huddle – and make no mistake, someone will sign him – then surely there must be a ounce of compassion that can be extended to a 68-year-old man who did dumb things.

Pete Rose, even if were to be reinstated, is unlikely to ever see the inside of the Hall of Fame as a member. Fair enough.

But he certainly has paid his debt to society and the game he gave his life to. And that, at least, ought to have earned him a ticket back into the sport’s good graces.